This article provides a perspective on collisions of ions with surfaces, including surface-induced dissociation (SID) and reactive ion scattering spectrometry (RISS). The content is organized into sections on surface-induced dissociation of small ions, surface characterization of organic thin films by collision of well-characterized ions into surfaces, the use of SID to probe peptide fragmentation, and the dissociation of large non-covalent complexes by SID. Examples are given from the literature with a focus on experiments from the authors' laboratory. The article is not a comprehensive review but is designed to provide the reader with an overview of the types of results possible by collisions of ions into surfaces.