[Deal] $430 Certified Refurbished Microsoft Surface Pro 3 (256 GB/8GB/i5-4300U) @AMZN; Linux, OSx86, ChromeOS Support!
First: No Keyboard & No Pen Included…. But this is for $430, not close to the late 2014 $1299 MSRP.
Second: it ships with Windows 8.1! It will hopefully self update to 10 on it’s own! [Make your USB recovery media] We really don’t want you stuck on 8.1!
Sure you can pick up a “cheap” laptop in this price range, but you are buying nice hardware; so unless you’re arguing for a Thinkpad keyboard, or a Dell XPS refurb at this price point, definitely take a look at this Refurb deal.
Specifications:
CPU : i5-4300U 1.90Ghz (T2.9GHz); 3MB Cache
Graphics : Intel HD Graphics 4400
RAM : 8GB
SSD : 256GB
Screen : 12″ / 30cm
Resolution : 2160 x 1440 (216 ppi)
Touchscreen : Multitouch
Pen Input : Yes
Expansion : microSD <200GB
External Display : Mini DisplayPort
Weird Displays : Intel Wireless Display &
DisplayPort Multi-Stream
USB : 1 x USB3.0
Battery : 42Wh (~9hr)
Wifi : 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth : 4.0 LE
For those looking to move beyond Windows 8.1/10…. We offer some places to start:
- Reddit /r/SurfaceLinux/ has tons of info, as well as a strong community to query if you are into this.
- Full linux support from Ubuntu 15.04 on, and blazing fast with 4.8 kernels up.
- Pen support for linux came in 4.10 along with a bunch of tweaks according to Phoronix!
- ArchLinux has a full writeup.
- Hackintosh OS X10.10 on Surface Pro 3 (This violates the Apple EULA, we just wanted to point out the ingenuity of the hardware hackers over there)
- OpenBSD mostly works (needs USB wifi) it’s currently the only supported BSD; though FreeBSD loads then crashes last I heard. the problem is the licensing for the wifi driver is incompatible with BSD and most “strict” Linux variants.
- Go totally crazy and put the fully open Chromium OS x86 on it!
- Dual/Triple boot your “new” MS Surface with Windows/Linux & Chrome OS!
- Go with CloudReady, a supported spin of Chromium OS.
