Check out the Linux Surface project https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supported-Devices-and-Features#feature-matrix
The Surface Pro 8 looks to have everything supported, except for the camera.
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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On a surface you should use the surface kernel and its patches: https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface
If I were you I would pick one from the well documented distros from its wiki: https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installation-and-Setup#surface-kernel-installation
Obviously it should be possible to install this on any distro, but you can save yourself from a headache if you just follow a tutorial, if you have never done such a thing.
Usually it's easier if you have the same distro on both of your computers, so you don't have to think about which computer are you on, it's simpler if everything is the same. All the same programs available, same repos, etc.
Thanks for the response, I've been tinkering, and before I read your message, I already started configuring the kernel for the surface. Now I am calibrating the touch. Sometimes, I wished I had something else than the surface, preferably something with an AMD processor... life would be a lot easier...
I briefly used Fedora (Gnome) on my SP7 which worked super well. Then I moved to NixOS because I'm a nerd 🤓
I've never used NexOS. I'm a beginner with Linux, started with the steam deck, fell in love with it, tried bazzite on my main pc, hated the non-imutability of the os and then went to Fedora KDE Plasma, and I love it, everything is just easy to use. But I was thinking of trying Arch KDE. (SomeOrdinaryGamer made a video recently with Arch, and it intrigued me)
I'd say arch is a great distro if you love to tinker a lot and/or want to learn a lot about the Linux ecosystem. If you don't recognize yourself in previous sentence I'd probably stick with fedora 🤷
In fact, I do find myself in the sentence, I tinker with all types of stuff, I wouldn't have tried all of this if I didn't also like it. I could always be comfortable and stay with Windows, but Linux is fun and and it teaches me a lot about operating systems and networking. Thanks for your words, now I think I will try going with Arch, I decided.
I’m curious how it worked on NixOS. Do you happen to have any Nix config files you can share?
Sadly I kept it private because it exposes a bit of my company's network structure (with encrypted secrets, but still...) :/
It's not the best experience though : the pencil doesn't work as well as in Fedora (GNOME doesn't detect tablet mode, which only seems to affect buttons behavior) and it recompiles the kernel everytime it needs to be updated (very often, so I pinned a version).