Out for a new laptop and perhaps the HP Dev One didn't take your fancy? Well now the Dell XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition has been properly certified for Ubuntu 22.04.
Canonical announced the update today on their blog, noting that the roll-out will begin in August for those who want the up to date experience on solid hardware. As Canonical also showed, this is the first mainstream hardware to be certified for Ubuntu 22.04.
While anyone can download Ubuntu (and other distributions) and attempt to run them on various devices, the point of the official certification is so that Canonical can ensure "that all of the components in a certified computer work as expected, so the user can be sure of the best experience out of the box". Of course, buying one with Linux pre-loaded like this also shows there's a market for more.
Some of the highlights of the XPS Plus include:
- 12th Gen Intel® Core™ 28W processors
- A seamless glass touch pad
- Improved quad speaker design resulting in incredible sound for music, movies and conferencing.
- Up to 4K+ resolution or vivid true-to-life colour on an OLED display with Eyesafe® that reduces harmful blue light
- M.2 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe Solid State Drive
- Up to 32 GB, LPDDR5, 5200 MHz, integrated, dual-channel
- Larger fans that provide 55% better airflow
- All-new packaging is made from 100% sustainably sourced or renewable materials with paper documentation that increases its recyclability.
From the press release:
“XPS is an innovation portal for Dell – from its application of cutting-edge technology to experimentation of new user interfaces and experiential design,” said Jaewook Woo, Product Manager, Linux Operating System, Dell Technologies. “By bringing the enhanced performance and power management features of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to our most advanced premium laptop, Dell and Canonical reinforce our joint commitment to continue delivering the best computing experience for developers using Ubuntu.”
“The XPS 13 is a long-standing flagship range for Ubuntu on laptops”, said Oliver Smith, Product Manager for Ubuntu Desktop, Canonical. “It’s fantastic to see the XPS 13 Plus and Ubuntu 22.04 deliver a first-class hardware and software experience for developers, 10 years on from the start of Project Sputnik”.
dell.fr, same config : 2029€
:|
They had an additional signal sent in the charger cable that told the motherboard if it was a charger from their brand. If not, the battery would not charge.
That's what made me promise to never touch a Dell product again. Stuff like that furiates me.
Last edited by Beamboom on 22 July 2022 at 8:50 am UTC
Quoting: BeamboomDo Dell still operate with a charger technology where the battery won't charge unless it's an original Dell charger?On the flip side, Dell has always been the best option if you want to keep your laptop for a long time. You can get up to 5 years of next-day business repair, anywhere in the world. Dell will come to you even if you are on holiday, to your hotel, to repair your laptop for you. No other manufacturer offers you this that I am aware of; they always want you to send your laptop in, if not ship it via post, wait 2-4 weeks, and more than likely they'll be unable to repair it because they stopped producing those parts months or years ago.
They had an additional signal sent in the charger cable that told the motherboard if it was a charger from their brand. If not, the battery would not charge.
That's what made me promise to never touch a Dell product again. Stuff like that furiates me.
Dell sells replacement/spare parts on their official website. I spent several hours looking for a replacement charger for my ASUS laptop, but no one sells one. In order to get a replacement charger, I had to send my laptop in for repair and wait a month for it to come back. Huge pain.
That's when I made the decision never to buy a laptop from any manufacturer other than Dell. I had always used Dell laptops before, but my previous two laptops were ASUS laptops. After experiencing trouble with both of them, I've just accepted that it's a fact of life that laptops are going to break down, faster than you think.
On chargers: when I bought my current laptop, Dell upsold me the wrong spare charger (which was actually a power bank); the power bank could only be charged using a charger from 6+ years ago, which I fortunately had because I've had Dell laptops for a long time.
Laptops invariably all suck, I think, but Dell offers you the most recourse. At least Framework is around now for those interested in repairing their own devices.
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualYou can get up to 5 years of next-day business repair, anywhere in the world. Dell will come to you even if you are on holiday, to your hotel, to repair your laptop for you. No other manufacturer offers you this that I am aware of; they always want you to send your laptop in, if not ship it via post, wait 2-4 weeks, and more than likely they'll be unable to repair it because they stopped producing those parts months or years ago.
As someone who's had a tech come in at short notice and replace the motherboard of my laptop on my kitchen table back when I was still running my own little business from home, I'm with you on this one. Definitely worth it if you can't make a living without the laptop.
That said, next business day on-site support is available from most of the big business brands. Dell, HP and Lenovo for sure. Price and quality of support might differ though. And they don't usually cover anything outside of their business ranges of products.
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualThat said, next business day on-site support is available from most of the big business brands. Dell, HP and Lenovo for sure. Price and quality of support might differ though. And they don't usually cover anything outside of their business ranges of products.
You can add that for those manufacturers, parts are still made for a really long time, and all the business line from Dell, HP, and Lenovo are easily repaired. Same thing with chargers, I've work with both Dell and Lenovo only businesses, both had that bin full of old charger from their previous laptops so when a charger died, was lost/broken they just needed to fish an old one from the bin, no need to get a new one and even in the event you need one there plenty of third parties because they are so standard.
But for the onsite premium support you have to shell out a pretty big sum of money most of the time, nearly as much as the price of the machine itself.
The big problem is consumer grade brands, they are inconsistent in their design and the warranty is subpar. Most of the time you can't just go buy spare parts. Or have to rely on third parties for that.
What I find surprising is how expensive business line laptops and parts are when they are so standardized and stream lined.
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualOn the flip side, Dell has always been the best option if you want to keep your laptop for a long time. You can get up to 5 years of next-day business repair, anywhere in the world.
For me, this is like arguing against criticism of Microsoft's practises with "on the flip side, they got a really good support department!".
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualI spent several hours looking for a replacement charger for my ASUS laptop, but no one sells one.
See, this is the point: You don't NEED a ASUS charger unless ASUS are jerks. You can use any multi-charger with the right output, make sure it's the right voltage and ampere and off you go. That's the whole point.
I have several multi-chargers at home (due to a unhealthy obsession with guitar pedals :D) and the charger connectors on laptops today are largely standard (inner and outer ring). Also on the Dell laptops. So you CAN use a non-Dell charger on that laptop, it will boot and run, the motherboard will just not allow the battery to be charged due to a tiny controller on the motherboard that checks this.
And no support department in the world justifies this, imo. It's bad practise.
Last edited by Beamboom on 25 July 2022 at 6:13 pm UTC
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