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| <abstract surface pun /> |
Obviously this isn't a default install and most of the concerns weren't because of issues with Windows - eventually I got Win 8.1 Enterprise back in there dual booting with Ubuntu. A couple of minor hitches which were resolved with a bcdedit command to force Windows to use the Grub2 loader after a file copy from the old Ubuntu boot partition to the newly-screwed Windows boot partition.
Still have to register the loaders in the secure boot registry, as is well described by David Elner (just be aware that this is an older version of Ubuntu and I could not get the kernel re-compile to work) but otherwise it's all ok.
However I thought I'd share some issues I have with SP3 and why I'm not likely to buy an SP4. For reference the PCs involved are:
- Surface Pro 1 128Gb 4Gb i5
- Surface Pro 3 512Gb 8Gb i7
I didn't have any choice about Windows 10 - that was what was installed on the replacement unit.
Support simply suggested I return it to the shop and as I'd already burned two weeks for the replacement unit after a screen failure, then another week or so (evenings only) actually re-deploying all the 'stuff' on it, I didn't think the extra effort was worth the pain. After a bit of thought I then realised now would be the perfect time to dual boot it and have a workaround for some of the issues with Windows in general. Not much to lose at that stage.
Of course now I have screen flickering issues on the unit - it seems to be some sort of physical connection issue because when I squeeze the screen in a particular place and wait an undetermined amount of time it sorts itself out. Although often I'm not sure whether the whole thing hasn't just hung and I do a hard reset. It's not a driver or software issue as only physical intervention (pressing and squeezing the unit until the screen springs back into life is not a driver fault or brightness management) and I just don't have time to send it back for another replacement; rebuild and re-deploy only to later find out the same problem might exist.
A very embarrassing problem for a touch screen device.
The pen....the pen....What a brilliant concept yet how did they screw it up so badly? It feels like a real pen, the buttons on the side are fantastic and I no longer need a mouse....just the pen and my fingers. But then all by itself it decides that it needs a rest and goes to sleep. I've tried battery replacements, holding down buttons to try and wake it up and even whacking it over a solid surface (which seems to work most often) and nothing seems to help. Of course if you try and disable power management via Windows you get a BSOD. Nice. And I'm far from alone on this one.
Windows 10 lost it's way and I struggled to get it to flow as Windows 8.1 does. 10 tries to keep the desktoptards from Windows Vista *spits* and 7 happy whilst showing promise to touch-screen owners. Sometimes I think the desktoptards were the only voices complaining about 8.1 and not enough people extolled it's virtues. So now I have 8.1 Enterprise until the end-of-life or when Windows 10 Enterprise catches up so I can access OneNote during meetings and sync my OneDrive repositories. Windows also seems to be the only way to get firmware updates for Surface so it gets a small section of the SSD to park itself. I have too many reservations about the way Microsoft is approaching some aspects of security (such as the changes to BitLocker in 8). I'm not trying to outrun any governments but if someone nicks my SP3 I want to be fairly sure they won't get my data in their lifetimes. Of course dual booting means BitLocker won't encrypt the system drive like LUKS will, so only the OS and some program files are on the open system partition, the rest is on encrypted partitions.
Ubuntu is ok too - but the touch screen integration is extremely basic and there's no handwriting tools that are anywhere good enough. The pen buttons just don't do anything at all and no matter what I try I can't get the kernel re-compile to work. With Wily Wolf the battery indicator suddenly appeared and that was a big step forward - I've also discovered that touch screen scroll & zoom does work in specific applications. At the moment I'm struggling to get routes working under OpenVPN configurations that work fine under Windows so I tend to use Windows for comms and browsing in situations where VPN is a requirement. I will fix the problem but I need to understand it first.
I've also noticed that Network Manager sometimes refuses to use the right password for WiFi networks, resolved only by a mac change and a ifdown-up on the network adapters. That seems a little shoddy to me. Evolution is a pretty good mail app and I'm not really missing Outlook that much so it's evens on that front and with LibreOffice too - there are some issues with .XLSM and the occasional corruption-and-loss of .XLSX which is beginning to get on my nerves. Ubuntu seems ok but the Pen buttons don't work and I tend to end up using a mouse - the horror! - due to that and the SP3 Pen sleepy-time issues.
In short - neither platform is doing a great job at the moment but each has its own strengths.
I'm not going for a SP4 because - as much as I've loved the Surface experience - Surface Book means I can have my cake and eat it. It's more powerful than the overpriced Macintosh (I'd only be replacing OsX with a Win & Linux dual boot anyway) and I get the clipboard & pen with OneNote and Visio that I can't be without in meetings and team updates.
Of course that is assuming they fix the current complaints and I see some indication that the pen behaviour has improved. My Surface Pro 1 is still going strong and I don't mind Windows 10 on there because I don't use it much. The rest of the family don't seem to mind it when they want to use Kodi or play some Xbox games and everyone's forgotten about the Nexus 7 completely.