Today, the Dell XPS-13 with Ubuntu Linux is easily the most well-known Linux laptop. Many users, especially developers – including Linus Torvalds – love it. As Torvalds recently said, “Normally, I wouldn’t name names, but I’m making an exception for the XPS 13 just because I liked it so much that I also ended up buying one for my daughter when she went off to college.”

So, how did Dell – best known for good-quality, mass-produced PCs – end up building top-of-the-line Ubuntu Linux laptops? Well, Barton George, Dell Technologies’ Developer Community manager, shared the “Project Sputnik” story this week in a presentation at the popular Linux and open-source community show, All Things Open.

  • @[email protected]
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    1101 year ago

    $1400 for a non upgradable SSD and RAM, not to mention there are no USB, HDMI or audio jacks. What a ripoff.

          • @[email protected]
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            1 year ago

            Bought an old second hand p50 recently, and it still far outperforms most modern laptops by a mile, battery lasts 4 or 5 hours on integrated graphics (probably quite a bit less on discrete but haven’t really tested that yet)

            Plus I can buy a second battery and just swap them out when one runs out

              • @[email protected]
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                21 year ago

                My old Lenovo yoga cost more than the p50 and couldn’t hold a candle

                Came with 32gb memory, 4k display, discrete gpu and an nvme which all help considerably, the CPU generally sits around 1-8% during normal usage (on Linux that is)

                Can quite happily code on this thing, my previous laptop could barely run an ide

                Obviously there are more powerful laptops but considering I got it for ~£500 and even second hand modern laptops go for ~1000 with less memory and no GPU I think it competes very nicely

        • @Zeth0s
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          21 year ago

          Light ThinkPads are not cheap either

          • @[email protected]
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            51 year ago

            Todays ThinPads are not superior. Some things are:

            • Lenovo caught with spyware on Thinkpads
            • Hardware support for Linux is lacking
            • Lenovo caught using slave labor
        • Midnight Wolf
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          1 year ago

          I recommended my father get one after his current laptop’s speakers blew out. He didn’t want to wait for Q4, so we went with my 2nd recommendation, a ThinkPad.

          The first two were defective (the whole model line is - overheating to scalding temps, not going to sleep when the lid is closed, not sleeping/infinite loop when manually told to sleep or by the OS idle time), the third (different model) arrived without a fucking w11pro product key. Are you actually fucking shitting me. Their solution for that was either a new machine (custom machine, almost 4 weeks lead time) or a new mobo. I figured they would put the key in the board, and we didn’t want another 4 week wait, so I went with the board swap. Guess who didn’t enter a key into the bios? The tech didn’t have one, was just told to swap boards.

          We are expecting a framework in Q1 now.

    • Avid Amoeba
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      161 year ago

      Project Sputnik didn’t start yesterday. It started in 2013 and Dell XPS was much different back then.

    • dinckel
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      111 year ago

      Dell love pretending they’re the Apple of the Windows/Linux world, except the issue is that for one, people specifically bought their stuff for the things you mentioned, and that the build quality was not exclusively just black plastic. The current XPS is everything that people hated about the “Macbook” from almost a decade ago. The one with the first butterfly switches

    • Midnight Wolf
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      51 year ago

      Oh no, I see the mistake, just let me

      $14.00

      there we go

    • @[email protected]
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      51 year ago

      Yeah, I don’t get it. What am I gonna do with 2 USBC ports? What if the ssd dies? Nah, I’d rather get a framework

      • @[email protected]
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        121 year ago

        The framework is cheaper when comparably equipped. It’s not even any thicker or heavier despite everything being replaceable. Dell just wants to make you pay a huge repair fee when the SSD fails.

    • @[email protected]
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      41 year ago

      Is it supposed to be submersible? WTF no jacks or ports?

      Non upgradable SSD & RAM?

      So Dell is trying to out-stupid Apple. Maybe they’ll come out with their own maps.

    • @[email protected]
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      -31 year ago

      linux users when a laptop that ships Linux isn’t absolutely perfect and cost $20 (they don’t care that it helps get linux to average users)

      • @[email protected]
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        71 year ago

        Soldered SSD and RAM is something we expect from a cheap chromebook. It’s just not acceptable in a high end laptop.

        There are plenty of other good laptops that come with Linux installed.

            • @[email protected]
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              11 year ago

              Is it something that depends on the region? In Brazil their Linux offerings are usually way cheaper precisely because you can forgo the Windows license.

      • @[email protected]
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        71 year ago

        We are pretty happy with framework, tuxedo and system76 even if their products often cost loads of money and for sure aren’t perfect.

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          and yet people still find ways to complain when a manufacturer that is twice as big as all of these examples combined ships laptops with linux to the hands of millions of people, most of the time costing less than offerings by these companies