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New XPS 15 Laptop

dell.com

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Re: New XPS 15 Laptop

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> i wouldnt touch ubuntu with a barge pole Just curious what makes you say that?

Not P but just ab example: Sublime Text won't even show menus in unity without some extension hackery. Who thought this titlebar would be a good idea? People with an 11 inch laptop? Is that the target audience now?

For better and worse, it apes the OSX interface, which includes menus in the title bar of the entire window.

Re: New XPS 15 Laptop

#82

Looks like they upgraded the 13" as well: http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-13-9360-la... Someone else noted there's no discrete Nvidia GPU: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/19/help-me-choose/hmc-nvidia... I did not see the New XPS 12 that second link references.

The XPS 13 does not have a dGPU, but the XPS 15 does have one.

Sadly the XPS 13 2015 has IRIS 540 graphics available, which is pretty good, doubly so if you get the 1080P screen.

The XPS13 2016 does not have IRIS available, yet. Intel should have them available feb/march or so.

Re: New XPS 15 Laptop

#83
post #71
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ve switched from air running Ubuntu to XPS 13 dev edition with Ubuntu. Not everything beautiful but a decent switch, great power, autonomy and screen.

Thanks for the information. Do you speak a European language? That's where I've seen "autonomy" used referring to battery life.

Can confirm, autonomy is how "battery life" translates to Greek too. Fun fact, autonomy means "ruled under its own law".

Re: New XPS 15 Laptop

#84
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dell "developer" releases come with linux preinstalled. so almost certainly. although i wouldnt touch ubuntu with a barge pole. e.g. http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/xps-13-9350-laptop-ubuntu/...

> i wouldnt touch ubuntu with a barge pole Just curious what makes you say that?

for a start, by default accounts can access the root account by simply running sudo -i

Re: New XPS 15 Laptop

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my co-workers has the current gen (9550) and Ubuntu 16.04 runs great on it. I think he's got an intel wifi card, I'd just check Linux compatibility with the Killer wifi card before going that route. It's easy enough to change a WiFi card out aftermarket if there is issues though, an Intel 8260 card will run you $30.

Is it really that easy to swap them out? Or does Dell lock-out non-whitelisted wifi in the BIOS like Lenovo does with thinkpads?

I swapped out the Dell Wireless (Broadcom) on an XPS 13 9350 for an Intel 8260 with no issues. I would assume the XPS 15 would be the same.

Re: New XPS 15 Laptop

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my co-workers has the current gen (9550) and Ubuntu 16.04 runs great on it. I think he's got an intel wifi card, I'd just check Linux compatibility with the Killer wifi card before going that route. It's easy enough to change a WiFi card out aftermarket if there is issues though, an Intel 8260 card will run you $30.

Does that include good working power management and a fully functioning touchpad? I went down the XPS13 Sputnik path and had endless disappointment with constant fixes.

I have bought an XPS13 Sputnik this spring, have put Debian Testing on it, and had no single issue related to the the machine itself.

At least, I think so...

And, well, I'm not too picky...

Re: New XPS 15 Laptop

#87

Looks nice but their customer service will fuck you over if you have a hardware problem serious enough to replace some vital part. There was a huge thread here only recently by some poor guy being harassed by them.

That's not my experience with Dell (in the Netherlands). One of the keys didn't work correctly, I called them and the next day one of their mechanics replaced the keyboard at my home.

Re: New XPS 15 Laptop

#88

Speaking of laptops, what would you recommend to someone running Ubuntu? My 2013 MacBook Air is feeling it, with its non-upgradable 4 GB RAM. A discrete graphics card so I could play DotA2 once in a while would be nice, even if it's at medium graphics quality.

Thinkpads are generally a safe bet.

I've been using different models from the X-Series with Ubuntu since 08.04 and am currently looking at the T450s (14", but still an Ultrabook and light enough for me).

The X1 Carbon looks damn sweet as well.

Re: New XPS 15 Laptop

#89

Looks nice but their customer service will fuck you over if you have a hardware problem serious enough to replace some vital part. There was a huge thread here only recently by some poor guy being harassed by them.

Not in my experience. I bought an XPS 15 earlier this year. It was a fairly new model and there were a lot of complaints online about quality control issues, but overwhelmingly they were happy with Dell's response. I got one and blew out the speakers (partly my fault), but Dell send me a replacement quickly.

Re: New XPS 15 Laptop

#90
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> i wouldnt touch ubuntu with a barge pole Just curious what makes you say that?

for a start, by default accounts can access the root account by simply running sudo -i

For me that always came across as a sane choice for single user developer/power user machines.

Also IIRC it is only the very first user that has this privilege by default. For extra users I think you'll have to explicitly enable it when you create the account (or at a later stage.)

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