4 ms·

Honestly - As a long time user I think you're much better off checking the Arch wiki first. It will reflect the reality of the situation for that specific set

Honestly - As a long time user I think you're much better off checking the Arch wiki first. It will reflect the reality of the situation for that specific set of hardware. The vendor is going to give you a sales pitch. And I say this as someone who has gone out of my way to buy hardware from vendors that officially support linux (Dell & Lenovo). In many cases - the most official support you'll get is "This is a known issue, we are working on it."

trelane 4y ago
can you call Dell and Lenovo and expect support as a Linux user? Or do you still have to put Windows back on before they give you the time of day?
- horsawlarway 4y ago
  Yes, as long as you've purchased a machine that they offer with a linux distro pre-installed, or that they've certified (ex: Dell only ships Ubuntu but will certify hardware for Redhat compatibility). Ex: https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/linux-systems https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/linux-systems I used an XPS 13 developer edition for quite a while. Great little machine, but a couple of known issues around wifi/bluetooth and the fingerprint reader. Fixable, and Dell actually did provide drivers in a deb for Ubuntu, but it took them a little while. But generally speaking, yes you can call - they will provide resources and point you at fixes they've implemented, but it's still a bit of a grab bag. I would definitely not buy a linux machine from them without checking the Arch wiki first. Ex: The current developer machine shipping from Dells link is here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dell_XPS_13_Plus_(9320) https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dell_XPS_13_Plus_(9320) Mostly fine across the board - some known issues with very recent kernel versions, and some problems with the webcam. Dell fixed the webcam issues in their default Ubuntu release, but it requires manual fixing on other distros.

trelane 4y ago

can you call Dell and Lenovo and expect support as a Linux user? Or do you still have to put Windows back on before they give you the time of day?

horsawlarway 4y ago
Yes, as long as you've purchased a machine that they offer with a linux distro pre-installed, or that they've certified (ex: Dell only ships Ubuntu but will certify hardware for Redhat compatibility). Ex: https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/linux-systems https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/linux-systems I used an XPS 13 developer edition for quite a while. Great little machine, but a couple of known issues around wifi/bluetooth and the fingerprint reader. Fixable, and Dell actually did provide drivers in a deb for Ubuntu, but it took them a little while. But generally speaking, yes you can call - they will provide resources and point you at fixes they've implemented, but it's still a bit of a grab bag. I would definitely not buy a linux machine from them without checking the Arch wiki first. Ex: The current developer machine shipping from Dells link is here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dell_XPS_13_Plus_(9320) https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dell_XPS_13_Plus_(9320) Mostly fine across the board - some known issues with very recent kernel versions, and some problems with the webcam. Dell fixed the webcam issues in their default Ubuntu release, but it requires manual fixing on other distros.