10 ms·

Linux laptops: buy pre-installed. If you want linux and you want to be sure everything is functional, AND you don't want to devote lots of time to a "project" b

• leesalminen 10y ago
  Can anyone point me towards the new Dell XPS 15 Developer Edition (does it exist)? I'm able to find the Windows version [0], as well as the XPS 13 Developer Edition [1], but no XPS 15 Developer edition. I just want my 15 inches. I did 13 for years and the pain still haunts me. [0] http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15-9560-laptop/pd http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15-9560-laptop/pd [1] http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-laptop http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-lapt...
  • gingernaut 10y ago
    It's the Dell Precision 5510. http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m5510-workstation/pd http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m5510-workstatio...
    • hvis 10y ago
      I've looked at it, and they include a pretty useless NVIDIA Quadro instead of a video cart you could use for occasional gaming. Granted, the last 3D game I've ran on my XPS 15 was Half-Life 2, and it's pretty fast even on the integrated Intel video card.
  • nikatwork 10y ago
    I've heard the XPS13 has a nearly-15 usable screen size because of the tiny bevel, any owners care to verify?
    • jronald 10y ago
      I have the Developer edition of the older 13 - its a 13" display in closer to an 11" form. The 13" and 15" have really tiny bezels to hit their dimensions, with the new 15.6" being 14" wide. The 13" developer edition was close enough to perfect for me with the 1920x1080 display, battery life takes a hit with the 4k screens. Getting a 15" this time around, but expect delays on the developer edition, they usually launch a few months after the regular 15" while they sort new drivers.
  • deadbunny 10y ago
    I use the XPS 15 (2015) and I run Linux with zero problems. While not marketed as a Linux machine I've had zero issues getting 16.04 server (no unity) working.
    • hvis 10y ago
      I'm using the 2015 XPS 15 too, likewise with no significant problems. The default Ubuntu distro with Unity, because I think it's nice.
• developer2 10y ago
  >> Linux laptops: buy pre-installed. The fact that hardware - though much improved in the past 15 years - is still a crapshoot on Linux, particularly when it comes to laptop hardware, is so frustrating. Windows will work on practically any combination of hardware. OS X will work on any hardware it is permitted to operate on. Linux is the only consortium of operating systems that still suffer from the inability to "just work out of the box". I can't see how it's ever supposed to be "the year" for linux when just getting it to run properly on hardware requires buying OEM meant-for-Windows, but we-promise-it-works-with-linux garbage. Is a "pre-installed" linux laptop even cross-distro compatible? If the laptop comes with Ubuntu pre-installed, what are the odds I can replace it with CentOS or Arch? Is the laptop "designed for linux", or "designed for exactly what is factory shipped, and nothing else"? Can I even do a fresh install of the shipped operating system, or do they hack in additional manufacturer packages/kernel drivers that require you to never reinstall on top of the shipped install? How about OS upgrades? Are they reliable, or do you risk running into compatibility problems, even with a new version of the same distro? What we really need is a BSD/unix/linux[1] competitor to OS X. RedHat tried, and IMO failed. We need another closed-source unix/linux-based operating system that throws away X.org and its attempted modern replacements, that can directly compete with OS X. I'm tired of waiting for the open source world to try - and fail - to gather momentum. And tired of Apple, who has the best unix/linux operating system, fucking us over with every hardware release. [1] How do you type a literal asterisk on HN? Backslash and double-asterisk don't work. nix. \nix. nix
  • peller 10y ago
    > If the laptop comes with Ubuntu pre-installed, what are the odds I can replace it with CentOS or Arch? Very high. For the most part, drivers on Linux are determined by the kernel version[0]. Arch typically runs a pretty new kernel, so anything that Ubuntu supports, will most likely be fine. (That applies to pretty much all desktop-oriented distros.) CentOS is server-oriented, and typically runs a pretty old kernel, and as such you need to be more conservative in the hardware you choose. That said, they do backport a fair amount of hardware support from newer kernels. [0] The exception to this rule are closed-source drivers, but even those tend to be tied/limited to certain kernel versions.
• artursapek 10y ago
  Just a PSA from my own research recently: be careful with the XPS. https://www.google.com/search?q=xps+coil+whine https://www.google.com/search?q=xps+coil+whine As far as I know they haven't resolved it yet.
  • blobert 10y ago
    Can confirm, Precision M5510 (facsimile of XPS15). I usually have headphones on and even without them the whine is tolerable and becomes part of the background noise, however your annoyance tolerance level will vary.
  • akulbe 10y ago
    Does the coil whine only happen with Linux? or does it happen in Windows too? Was thinking about the latest XPS w/Kaby Lake CPU... but this would give me pause.
    • dkuntz2 10y ago
      It sounds like it's an issue for Windows too
• ePierre 10y ago
  > Save time. Support having good laptops and good drivers. Buy pre-installed. Paying the "windows tax" and installing a Linux on a windows laptop isn't just more work, it is bad for the ecosystem. I wish I could. Unfortunately, I live in a country (Taiwan) where no one knows about Linux. It's impossible to buy a pre-installed Linux laptop here. You know the most ironic part? My job here is to certify hardware (including a lot of laptops) to work on Linux... so that you guys in the US and Europe can enjoy it :)
  • bigger_cheese 10y ago
    I had the same issue I live in Australia I bought a XPS 13 from dell (same laptop as developer edition) I had not choice but to have Windows 10 preinstalled. No idea why they made the OS choice region locked...
    • davidbanham 10y ago
      The XPS 13 has a different wireless chipset than the developer edition. The only way to get the same chipset in Australia is in the Precision line.
      • anuragsoni 10y ago
        The xps 13 this year seems to have the same wireless chip on both windows and developer editions. They both seem to have the same killer wireless chip. Developer edition xps13: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-9360-laptop/pd?3x_nav=OS_BRAND%3DUBUNT&3x_page=1&filterCollapsed=true&newtab=true http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-9360-laptop/pd?3x_n...
        • bigger_cheese 10y ago
          yes the 9360 is exact same model I purchased in Aus.
        • bisby 10y ago
          It is good to note though that not all "same laptop but different OS" are actually the same laptop. Be wary and check hardware before buying the windows version to put linux on... it wont always work. (In this case obviously, the wireless is at least a non issue)
• csdreamer7 10y ago
  This is Linux laptop buying in a nutshell. Used a nice little laptop for years in college. I kept fighting it on the headphone jack. It would not recognize when it was plugged in, or the sound did not work period. Hot keys would not work. Etc, etc. Besides that, everyone would always comment on what a nice little laptop it was as I ran it into the ground. When it died I bounced from HP (horrible, came with AMD graphics that would overheat and AMD cut support for a month later, while still selling them) and then Dell (mostly horrible, but due to Sandy Bridge having horrible graphics support, the Dell had a short power cord, the USB shorted out) Got System76 Lemur, it was like my old laptop, very small, very quiet, hardware switches for wifi, brightness & turning off screen so they would work. Ivy Bridge would freeze X if I closed and opened the lid enough, but that disappeared with the next version of Ubuntu. Similar issue with Skylake Lemur, went away when I used Manjaro with Mesa 13. There is a small premium vs Dell or HP systems, but those are Dell and HP systems. You get what you pay for. Loud, poorly design pieces of crap (at least when I bought them). If you are willing to drop a grand and a half on a Macbook you would still save money on a System76.
  • bwat48 10y ago
    > Ivy Bridge would freeze X if I closed and opened the lid enough, but that disappeared with the next version of Ubuntu. Similar issue with Skylake Lemur, went away when I used Manjaro with Mesa 13. This kind of issue is why I stopped bothering with linux on laptops and got a macbook. EVERY single laptop I've used linux on (which were all researched before hand to include hardware that's not supposed to have issues with linux, and this includes a system76 lemur ultra laptop I had with ubuntu pre-installed) has had issues along these lines (e.g. random graphics driver freezes, suspend/resume issues, backlight issues, wifi issues, randomly freezing during boot etc...). Random suspend/resume issues were by far the most common issue. With every laptop it would work like 95% of the time, but that remaining 5% of the time where it decides it doesn't want to resume is enough to make it unusable as far as I'm concerned. I've not once ever had a macbook (with OSX) refuse to suspend or resume on me. Sometimes you could distro hop, update your kernel etc... to get past them, but there would always be some new issue along those lines that would crop up eventually. I felt like I was spending more time distro hopping, reporting bugs, trying to work around bugs etc... then I was actually doing anything productive.
• pjmlp 10y ago
  I bought an Asus 1215B netbook that came with GNU/Linux pre-installed (Ubuntu), sold via Amazon a couple of years ago. Guess what, the Ubuntu devs decided they should replace the Broadcom closed source WiFi drivers by the half-working open source ones, so during six months I didn't had a working wireless connection. Asus could not support us, and Ubuntu forums were full of hacking the old drivers into the updated ones, or have patience and wait for the new working ones. I had to disable sleep and hibernation, because it would only wake up again by forcing a full reboot, taking the battery out. Still have it with GNU/Linux, just to have a machine around with it running directly on hardware, instead of a VM.
  • pawadu 10y ago
    I believe Ubuntu allows you to choose between closed source drivers from the vendor and open source ones. It even asks you during install. I think it's on the very first page they show you.
    • pjmlp 10y ago
      Not in this case. If you wish I can try to track down the online forum discussions, with the hacked down suggestions from the Ubuntu developers that decided to throw away the broadcom drivers during an update, just because.
• metafunctor 10y ago
  Is the Dell XPS 15" Developer Edition model actually available in Europe? Where can I buy one online? I would rather not talk with a Dell salesperson to buy just one. There don't seem to be any resellers in Finland who give a rat's ass about Linux.
• rlonstein 10y ago
  I recently had good luck with the Dell Inspiron 5565 with the AMD A12 APU I got for my son though I knew it might be a crap shoot. Everything worked out of the box on Ubuntu 16.10 including sound and sleep but I had to blacklist, iirc, `i2c-hid` so the touchpad would work consistently.
• gshulegaard 10y ago
  In a lot of ways, System76 was a better user experience for me than the Dell XPS 13. But yes both are good (from someone who has both).