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Dell Continues Shipping Fresh Linux Laptops
jones_supa writes: In its latest move, Dell will be bringing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to its top-of-the-line Precision M3800 workstation laptop and the latest model of the Dell XPS 13. Both systems will be running Ubuntu 14.04.1. According to Barton George, Dell's Director of Developer Programs, programmers had been asking for a better, officially-supported Ubuntu developer laptop. This came about from a combination of the efforts of Dell software engineer Jared Dominguez and enthusiastic feedback. Specs of M3800: 15.6" LCD @ 3840x2160, Intel i7 quad core CPU, NVIDIA Quadro GPU, up to 16 GB RAM. The bad news is, as Dominguez explained on his blog, this version of the M3800 doesn't support its built-in Thunderbolt 2 port out of the box. However, thanks to the hardware-enablement stack in Ubuntu, starting with upcoming Ubuntu 14.04.2, you will be able to upgrade your kernel to add some Thunderbolt support.
I have a 2014 model of the XPS 13 and it runs Fedora seamlessly, including hibernation, camera, and touch screen. Yet it was still cheaper to buy an windows 8 version of the XPS 13 from microcenter and wipe it, rather than the preloaded developer edition from Dell.
You just compared USB and Firewire, not thunderbolt.
Thunderbolt is Sony/Apple competitior to the original USB. It is higher performing with I/O bound to the host vs in the peripherals of the original USB design. It was more expensive so USB won but due to its superior bandwidth and processing it is used for ilink/thunderbolt video cameras, vga dongles, and ethernet.
You sound like you're describing Firewire (developed by Apple, Sony, and a number of others), not Thunberbolt (developed primarily by Intel).
Thunderbolt comes with MS Surface and any Apple product to connect vga, ethernet, dvd, HDMI, video cameras, and other dongles. Mac users use them too. USB 2?? Well it can't handle these well or at all.
This paragraph confuses me, what are you talking about when you say USB can handle these well or at all? Dongles are almost always used on the USB port.
An easier explanation is that Thunderbolt is a functional, external PCIe bandwidth connection. I see it far more often in Pro Audio and Pro Video than any other purpose as its high bandwidth allows better access. It's still a young tech (2011) as opposed to USB (1996) and Firewire (1994), so there's plenty of things that still can come from it.
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
Thunderbolt combines PCI Express (PCIe) and DisplayPort (DP) into one serial signal alongside a DC connection for electric power, transmitted over one cable. Up to six peripherals may be supported by one connector through various topologies.