Dell Doubles Down On High-End Ubuntu Linux Laptops (zdnet.com)

Dell became the first major OEM to offer a laptop with Linux pre-installed in it in 2007. Ten years later, the company says it is more committed than ever to offering Linux-powered machines to users. From a report on ZDNet: The best known of these is the Dell XPS 13 developer edition, but it's not the only Linux laptop Dell offers. In a blog post, Barton George, senior principal engineer at Dell's Office of the CTO, announced "the next generation of our Ubuntu-based Precision mobile workstation line." All of these systems boast Ubuntu 16.04 long-term support (LTS), 7th generation Intel Core or Intel Xeon processors, and Thunderbolt 3, AKA 40 Gigabit per second (Gbps) USB-C, ports. As the Xeon processor option shows, these are top-of-the-line laptops for professionals. It took longer than expected for Dell to get this new set of five Ubuntu-powered Precision mobile workstations out the door. The Precision 5520 and 3520 are now available. The 3520, the entry-level workstation, starts with an Intel Core 2.5GHz i5-7300HQ Quad Core processor with Intel HD Graphics 630. From there, you can upgrade it all the way to an Intel Core Xeon 3 GHz E3-1505M v6 processor with Nvidia Quadro M62 graphics.

Comments

Re:Why pre-installed?

[farble1670]

Have they made it impossible to install your own OS on the rest of their laptops? I haven't tried to install ubuntu on anything in a while

No, it's that if people pay an arm and a leg for a laptop, they want it to be supported. And that doesn't mean "most of the stuff works", it means everything works. Every Ubuntu laptop I've used has had some quirk that didn't work right. Won't sleep. Won't hibernate. Display back light doesn't go off. DVD burner doesn't work. And so on.

Re:Why pre-installed?

[cvdwl]

No, but it's nice to know the hardware is generally compatible out-of-box. Trying to correct graphics and audio issues is what drove me away from consumer Linux about 10 years ago. And my experiences configuring desktops at work have never lured me back.

Sad its so expensive

[tatman]

Dell XPS 13 developer edition, Ubuntu, i7 processor, 16BM almost $1900. Yikes.

Re:Sad its so expensive

[JaredOfEuropa]

I'd rather see some cheaper models. I'm still shopping around for a good basic laptop for my wife. It doesn't need to be ultra thin (it won't travel much) or super stylish, just something basic to run Ubuntu with a browser and LibreOffice. Not having to pay the Redmont tax is an even bigger deal on a cheap laptop. But the selection of low end laptops seems to be rather a lot poorer then when I last bought one around 5 years ago. And so does the selection of laptops with Linux or without Windows, come to think of it.

Re:Why pre-installed?

[phantomfive]

It's $100 cheaper than the Windows version of the same laptop.

Re:Why pre-installed?

[LVSlushdat]

I, on the other hand, do the exact opposite, run Linux just fine on a Dell Latitude, and for the extremely rare times I need Windows, I run a Windows 7 virtualbox VM, using the OEM product key from said Dell laptop..

Re:Why pre-installed?

[tehcyder]

Couldn't agree more. Notebooks are always a proprietary mess, and just because someone could install linux on one doesn't mean the experience would be a positive one. I actually have an XPS-13 running Windows 10 and still think it would be a nightmare trying to switch to Ubuntu as the main OS. I do, however, run Debian inside a VM. I have started to view Windows as the "cloud OS of uncertainty", while Linux/BSD derivatives are deterministic little walled gardens to be run only virtually.

Thereby achieving the perfect combination of the rock solid stability of Windows with the wide range of legacy software and games on Linux. Hang on...