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The XPS 17 will be my next “MacBook”. It should be out this month and it ticks all the boxes for me (great screen, supposedly good cooling, user-replaceable SS

The XPS 17 will be my next “MacBook”. It should be out this month and it ticks all the boxes for me (great screen, supposedly good cooling, user-replaceable SSD/RAM, acceptable weight and size for a 17" laptop). https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/13/21257006/dell-xps-17-15-redesign-specs-features-update-2020 https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/13/21257006/dell-xps-17-15-r... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyRUWM_LOPQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyRUWM_LOPQ I've been trying Windows again after ~20 years on Macs (via a borrowed Lenovo Carbon X1 and then a second-hand XPS 15) and — unlike the author here — I'm surprised how much better it has gotten. Having fully expected to buy a Windows laptop and just run Linux on it, I'm happy enough with the general Windows experience and the new WSL2/Windows Terminal/VS Code improvements that switching full-time makes sense for me. The perks for me over macOS are the widely increased hardware choice, improved repairability/upgradeability, access to Windows-only software/games, better default desktop environment (window snapping/management, keyboard shortcuts for apps in the taskbar), and being able to boot real Linux images within ~1 second and work out of them comfortably. The perks for me over Linux are the ability to run Adobe and other Windows apps, lower manual maintenance, fewer rabbit holes (I used Arch for about a year and found I was personally prone to exploring Arch instead of doing pet projects), better general integration with video cards, authentication hardware (fingerprint sensors/Windows Hello), projectors/external monitors, as well as a generally better experience with power management, wake-from-sleep, and connecting/reconnecting to Wi-Fi.

blub 6y ago
On paper Windows is good. In practice the telemetry and the story behind its introduction and how they handled communication means that I won't consider Windows as a primary OS candidate until there's a CEO change at least. It's disappointing to see so many being ignorant about this topic.
- nitinreddy88 6y ago
  How replacing CEO helps. Really?!
  - mattblalock 6y ago
    Sounds crazy to me, some kind of propaganda
  - Nasrudith 6y ago
    My guess is under the assumption that the solution will never come under the leadership who was the source of the problem.
- alpaca128 6y ago
  I completely agree. Also the automatic updates which potentially just close an open session including unsaved files is not something that helps trust. Windows has become less transparent and much more controlling, actively ignoring or overriding user preferences, and I don't know why I should use a software like that, not to mention pay for the "privilege" of being messed with.
  - thunfischbrot 6y ago
    I wish Windows 10 LTSC was the base for all other Windows 10 OS versions. An expensive version that is easy to use with few distractions, does not need a full-time system administrator to run and just works.
    - Nextgrid 6y ago
      I installed the Enterprise LTSC version on my new gaming machine and saw all the usual bullshit you'd expect from consumer-grade Windows 10. A deceptive setup screen that asks you to create a Microsoft account (you need to use the "Domain join" button to be able to create a local admin account, there is no "local account" button by itself). Spyware features like "personalization", advertising identifier, etc that I needed to uncheck (during the initial setup process there are at least 10 things I had to disable or say no to), also there's a subtle dark pattern going on with the button to go to the next screen, it's no longer called "Next" but "Accept" instead (even if you disable all the proposed options). Despite the watermark on the wallpaper correctly saying "Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC" I can still only select "Basic" telemetry in the settings. I am not sure whether it's a quirk of the evaluation version or if I need to use a group policy to disable it.
  - modernerd 6y ago
    Automatic updates interrupting work hasn't been an issue for me for a long time. You can set updates to install outside of an 18-hour window, defer updates for a set period, or disable them: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-automatically-windows-10 https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-a...
- ubercow13 6y ago
  Where can I read about the story behind it?
- mattblalock 6y ago
  You sound insane
  - anikk 6y ago
    Nadella IT cells are trying to disrupt another discussion like the sheep bleating in AnimalFarm.
- shrimp_emoji 6y ago
  But Nadella's a great CEO compared to his predecessors. D: But, yeah, that + stuff like your OS restarting behind your back whenever you lock your screen and walk away keeps me on Linux despite the very tantalizing promises of WSL2.
  - vijucat 6y ago
    > stuff like your OS restarting behind your back whenever you lock your screen and walk away https://imgur.com/a/qAWLzsu https://imgur.com/a/qAWLzsu Maybe it's been a couple of years since you tried Windows? Right now, if you go to the Windows Update part of Settings, the top 2 options are: a) "Pause updates for 7 days" and b) "Change active hours", which can be used to specify an 18-hour window within which, "We won't automatically restart your device during this time" It's quite straightforward.
    - lostlogin 6y ago
      Wait, you can’t set it up so that it won’t restart itself? In case it isn’t obvious, I am not a windows user.
      - gambiting 6y ago
        Not through that menu, but it can be done through the policy editor. You can also just disable the update service if you want to.
      - bitwize 6y ago
        No. Sooner or later, you will have to let it update. Updates are important, and Microsoft doesn't want the service calls they're going to get if you don't update and something breaks or you get hacked. So just like "your contract with the [TV] network is you're going to watch the spots", your contract with Microsoft is you're going to install the updates, and you consent to be spied on, and...
        garaetjjte 6y ago
- modernerd 6y ago
  I understand abstaining from a platform on principle. But it's pretty simple to opt-out of non-essential telemetry because so many people complained about it in Windows 10: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-view-and-manage-diagnostic-data-windows-10-april-2018-update https://www.windowscentral.com/how-view-and-manage-diagnosti... I set telemetry to 'basic' which means I'm comfortable with essential system data being sent in return for my system gaining updates and security patches. Microsoft does a better job than many about explaining what data it collects, why it collects it, and how to disable collection where possible across its products: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-US/ https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-US/ Last year it started explaining which telemetry in Windows 10 is required (system data for updates/security) and which is optional (usage data to shape product direction) in a way that's largely free from legalese: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4468236/diagnostics-feedback-and-privacy-in-windows-10-microsoft-privacy https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4468236/diagnostics... There are definitely Windows users who are “being ignorant about this topic” but that's not true of everyone. For me it's a combination of understanding what is sent, why it's sent, and how to control what's sent. That info used to be a lot harder to find so I'd say things are improving. Reflecting on my own risk profile, seeing first-hand how much telemetry can benefit product teams, and learning about how the Windows update process works at a global scale (the “essential” telemetry class informs partial/phased roll-outs) also helped temper my initial reaction against telemetry being included at all.
  - SahAssar 6y ago
    There is no such thing as essential telemetry. There should be an option to turn it off completely.
    - modernerd 6y ago
      Let's say Microsoft adds one. You tick it and what MS currently considers “essential telemetry” is turned off completely, instantly, and for real. The risk seems to be that people who don't understand the implications of not sharing basic telemetry, when faced with a box that says “share nothing”, “share essential“, and “share essential and optional” would choose “share nothing” every time, because it just _feels_ better, right? Why would I choose to share anything at all? But they might be angry or surprised when: - The OS and apps can't tell if you're eligible for an update because they don't know if your hardware/drivers will run the new version, because you won't tell them what hardware/drivers you're running now. - Updates that affect performance or stability just continue to affect performance and stability because there's no data about the impact of an update, apart from what's provided by angry customers in support channels. - Bugs and application crashes are not addressed ever or in good time because they are either never known about or not captured in sufficient detail to reproduce. So, sure, maybe it should be an option. But there are certainly many who overestimate the risk and underestimate the value of basic telemetry (like sharing system info) for them as a user.
- swiley 6y ago
  Not to mention your computer being randomly unavailable every other week or so.
  - nickflood 6y ago
    Updates are pushed to Windows once a month. In fact, they are published on Update Tuesday - the second Tuesday of every month.
ck425 6y ago
How is the touchpad? Every non-apple touch pad I've ever used has bee terrible.
- modernerd 6y ago
  The XPS 17 isn't out yet so I can't offer a personal comparison. Dell increased the size of the trackpad in the 2020 XPS 15/17, but otherwise it seems similar to previous ones. YouTube reviews of engineering samples of the 2020 XPS line say they are best-in-class for Windows, which usually means they're not quite as good as Macs (same as laptop speakers, where the MBP also leads). I find even Mac trackpads slow/frustrating after using a Logitech MX Ergo for a while, so trackpad experience is less of a factor for me.
- adevx 6y ago
  Probably not very good. Personally I always use a Magic Trackpad 2 so I no longer have to take this into consideration.
  - vardump 6y ago
    > Personally I always use a Magic Trackpad 2 so I no longer have to take this into consideration. I never got it to work with Windows except for just pointer motion and left clicking. No multi-touch, gestures, etc. Not even right clicking. Does it work properly now?
    - piranha 6y ago
      https://magicutilities.net/magic-trackpad/features https://magicutilities.net/magic-trackpad/features
- horsawlarway 6y ago
  I use an older xps-15, mostly running linux, and the trackpad is excellent. I switch between it and a mac for work, and the experience is 95% identical.
adevx 6y ago
If the XPS 17 has decent Linux driver support, a high brightness matt display option, I'm all in.
- modernerd 6y ago
  It has an anti-reflective coating but it's not matte. The screens are 500 nits (same as MBP). Not sure about Linux driver support yet. The Arch Wiki is normally my go-to for that but the laptop is very new. https://wiki.archlinux.org/ https://wiki.archlinux.org/
VectorLock 6y ago
And rarely enough that XPS 17 seems to not have that silly offset numpad.
SCdF 6y ago
Hopefully they will do better than Ars' experience with the current 13" models: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/06/dell-xps-13-and-xps-13-developer-edition-side-by-side-review/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/06/dell-xps-13-and-xps-...
horsawlarway 6y ago
I went with the 13 inch, but basically my approach. I still have a mac kicking around for work, but for my personal stuff I switched to xps laptops around 2017. Honestly, I like them a lot more than the new mac 16 my office has given me. OSX is getting a lot less friendly for any non-consumption based activity. While I still prefer Linux by a mile, I'm at the point where I'd take Win10 with WSL over OSX.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Once there's a terminal emulator for Windows that works as seamlessly as iterm and there's no more weird hacks required like Cygwin / minTTY (I believe the windows subsystem for linux does that) I might start to consider moving; most software I use for development is cross-platform anyway (vs code, intellij, nodejs, go). But for now my 2017 macbook works well enough. I do think it's overpaid though; outside of the occasional nyan cat gimmick, I've NEVER used the touch pad. At the moment it's closed and to the side while I work on my external screens and the pretty decent Apple keyboard + mouse.
- efficax 6y ago
  https://github.com/microsoft/terminal https://github.com/microsoft/terminal
- modernerd 6y ago
  Windows Terminal is great. https://github.com/microsoft/terminal https://github.com/microsoft/terminal Just missing a Quake mode for me (summon from a screen edge with a keyboard shortcut), but that's being talked about for v2. https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/653 https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/653
- glotgizmo 6y ago
  https://conemu.github.io/ https://conemu.github.io/ Very powerful.
- yardie 6y ago
  Windows Terminal is really good. I'm still a dedicated Mac user but the Microsoft team has advanced exponentially in their support of common, very good ideas.
  - mehrdadn 6y ago
    Could you explain what's so good about the Windows Terminal? I've tried it multiple times and been disgusted every time. The grayscale smoothing looks ugly as hell, the font is large as if I'm elderly, you can't even right-click to get a menu in the window, and opening Settings fires up Visual Studio of all things with GUIDs that I have no idea what to do with. All I see is it has tabs which I've lived without in every single terminal. What exactly are people loving so much about it? What brilliance am I missing?
mydongle 6y ago
I wish Dell would stop using the Killer wifi and use an Intel one though...
- modernerd 6y ago
  The Precision laptops use the Intel Wi-Fi chips. They're in the same shells as the XPS, and have some extra configuration and aftercare options, as well as more intelligent charging software.
blunte 6y ago
I hope you like high heat, high fan noise, and thermal throttling issues (common XPS issues that myself and others have experienced). I hope you also like random Wifi failures, random freeze-the-world-while-some-app-is-having-a-network-timeout issues. macOS is getting worse, no doubt. But Windows still has multiple unacceptable problems (ungodly slow unzipping, still!, random heavy lag or freezing, surprise 30 minute Windows Update installations happening during a reboot you had to do during important work, etc. etc.) Plus, the day to day file management story is still sub-par in Windows. If you've gotten used to Quicklook on a Mac (because it's so handy), you're SOL on Windows. How hard is it to provide a spacebar activated preview popup? PDF reading and printing is still a nightmare on Windows compared to macOS. Again I refer to Quicklook, whereby you can open and scan/read a PDF near instantaneously; in Windows it's slow and clumsy. Saving (printing) anything as a PDF on a Mac is fast and easy. In Windows it's a slow, multi-click process. And Linux... on the desktop... still not there. Yes with the right hardware and the right drivers and config, distros like Fedora can be pretty close to perfect. But you still have HiDPI problems sometimes (Windows does as well), random UI-related service crashes, app/package-system conflicts (since there is no one standard package management system that all apps agree upon), and more. Sadly, the entire computing experience has peaked and declined in the last few years. That said, macOS is still the best desktop OS for everything but gaming.
- jboog 6y ago
  I'm sure the bugs you mention about Windows exist and are terrible, but I made the switch to Windows after converting to Mac ~9 years ago and I haven't experienced anything but very minor annoyances. I still prefer the Mac OS experience, design, and usability, but the price premium for Apple products is not worth this modest improvement. I still have and enjoy my Iphone Xs but might consider switching to Android in a couple years whenever I need to upgrade.
  - fortran77 6y ago
    I switched to Windows 10 about 3 years ago. Absolutely no problems. I'm careful to stay on the "happy path", but my Lenovo laptop works fine out of the box, and my Supermicro based desktop dual-Xeon workstation works great, too. Speedy and reliable.
jtwigg 6y ago
I've had an XPS 13 and XPS 15 and both suffered from coil whine, bad graphics and overheating. I would steer clear if I was you. My current dev laptop is a Razor which has been a much better experience than the XPS.
- RandomBacon 6y ago
  I have the 2020 XPS 13, no coil whine. I'm hearing that no one is getting coil whine in this year's model. It's my first XPS, and it's amazing, I highly recommend it.
ColinWielga 6y ago
The 2020 XPS line is drop dead gorgeous.
zamalek 6y ago
We use Dell Precisions at work and just a fair warning: Dell is completely clueless when it comes to software/firmware. We had stability issues for months with our laptops, which were fixed for the most part by firmware updates. A good amount of the laptops never came round, even though they are identical models and now have the same firmware running on them. I have considered BYOD a Gigabyte Aero. I will personally never purchase a Dell for myself.
hst-m 6y ago
I have been a big XPS fan for years, 8 hours per day for work, but the new 2-in-1 XPS 13 line is the best yet, recommend everyone check it out
megadethz 6y ago
The keyboard on the new XPS is awful. No travel. Only viable alternative is a Thinkpad.
- doubleunplussed 6y ago
  Is it different to the existing XPSs? I've had an XPS 13 and now precision 5520, and am totally happy with the keyboard. Sure it's low travel but it's not typical of most laptops, not as low as recent macbooks
JohnClark1337 6y ago
Personally I've found that Windows, and even many Linux distros handle multi-monitor far better than Mac OS does.
exadeci 6y ago
Make it a Hackintosh https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/search?q=dell+xps&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/search?q=dell+xps&restri...

blub 6y ago

On paper Windows is good. In practice the telemetry and the story behind its introduction and how they handled communication means that I won't consider Windows as a primary OS candidate until there's a CEO change at least. It's disappointing to see so many being ignorant about this topic.

nitinreddy88 6y ago
How replacing CEO helps. Really?!
- mattblalock 6y ago
  Sounds crazy to me, some kind of propaganda
- Nasrudith 6y ago
  My guess is under the assumption that the solution will never come under the leadership who was the source of the problem.
alpaca128 6y ago
I completely agree. Also the automatic updates which potentially just close an open session including unsaved files is not something that helps trust. Windows has become less transparent and much more controlling, actively ignoring or overriding user preferences, and I don't know why I should use a software like that, not to mention pay for the "privilege" of being messed with.
- thunfischbrot 6y ago
  I wish Windows 10 LTSC was the base for all other Windows 10 OS versions. An expensive version that is easy to use with few distractions, does not need a full-time system administrator to run and just works.
  - Nextgrid 6y ago
    I installed the Enterprise LTSC version on my new gaming machine and saw all the usual bullshit you'd expect from consumer-grade Windows 10. A deceptive setup screen that asks you to create a Microsoft account (you need to use the "Domain join" button to be able to create a local admin account, there is no "local account" button by itself). Spyware features like "personalization", advertising identifier, etc that I needed to uncheck (during the initial setup process there are at least 10 things I had to disable or say no to), also there's a subtle dark pattern going on with the button to go to the next screen, it's no longer called "Next" but "Accept" instead (even if you disable all the proposed options). Despite the watermark on the wallpaper correctly saying "Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC" I can still only select "Basic" telemetry in the settings. I am not sure whether it's a quirk of the evaluation version or if I need to use a group policy to disable it.
- modernerd 6y ago
  Automatic updates interrupting work hasn't been an issue for me for a long time. You can set updates to install outside of an 18-hour window, defer updates for a set period, or disable them: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-automatically-windows-10 https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-a...
ubercow13 6y ago
Where can I read about the story behind it?
mattblalock 6y ago
You sound insane
- anikk 6y ago
  Nadella IT cells are trying to disrupt another discussion like the sheep bleating in AnimalFarm.
shrimp_emoji 6y ago
But Nadella's a great CEO compared to his predecessors. D: But, yeah, that + stuff like your OS restarting behind your back whenever you lock your screen and walk away keeps me on Linux despite the very tantalizing promises of WSL2.
- vijucat 6y ago
  > stuff like your OS restarting behind your back whenever you lock your screen and walk away https://imgur.com/a/qAWLzsu https://imgur.com/a/qAWLzsu Maybe it's been a couple of years since you tried Windows? Right now, if you go to the Windows Update part of Settings, the top 2 options are: a) "Pause updates for 7 days" and b) "Change active hours", which can be used to specify an 18-hour window within which, "We won't automatically restart your device during this time" It's quite straightforward.
  - lostlogin 6y ago
    Wait, you can’t set it up so that it won’t restart itself? In case it isn’t obvious, I am not a windows user.
    - gambiting 6y ago
      Not through that menu, but it can be done through the policy editor. You can also just disable the update service if you want to.
    - bitwize 6y ago
      No. Sooner or later, you will have to let it update. Updates are important, and Microsoft doesn't want the service calls they're going to get if you don't update and something breaks or you get hacked. So just like "your contract with the [TV] network is you're going to watch the spots", your contract with Microsoft is you're going to install the updates, and you consent to be spied on, and...
      - garaetjjte 6y ago
modernerd 6y ago
I understand abstaining from a platform on principle. But it's pretty simple to opt-out of non-essential telemetry because so many people complained about it in Windows 10: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-view-and-manage-diagnostic-data-windows-10-april-2018-update https://www.windowscentral.com/how-view-and-manage-diagnosti... I set telemetry to 'basic' which means I'm comfortable with essential system data being sent in return for my system gaining updates and security patches. Microsoft does a better job than many about explaining what data it collects, why it collects it, and how to disable collection where possible across its products: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-US/ https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-US/ Last year it started explaining which telemetry in Windows 10 is required (system data for updates/security) and which is optional (usage data to shape product direction) in a way that's largely free from legalese: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4468236/diagnostics-feedback-and-privacy-in-windows-10-microsoft-privacy https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4468236/diagnostics... There are definitely Windows users who are “being ignorant about this topic” but that's not true of everyone. For me it's a combination of understanding what is sent, why it's sent, and how to control what's sent. That info used to be a lot harder to find so I'd say things are improving. Reflecting on my own risk profile, seeing first-hand how much telemetry can benefit product teams, and learning about how the Windows update process works at a global scale (the “essential” telemetry class informs partial/phased roll-outs) also helped temper my initial reaction against telemetry being included at all.
- SahAssar 6y ago
  There is no such thing as essential telemetry. There should be an option to turn it off completely.
  - modernerd 6y ago
    Let's say Microsoft adds one. You tick it and what MS currently considers “essential telemetry” is turned off completely, instantly, and for real. The risk seems to be that people who don't understand the implications of not sharing basic telemetry, when faced with a box that says “share nothing”, “share essential“, and “share essential and optional” would choose “share nothing” every time, because it just _feels_ better, right? Why would I choose to share anything at all? But they might be angry or surprised when: - The OS and apps can't tell if you're eligible for an update because they don't know if your hardware/drivers will run the new version, because you won't tell them what hardware/drivers you're running now. - Updates that affect performance or stability just continue to affect performance and stability because there's no data about the impact of an update, apart from what's provided by angry customers in support channels. - Bugs and application crashes are not addressed ever or in good time because they are either never known about or not captured in sufficient detail to reproduce. So, sure, maybe it should be an option. But there are certainly many who overestimate the risk and underestimate the value of basic telemetry (like sharing system info) for them as a user.
swiley 6y ago
Not to mention your computer being randomly unavailable every other week or so.
- nickflood 6y ago
  Updates are pushed to Windows once a month. In fact, they are published on Update Tuesday - the second Tuesday of every month.

ck425 6y ago

How is the touchpad? Every non-apple touch pad I've ever used has bee terrible.

modernerd 6y ago
The XPS 17 isn't out yet so I can't offer a personal comparison. Dell increased the size of the trackpad in the 2020 XPS 15/17, but otherwise it seems similar to previous ones. YouTube reviews of engineering samples of the 2020 XPS line say they are best-in-class for Windows, which usually means they're not quite as good as Macs (same as laptop speakers, where the MBP also leads). I find even Mac trackpads slow/frustrating after using a Logitech MX Ergo for a while, so trackpad experience is less of a factor for me.
adevx 6y ago
Probably not very good. Personally I always use a Magic Trackpad 2 so I no longer have to take this into consideration.
- vardump 6y ago
  > Personally I always use a Magic Trackpad 2 so I no longer have to take this into consideration. I never got it to work with Windows except for just pointer motion and left clicking. No multi-touch, gestures, etc. Not even right clicking. Does it work properly now?
  - piranha 6y ago
    https://magicutilities.net/magic-trackpad/features https://magicutilities.net/magic-trackpad/features
horsawlarway 6y ago
I use an older xps-15, mostly running linux, and the trackpad is excellent. I switch between it and a mac for work, and the experience is 95% identical.

adevx 6y ago

If the XPS 17 has decent Linux driver support, a high brightness matt display option, I'm all in.

modernerd 6y ago
It has an anti-reflective coating but it's not matte. The screens are 500 nits (same as MBP). Not sure about Linux driver support yet. The Arch Wiki is normally my go-to for that but the laptop is very new. https://wiki.archlinux.org/ https://wiki.archlinux.org/

VectorLock 6y ago

And rarely enough that XPS 17 seems to not have that silly offset numpad.

SCdF 6y ago

Hopefully they will do better than Ars' experience with the current 13" models: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/06/dell-xps-13-and-xps-13-developer-edition-side-by-side-review/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/06/dell-xps-13-and-xps-...

horsawlarway 6y ago

I went with the 13 inch, but basically my approach. I still have a mac kicking around for work, but for my personal stuff I switched to xps laptops around 2017. Honestly, I like them a lot more than the new mac 16 my office has given me. OSX is getting a lot less friendly for any non-consumption based activity. While I still prefer Linux by a mile, I'm at the point where I'd take Win10 with WSL over OSX.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

Once there's a terminal emulator for Windows that works as seamlessly as iterm and there's no more weird hacks required like Cygwin / minTTY (I believe the windows subsystem for linux does that) I might start to consider moving; most software I use for development is cross-platform anyway (vs code, intellij, nodejs, go). But for now my 2017 macbook works well enough. I do think it's overpaid though; outside of the occasional nyan cat gimmick, I've NEVER used the touch pad. At the moment it's closed and to the side while I work on my external screens and the pretty decent Apple keyboard + mouse.

efficax 6y ago
https://github.com/microsoft/terminal https://github.com/microsoft/terminal
modernerd 6y ago
Windows Terminal is great. https://github.com/microsoft/terminal https://github.com/microsoft/terminal Just missing a Quake mode for me (summon from a screen edge with a keyboard shortcut), but that's being talked about for v2. https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/653 https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/653
glotgizmo 6y ago
https://conemu.github.io/ https://conemu.github.io/ Very powerful.
yardie 6y ago
Windows Terminal is really good. I'm still a dedicated Mac user but the Microsoft team has advanced exponentially in their support of common, very good ideas.
- mehrdadn 6y ago
  Could you explain what's so good about the Windows Terminal? I've tried it multiple times and been disgusted every time. The grayscale smoothing looks ugly as hell, the font is large as if I'm elderly, you can't even right-click to get a menu in the window, and opening Settings fires up Visual Studio of all things with GUIDs that I have no idea what to do with. All I see is it has tabs which I've lived without in every single terminal. What exactly are people loving so much about it? What brilliance am I missing?

mydongle 6y ago

I wish Dell would stop using the Killer wifi and use an Intel one though...

modernerd 6y ago
The Precision laptops use the Intel Wi-Fi chips. They're in the same shells as the XPS, and have some extra configuration and aftercare options, as well as more intelligent charging software.

blunte 6y ago

I hope you like high heat, high fan noise, and thermal throttling issues (common XPS issues that myself and others have experienced). I hope you also like random Wifi failures, random freeze-the-world-while-some-app-is-having-a-network-timeout issues. macOS is getting worse, no doubt. But Windows still has multiple unacceptable problems (ungodly slow unzipping, still!, random heavy lag or freezing, surprise 30 minute Windows Update installations happening during a reboot you had to do during important work, etc. etc.) Plus, the day to day file management story is still sub-par in Windows. If you've gotten used to Quicklook on a Mac (because it's so handy), you're SOL on Windows. How hard is it to provide a spacebar activated preview popup? PDF reading and printing is still a nightmare on Windows compared to macOS. Again I refer to Quicklook, whereby you can open and scan/read a PDF near instantaneously; in Windows it's slow and clumsy. Saving (printing) anything as a PDF on a Mac is fast and easy. In Windows it's a slow, multi-click process. And Linux... on the desktop... still not there. Yes with the right hardware and the right drivers and config, distros like Fedora can be pretty close to perfect. But you still have HiDPI problems sometimes (Windows does as well), random UI-related service crashes, app/package-system conflicts (since there is no one standard package management system that all apps agree upon), and more. Sadly, the entire computing experience has peaked and declined in the last few years. That said, macOS is still the best desktop OS for everything but gaming.

jboog 6y ago
I'm sure the bugs you mention about Windows exist and are terrible, but I made the switch to Windows after converting to Mac ~9 years ago and I haven't experienced anything but very minor annoyances. I still prefer the Mac OS experience, design, and usability, but the price premium for Apple products is not worth this modest improvement. I still have and enjoy my Iphone Xs but might consider switching to Android in a couple years whenever I need to upgrade.
- fortran77 6y ago
  I switched to Windows 10 about 3 years ago. Absolutely no problems. I'm careful to stay on the "happy path", but my Lenovo laptop works fine out of the box, and my Supermicro based desktop dual-Xeon workstation works great, too. Speedy and reliable.

jtwigg 6y ago

I've had an XPS 13 and XPS 15 and both suffered from coil whine, bad graphics and overheating. I would steer clear if I was you. My current dev laptop is a Razor which has been a much better experience than the XPS.

RandomBacon 6y ago
I have the 2020 XPS 13, no coil whine. I'm hearing that no one is getting coil whine in this year's model. It's my first XPS, and it's amazing, I highly recommend it.

ColinWielga 6y ago

The 2020 XPS line is drop dead gorgeous.

zamalek 6y ago

We use Dell Precisions at work and just a fair warning: Dell is completely clueless when it comes to software/firmware. We had stability issues for months with our laptops, which were fixed for the most part by firmware updates. A good amount of the laptops never came round, even though they are identical models and now have the same firmware running on them. I have considered BYOD a Gigabyte Aero. I will personally never purchase a Dell for myself.

hst-m 6y ago

I have been a big XPS fan for years, 8 hours per day for work, but the new 2-in-1 XPS 13 line is the best yet, recommend everyone check it out

megadethz 6y ago

The keyboard on the new XPS is awful. No travel. Only viable alternative is a Thinkpad.

doubleunplussed 6y ago
Is it different to the existing XPSs? I've had an XPS 13 and now precision 5520, and am totally happy with the keyboard. Sure it's low travel but it's not typical of most laptops, not as low as recent macbooks

JohnClark1337 6y ago

Personally I've found that Windows, and even many Linux distros handle multi-monitor far better than Mac OS does.

exadeci 6y ago

Make it a Hackintosh https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/search?q=dell+xps&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/search?q=dell+xps&restri...