preferred desktop environment for MS Surface Pro 3

[Ranjan Maitra]

Hi,

I would like to install Fedora on my MS Surface Pro 3. I do not have much experience with
tablets so I was wondering which DE or spin I should put on it. I guess I would like the
keyboard to change when the Surface changes from PC mode to tablet mode and vice-versa if
possible. I would also be able to write on it and create documents in pdf, etc for notes.


Am I better off using KDE or LXQt or Gnome? If the latter, is it worthwhile to install the
Design Suite spin. I must say that I am not very keen on bloated software but I am open to
it. I myself run a non-DE (openbox) environment on my computers and have never gone beyond
trying a DE and giving up on it because it is noticeably a bit more sluggish. However, I
do recognize that a tablet mode is different and perhaps better handled with a DE. So, I
am open to all suggestions and also practical tips.

Many thanks in advance and best wishes,
Ranjan



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[Robert Moskowitz]

Do any of the Fedora desktops support touch screens?  We had this 
discussion ~1 year ago on the fedora-arm list about touch screens.



On 09/03/2018 09:24 AM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>  Hi,
>
>  I would like to install Fedora on my MS Surface Pro 3. I do not have much experience with
> tablets so I was wondering which DE or spin I should put on it. I guess I would like the
> keyboard to change when the Surface changes from PC mode to tablet mode and vice-versa if
> possible. I would also be able to write on it and create documents in pdf, etc for notes.
>
>  Am I better off using KDE or LXQt or Gnome? If the latter, is it worthwhile to install
> the Design Suite spin. I must say that I am not very keen on bloated software but I am
> open to it. I myself run a non-DE (openbox) environment on my computers and have never
> gone beyond trying a DE and giving up on it because it is noticeably a bit more sluggish.
> However, I do recognize that a tablet mode is different and perhaps better handled with a
> DE. So, I am open to all suggestions and also practical tips.
>
>  Many thanks in advance and best wishes,
>  Ranjan
>
>
>

[Ranjan Maitra]

Hi,

Many thanks!

The MS Surface (Pro) is a full-fledged computer with x86_64 architecture (and not ARM). My
question is what sort of tools and software would make my experience on Fedora the best. I
believe that touch is recognized (as it is on my Dell XPS 13) but I am asking if one of
the many DEs are particularly suited to recognizing tablet mode input and opening up the
on-screen keyboard (among other things).

Best wishes,
Ranjan

On Mon, 3 Sep 2018 11:58:13 -0400 Robert Moskowitz <rgm(a)htt-consult.com&gt; wrote:

>  Do any of the Fedora desktops support touch screens?  We had this 
>  discussion ~1 year ago on the fedora-arm list about touch screens.
>  
>  
>  
>  On 09/03/2018 09:24 AM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>  > Hi,
>  >
>  > I would like to install Fedora on my MS Surface Pro 3. I do not have much experience
> with tablets so I was wondering which DE or spin I should put on it. I guess I would like
> the keyboard to change when the Surface changes from PC mode to tablet mode and vice-versa
> if possible. I would also be able to write on it and create documents in pdf, etc for
> notes.
>  >
>  > Am I better off using KDE or LXQt or Gnome? If the latter, is it worthwhile to
> install the Design Suite spin. I must say that I am not very keen on bloated software but
> I am open to it. I myself run a non-DE (openbox) environment on my computers and have
> never gone beyond trying a DE and giving up on it because it is noticeably a bit more
> sluggish. However, I do recognize that a tablet mode is different and perhaps better
> handled with a DE. So, I am open to all suggestions and also practical tips.
>  >
>  > Many thanks in advance and best wishes,
>  > Ranjan
>  >
>  >
>  >
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[Samuel Sieb]

On 09/03/2018 09:40 AM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>  The MS Surface (Pro) is a full-fledged computer with x86_64
> architecture (and not ARM). My question is what sort of tools and software would make my
> experience on Fedora the best. I believe that touch is recognized (as it is on my Dell XPS
> 13) but I am asking if one of the many DEs are particularly suited to recognizing tablet
> mode input and opening up the on-screen keyboard (among other things). 
I don't know if any of them fully support using only touch.  I know that 
Gnome will bring up the on-screen keyboard if text fields are activated 
using touch.

[Ranjan Maitra]

On Mon, 3 Sep 2018 14:58:01 -0700 Samuel Sieb <samuel(a)sieb.net&gt; wrote:

>  On 09/03/2018 09:40 AM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>  > The MS Surface (Pro) is a full-fledged computer with x86_64 architecture (and not
> ARM). My question is what sort of tools and software would make my experience on Fedora
> the best. I believe that touch is recognized (as it is on my Dell XPS 13) but I am asking
> if one of the many DEs are particularly suited to recognizing tablet mode input and
> opening up the on-screen keyboard (among other things).
>  
>  I don't know if any of them fully support using only touch.  I know that 
>  Gnome will bring up the on-screen keyboard if text fields are activated 
>  using touch. 
Thanks very much. I found some Fedora=specific information here wrt the MS SP3. 
https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/4pfamk/fedora_24_works_ver...

However, it is not clear to me if KDE or LXQt has this feature of opening up of the
on-screen keyboard so maybe Gnome is where I am headed.

Best wishes,
Ranjan

[George N. White III]

On Mon, 3 Sep 2018 at 10:38, Ranjan Maitra <maitra(a)email.com&gt; wrote:

>  Hi,
>
>  I would like to install Fedora on my MS Surface Pro 3. I do not have much
>  experience with tablets so I was wondering which DE or spin I should put on
>  it. I guess I would like the keyboard to change when the Surface changes
>  from PC mode to tablet mode and vice-versa if possible. I would also be
>  able to write on it and create documents in pdf, etc for notes.
>
>  Am I better off using KDE or LXQt or Gnome? If the latter, is it
>  worthwhile to install the Design Suite spin. I must say that I am not very
>  keen on bloated software but I am open to it. I myself run a non-DE
>  (openbox) environment on my computers and have never gone beyond trying a
>  DE and giving up on it because it is noticeably a bit more sluggish.
>  However, I do recognize that a tablet mode is different and perhaps better
>  handled with a DE. So, I am open to all suggestions and also practical tips.
>
>  Many thanks in advance and best wishes,
>  Ranjan
>  
There are virtual keyboard options such as florence that aren't tied to a
DE.  See http://florence.sourceforge.net/english/alternatives.html for
comparisons with other
virtual keyboards.

-- 
George N. White III

[Ranjan Maitra]

On Tue, 4 Sep 2018 11:48:55 -0300 "George N. White III" <gnwiii(a)gmail.com&gt;
wrote:

>  On Mon, 3 Sep 2018 at 10:38, Ranjan Maitra <maitra(a)email.com&gt;
> wrote:
>  
>  > Hi,
>  >
>  > I would like to install Fedora on my MS Surface Pro 3. I do not have much
>  > experience with tablets so I was wondering which DE or spin I should put on
>  > it. I guess I would like the keyboard to change when the Surface changes
>  > from PC mode to tablet mode and vice-versa if possible. I would also be
>  > able to write on it and create documents in pdf, etc for notes.
>  >
>  > Am I better off using KDE or LXQt or Gnome? If the latter, is it
>  > worthwhile to install the Design Suite spin. I must say that I am not very
>  > keen on bloated software but I am open to it. I myself run a non-DE
>  > (openbox) environment on my computers and have never gone beyond trying a
>  > DE and giving up on it because it is noticeably a bit more sluggish.
>  > However, I do recognize that a tablet mode is different and perhaps better
>  > handled with a DE. So, I am open to all suggestions and also practical tips.
>  >
>  > Many thanks in advance and best wishes,
>  > Ranjan
>  >
>  
>  There are virtual keyboard options such as florence that aren't tied to a
>  DE.  See http://florence.sourceforge.net/english/alternatives.html for
>  comparisons with other
>  virtual keyboards. 
Thanks for this. I installed F28+design suite with Gnome for now and found that GOK (also
in your reference) works fine. 

Btw, one thing that does not seem to work is to switch the tablet to portait mode when it
is held long edge on the side. Is it possible to get this to work. Let me know if my
question is not clear.

Otherwise, at first impressions, things work fine (though I have not tried everything
yet).

Many thanks again and best wishes,
Ranjan

[George N. White III]

On Tue, 4 Sep 2018 at 22:21, Ranjan Maitra <maitra(a)email.com&gt; wrote:

>  >[...] 
Thanks for this. I installed F28+design suite with Gnome for now and found
>  that GOK (also in your reference) works fine.
>
>  Btw, one thing that does not seem to work is to switch the tablet to
>  portait mode when it is held long edge on the side. Is it possible to get
>  this to work. Let me know if my question is not clear.
>  
There are reports of systems randomly switching orientation.  This also
happens with other OS's when
the display is nearly horizontal so "top" is not reliably determined by the
sensor.  To avoid this, there is
an  "orientation-lock" option.  You could try "gsettings set
org.gnome.settings-
daemon.peripherals.touchscreen orientation-lock false".


>  Otherwise, at first impressions, things work fine (though I have not
> tried
>  everything yet).
>
>  Many thanks again and best wishes,
>  Ranjan
>  
Glad to hear GOK works in F28 with your hardware.

-- 
George N. White III

[Ranjan Maitra]

On Wed, 5 Sep 2018 07:11:49 -0300 "George N. White III" <gnwiii(a)gmail.com&gt;
wrote:

>  On Tue, 4 Sep 2018 at 22:21, Ranjan Maitra <maitra(a)email.com&gt;
> wrote:
>  
>  > >[...]
>  
>  Thanks for this. I installed F28+design suite with Gnome for now and found
>  > that GOK (also in your reference) works fine.
>  >
>  > Btw, one thing that does not seem to work is to switch the tablet to
>  > portait mode when it is held long edge on the side. Is it possible to get
>  > this to work. Let me know if my question is not clear.
>  >
>  
>  There are reports of systems randomly switching orientation.  This also
>  happens with other OS's when
>  the display is nearly horizontal so "top" is not reliably determined by the
>  sensor.  To avoid this, there is
>  an  "orientation-lock" option.  You could try "gsettings set
>  org.gnome.settings-
>  daemon.peripherals.touchscreen orientation-lock false".
>   
Thanks again! Will try this. Btw, is it possible to get the pinch and zoom working? 

Best wishes,
Ranjan