[elementarythree]

I use my Max2 mostly with ssh and termux to remotely connect to my systems. Works pretty well. Termux has many comfort options and with wakelock held you can even set up cronjobs and such and they work pretty reliably, basically building a small linux enviroment. It isn't perfect but works. Also you don't need root, which I didn't really find a clean way I feel safe with to get with this device.

If you stay in the console and text-only, you work around a lot of problems the refresh rate of the screen brings. There is lots and lots of programs out there to make that stay comfortable. Hell, with rtv there's even a text-only reddit-browser that works a lot better on this screen than the various android ones. If you want to let the tablet on the internet, that is.

I first was a bit critical of the SoC (RK3288) in this system, but it's actually pretty good. I got an ASUS tinker board (which has the same SoC) to experiment a little with it. (and also find a way to turn the battery charging off when connected to USB, the Tinker Board has the same power management chip and it only cost 70 bucks so I feel a lot less queasy to poke around in it's power settings) Not really all that slow at all for linux after some experimenting. I am from the emacs camp and run it locally, it works perfectly fine, even with more intensive stuff like flycheck and such.

When you are on the go (at home or outside) a good trick to get network connectivity and still don't rely on the power-hungry wifi is to do bluetooth tethering with your smartphone. It's not as fast as WiFi but for ssh/mosh sessions it's more than good enough.

So tl;dr, my experience and advice is to forego X and stay in the console, works very well on this device, no additional computer to do the heavy lifting even really needed if you work with it's restrictions. Also find the terminfo file for "xterm-mono" and add it to termux, notifies your ncurses apps and such that your screen is monochrome and you get a nice black/white. Works really well with most console programs. No screwing around with color palettes needed. Also you can use your finger and/or the stylus to click on stuff in the terminal for programs that support it, which is also nice.

EDIT: Hell, if you can get used to monochrome and use that xterm-mono file, you can even play terminal-based games on it. Catacylsm-DDA (rogue like survival-game) works fine. You can stab tiles with your Stylus to path to them, which is incredibly cool. You could probably play games like dwarf fortress the same way. I had Cataclysm once compiled on a Raspberry Pi 2 and played it there and it was fast enough to play. I'm sure if I can get a build environment set up in Termux (if possible) I could compile it for this chip and run it locally without restrictions.