Because some people purchase and use devices for practical purposes, not just ideological.

Perhaps the Surface hardware is the most practical for some people?

In the case of the Surface Go family, there isn’t really anything comparable from other companies. It’s unironically the best compact tablet I’m aware of that you can put Linux on, and it runs Pop!_OS without issue once you disable Secure Boot. The only better Linux tablet for me would be an iPad Mini, but you can’t put Linux on one of those and even if you could it’s ARM-based so most proprietary apps won’t work on it.

In general, your tablet options for something smaller and handier than full-size 2-in-1s are pretty limited if you don’t want to be running iPadOS, so excluding Microsoft’s devices from the running if you want to put Linux on your tablet is pointless. Yeah, buying a Surface Laptop to put Linux on there is a bit weird, but I can see the Surface Pro family yielding a good ARM Linux tablet some day.

Same with people buying Google Pixel’s and then removing the stock Android. Isn’t the Pixel’s hardware rubbish, and the only reason to buy it the software?

Because Pixel allows the removal of stock android where some phones, like Samsung’s, actively prevent it.

But you’re not entirely wrong. There are non-Pixel phones with better hardware and unlockable bootloaders. Often it’s a preference thing. Though it should be said, the more popular the phone, the more likely it has robust support from the custom rom community, and Pixels are popular.

Also, “stock Android” doesn’t mean “everything is accessible and configurable” Android. They may put a Pixel-based rom right back on, just a version that’s not so restrictive. Many don’t need a reason to use custom roms beyond just having more knobs and levers for their phone than stock allows them.

Honestly, one of the major reasons I use Lineage, beyond the big obvious reasons, is solely to keep the “Hold back button to kill foreground app” function that stock android removed long ago.

Buying new, sure, what you’re saying makes sense. I think buying used for the form factor or whatever and not wanting windows is a fine choice, though.

That pixel’s example is so funny cause its suprisingly the most open boooader out there, so almost no devices but the pixel are used for full custom OS’ like grapheneOS.

But to answer your question, a lot of the beauty of Linux is it runs on anything, so if you already had one lying around, you could just slab Debian or something on it and it’ll be snappier than ever.

I also personally like the form factor of the device and the removable keyboard

Buy used device and you will not give any money to company. Surface devices are just really well built/thought and convenient devices. That’s it.

I wouldn’t say the Pixel line’s hardware is rubbish, more that Google is focused on having a polished “it just works” experience rather than trying to differentiate themselves by having the fastest, biggest, newest hardware in the Android market.

The mobile market hit the “diminishing returns” point quite a while ago and for a lot of people - probably the majority - the only reasons to upgrade are security updates ending, or because a non-replaceable battery is getting to the end of its life.

I used to upgrade every 12-18 months religiously, but now my Pixel 5 is coming up on 3 years old and I’d happily keep it another few years with a battery replacement, if the updates weren’t going to end shortly.

I agree that buying a new Surface to install Linux on doesn’t seem like the way to go.

But I get new life out of older machines by upgrading them with Linux. I’ve gotten additional years of solid use out of some older MacBook Airs by installing Linux. Now that I know there are drivers, I’ve got my eye on upgrading an old Surface Pro that I have.

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