Linux

I'm using a Dell Inspiron 2in1 and from the linux side everything runs great. In the three years I have this laptop I tried multiple distros and all worked fine. Besides that the biggest problem was to find a program to make handwritten notes. I really recommend Rnote as it has matured very well over this year and is the only option if you need an infinite canvas to draw on.

I can't recommend you the hardware tho as it is really aweful. The trackpad gets stuck sometimes and does not come back up with the keyboard showing the same symptoms now, the aluminum chassis gets greasy really fast and the hinges aren't the best either. Also you must use the cheapest version of all Dell pens because the screen is only compatible with that one pen.

Don't get a Lenovo yoga they kinda suck

Not sure about the ThinkPad yogas, only used a non -thinkpad one but I'm sure someone will chime in

From what I hear, ironically enough the surface pros are pretty good for Linux

The thinkpad yogas (at least the models i worked with) work just fine with Linux (Except maybe the fingerprint reader but i never bothered to get it working).

When you need a software recommendation for handwriting/annotating then i strongly recommend xournal++. Imho the best there is and i prefer it over any windows application (onenote sucks balls). Have used it for 5-6 years now.

• RNote
• Xournal++

are nice. Palm rejection for the touchscreen works fine on my Debian Linux, ThinkPad Yoga. I'm not sure if I configured it or it does that out-of-the-box. Keyboard and mouse seem to be deactivated by hardware once i fold it over.

If you're a nerd you could also learn LaTeX to take notes. I know a few people who got crazy fast typing maths that way. I didn't, took notes during a lecture with a pen and did quite some of my assignments with LaTeX.

Slightly sideways suggestion is the Star Labs Starlite, which is a tablet with detachable keyboard/touchpad stand. This might meet your requirements.

Running an HP Elite x360 1030 G2 since 2018 and an Elite Dragonfly since last year, both on Arch linux and Sway (recently Hyprland) with full touch and pen support. Can recommend both!

There's a quite active community of people running linux on surface devices back on reddit.

I'm using the HP Envy x360 convertible 15-eu[some numbers I don't remember]. It's working pretty good. Only things that don't work are the fingerprint reader and it doesn't detect when you flip it over automatically but I just use a GNOME extension that allows me to manually toggle the onscreen keyboard.

I bought a used Thinkpad Yoga 370, with a 7th gen i5, 8gb ram (single slot sodimm, which is a real pity) which I later upgraded to 16gb. Also the pen slots right into the frame of the laptop for storage and recharging, so you don't need to carry it around separately, though it may be a bit small for some people. I personally find myself comfortable with it.

I went right to arch (btw), as I was on both on my old laptop and my desktop, the archwiki has a page dedicated to this laptop, listing which features work and which don't. If you mess around with the fingerprint sensor and python-validity package you can get it to work, but I don't use it anyway. The rest works out of the box, though I have never tried the modem (my version lacks antennas and the module) and the express card reader.

I use xournal++ to take notes in uni. I tend to make a huge journal for each course (easily 150+ pages at the end of the semester), so make sure to disable autosaves as sometimes they hang up the whole program while trying to save.

At first I was using gnome on wayland, which has pretty good palm rejection, autorotation and sensor/webcam remapping and works great out of the box in general. Later moved to i3 on xorg as somehow a tiling window manager made more sense to me on a touchscreen device (android is kind of a tiling window manager if you think about it). Currently on i3, using touchegg to use custom gestures for the WM and specific programs. I am currently wondering whether to move to hyprland as I noticed slightly worse palm rejection on i3/xorg when compared to gnome/wayland (still very usable though), but I still want a tiling window manager and customizable touch gestures, which Hyprland should have a plugin for.

I general I find this laptop great, the x1 yoga should be good too, but I have never tried it on linux.

I have a shitty hp 2in1 that really sucks, but for taking notes and annotate pdfs is good enough. In case you'll choose KDE as desktop environment check out this kwin script I wrote to get a tablet-like experience

I bought a Microsoft Surface Book 2 when I wasn't converted yet. BUT: now it kind of rules. There is a custom Linux Kernel for Surface devices, everything except the camera works now. That means especially: attach and detach the screen from the Keyboard and use the pen with all it's features.

I wouldn't buy a surface device now, because I don't want to support Microsoft. But if you find a Book 2 for cheap, this would be a possible solution to your search.

Rocking a Galaxy Book2 360. Can't adjust keyboard brightness, kernel parameter is needed for OLED backlight, and 3.5mm headphone jack doesn't work.

I have a thinkpad yoga x380 and although I dont use the stylus or tablet mode very often, it works really well when I do. Running fedora 38.

Hardware wise dell xps 13 2-in-1 is a good choice. However folio is horrible, magnetic stand is way too weak and I still cannot figure out deep sleep/hibernation. Aslo fingerprint scanner doesn't work.

Another thing is that Linux is not the best choice for a touch device. I've tried gnome and kde and they both suck. I've also tried plasma mobile and it feels like nearly days of touch screens.

I used an acer switch 12 convertible during uni until the battery started bloating up and I put it out of order. The pen wasn't great, especially the palm rejection was pretty bad, but that wasn't a Linux issue it wasn't great on windows either, overall it was pretty much the same. Linux ran great though, given that it only had 3 or 4 gigs of ram and a low tier i3 (I think 3rd or 4th gen) processor. I ran mint with KDE and I'd recommend running something with KDE (or gnome haven't tried that since I prefer kde if it has to be a full DE and not a lightweight WM) as well.

Nice post !

Back in the day I used a surface pro 3 dual booting windows and linux. Linux didn’t have the drivers to support the pen back then so I used windows and one note for note taking.

I have a Lenovo Yoga 6 13" that I've had a pretty good experience with. Screen rotation didn't work properly on Ubuntu 20.04 when I tried it back then, but I switched to Fedora 36 KDE, which worked great for over a year. I'm now on Debian 12 + KDE with an equally good experience. Fingerprint reader is not supported, but I didn't want to use it anyway.

I had good experiences with the Zenbook-Flip Series from Asus. Linux support is great, build quality too. It even survived a big drop with only the screen falling out, but still working. I just inserted it again. Battery life is also great which is perfect for university.

Palm rejection did not work reliable however. I just got used to disable the touchpad with a keycombo whenever I started typing longer passages of text.

I have experience with a Fujitsu Lifebook U9310x.
My general advice would be, if you're going to use Linux on a convertible, install Fedora. It has the best and newest implementation of Gnome, and Gnome has the best support for convertible, touchscreen and on-screen keyboard support.
On Fedora, the experience was almost as good as on Windows, whereas I had issues with Debian not correctly switching modes when I fold the keyboard back, not popping up the onscreen keyboard and not correctly rotating the screen.

Disclaimer: I haven't tested Ubuntu because I personally dislike it. But if it's certified for your hardware, that would be the first thing I'd try.

Hardware advice: Don't get a Fujitsu Lifebook U for writing. The keyboard sucks badly, to the point where about every 50th keystroke simply doesn't register. There's a Lifebook E convertible now which is more budget-friendly and has a better keyboard, but it's too thick and heavy for use as a tablet.
Thinkpads consistently have the best Linux support, so that's what I'd have bought if I hadn't got a 60% discount on the Fujitsu from work.