this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Desktop OS on a tablet is fine and even preferred depending on what you want it for.
I have a surface and don't mind using full windows that way.
I agree with you. I got a surface go for some time because I wanted to travel with a mini computer that could do some coding with my preferred IDE, document editing, web browsing and a couple other tasks like a computer, even if it was slower.
At the same time it being a tablet was also very useful to watch movies in other rooms!
I used the stylus only because I was curious, but didn't used it more than a couple of weeks
If the use case is to use a tablet as a tablet, then a desktop OS is not fine. Source: Me and my Surface Pro 7 which is unusable without the type cover.
Gnome shell works well on my vivo as either a tablet or with the keyboard.
The DE itself is less of a problem than the applications. On my Steam Deck in game mode I use Angelfish as web browser because all the mainstream browsers are just bad for touch controls compared to ones specifically designed for touch. You see a similar complaint in Windows forums were they sag that original Edge was better for tablets than Chromium Edge.
Cool touch applications like Krita Gemini and Calligra Gemini died because "fuck that touch trend, fuck QtQuick, GTK forever". Now we're stuck with applications that need a touchpad or mouse...
Wut... GTK is one of the very few touch friendly toolkits on *nixen. And neither of those apps were ever GTK.
Of course they were never on GTK because at that time GTK was absolutely useless for anything touch and it didn't really change until libhandy became libadwaita and kinda-sorta became aligned with GTK but is also not part of GTK proper. Gimp is not touch-friendly. Modern Krita somewhat is, Krita Gemini totally was.
I also have a surface pro 7, how is it any less usable without the type cover than any other tablet without one?
Most Windows applications work like ass with touch. Most iPad and Android apps work best with touch.
I mean sure, but you have the flexibility of a fully featured computer. You could run Android apps on it if you really wanted that UX.
In my experience all that really means is that you're forced to use the stylus for precise taps or right click functionality sometimes.
Same flexibility would be there if the default OS was different. The same PC with Android-x86 would just as capable of booting other systems but the default experience would be touch (finger) friendly.
Cool. There is no stylus included, though.
No, but there is a virtual touchpad included in Windows that accomplishes the same thing. Different use cases exist and it sounds like an Android tablet fits yours better.
No Android-x86 tablets exist.