The xps I'm sure is a fine Linux machine, as are probably a few other $1500-plus laptops, but I refuse to pay the equivalent of a used Honda Civic for a machine

The xps I'm sure is a fine Linux machine, as are probably a few other $1500-plus laptops, but I refuse to pay the equivalent of a used Honda Civic for a machine that is mainly just for letting me do research in multiple tabbed windows and write code. If my phone shipped a full OS, I could already use it as a portable PC with an HDMI monitor and Bluetooth keyboard/mouse. The failure of modern mobile computing is simply user interfaces that are as practical as a Palm Pilot.