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Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

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Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

#51

Post by joefreeman »

I alternate between a (now ageing 9350-model) XPS 13 running Ubuntu and a (newish) MacBook Pro (for work), so perhaps my experience is interesting to some.

I like both, but switching between the two is a bit jarring. The different keyboard layout is particularly annoying. Maybe this is worse with a British keyboard though. I switched the Mac to use the 'PC' layout, which helps a bit, but adapting between the cmd-ctrl-fn is difficult. And there are inconsistencies in the readline behaviour that I haven't worked out. I'm fairly indifferent to the feel of the keyboard - maybe a slight preference for the XPS.

I like the 16:9 ratio of the XPS, but not a big deal.

The 20.04 update has been such an improvement. The fan used to be constantly running, maybe because of the previously-experimental fractional scaling, but since the update this runs so smooth. If anyone from Gnome/Ubuntu reads this: thank you!

The trackpad on the MacBook is obviously nice: support for gestures and the bigger area. I can't stand the touch bar - I'm constantly accidentally pressing buttons. TouchID is nice - the fingerprint reader in this new version sounds good.

Few other things that are better on the MBP: speakers, brightness (especially the auto-adjusting brightness), and webcam (this version of the XPS has the webcam below the screen, which sucks).

I don't make any use of the touchscreen on the XPS and I haven't got around to turning it off from the BIOS. Seems kind of wasteful.

The coil whine on the XPS is really bad. Interested to know if this is fixed/better on the newer models?

I replaced the battery on the XPS recently, but turns out the battery isn't as official as Amazon promised so the LED occasionally does an angry flashing sequence. But yay for being able to replace this.

Also the Dell support turned out to be pretty good. At one point there was an issue with my screen and they sent a guy to my house to replace the screen for free.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

#52

Post by deeg »

I've been using the XPS 13 DE at work for 3+ years and it has been a great experience. It originally shipped with 16.04; I was able to upgrade smoothly to 18.04 when it was available and I hope to do the same with 20.04.

I use it with a docking station and two external monitors with no problems. It's normally physically connected to the network so I can't comment much on the wifi. I don't do anything with Bluetooth.

My personal laptop is a MBP but if Dell ever came out with a XPS 15 DE I would immediately switch.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

#53

Post by philplckthun »

I only ever owned an XPS 13 9350 (~2015) and it suffers from really horrible coil whine, regardless of whether anything is plugged in or not.

I really wonder whether they’ve fixed this issue, as I’ve heard that some models after this one still suffered from the same.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

#54

Post by lwhi »

philplckthun wrote: post #53

I only ever owned an XPS 13 9350 (~2015) and it suffers from really horrible coil whine, regardless of whether anything is plugged in or not. I really wonder whether they’ve fixed this issue, as I’ve heard that some models after this one still suffered from the same.

I heard there were problems with build / coil whine when I last bought a laptop back in 2018.

I wanted to run Ubuntu as the primary OS .. ended up choosing a ThinkPad. Still certified for Ubuntu, and the fact it came with a Window's license was a benefit for the few times I've needed to use Win10.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

#55

Post by chiefalchemist »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #35
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Dell XPS, if you are in the US, Costco is a great place to get them. They often have really great deals. You can return your laptop within 90 days of purchase no questions asked. If you buy using their branded credit card, you automatically get another year of warranty free. Costco customer service is great, and I trust them more than any manufacturer.

Agree with this but Costco doesn't sell the Ubuntu system AFAIK. I bought my XPS at Costco, wiped Windows and installed Ubuntu manually. Still saved money over buying the Ubuntu version elsewhere.

You decided against Win 10 Pro and WLS? Why?

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

#56

Post by chiefalchemist »

hetspookjee wrote: post #4

I seriously hope Dell finally found a way to make more solid laptops because half of the ~30 XPS laptops I've seen around me needed to be send back because of issues with the device freezing or with the display. I started out in November last year with an XPS and after multiple freezes I requested an repair that would take my laptop out for multiple weeks. Having seen my previous company send multiple laptops back mu…

Which model(s) of the XPS line? Can you share that?

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

#57

Post by kadoban »

input_sh wrote: post #50
pedrocr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was clunky? The installer supports it and then all you have to do is insert the password on boot.

The initial setup is definitely easy, but I wish additional setup would have a graphical interface. Notably, changing or removing a passphrase, both of which should be tucked away somewhere in the settings. Your current options are gnome-disks and cryptsetup, and the former simply didn't work with long passphrases last time I dabbled with it. It's also quite difficult to encrypt an existing setup without formatting t…

I stopped using it recently, but cryptsetup (with luks if it matters) definitely allows passphrases. I think my longest was ~50 characters? Not sure if you were going beyond that.

I can't seem to find any old (or new) complaints about it limiting, or anything about a fix for same. You sure it was that?

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

#58

Post by dr_zoidberg »

codecamper wrote: post #44
pedrocr wrote: post #16

At this point, waiting for the mobile Ryzens to appear across the laptop ranges seems like a good idea. They've crammed 8 cores instead of 4 into the same TDP and made laptop chips that are in the same ballpark as the dekstop counterparts: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-10610U-vs-AMD-... The graphics should also be better than the Intel ones. So far the only interesting laptop I've seen is the Lenovo T…

Anyone know how well power management works with AMD and linux? Would those AMD 8 core chips consume a similar amount of power to the i7-1065G7? (quad core 10nm)

> Would those AMD 8 core chips consume a similar amount of power to the i7-1065G7? (quad core 10nm)

A very quick summary: about the same.

Intel seems to still have the lead on quickly going to lower energy states, but AMD still has the upper hand on better node: TSMCs 7nm is better than Intels 10nm+, but 11th gen 10++ seems to have finally matured enough to be on par, so Tiger Lake will be interesting to see.

If your parameter is "I want a notebook today", then Renoir Ryzens are the best to go[0]. If you can wait until the late part of the year, maybe Tiger Lake will shake things up (again) in the mobile arena, or maybe they're spilling rumors to keep people away from AMD as much as they can.

[0] HOWEVER it seems there's no well-rounded notebook with Zen2 yet. I was almost decided for an Asus Zephyrus G14, but decided to wait a bit and see if something a bit larger (with larger battery too) becomes available in my country.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

#59

Post by robert_foss »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #35
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Dell XPS, if you are in the US, Costco is a great place to get them. They often have really great deals. You can return your laptop within 90 days of purchase no questions asked. If you buy using their branded credit card, you automatically get another year of warranty free. Costco customer service is great, and I trust them more than any manufacturer.

Agree with this but Costco doesn't sell the Ubuntu system AFAIK. I bought my XPS at Costco, wiped Windows and installed Ubuntu manually. Still saved money over buying the Ubuntu version elsewhere.

The Ubuntu version is released soo many months after the main version. It really sucks having to wait that long. And to be limited to the XPS 13.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

#60

Post by cephalization »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #55
dreamcompiler wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with this but Costco doesn't sell the Ubuntu system AFAIK. I bought my XPS at Costco, wiped Windows and installed Ubuntu manually. Still saved money over buying the Ubuntu version elsewhere.

You decided against Win 10 Pro and WLS? Why?

If you don't care about windows then you sacrifice about 20% of performance vs linux on baremetal according to benchmarks on phoronix of ubuntu bare vs ubuntu wsl.
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