6 ms·

Dell sells a few "developer editions" of their XPS13 with Ubuntu preloaded [1]. [1] http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/xps-13-9350-laptop-ubuntu/pd http://www.d

Dell sells a few "developer editions" of their XPS13 with Ubuntu preloaded [1]. [1] http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/xps-13-9350-laptop-ubuntu/pd http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/xps-13-9350-laptop-ubuntu/...

flipp3r 10y ago
As an owner of a Dell XPS Developer Edition, with Ubuntu installed, expect every Linux application you have not to work with its high resolution display. I'm happy enough to get my terminal, Chromium and my IDE working with it, but 99% of applications are just not made for it. Also, before you enter Linux check if applications you use daily ( like Skype ) work well on Linux. Just try it on a VM first. I was really surprised to see what Skype looks like on Linux, especially in combination with the high res screen. Not only that, a load of things just dont work out of the box that you'd expect from a Windows or Mac machine ( small things like unplugging my earphones while the laptop is in sleep mode, turning it on and having no sound, until I find earphones to plug in and out again. ) Do not recommend. What I would recommend is trying out Linux for a month or so, with a dual-boot setup.
- sandGorgon 10y ago
  as a owner of a XPS 13 with the latest 6560u skylake and iris 540 .. and an edition that is NOT a developer edition... I couldnt be happier. Ubuntu has been terrible. I switched to Fedora 24 on the XPS 13 and it has been brilliant. No other laptop (not even macbooks) come with that weight/power ratio. Everything works - including skype, etc. suspend resume has worked absolutely perfectly. I really, really recommend using Fedora. Ubuntu has not been delivering the experience that the hype expects.
  - Chyzwar 10y ago
    except fonts...
    - snuxoll 10y ago
      Freetype's grayscale rendering works great on higher DPI displays, even the 1080P display on my 2013 Dell XPS 13 is sufficiently dense for me to not notice, and with some recent improvements in Fedora 24 I hardly notice the lack of subpixel rendering even on my 24" display at home (though it's still somewhat irksome, debating installing freetype-freeworld again).
      - vetinari 10y ago
        I definitely noticed on Thinkpad's 14" 1600x900 display. However, after installing freetype-freeworld and configuring rgba rendering, the font rendering is better than Windows or OSX.
    - sandGorgon 10y ago
      The fonts on Fedora 24 on the XPS 13 is brilliant. I think gnome and freetype has improved to the level that the rendering is excellent.
      - lima 10y ago
        Can confirm, with a Thinkpad T460s. Better than Windows and OS X.
    - reitanqild 10y ago
      Short version: a lot of us don't even think about the fonts as long as we have and ordinary monospaced one when we edit code. Long version: It seems there are two kinds of people here: Some like me never think about any font that finds its way into any mainstream distro. Others seems to care deeply about them. I find it useful to keep this in mind as I honestly find one of the highly praised Mac a usability disaster (tried honestly to work with it or around it for almost three years).
      - TheOneTrueKyle 10y ago
        Sure, but that doesn't mean improvement can't happen. I personally would love to see a proper graphics application. I would use linux as my main PC in a heartbeat if a Sketch equivalent was available. I expect a lot of people have similar feelings or have one thing keeping them from completely making the jump.
  - dguaraglia 10y ago
    The issue that made me give up the XPS 13 for personal use was that Linux still doesn't support having a secondary monitor at a lower pixel density. I tried about 5 different distros, they all looked terrible, so I had to return the XPS and get a MacBook that I knew would work just fine. Other than that the laptop was beautiful.
    - readams 10y ago
      They say you have to wait for Wayland for this to work correctly.
      - dguaraglia 10y ago
        Yep, that's why I decided to return the laptop and wait until Wayland is the default on Fedora to try again. I love Linux, used it for years as my main OS, but it's hard to beat the convenience of OS X when it comes to productivity. I don't miss all the time spent trying to get music to play without audible clicks caused by faulty drivers, setting up my computer so it'd remember where my desk monitor is in relation to the laptop monitor, getting wi-fi drivers to stop dropping packets, etc.
    - lima 10y ago
      I simply scale the external display using xrandr --scale 2x2 (or similar, you can specify fractions). Works way better than expected and I use it ten hours a day. At some point, Wayland solves this natively, but in the meantime this is an acceptable workaround.
      - nitrogen 10y ago
        It's crazy there is no obvious UI for this. xrandr can do so much more than the typical monitor settings panel.
  - ch0wn 10y ago
    I got mine yesterday. Replaced the preinstalled Ubuntu 14.04 LTs with Arch Linux and I was shocked how well everything worked. So far I haven't found a single thing that doesn't work and having installed Linux on a lot of laptops in the past that's truly not something I would expect. Apart from the icons in the Gnome app tray I haven't seen any issues with HiDPI either.
  - hiram112 10y ago
    Agreed. I run Fedora as my main VM and it has been pretty damn solid. I tried dual booting and had some NVidia problems, but otherwise it was okay. It is 80% there, and if I didn't just get a MBP from work, I'd probably spend some more time with Fedora outside the VM. Either way, if MS doesn't clean up their act, I'm done with Windows after a long time of daily use.
- SixSigma 10y ago
  There was quite a bit of talk that Skype on Linux is dead with the move by MS to the cloud. But there's a new official client coming based on WebRTC : https://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Skype-for-Linux-Alpha-and-calling-on-Chrome-amp-Chromebooks/td-p/4434299 https://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Skype-for-Linux-Alpha-a...
  - sandGorgon 10y ago
    Skype web works brilliantly on the chrome browser on Linux. I prefer it to the desktop client. No video yet though
    - lima 10y ago
      Stop using Skype. Can confirm that the WebRTC client works fine however. Jitsi Meet is a self-hosted, enterprise-grade alternative which works just as well. It even supports larger video conferences than Skype.
      - danieldk 10y ago
        Stop using Skype. Easier said than done when colleagues, friends, and family use Skype for video calling.
        lima 10y ago
        Works surprisingly well with Jitsi Meet, since it runs in the browser and requires no setup. Just send them the link, they click on it, done. Public instance there: https://meet.jit.si/ https://meet.jit.si/ Company I work for migrated from Skype to Jitsi for meetings.
      - SixSigma 10y ago
        "Hi, sorry, no I can't attend the Skype interview, lima on HN told me to stop using it"
- bitL 10y ago
  Mint + Cinnamon + HiDPI On and your are set. Running on a QHD+ notebook with this for over a year, no problems.
- Taek 10y ago
  Skype is owned by Microsoft it's not a huge surprise that it's not a smooth experience on Linux. Linux is a different operating system with a different philosophy. There are windows-y distros, but and the end of the day the core is very different and the UX is very different. Switching to Linux is not like switching brands of cars. It's more like switching from a car to a motorcycle. The rules are different, the ride is different, the functioning knowledge you need is different. Don't expect your car-seat to work anymore, you'll need a different product entirely to achieve the same function. Especially if you are switching for philosophical reasons, I'd say just bite the bullet and learn to adjust. There are a lot of huge benefits, but also a lot of things you're used to just won't work anymore. I haven't touched Windows in 3 years. You definitely don't need it.
  - lima 10y ago
    The new web client supports audio calls in Chrom(e|ium) on Linux nowadays. rm -rf /opt/skype
  - danieldk 10y ago
    Skype is owned by Microsoft it's not a huge surprise that it's not a smooth experience on Linux. Linux is a different operating system with a different philosophy. There are windows-y distros, but and the end of the day the core is very different and the UX is very different. This is quite an irrelevant point. macOS is also very different from Windows, from the POSIX API (which makes it very similar to Linux) to Cocoa. And yet Skype works fine. The real reason is more likely to be that Microsoft just doesn't want to support Linux properly. Of course, the reasons are more clouded, possible reasons are: virtually no marketshare on the desktop, large fragmentation, or they simply see Linux as a competitor that they don't want to give momentum. Given that they do support Android, iOS, and macOS, my guess would be the former two.
- Steltek 10y ago
  The high res screen (on an XPS 15, not 13) also drains the battery significantly. I opted for the "low res" 1920x1080 screen which works much better for my uses. I have an external 4k monitor when at a desk and a sufficient display when on the go. This is all with Debian Linux btw.
- davidw 10y ago
  You can fiddle with the settings to change the 'DPI' so that the apps look better/bigger. I'm very happy with the XPS 13 developer edition that i have.
lmickh 10y ago
Would second the XPS13. If you don't want to shell out for a high-end Thinkpad, it is a great option. Mine was the first "developer edition" and it is still running great. There is plenty of support for it on distros aside from Ubuntu. I have run Fedora on mine for years now. The desktop experience of Linux in general is still a bit off, but if you are like me and spend 99% of your time in the terminal or a web browser it certainly gets the job done. You can always supplement with a VM if you have to run "that program".
- hiram112 10y ago
  Seems like the XPS is just as expensive as a T series Thinkpad. I don't understand why the XPS is so popular compared to similar priced business grade Thinkpad and Latitudes.
lukeschlather 10y ago
My company was considering using these as our Linux option, but we couldn't enable full-disk encryption (Grub has an issue with encrypted NVME drives.) When I contacted Dell they said Linux was not supported via email, but rather through the community. (I'm now running a Thinkpad that's a few years old and it works much better than the XPS 13.)
- arcosdev 10y ago
  Which Thinkpad?
  - ohstopitu 10y ago
    I personally ran Ubuntu on the T520P and the T540P over the past 4 years. Both have yet to disappoint me.
  - lukeschlather 10y ago
    X230 Tablet. The stylus works out of the box with Ubuntu 14.04. Only nit is that the standby battery life is only a few days. I upgraded from the 3-cell (which was pretty old and lasted about two hours) to a 6-cell. I'm still testing it but it lasts at least 5 hours under moderate usage. I think with the brightness on low it could last 10.

flipp3r 10y ago

As an owner of a Dell XPS Developer Edition, with Ubuntu installed, expect every Linux application you have not to work with its high resolution display. I'm happy enough to get my terminal, Chromium and my IDE working with it, but 99% of applications are just not made for it. Also, before you enter Linux check if applications you use daily ( like Skype ) work well on Linux. Just try it on a VM first. I was really surprised to see what Skype looks like on Linux, especially in combination with the high res screen. Not only that, a load of things just dont work out of the box that you'd expect from a Windows or Mac machine ( small things like unplugging my earphones while the laptop is in sleep mode, turning it on and having no sound, until I find earphones to plug in and out again. ) Do not recommend. What I would recommend is trying out Linux for a month or so, with a dual-boot setup.

sandGorgon 10y ago
as a owner of a XPS 13 with the latest 6560u skylake and iris 540 .. and an edition that is NOT a developer edition... I couldnt be happier. Ubuntu has been terrible. I switched to Fedora 24 on the XPS 13 and it has been brilliant. No other laptop (not even macbooks) come with that weight/power ratio. Everything works - including skype, etc. suspend resume has worked absolutely perfectly. I really, really recommend using Fedora. Ubuntu has not been delivering the experience that the hype expects.
- Chyzwar 10y ago
  except fonts...
  - snuxoll 10y ago
    Freetype's grayscale rendering works great on higher DPI displays, even the 1080P display on my 2013 Dell XPS 13 is sufficiently dense for me to not notice, and with some recent improvements in Fedora 24 I hardly notice the lack of subpixel rendering even on my 24" display at home (though it's still somewhat irksome, debating installing freetype-freeworld again).
    - vetinari 10y ago
      I definitely noticed on Thinkpad's 14" 1600x900 display. However, after installing freetype-freeworld and configuring rgba rendering, the font rendering is better than Windows or OSX.
  - sandGorgon 10y ago
    The fonts on Fedora 24 on the XPS 13 is brilliant. I think gnome and freetype has improved to the level that the rendering is excellent.
    - lima 10y ago
      Can confirm, with a Thinkpad T460s. Better than Windows and OS X.
  - reitanqild 10y ago
    Short version: a lot of us don't even think about the fonts as long as we have and ordinary monospaced one when we edit code. Long version: It seems there are two kinds of people here: Some like me never think about any font that finds its way into any mainstream distro. Others seems to care deeply about them. I find it useful to keep this in mind as I honestly find one of the highly praised Mac a usability disaster (tried honestly to work with it or around it for almost three years).
    - TheOneTrueKyle 10y ago
      Sure, but that doesn't mean improvement can't happen. I personally would love to see a proper graphics application. I would use linux as my main PC in a heartbeat if a Sketch equivalent was available. I expect a lot of people have similar feelings or have one thing keeping them from completely making the jump.
- dguaraglia 10y ago
  The issue that made me give up the XPS 13 for personal use was that Linux still doesn't support having a secondary monitor at a lower pixel density. I tried about 5 different distros, they all looked terrible, so I had to return the XPS and get a MacBook that I knew would work just fine. Other than that the laptop was beautiful.
  - readams 10y ago
    They say you have to wait for Wayland for this to work correctly.
    - dguaraglia 10y ago
      Yep, that's why I decided to return the laptop and wait until Wayland is the default on Fedora to try again. I love Linux, used it for years as my main OS, but it's hard to beat the convenience of OS X when it comes to productivity. I don't miss all the time spent trying to get music to play without audible clicks caused by faulty drivers, setting up my computer so it'd remember where my desk monitor is in relation to the laptop monitor, getting wi-fi drivers to stop dropping packets, etc.
  - lima 10y ago
    I simply scale the external display using xrandr --scale 2x2 (or similar, you can specify fractions). Works way better than expected and I use it ten hours a day. At some point, Wayland solves this natively, but in the meantime this is an acceptable workaround.
    - nitrogen 10y ago
      It's crazy there is no obvious UI for this. xrandr can do so much more than the typical monitor settings panel.
- ch0wn 10y ago
  I got mine yesterday. Replaced the preinstalled Ubuntu 14.04 LTs with Arch Linux and I was shocked how well everything worked. So far I haven't found a single thing that doesn't work and having installed Linux on a lot of laptops in the past that's truly not something I would expect. Apart from the icons in the Gnome app tray I haven't seen any issues with HiDPI either.
- hiram112 10y ago
  Agreed. I run Fedora as my main VM and it has been pretty damn solid. I tried dual booting and had some NVidia problems, but otherwise it was okay. It is 80% there, and if I didn't just get a MBP from work, I'd probably spend some more time with Fedora outside the VM. Either way, if MS doesn't clean up their act, I'm done with Windows after a long time of daily use.
SixSigma 10y ago
There was quite a bit of talk that Skype on Linux is dead with the move by MS to the cloud. But there's a new official client coming based on WebRTC : https://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Skype-for-Linux-Alpha-and-calling-on-Chrome-amp-Chromebooks/td-p/4434299 https://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Skype-for-Linux-Alpha-a...
- sandGorgon 10y ago
  Skype web works brilliantly on the chrome browser on Linux. I prefer it to the desktop client. No video yet though
  - lima 10y ago
    Stop using Skype. Can confirm that the WebRTC client works fine however. Jitsi Meet is a self-hosted, enterprise-grade alternative which works just as well. It even supports larger video conferences than Skype.
    - danieldk 10y ago
      Stop using Skype. Easier said than done when colleagues, friends, and family use Skype for video calling.
      - lima 10y ago
        Works surprisingly well with Jitsi Meet, since it runs in the browser and requires no setup. Just send them the link, they click on it, done. Public instance there: https://meet.jit.si/ https://meet.jit.si/ Company I work for migrated from Skype to Jitsi for meetings.
    - SixSigma 10y ago
      "Hi, sorry, no I can't attend the Skype interview, lima on HN told me to stop using it"
bitL 10y ago
Mint + Cinnamon + HiDPI On and your are set. Running on a QHD+ notebook with this for over a year, no problems.
Taek 10y ago
Skype is owned by Microsoft it's not a huge surprise that it's not a smooth experience on Linux. Linux is a different operating system with a different philosophy. There are windows-y distros, but and the end of the day the core is very different and the UX is very different. Switching to Linux is not like switching brands of cars. It's more like switching from a car to a motorcycle. The rules are different, the ride is different, the functioning knowledge you need is different. Don't expect your car-seat to work anymore, you'll need a different product entirely to achieve the same function. Especially if you are switching for philosophical reasons, I'd say just bite the bullet and learn to adjust. There are a lot of huge benefits, but also a lot of things you're used to just won't work anymore. I haven't touched Windows in 3 years. You definitely don't need it.
- lima 10y ago
  The new web client supports audio calls in Chrom(e|ium) on Linux nowadays. rm -rf /opt/skype
- danieldk 10y ago
  Skype is owned by Microsoft it's not a huge surprise that it's not a smooth experience on Linux. Linux is a different operating system with a different philosophy. There are windows-y distros, but and the end of the day the core is very different and the UX is very different. This is quite an irrelevant point. macOS is also very different from Windows, from the POSIX API (which makes it very similar to Linux) to Cocoa. And yet Skype works fine. The real reason is more likely to be that Microsoft just doesn't want to support Linux properly. Of course, the reasons are more clouded, possible reasons are: virtually no marketshare on the desktop, large fragmentation, or they simply see Linux as a competitor that they don't want to give momentum. Given that they do support Android, iOS, and macOS, my guess would be the former two.
Steltek 10y ago
The high res screen (on an XPS 15, not 13) also drains the battery significantly. I opted for the "low res" 1920x1080 screen which works much better for my uses. I have an external 4k monitor when at a desk and a sufficient display when on the go. This is all with Debian Linux btw.
davidw 10y ago
You can fiddle with the settings to change the 'DPI' so that the apps look better/bigger. I'm very happy with the XPS 13 developer edition that i have.

lmickh 10y ago

Would second the XPS13. If you don't want to shell out for a high-end Thinkpad, it is a great option. Mine was the first "developer edition" and it is still running great. There is plenty of support for it on distros aside from Ubuntu. I have run Fedora on mine for years now. The desktop experience of Linux in general is still a bit off, but if you are like me and spend 99% of your time in the terminal or a web browser it certainly gets the job done. You can always supplement with a VM if you have to run "that program".

hiram112 10y ago
Seems like the XPS is just as expensive as a T series Thinkpad. I don't understand why the XPS is so popular compared to similar priced business grade Thinkpad and Latitudes.

lukeschlather 10y ago

My company was considering using these as our Linux option, but we couldn't enable full-disk encryption (Grub has an issue with encrypted NVME drives.) When I contacted Dell they said Linux was not supported via email, but rather through the community. (I'm now running a Thinkpad that's a few years old and it works much better than the XPS 13.)

arcosdev 10y ago
Which Thinkpad?
- ohstopitu 10y ago
  I personally ran Ubuntu on the T520P and the T540P over the past 4 years. Both have yet to disappoint me.
- lukeschlather 10y ago
  X230 Tablet. The stylus works out of the box with Ubuntu 14.04. Only nit is that the standby battery life is only a few days. I upgraded from the 3-cell (which was pretty old and lasted about two hours) to a 6-cell. I'm still testing it but it lasts at least 5 hours under moderate usage. I think with the brightness on low it could last 10.