I'm writing this on the first Dell I've owned since... 1999: a new "Developer Edition" XPS-13 2015 (FHD i5 variant for max power savings, which are pretty incredible).<p>This is close the best linux laptop I've used, including various my various thinkpads and macbooks.<p>A couple years ago I met an enthusiastic Barton George showing off the first gen XPS 13 at the ubuntu dev conference. It was sexy but flawed. I wasn't interested in the machine, but I thought Barton was a guy to watch. His project Sputnik group is the <i>only</i> reason I have kept Dell on my radar at all.<p>They could be doing a lot in a better way: the customer outreach, ordering process, out of box experience: all include some (at times <i>very</i>) rough edges.<p>Linux on the desktop is happening and, as I've said for a long time, it's happening where it needs to: with developers first. I'm not super excited with their Ubuntu centric strategy, but it's minimal effort to get Arch up and running on the Dell dev units. If anyone is going this route I'm maintaining a kernel for the XPS 13 (2015) here: <a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-xps13-alt/" rel="nofollow">https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-xps13-alt/</a>
Most people don't know this, but Dell actually has an amazing line of computers that come with Ubuntu on them already. Best part - there's a team of people who make sure there's 100% driver support for everything on the computer.<p>Check it out: <a href="https://sputnik.github.io/" rel="nofollow">https://sputnik.github.io/</a>
I know this is a Dell thread but for those interested in running Linux on a sweet ultrabook, check out the Asus UX305. I've been running Ubuntu 15.04 on it and it works beautifully, no special instructions required. Also only $800 - probably one of the best deals going in linux laptops these days.
Not an endorsement of Dell or Ubuntu, but Dell appears to offer 8 (mostly lower-end) laptop models with Ubuntu pre-installed: <a href="https://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops" rel="nofollow">https://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops</a>
Still waiting for Dell to fully support Ubuntu in their 2015 XPS 13 model. I made the switch from a Thinkpad after Lenovo burned me too many times. While the keyboard isn't quite as excellent it's still top notch and it's one of the best laptops I've ever owned.<p>That being said getting everything working in Ubuntu has been a bit of a fiasco [1]. Luckily after some firmware upgrades and the new kernel in 15.04, a lot of issues have been fixed, but the laptop still does strange things waking up from sleep. The worst issue though is that audio still seems to not work in a dual boot configuration. The laptop can't produce sound from the speakers or headphone jack in both Windows and Ubuntu when booting between the two OS's. It seems the hardware gets put in a strange state by either OS and it takes two full reboots after switching from Windows<->Ubuntu to get the audio device to be recognized.<p>Also HDPI support in Ubuntu is still a little lacking so the beautiful higher-than-retina display sometimes makes things absurdly small. I've seen a lot of progress on this front though.<p>I really love this device but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the excellent out of the box hardware support for Thinkpads in Ubuntu.<p>[1] - <a href="https://major.io/2015/02/03/linux-support-dell-xps-13-9343-2015-model/" rel="nofollow">https://major.io/2015/02/03/linux-support-dell-xps-13-9343-2...</a>
I just installed 14.04 on an 3-4 year old Inspiron. Haven't really pushed it, but it seems to have no issues, and I didn't have to do anything for everything to work; the vanilla install seemed fine.
How official are publications in Dell's "Knowledge Base"? This one looks like it was written by a non-native English speaker, and doesn't seem to provide much Dell-specific information.
Since they are providing installation instructions on their website, does this mean they will also do phone / email support for Linux related installation issues?
I've set up a public issue tracker on Github for the XPS 13 (2015) developer edition:
<a href="https://github.com/advancingu/XPS13Linux/issues" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/advancingu/XPS13Linux/issues</a><p>It should contain descriptions and some workaround for the most obvious issues that currently exist for running Linux on these machines.
Kudo's to Dell for acknowledging that the world is more than just Windows. I'm the proud owner of a 1st Gen XPS 13 Developer Edition. It's a truly beautiful product and a joy to use (apart from some Wifi issues)
There's lots of love for XPS 13 on this thread. I'm considering a switch from Thinkpad+Asus to something different. Is the "XPS 15" just as good? (Although it looks pricey).
What's the best way to get an Ubuntu/Debian-compatible linux distro on my Mac laptop without destroying my data? The slowness of Yosemite seriously amps my cortisol.