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Dell's New Sputnik 3 Mates Touchscreen With Ubuntu
ClaraBow writes "I find it interesting that Dell has started selling a thin and light touchscreen laptop called the XPS 13 Developer Edition, which will have Ubuntu Linux OS and Intel's fourth-generation Core processors, code-named Haswell. The laptop, code-named Sputnik, has a 13.3-inch touchscreen and will run on Ubuntu 12.04 OS. It is priced starting at $1,250 and is available in the U.S." One thing I wish was addressed in the blog post announcing this newest entry in the Sputnik line, or its listed specs (bad news beats not knowing, in this case), is battery life.
It's from a major OEM, it runs Linux which hopefully means it has Linux-friendly hardware and good Linux drivers. That's enough to be newsworthy on slashdot, which still hopes Linux will overtake the market share of such gems as Windows Vista and Windows 8 ;)
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
The cost of the machine is $110 less than an otherwise identical XPS 13 with Windows 8.
Expandable at least. You can plug in two standard SO-DIMM chips, one m-SATA drive and one 2.5" 7mm drive. It also has 14.4" full-HD screen, big enough to use its full resolution (not retina-like ultra-high pixel density where image has to be enlarged 2x, so you get half the resolution). I'm curious about its reliability.
I'm using Asus UX-32VD which has similiar characteristics (notably it has one standard SO-DIMM slot and one standard 7mm 2.5" drive, despite its slim ultrabook-like look). Sometimes I need a bit more power and bigger screen (being "in the field", not at my desk), so standard PC does not count. I would like to see expandable 15"-16" ultrabook with 2576x1600 resolution (three columns of code plus sidebar!) and quad core processor. Ideally with one or two mSATA slots and one 2.5" bay and at least two SO-DIMM slots. Pixel density would be the same as in UX-31, so with good quality IPS display one would use every last bit of it. Something like Asus UX-51 but with better resolution and expandable. This would be terribly setup for techies, programmers in particular. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of such product - unlike desktop PCs where one can built one's own system from scratch, everyone is on vendors mercy when it comes to notebooks or ultrabooks.
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop ?
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
But hey, I can install more than one and at the login prompt I select the specific desktop that suits me best :)
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The prior XPS13 with Linux would get 6 hours easy, this one with a haswell chip should get 8 at a minimum.