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Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

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Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#31

Post by jmkni »

luka-birsa wrote: post #6

As a 20 year Linux user I really appreciate Dells support in proving the market exists. This improved support across all manufacturers. I've recently acquired a HP Envy 13 2017 laptop with Windows preinstalled. I've really wanted to try Windows out, but after installing Google Chrome and Docker (1hr after starting it up) it stopped working - windows boot up into a blank black screen. In a hurry I've downloaded Ubuntu…

Windows has gotten a lot better, but the rules regarding new computers hasn't changed in the past 30 years, you still need to wipe the hard drive and install it yourself from scratch, and then spend a little time disabling the ads, bing crap, telemetry, etc.

Once you do, it's rock solid, but it should be OOTB and it annoys me that it isn't. It leaves those not familiar with Windows with a bad first impression, and those tech savvy enough to install Linux just don't come back.

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#32

Post by bevax »

jhasse wrote: post #29
macco wrote: post #27

I wonder how many machines Dell is really selling. Or if project Sputnik is more of marketing ploy, to get popular with developers. Linux users are very tough customers in my experience. And the strategy to have plain Ubuntu installed makes them very vulnarable to competitors. The should have developed their own flavor like System76 is doing with PopOS, imo.

> And the strategy to have plain Ubuntu installed makes them very vulnarable to competitors. The should have developed their own flavor like System76 is doing with PopOS, imo. For me it's a plus, similar to manufacturers shipping stock Android. I'd replace anything pre-installed with Fedora anyway though.

Furthermore, it is a big effort to maintain a distribution, started from maintaining infrastructure, doing QA, especially ensure security, get releases out… while in the end the buyer typically has his own choice (or requirement) of distribution. Therefore, I think it is more then reasonable to pick out one, but also ensure drivers for all the used hardware make it into the kernel.

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#33

Post by jorgemf »

babuskov wrote: post #20
chx wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As another 20+ (24 actually, 0.99pl15) Linux user let me counter: with the Linux subsystem for Windows there's no reason to wrestle with Linux any more. While Linux certainly works on laptops it doesn't work well. Wifi and battery life are absymal and for me seemingly every other update either breaks the printer half or the scanner half of the MFC device (and if not, then it's time for another bluetooth breakage, you…

> you can search Arch Isn't Arch specifically for users who don't mind things breaking and going deep into internals to fix it?

Incorrect, I break arch less times than Ubuntu and I use it daily while I use Ubuntu casually

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#34

Post by chopin »

maccard wrote: post #9
luka-birsa wrote: post #6

As a 20 year Linux user I really appreciate Dells support in proving the market exists. This improved support across all manufacturers. I've recently acquired a HP Envy 13 2017 laptop with Windows preinstalled. I've really wanted to try Windows out, but after installing Google Chrome and Docker (1hr after starting it up) it stopped working - windows boot up into a blank black screen. In a hurry I've downloaded Ubuntu…

I’ve a dual boot set up on one of my machines with Ubuntu 17.04. I’m consistently having Ethernet issues related to having two network cards, and the multi monitor support is lacking. I can’t use my triple monitor setup, and if I forget to disconnect my third monitor I have to reboot with only one monitor attached to get it work. Meanwhile, on the same machine, windows handles it in its stride. There’s still some imp…

I am running a 4 monitor setup with Linux Mint 18.2 (Cinnamon) just fine. I set it up two weeks ago and so far I am impressed how easy it was.

However, prior to this setup I had Win 7 on the machine with no issues either.

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#35

Post by jorgemf »

colordrops wrote: post #21

Got the XPS 9560 from Costco, which they sell at the max configuration (32gb ram, 1tb SSD, 4k touch screen, nvidia 1050) for a few hundred dollars cheaper than Dell, and it's a beast. Got Ubuntu running on it without too much trouble, though it required a bit of tweaking. Only thing that doesn't have a driver is the fingerprint scanner. I'm extremely happy with it so far. Have had no stability issues at all. Only rea…

In arch that laptop works pretty well without tweaks.

Don't try to use the GPU and the CPU at the same time for longer than 5 minutes or you will be very disappointed (I own the same model).

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#37

Post by colordrops »

jorgemf wrote: post #35
colordrops wrote: post #21

Got the XPS 9560 from Costco, which they sell at the max configuration (32gb ram, 1tb SSD, 4k touch screen, nvidia 1050) for a few hundred dollars cheaper than Dell, and it's a beast. Got Ubuntu running on it without too much trouble, though it required a bit of tweaking. Only thing that doesn't have a driver is the fingerprint scanner. I'm extremely happy with it so far. Have had no stability issues at all. Only rea…

In arch that laptop works pretty well without tweaks. Don't try to use the GPU and the CPU at the same time for longer than 5 minutes or you will be very disappointed (I own the same model).

What are you referring to? Does it overheat? Battery run down?

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#38

Post by majewsky »

jorgemf wrote: post #33
babuskov wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can search Arch Isn't Arch specifically for users who don't mind things breaking and going deep into internals to fix it?

Incorrect, I break arch less times than Ubuntu and I use it daily while I use Ubuntu casually

Arch's KISS attitude is really helpful for that. Whenever I have to deal with a Debian/Ubuntu system, I'm sort of weary of "apt install"ing any daemons because of the autoconfigure magic that's going on in dpkg.

With Arch, installing a package just unpacks the package files and runs a few innocuous post-install hooks, mostly to rebuild indexes (mandb, fontconfig, etc.) and compile DKMS-based kernel modules. But nothing potentially destructive like `systemctl start postfix`.

Also, it installs exactly what you want, instead of dozens of tangentially-related "suggested packages". If you `apt install rsyslog`, it pulls in an entire MTA because somewhere deep in rsyslog, there is an option that might send emails, so Debian in its unending wisdom determines that you MUST HAVE an MTA beyond this point. In Arch, `pacman -S rsyslog` installs just rsyslog and a few required shared libraries.

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#39

Post by majewsky »

linux-user wrote: post #23

Is Dell still offering those? I cannot find anything. For example this dell page has no current offerings: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/dell-linux-ubu...

Yeah, I'm puzzled as well. Upon reading the article, I tried to find Linux notebooks via their homepage (i.e. by starting at dell.com), but found nothing.

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#40

Post by haspok »

chx wrote: post #17
luka-birsa wrote: post #6

As a 20 year Linux user I really appreciate Dells support in proving the market exists. This improved support across all manufacturers. I've recently acquired a HP Envy 13 2017 laptop with Windows preinstalled. I've really wanted to try Windows out, but after installing Google Chrome and Docker (1hr after starting it up) it stopped working - windows boot up into a blank black screen. In a hurry I've downloaded Ubuntu…

As another 20+ (24 actually, 0.99pl15) Linux user let me counter: with the Linux subsystem for Windows there's no reason to wrestle with Linux any more. While Linux certainly works on laptops it doesn't work well. Wifi and battery life are absymal and for me seemingly every other update either breaks the printer half or the scanner half of the MFC device (and if not, then it's time for another bluetooth breakage, you…

Do you have a Dell XPS 13 (any version)? Because I do (a 9343), and I don't have any of the problems you listed above - in fact, I spend far less time managing my laptop since I switched to Ubuntu. I started off with 14.04 then switched to 16.04 and I upgraded to an 4.9 LTS kernel in January. That's about it.

I have no issues with battery life, wifi, or BT or anything else. The first ~6 months of 2014 was a rough ride, because the hardware was so new there was no proper support for it in the kernel, but the team @ Dell managed to upstream all the required stuff, so depending on their custom Ubuntu release is no longer necessary. Everything should just work out of the box.

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