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Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

arstechnica.com

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Re: Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

#71

Post by vladev »

jgrowl wrote: post #16

I received mine a couple of weeks ago and have been pretty happy so far. Everything worked out of the box in ubuntu (camera, multimedia keys, trackpad, touchscreen, bluetooth, wifi, etc). My only complaints are: - The Glossy monitor is incredibly reflective. I wish there was a matte option. - I got the UHD screen option but there are still too many scaling issues in linux. Ubuntu looks fine with some minor tweaks but…

I have another HiDPI laptop with the same wireless card (Intel 7260). I don't think your router is the problem, I'm experiencing the same issues. When I'm not in the same room as the router signal used to drop 50% of the time. Few driver updates later things are much better, but it still freezes sometimes. Consider disabling the power saving options - it does help. It seems Intel totally botched it with this card as the Internet is littered with people complaining about it, including Windows users. It seems the Windows drivers have it covered now, but the Linux ones are still catching up.

Regarding the HiDPI - Chrome is the only thing that doesn't play, but since I'm a Firefox user, that's not a problem. Gnome 3 handles it quite well. Yes, some apps (i.e. Skype) get their font rendering a bit wrong, but otherwise it's fine. But the crisp fonts are something I'm not giving up.

Re: Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

#72

Post by tracker1 »

nfoz wrote: post #26

Oh interesting, this is the M3800 which is Dell's beefy 15" Linux laptop. Glad to see it getting some light. If you're looking for something more portable, the New XPS 13 is in development and is supposed to launch soon. I follow the project lead's blog here: http://bartongeorge.net/ My hats off to the Dell team; they're very open about what they're doing, making better drivers etc. before launching the product. For…

I have yet to use a touchpad that works as well as a macbook's... which is pretty sad at this point.. I understand they reduced the travel of the keys and touchpad in the late 2014 releases though... That and the display are the two main reasons I got an rMBP (right before the new models last year)... but may well go with something else in a couple years.

Re: Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

#73

Post by stormbrew »

vq wrote: post #70
freehunter wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pressing space in a text editor tends to add a space. Pressing pgdn doesn't.

C-v and M-v in Emacs and friends and CTRL+b and CTRL+d in vi and clones. EDIT: and if you were fine with reaching for PgDn then SHIFT+up, SHIFT+down in vim is probably a viable option as well.

Great. Now not only do I have to use two keys in everything to do it, it's a different pair of keys in everything! Man, what I've been missing all these years having separate keys for this.

(Yes, I know fn+arrow does them the same in more or less everything as well)

Re: Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

#74

Post by farresito »

shmerl wrote: post #45
farresito wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone mentioned here in Hacker News a few weeks ago that he managed to buy a Thinkpad without OS and with a Windows' refund.

Do you remember what country that was in? I know in France there was a major victory in court against Lenovo and Windows bundling. So may be there the situation is better now and Lenovo can't get away with forcing the Windows tax anymore.

I can't quite remember, unfortunately. What I know for sure is it's possible to buy a Thinkpad with MS-DOS (which is cheaper) and then install Linux or whatever OS you want.

If I'm not mistaken, the user I was referring to said something about contacting Lenovo and providing them with the Thinkpad build that you wish but asking not to include an OS. I can ask for you if they do something like that. I still have the email of the person that I spoke to three or four years ago when I had some problems when customizing my Thinkpad, and she was extremely nice.

Re: Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

#75

Post by buckbova »

nfoz wrote: post #26

Oh interesting, this is the M3800 which is Dell's beefy 15" Linux laptop. Glad to see it getting some light. If you're looking for something more portable, the New XPS 13 is in development and is supposed to launch soon. I follow the project lead's blog here: http://bartongeorge.net/ My hats off to the Dell team; they're very open about what they're doing, making better drivers etc. before launching the product. For…

I ordered a Lenovo X1 Carbon upgraded to 8gb and i7. Planning to run ubuntu in virtualbox. If that doesn't work out I'll try a dual boot.

Re: Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

#76

Post by eblanshey »

nfoz wrote: post #26

Oh interesting, this is the M3800 which is Dell's beefy 15" Linux laptop. Glad to see it getting some light. If you're looking for something more portable, the New XPS 13 is in development and is supposed to launch soon. I follow the project lead's blog here: http://bartongeorge.net/ My hats off to the Dell team; they're very open about what they're doing, making better drivers etc. before launching the product. For…

I'll be getting a new laptop soon and am interested in the XPS 13.

1. Is the only difference in the Developer edition that Ubuntu is install by default, and drivers are made to work with it? Otherwise the build is exactly the same? (The New XPS has a matte screen which I would like.)

2. I don't particularly trust an operating system that ships with a computer. I assume if I wipe it and install Ubuntu from scratch it'll still work the same as intended?

3. Will the price be lower due to no Windows license?

4. Do you have a ballpark figure of when it'll be out?

Thanks.

Re: Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

#77

Post by NeutronBoy »

buckbova wrote: post #75
nfoz wrote: post #26

Oh interesting, this is the M3800 which is Dell's beefy 15" Linux laptop. Glad to see it getting some light. If you're looking for something more portable, the New XPS 13 is in development and is supposed to launch soon. I follow the project lead's blog here: http://bartongeorge.net/ My hats off to the Dell team; they're very open about what they're doing, making better drivers etc. before launching the product. For…

I ordered a Lenovo X1 Carbon upgraded to 8gb and i7. Planning to run ubuntu in virtualbox. If that doesn't work out I'll try a dual boot.

I run various distros on my first-gen X1 Carbon and it's awesome. Everything just works. You don't even have to go driver hunting as you do with Windows. The most I had to do was add a kernel parameter to the bootloader to get the brightness keys to work with more granularity. I would highly recommend going native if your workflow allows it.

Re: Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

#78

Post by jethro_tell »

smellf wrote: post #69
mod wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That removes me from the market. I use those keys incessantly, browsing the web and coding both. I bought a very large Asus gaming laptop primarily for this reason, and I'm very fond of the placement, as well (above the numpad, can be easily found without looking). Other things that are important to me is a gap to be able to feel F5 without looking, and same for the arrow keys. So many keyboards put the arrow keys--w…

> That removes me from the market. Same. And what kind of developer edition laptop doesn't have a full keyboard, i.e. a numpad? It drives me nuts.

The kind where they want the keyboard to be centered on the machine. I hate number pads on laptops because then the keyboard is off center. I can't really think of anything that would actually make it a feature worth the shift.

Different strokes, I guess.

Re: Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

#79

Post by shmerl »

farresito wrote: post #74
shmerl wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you remember what country that was in? I know in France there was a major victory in court against Lenovo and Windows bundling. So may be there the situation is better now and Lenovo can't get away with forcing the Windows tax anymore.

I can't quite remember, unfortunately. What I know for sure is it's possible to buy a Thinkpad with MS-DOS (which is cheaper) and then install Linux or whatever OS you want. If I'm not mistaken, the user I was referring to said something about contacting Lenovo and providing them with the Thinkpad build that you wish but asking not to include an OS. I can ask for you if they do something like that. I still have the e…

> What I know for sure is it's possible to buy a Thinkpad with MS-DOS (which is cheaper) and then install Linux or whatever OS you want.

I've heard they offer FreeDOS, but only for corporate customers.

> I can ask for you if they do something like that

Please ask if you can.

Re: Dell’s Linux PC sequel still just works, but adds 4K screen and rough edges

#80

Post by xorcist »

bluedino wrote: post #28

Dell has achieved feature parity with the Retina MacBook Pro, and has made huge improvements on their last 'MBP competitor', the XPS 15. However, looking at it objectively, the article pretty much sums it up: Thunderbolt port doesn't really work in Ubuntu Application-level 4k scaling issues are pretty much all over the place If all you're after is Linux on a laptop, you can do it for cheaper than the M3800's starting…

The Nvidia GPU is a strange fit. Is it really that common to run 3D workloads on a Linux laptop?

That binary blob is going to hold you back on software upgrades, sooner or later...

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