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> It's an impressive achievement, and it's also a sad comment on the overall viability of Linux as a consumer-facing operating system for normal people. I don't

> It's an impressive achievement, and it's also a sad comment on the overall viability of Linux as a consumer-facing operating system for normal people. I don't think anyone is arguing that Linux hasn't earned its place in the data center—it most certainly has—but there's no way I'd feel comfy installing even newbie-friendly Ubuntu or Mint on my parents' computers. The XPS 13 DE shows the level of functionality and polish possible with extra effort, and that effort and polish together means this kind of Linux integration is something we won't see very often outside of boutique OEMs. This is not extra effort, though. The same effort is required to make their Windows computers work. What you are experiencing is the realization that for most computers, there is no effort made to have them run linux well Linux's biggest problem is one of perception. Because people are used to their Windows and Mac computers "just working", they think that is the steady-state of OSes, and that Linux is somehow failing to achieve normalcy.

tterrace 13y ago
I think the extra effort he means is that Dell had to hack in additional fixes for the trackpad, wifi, bluetooth and monitor brightness: https://launchpad.net/~canonical-hwe-team/+archive/sputnik-kernel https://launchpad.net/~canonical-hwe-team/+archive/sputnik-k... . They were all merged upstream, but if Dell had not done it, it would have been the customer spending hours on google or reading through threads on the ubuntu forums (I can speak from experience).
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
  But only because the vendors for that hardware made no linux drivers in the first place.
- MatthewPhillips 13y ago
  Dell also has to make sure its drivers work on Windows.
  - tterrace 13y ago
    I thought Dell submitted most of those patches to fix bugs in the kernel, not its own drivers.
wiredfool 13y ago
Well, I did. A few years ago, my mom was having a bunch of trouble with xp on her netbook, especially connecting to my house wifi. Did a dual boot install of Ubuntu 10.04 on it, and once I installed the flash/mp3 packages, had absolutely no issues with it. She's been using it since, updating when it tells her to, with no major issues. Now granted, this was a travel machine, so it was mostly limited to internety stuff, and the odd game of soduku, but its been a perfectly reasonable choice for her for a few years now.
andor 13y ago
Completely true. I recently installed Windows 7 on a new Lenovo T430 and it certainly didn't "just work". Windows Update (or whatever the repository is called) couldn't find drivers for the Intel Ethernet controller, Intel Wifi adapter, Ivy Bridge chipset (!) and the Broadcom bluetooth adapter. I had to visit Lenovo's web site and manually download the drivers (the Bluetooth driver was more than 100MB!) This is a top of the line Windows laptop and none of the components are obscure.

tterrace 13y ago

I think the extra effort he means is that Dell had to hack in additional fixes for the trackpad, wifi, bluetooth and monitor brightness: https://launchpad.net/~canonical-hwe-team/+archive/sputnik-kernel https://launchpad.net/~canonical-hwe-team/+archive/sputnik-k... . They were all merged upstream, but if Dell had not done it, it would have been the customer spending hours on google or reading through threads on the ubuntu forums (I can speak from experience).

TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
But only because the vendors for that hardware made no linux drivers in the first place.
MatthewPhillips 13y ago
Dell also has to make sure its drivers work on Windows.
- tterrace 13y ago
  I thought Dell submitted most of those patches to fix bugs in the kernel, not its own drivers.

wiredfool 13y ago

Well, I did. A few years ago, my mom was having a bunch of trouble with xp on her netbook, especially connecting to my house wifi. Did a dual boot install of Ubuntu 10.04 on it, and once I installed the flash/mp3 packages, had absolutely no issues with it. She's been using it since, updating when it tells her to, with no major issues. Now granted, this was a travel machine, so it was mostly limited to internety stuff, and the odd game of soduku, but its been a perfectly reasonable choice for her for a few years now.

andor 13y ago

Completely true. I recently installed Windows 7 on a new Lenovo T430 and it certainly didn't "just work". Windows Update (or whatever the repository is called) couldn't find drivers for the Intel Ethernet controller, Intel Wifi adapter, Ivy Bridge chipset (!) and the Broadcom bluetooth adapter. I had to visit Lenovo's web site and manually download the drivers (the Bluetooth driver was more than 100MB!) This is a top of the line Windows laptop and none of the components are obscure.