Today, the Dell XPS-13 with Ubuntu Linux is easily the most well-known Linux laptop. Many users, especially developers – including Linus Torvalds – love it. As Torvalds recently said, “Normally, I wouldn’t name names, but I’m making an exception for the XPS 13 just because I liked it so much that I also ended up buying one for my daughter when she went off to college.”
So, how did Dell – best known for good-quality, mass-produced PCs – end up building top-of-the-line Ubuntu Linux laptops? Well, Barton George, Dell Technologies’ Developer Community manager, shared the “Project Sputnik” story this week in a presentation at the popular Linux and open-source community show, All Things Open.
I used to buy computers for a research lab as part of my job, we had a contract with dell.
Overall dell’s entire market is made of companies like the one I used to work at, that signed a nice contract with 5 year on-site warranty, bulk order rebates and the like.
These (or the ones they sold 3 years ago, at least) aren’t that bad. They’re not exactly good, but you have a Linux laptop with some manufacturer support (as much as you’re getting with windows at least) and they’re capable machines, with good drivers and they come from the factory with Ubuntu if that’s what you tick in their custom order form they give you when you sign that contract. As the guy in charge of fixing the computer, its nice knowing that its not the Linux support for the laptop that’s trash.
For research labs, dell workstations used to be great. Put debian on it and you could forget about problems. I don’t know if it is the case anymore.