well you may only need the keyboard to install it right? there are thousands of USB keyboards everywhere. in the poorest most remote villages in Africa they probably have so many USB keyboards they make sandals out of them.
Except now you have sandals and perhaps still can't install Linux on a Surface.
Seriously, though, it's kind of ridiculous to make a case that just because there is so much electronic waste already in the world, might as well create some more of it. I don't own a USB keyboard and haven't owned one for a decade or more. Because I exclusively use Surface. Imo Windows tablets are the true cyberdeck of the 21st century.
Touchscreen devices should not require plugging in a keyboard to enter text or plugging in a mouse to click on things. The whole point of these devices is that they can work on their own, without peripherals. If you need to plug in to use them, then you might as well have just bought a laptop in the first place.
I think that if you are expecting Linux to work perfectly when there is no keyboard on a notoriously Linux hostile proprietary device maybe you should step up and write the driver for it yourself.
nobody is getting paid to specifically maintain the weird workarounds required to support the surface and your problem can be avoided by spending a nickel at the salvation army.
it might even work without one! I know the latest Ubuntu detects a touchscreen on my Thinkpad and provides an onscreen keyboard by default.
edit:
I sincerely believe that the best way forward is for people who use Linux to vote with their wallet and buy products from the companies who are not actively hostile to it.
I apply this logic to nearly ever device I buy and it results in less waste because I buy stuff I can actually fix! see this:
