Topic: Miicro$oft Surface Pro

[Garth Bock]

I found a M$ Surface Pro for sale. I want to know if anyone has one and is running weather software on it like VWS, Cumulus, WL? I know you can't install "outside apps" on the RT version of the Surface. Also it can't be updated past Win8. The one I am looking at runs Win10.

[mcrossley]

I have a gen 6 and it's running Windows 10 Pro fine. Though there is a Surface specific version you can use the standard image and load all the drivers/firmware retrospectively.

They are great machines imho, though the higher spec processor can run hot if asked to do anything too strenuous - so much so they can actually throttle back to be much slower than a slower spec machine!

[Garth Bock]

I am not sure what version it is. I would like to put Cumulus on it but the heat and throttling issue is going to be a strike against it. I am also looking at a cheap Windows 10 table I found on eBay but probably will pass on that too. Thanks for the heads up.

[BrianLehan]

We have a few at work with the soft keyboards which crap out about the day after the warranty ends, but any Bluetooth keyboard can replace it. The only major gripe I hear all the time from users is why only one USB jack - ours are a few years old now not sure generation but think they arrived with Windows 8, upgraded them to 8.1, then 10 no issues with windows update. We give them a four port adapter but it is something else to carry and loose.

I have been able to load any windows program and have it run. Graphics are sharp, speed is good. Older folks hate the screen size.

Brian

[Garth Bock]

We have a few at work with the soft keyboards which crap out about the day after the warranty ends, but any Bluetooth keyboard can replace it. The only major gripe I hear all the time from users is why only one USB jack - ours are a few years old now not sure generation but think they arrived with Windows 8, upgraded them to 8.1, then 10 no issues with windows update. We give them a four port adapter but it is something else to carry and loose.

I have been able to load any windows program and have it run. Graphics are sharp, speed is good. Older folks hate the screen size.

Brian

I forgot about the single usb port. Not a real breaker for what I am planning.  I have several directions to take with what I am doing. Tommorow I am going to test Win10 on a RaspPi 4. If that works then  I will see how it handles Cumulus. I am leaning towards a LattePanda to run Win10 easier but everything is an option.

[mcrossley]

As Cumulus doesn't stress a rPi 3 at all (2% CPU usage), I doubt it would stress an i7 Surface! 

I very much doubt Cumulus will run on the pi version of Windows - it is soo cut down it is almost useless. If you have a pi it would be mad to run Windows on it rather than Linux imho.

[TraderGary]

I've had an i5, 256GB Microsoft Surface Pro 3 in daily use for over 6 (six) years. I bought it in May of 2014. It has run flawlessly for all these years and the battery is amazingly still very good. The screen is still sharp and bright. Today it runs the latest version of Windows 10 and its as fast as it was when new.

[davidmc36]

If that old of a processor and small drive will run that well today I should be reasonably future proof with the i7 Laptop I bought for my Wife today. Working from home appears to be moving permanent for her.

I'm going to look into a surface for myself always running here and there, air travel. Sigh. I need to retire. LOL