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Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

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141–150 of 319 posts

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

#141
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.

I didn't even know System76 existed, this looks exactly like what I wanted when I bought my XPS.

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

#142
post #135

I recently bought an XPS 13 developers edition from the website after my macbook's screen randomly died (it was old, and ready for an upgrade anyways) looking at new macbooks, I was unhappy with the lack of a USB slot, thought the fancy bar on the top was unnecessary, and generally you just seemed to get less for the same money. I NEEDED the laptop right away. The website said it would take 4 days or so. So I waited,…

I had the cursor skip on an older Dell model (not Ubuntu, Windows), but the cause might be the same - the Nub mouse buton (if that makes sense - the little finger mouse? What ever it's called) in the middle of the keyboard would pick up the slightest tap and move the cursor - I ended up disabling it and the problem went away; I've never really experienced it on any other laptop.

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

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fedora is not kinda beta branch of RHEL. Fedora is a fast-moving distribution, similar to non-LTS Ubuntu. RHEL is a long-term supported distribution (way longer than LTS Ubuntu). It is for machines that you want to set up and forget about their existence. The difference is in target audience and the intent, what their machines have to do. More proper designation would be, that RHEL is a fork of Fedora, that is being…

> Fedora is not kinda beta branch of RHEL. I thought maybe Redhat changed their stance on Fedora and read from Redhat's page and well it is 100% a beta testing ground for RHEL. "The size and expertise of the Fedora community make Fedora an ideal incubator and proving ground for features that eventually get incorporated into Red Hat Enterprise Linux. To meet the quality and reliability requirements that make Red Hat E…

I understand where you are coming from, but I think it is just a matter of framing. If you consider regular Ubuntu releases to be the "beta branch" of their LTS releases, then the comparison would be apt.

I don't really see it that way. Each Fedora release is reliable, but the software does evolve quickly. The RHEL releases are taken from a point in time on that stream, pushed through an even more extensive QE process, and maintained for an extended period of time.

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

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Windows has gotten a lot better [...] Remember when we used to say the same thing about Linux? Funny how times change.

Regarding gaming - Linux went backwards now that new gadgets like VR headsets and high refresh synced monitors are required for serious gaming. Feels like 2002 all over again without any games.

TBH, the hardware manufacturers could write drivers for their stuff.

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

#145
post #44
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

There's an option in Windows Defender settings that automatically wipes the hard drive and reinstalls from scratch, without the manufacturer's bloatware

This is actually useful. Does it preserve user data?

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

#146
post #31

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 th…

> Once you do, it's rock solid, but it should be OOTB and it annoys me that it isn't.

Really? Which version are you using? On a clean install of Win 10 Pro, I fell foul of several known issues. A failing update to Anniversary edition required reinstallation, and the Creator's update only made it through after initially crashing mid-update. The fast shutdown (which I wasn't aware of) caused me a problem with network connectivity on moving the machine which was hard to troubleshoot because it was unexpected. Then to top it all off once I got it running properly, the start-menu was still full of ads.

Maybe if I could get hold of the enterprise edition, with all the ads/telemetry disabled by default, it'd be a better experience, but my faith in the updates has truly gone and as a result we now just leave the Win10 install of the dual-boot alone.

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

#147
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked version 7 but I believe Windows has taken a downturn since then.

I was about to defend it, but on reflection, windows 10 is a real mixed bag. Pros: - It's fantastically fast, I dislike going back to win 7 - Some of the utilities are nicer Cons: - Random scheduled tasks fire in the background at really annoying times. I installed a completely clean install of win 10 and some fail and then constantly re-run as they've not been marked as completed (e.g. .net 32-bit optimization servi…

How did you find whether the update services were running or not? I was having trouble with a failing update, but I couldn't find any evidence of it running.

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

#148
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tried this on a Lenovo notebook and it will reinstall the Lenovo bloatware anyways. I think this restore the initial windows image state, but the image that came in the notebook is customized by Lenovo.

I believe it's even more sinister than that. I recall reading about a feature of Windows 10 where it will automatically install OEM bloatware from separate storage on the board, even if you install from a generic Window disk/USB. I'm trying to find a source. Edit: I cannot find a source, so take this with a grain of salt, however I do clearly remember reading it.

I believe the one you're referring to is the "Windows Platform Binary Table (WPBT)" feature, which has a slot in UEFI where an exe can be put, which is run by Windows during an install.

Couple of refs for anyone interested:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10039870

https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=29544745#p2954...

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

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding gaming - Linux went backwards now that new gadgets like VR headsets and high refresh synced monitors are required for serious gaming. Feels like 2002 all over again without any games.

TBH, the hardware manufacturers could write drivers for their stuff.

Or at least write open documentation so free software can do the work.

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

#150
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, same with Win10 machines. Bought an XPS13 maxed out from Dell. Website deceivably back then said 2 days shipping, but I didn't realize it meant 2 days to deliver it to the carrier and the 3 weeks to Germany from China. Website made it look like it was in Europe when I ordered. BIOS gives smoke detection loudness (!) level alarms at night when some hardware part fails and laptop reboots. Beside that, hardware is c…

FWIW, my Lenovo T460s also has NVMe and it works just fine via /dev/nvme*. Eg. my boot partition is /dev/nvme0n1p1

Yeah I'm using nvme on a few machines. No issue.
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