7 ms·

Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

267 points by alexwilliams 14y ago

brunoqc 14y ago
It is only softwares for the XPS13?
- klint 14y ago
  So far, yes.
rhizome 14y ago
The most obvious thing about Dell's ignorance-promoting product page for the XPS13 (the differences are only defined in marketspeak) is that there is still no SSD available: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-l321x/pd http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-l321x/pd However, I'll keep the low-end version in mind the next time I'm shopping for "America's Best Protection." Oh wait, they all come with that. Hrm. Are they really hoping to get a piece of the Macbook Air pie with this?
- ben1040 14y ago
  The most obvious thing about Dell's ignorance-promoting product page for the XPS13 (the differences are only defined in marketspeak) is that there is still no SSD available: Says right there on the page you linked that the $999 base model comes with a 128GB SSD. So does the final summary if you went through their configuration tool (which is admittedly laughable because all it allows you to configure is what level of Windows/MS Office licenses you want bundled, warranty coverage, and accessories like a monitor/printer).
  - rhizome 14y ago
    I'm not seeing any mention of an SSD on the page I'm looking at: http://imgur.com/JjneQ http://imgur.com/JjneQ
    - brunoqc 14y ago
      Check the yellow (telephone reception) thing on the right of the ram.
    - amitparikh 14y ago
      The yellow 'signal strength' bars under the 3 configurations -- 'Solid State Drive'. Also, a 'solid state drive' is mentioned in the feature details under 'Turns on instantly'.
      - rhizome 14y ago
        LOL. In my defense, those are extremely crappy UI signalling.
- brunoqc 14y ago
  I don't get the SSDs thing. I see somes with the three models on the linked page.
sgarrity 14y ago
A nice move. Too bad the XPS13 has a (reportedly) terrible display: http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/6/2848346/dell-xps-13-review#section_4 http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/6/2848346/dell-xps-13-review#...
ntkachov 14y ago
How about a laptop with a better key board, slim figure, larger special character keys and more feedback for keys? Then shove a great processor, a mouse pad that's not accidentally click able while typing, and a high resolution screen. That's a developer laptop. Ill install my own software, Thank you very much.
- simonsarris 14y ago
  I agree that all your points are far more important than whatever image is pre-loaded. At the very least a laptop designed for developers ought to keep the Insert/Home/PageUp + Delete/End/PageDown cluster in the normal formation, like Thinkpads do. We are typists before we are programmers, and software is something we do have control over. Dell should be fretting over the things we don't have the ability to change on a lark.
  - protomyth 14y ago
    At least they centered the touchpad and set the keyboard so I can touch type from a center position (no numeric keypad).
    - redthrowaway 14y ago
      Lack of numpad is a matter of personal preference. I love it and use it almost exclusively, so lack of one is a big deal for me.
      - protomyth 14y ago
        My problem with a numpad on a laptop is where I center myself. If you center on on the keyboard so you aren't typing "side-ways" then the numpad means you're head is tilted to center of screen or you're looking directly at the left of the screen.
  - tammer 14y ago
    Like thinkpads did... the ivy bridge models soon to be announced use a new layout. While the chicklet keyboards are largely an improvement (I've tried an E420 for a few moments and love the wider spacing), losing that row will take some getting used to.
seclorum 14y ago
Hmmm .. "devops" angle .. "developer profiles" .. these things don't seem necessary.
- jf781 14y ago
  DevOps is hot area right now.. applications are driving the infrastructure and it's changing what cloud is..developers are in charge
eterps 14y ago
If its vertical resolution is lower than 900 pixels I can't take it seriously as a laptop designed for developers.
- seanp2k2 14y ago
  Amen; I'm also a member of "Team 16:10" Not getting rid of my Latitude D830 (14.1" 1920x1200) until I can get something with /more/ pixel density and vrez
  - jakeonthemove 14y ago
    Well, then you're s@@t out of luck :-)... though the 1920x1080 17.3 inch laptops aren't that bad - the resolution is good enough (well, it's the best vertical resolution you can get) and unlike Full HD 15.6 inchers, the text is big enough not to make your eyes hurt like you're welding without a mask...
    - Arelius 14y ago
      The Macbook Pro 17" Still ships with a 1920x1200 screen, still not as nice as the same on a 15" though.
  - Zak 14y ago
    16:10? Let's bring back 16:12. There's something deeply wrong when the iPad is the portable computer with the highest resolution. I stare at a screen all day most days and would happily pay extra to stare at a nice one.
- seanp2k2 14y ago
  Amen; I'm also a member of "Team 16:10" Not getting rid of my Latitude D830 (14.1" 1920x1200) until I can get something with /more/ pixel density and vrez
pkmays 14y ago
I'm surprised they think developers would be interested in this. Having worked with Dell in IT, you couldn't pay me to use anything they put their name on. Dell have a bad reputation in both hardware and peopleware, and it's well deserved.
- astrodust 14y ago
  This comment would be meaningful if it even contained a hint of an anecdote. "Well deserved" how, exactly?
  - gouranga 14y ago
    I'll chip in for him. They're made of cheese, unreliable, have shitty bios implementations, crap battery life and horrid screens and keyboards.
    - astrodust 14y ago
      That's an approximation of a review, but "shitty" is a relative thing. Compared to what? Nothing is more annoying than opinions like "I hate X because it sucks" without an insightful counter-point like "You should try Y because it's much better for reasons A, B and C."
      - gouranga 14y ago
        Shitty compared to my reference point of "fit for purpose".
  - amackera 14y ago
    I've owned 3 Dell laptops in the past 2 years. First one's screen broke. Second one's graphics card was faulty. Third one's sound was messed up, sent the PC in for repairs. Dell technicians dropped it on the ground, blamed me for doing it, then refused to further support it. I don't care one way or the other if anyone else buys Dell; but there's no chance in hell that I will ever again.
astrodust 14y ago
I like the pop-under ad for gambling when you visit this site. Classy.
- klint 14y ago
  On devopsangle.com or somewhere else? We don't do any sort of banner advertising, popunder or otherwise so unless our site has been hacked (I'll look into it) then it sounds like you've got malware on your computer.
  - astrodust 14y ago
    Well, I visited this link twice to be sure and Safari pitched up a pop-under ad both times. I assure you, I do not have malware. It happens when the justin.tv widget in the side-bar loads. It attempts to load something that redirects to http://rts.pgmediaserve.com/03d458/ http://rts.pgmediaserve.com/03d458/
    - klint 14y ago
      Thanks, I'll have our webmaster check with Justin.tv.
    - jf781 14y ago
      I cannot duplicate the error..sometimes i've seen providers have f'd up dns where some bad stuff happens..
      - astrodust 14y ago
        This is not a DNS issue. This is the justin.tv widget doing something fishy in the background. I have Little Snitch installed and locked down so it can't make any connections, but it tries two different sites over SSL in an attempt to fetch content for the frame. Curiously it works with AdBlock enabled, too.
    - jf781 14y ago
      I cannot duplicate the error..sometimes i've seen providers have f'd up dns where some bad stuff happens..
timtadh 14y ago
I know there is a lot more to a nice laptop than proper software integration. However, proper software integration goes a long way. I bought an XPS m1330 "N" with Linux pre-installed 4 years ago. I have had zero funky hardware/software dances with it through the many re-installs I have done. I don't relish the idea of replacing it. So this is good news to me. I looked into recent Dell's and found that there is almost always something slightly "wrong" with them when you run Linux on them. Either weirdness in power management or the touchpad or some other random thing. Just being able to buy a computer and not have to worry if it is going to work with my OS is very nice. I have too much to do and don't want to spend a week futzing with drivers and other nonsense (I have done enough of that for a life time).
nicholassmith 14y ago
On every single Dell I've used I've hated the keyboard within 10 key presses at most, and I've tried a good 2 dozen over the past 15 years. And there in lies the problem, every other spec is fucking useless compared to 'does this keyboard suck'. If it sucks you can have 32GB of RAM, a draw that spits out toast and Knuth built into it and I still won't buy it.
zandorg 14y ago
Running SUSE 9.1 on a Dell Precision M70. Huge screen works fine in Suse, and as I use an external PS2 keyboard, no chance of accidentally tapping the mouse pad. Wifi works fine on M70's internal wifi card. Great cheap Linux laptop.
libria 14y ago
I fully expect it to be $140 cheaper than a comparable machine running Windows 7 Pro.
- technomancy 14y ago
  Can't tell whether this is sarcastic or not, but if you think Dell pays full price for Windows licenses you are in for a surprise.
  - pm90 14y ago
    I don't know the backstory on this....does Dell pay much less than the full price? How much less?
    - technomancy 14y ago
      The OEM agreement prevents the exact numbers from being disclosed, but I believe it's common knowledge that it's quite small; probably well under USD50 for a company like Dell.
    - commandar 14y ago
      When people have managed to get refunds for preinstalled Windows licenses from major OEMs, the number's generally been in the $35-50 range. Keep in mind that the manufacturers also subsidize the cost of systems with all the preinstalled crapware that comes on a lot of machines.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  I think dell gets subsidies from installing all that crapware, so I would expect it to be offset by that.
xaa 14y ago
People can develop on 13" screens?
- mistercow 14y ago
  I have been doing so for about 6 years. In my experience, gaining screen real estate is amazing at first, and losing it really hurts at first, but in the long run, it doesn't make much difference.
- there 14y ago
  I develop on an 11" screen.
  - joneil 14y ago
    My laptop is in for repair and is taking a disturbingly long time, but my friend lent me his out-of-use EeePC with a 10" inch screen. I'm amazed at how much work I have actually managed to get done. When I'm in the office I dock it to a keyboard/mouse/monitor, but even on the road I've found myself able to use it, once I adjusted to the keyboard. If you run light-weight ubuntu (lubuntu for me), have your browser/editor/terminal in fullscreen, and you can get back to work. The slow processor does struggle with our companies rails app though...
- jamesbritt 14y ago
  My dream machine was a 12" Toshiba Portege with an extra battery, 1920x1200 rez and a trackpoint. Great form-factor, especially on planes. It eventually started falling apart, and I never found quite the same thing again.
- dsirijus 14y ago
  I do it on 12". Absolutely no need for any more for development, not even one bit. Now, design work obviously needs a lot more, but that's offset by the fact that my HP 2730p is also a tablet with stylus, which made me extremely productive in dishing out graphics.
- pirateking 14y ago
  My 13" Macbook Air serves me well as my primary development and design workstation. For purely development, I would love to use an 11" Air, but Photoshop is a bit too cramped on it. My 27" display gets used for watching movies mostly these days. I do go through phases though, and will probably try using the large screen for work again eventually. For now, I find the smaller screen less distracting.
tsm 14y ago
"Configuration as code". In other words, "configuration as plain text files". Another innovation that's actually been in *nix since forever. As a result of this, I can turn any computer into a me-friendly machine in about an hour. Install my favorite Openbox-based distro (Crunchbang), copy over dotfiles I've already customized, and install every package from a list that's been exported from my main laptop.
fierarul 14y ago
>Project Sputnik, a product of Dell’s new internal incubation fund, features not just full hardware support for Ubuntu on the XPS13, but a notion of “profiles” for developers They could have stopped at "full hardware support for Ubuntu". Nobody cares about their crapware. Just two weeks ago I bought an HP ProBook for a colleague for the sole reason of being Linux certified. It came with a Suse license but he's using it with Ubuntu. The one Dell laptop I could have bought came with an Ubuntu version from 2010.
- seanp2k2 14y ago
  Agreed that I don't want/need their crapware. It'd be great if companies that make hardware had a clue what people wanted, but that's why Apple is going to be the biggest company in the world while IBM lays off seventy-some percent of their workforce, HP has 100 models of notebook that all do the same thing, and Lenovo forgets what made their older laptops so nice.
  - bretpiatt 14y ago
    IBM and Apple compete about as often as GM and Boeing do. One builds servers, systems, and writes business software wrapping it all with services and the other sells end user devices, media, and minimal software wrapping it all in a brand LVMH is jealous of.
  - pdelgallego 14y ago
    One of them developed Siri and the other Watson.
  - Drbble 14y ago
    Lenovo's good laptops were IBM. IBM sold out the Thinkpad brand and it died.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  Not sure if I'd classify it as crapware.. they're going to be legitimate and useful tools, not "CLICK HERE TO INSTALL OFFICE 2012!!"
dman 14y ago
I think this thread is a great example of why developers are notoriously tough customers (myself included)
- pm90 14y ago
  Actually, the things that we are asking for are not that difficult for a hardware vendor to implement. Besides, we usually tend to buy the higher end models rather than the entry level ones, so the profit margins are higher for each developer
alasdair_young 14y ago
The worst part for me is that the XPS13 only allows a MAXIMUM of 4GB of RAM. This is ridiculous for a dev box, especially when I want to run a VM or two.
- jakeonthemove 14y ago
  They all say that - I'm 99% sure you can install at least 6 GB, if not more...
  - dlwh 14y ago
    Aren't the ram chips usually soldered to the mobo on ultrabooks? Crucial indicates they can't upgrade ram on the XPS13. And a little googling says soldered RAM... Nothing on the Dell website suggests they can upgrade past 4.
    - jakeonthemove 14y ago
      Damn, you're right, the XPS 13 is non-upgradeable. the Samsung Series 9 and Series 5, as well as the Toshiba Z830 are, though...
- encoderer 14y ago
  The 4GB is (obv) the limit of the Macbook Air as well. I agree, running a VM leaves you at the redline. Running 2? Good luck. I do run with a single Ubutnu VM nearly 100% of the time, but I skimp on it and only allocate 384MB usually. Sometimes I'll bump it up depending on what I'm doing in it. All that said, I do wish that I could have 8 GB in my Air. But, with the extremely fast SSD, it's not essential. I use this machine as my daily driver (for mostly web-based Python, PHP and Go development) and love it. It's honestly my favorite development machine ever. I've never enjoyed developing on-the-go more, and at home plugged into a Cinema display it's a real joy to use.
davidw 14y ago
In the spirit of... well... "thinking differently" we might call it, I'll actually say I'm pretty happy with the Dells I've had. They're solid workhorses with relatively good value for the money I spent on them. Certainly, they are not glamorous or beautiful, but they work well, have good support, and have generally run Ubuntu pretty well. That said, if someone came along and really did good Linux support, I'd probably switch.
- jamesbritt 14y ago
  I've been pretty happy with my Dell laptops, running Ubuntu. But they lost me when they dropped WUXGA. That extra 200-pixel row may not matter to folks using their machine to watch movies, but it's missing developer real estate to me.
  - davidw 14y ago
    Ouch, they have? That does stink, I have one of those, and love it. Sigh...
    - jamesbritt 14y ago
      I think you have to go to 17" or something to get WUXGA from them. It pains me that there's no good way to assemble or upgrade laptops to one's liking. It's pretty much take it or leave it.
  - corin_ 14y ago
    Ditto - and it's not just a developer thing, it's an "anything except video watching" thing. I hate the shift towards widescreen in laptops for pretty much any activity, and it's only bearable in desktop monitors because there's no real size limit on them, so it can be adding width rather than just reducing height.
mindcrime 14y ago
Great, now offer Fedora on it and you might have a shot at selling me one. I'm in the market for a new laptop Real Soon Now, and I will definitely be looking for something to run Fedora on.
brandon 14y ago
The biggest possible upside to this project will be if Shuttleworth & Company get on board to support the XPS13 as a first class Ubuntu platform because of Sputnik. And when I say first class, I don't mean "give it the Supported Platform stamp." I mean "respond to user reports of touchpad bugs" and "fix them."
- pm90 14y ago
  This is actually a pretty great Idea. I wouldn't mind paying a support fee instead of the ridiculous Windows License fee that I have to pay every time I buy a laptop (only to erase and install Ubuntu the moment it arrives). If only Dell had the courage to stand up to Microsoft...
agumonkey 14y ago
What would you think about a contemporary GRiD Compass? Emphasis on durability and ergonomy before slim-ness, providing : - Stronger structural material for laptop frame - Shock and torque absorbing bits around corners, and hinges - Stronger hinges that you can manipulate carelessly - Better ergonomics by balancing weight - More space for internal addition (PCIe, USB3) for modders - Ease of access to internal, repairability. - Easier heat dissipation aiming for 35-50C min-max range with minimal fan speed. Beside, add: A true 8bit IPS LCD. A thinkpad class keyboard. A nice vintage black box that handle 25 years of hackery without a glitch.
krakensden 14y ago
It would be nice if you could get them to ship it preinstalled.
glogla 14y ago
This is kind of sad. XPS 13 is not exactly good -- the display resolution is terrible, there's no ethernet port, and for ultrabook it is not very thin, feels real cheap in hands, and the keyboard is not very good. It's almost like someone tool everything bad from the ultrabook trend and nothing good from it. And when people won't care because the hardware is not worth it (especially when it's not that much cheaper than MBA), it will be interpreted as "no one wants linux".
- diminish 14y ago
  i agree, a developer ultrabook must be more modular, and more equipped.
jf781 14y ago
Big time developers have always said that OS X is a better Unix development environment than Linux. Dell is smart to come out with a power Linux development station. My friends have been replacing their unix workstations with Macintoshes. Mac OS X is basically plain Unix -BSD flavor. Now Dell is going there. Smart by Dell @furrier
warmfuzzykitten 14y ago
So I immediately went to the Dell website to check the XPS13. The only OS choices were Windows or Windows. Apparently they didn't announce Linux internally.
xxiao 14y ago
what's new here, because xps13 is a fancy ultrabook? i installed ubuntu on my laptops and they always worked fine, why is this big news. i might be missing something...
xando 14y ago
This is kind of interesting for me. I'm trying to find for myself a proper Linux machine. Right now on Dell e6410, a bit regret that I bought it. In my opinion nearest to the ideal developer machine on Linux is Lenovo X1 or X220. Screen 13": is enough, even 12" is enough. If you are kind of developer who moves his behind from meeting to meeting or spends some time on plains or conferences. 13" (max) is your choice. You can buy really cheap big monitors and plug you machine, in every place where you work. Processor and Memory: this is out of discussion i7 and 8GB ram. Memory is so cheep those days that giving developers less than 8GB is a sin. HDD: SSD 128. This works for me. I have external drives, as a developer I don't keep movies, games, photos on my computer. Graphic Card. I had a rule that if I'm using Linux I'm using Nvidia cards. This probably not true any more. I've heard from people that Intel Cards work well. But still, switching screens is done decently in NVIDIA drives. Screen: for me Glare. Battery: should follow at least MacBook Pro 13". which is 3-4h. Price if this will be more than 1400 $ people will buy MacBookPro. Ubuntu: I'm using Xubuntu. Unity still keeps me angry, and as smallest as possible number of installed programs. Because I'm developer it doesn't mean that I'm using Eclipse.
- zerostar07 14y ago
  X220 is really nice, as long as you use an external screen. Apart from being small, the screen (although bright) has a big aftereffect problem .
- replax 14y ago
  I am actually surprised that the battery only lasts 3-4h on a mbp on linux. on the x220 i get around 6h with the 6cell battery, obviously depending on use.
- magnetikonline 14y ago
  +1 to the NVIDIA requirement with Linux - when looking for a new Linux dev laptop, this was a must since I use an external monitor most of the time when docked - you can trust this will work 110% with NVIDIA - Intel GPU's have been a bit shaky with this in the past. But this might be better with newer Linux kernels/Xorg shipping with distros like Ubuntu 12.04. In the end, I went for a speced up Thinkpad T420 with i7/NVIDIA/8GB - works really, really well.
jakeonthemove 14y ago
I don't know, I think matching hardware to software is a stupid idea. Just focus on building the hardware as a platform, don't lock it down with custom BS solutions and let the software developers handle the software. What kind of developer doesn't have their own workflow and customize their own workstation to their needs? You just can't mass produce a one-model-fits-all laptop for developers... Of all Dell laptops, the Precision line is the only one I'd buy - the M6600 looks especially good now that HP abandoned the near-perfect design of the Elitebook 8740/8540w (just for the sake of a new design it seems)...
jebblue 14y ago
With Linux slowly growing in popularity among developers this is good news to me. Now if IT shops at large companies will start supporting Linux for developers more that would be cooler.
akmiller 14y ago
I'd like the ability to have 16GB of RAM in a machine that's the size of an Air or Ultrabook. It seems at the moment, that is impossible to find.
bookwormAT 14y ago
the negative and aggressive attitude in this thread is depressing. :-(
- trafficlight 14y ago
  Maybe Dell should have consulted their target market first.
rch 14y ago
The XPS13 doesn't really seem equipped to appeal to professional developers, but Dell might be specifically targeting the entry-level and enthusiast markets. I would have enjoyed having something along these lines in high school, for instance.
rickmb 14y ago
So their target audience is developers that are incapable of installing their own tools and that are cool with the cheap look and flimsy build quality of Dell laptops. Unfortunately, that market actually exists, and nine out of ten times that lack of caring for quality is reflected in their work.
- vibrunazo 14y ago
  Official driver support matters. You won't run the risk of buying a notebook, install Linux, find that driver xyz doesn't work, then find the store won't take it back because reinstalling the os voids warranty. And waste money. This is a big risk when shopping for Linux laptops. Specially for cheaper brands that you can't easily find online reports about whether it works or not. Official support makes shopping much easier.
  - kijin 14y ago
    > reinstalling the os voids warranty That's why you should make a disk image before you wipe Windows. Plug in a Linux Live USB, use dd + gzip to create a bit-for-bit copy of your hard drive (it should compress well because there's no data on the machine), keep the copy in an external hard drive, and then wipe the internal hard drive. Nobody at Best Buy will know what you did.
za 14y ago
They can start by unfucking the internal/external display mode key. http://www.osnews.com/story/23202/The_win_p_Mess_Will_Microsoft_Ever_Learn_ http://www.osnews.com/story/23202/The_win_p_Mess_Will_Micros...
auggierose 14y ago
Just get a Macbook Pro 17 inch. Best machine ever. The only serious laptop for developers ;-) Bought it last week, and did almost go for a Macbook Air after the Linus endorsement. I am so happy I didnt!
dsirijus 14y ago
Standard size function keys. No media keys, only volume/mute control. Trackpoint is a must. I can even live without a track/touch pad.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
va_coder 14y ago
Someone must be able to make a viable business model out of selling Ubuntu on Ultrabooks.
rbanffy 14y ago
If I'm allowed to design my dream laptop, I'd make it have - a 13 inch 1080x1920 screen - two video outputs (for when its docked) - an SSD for the OS and my tools - an average hard disk for my data - a good keyboard - enough memory - a camera and audio - 3G data (or better) - Bluetooth for the keyboard and trackpad when it's docked. And the rest of it would be a humongous battery. And power it with an Atom-class processor so that the battery lasts a day. Leave the software alone. Make it pretty.
badragon 14y ago
I would buy a Ubuntu laptop. I feel like a fool that I spent money on a MacBook Pro. I was too lazy to get a Linux laptop working.
valugi 14y ago
this is a advertising stunt and a scam. They see now a market niche and probably got a free hand from M$ to produce a laptop without Windows. After years of not being allowed to choose your OS I find this insulting from Dell.
gaius 14y ago
Why would a laptop running Ubuntu be for "developers"? Not to get into a distro flamewar, but (for example) many large organizations use RHEL on their servers, and developers on the back-end would want to develop there so it will run on their customer's systems. They should be clearer that it's for "web developers".
dsrguru 14y ago
Linux developers by and large don't care what distro or software comes preloaded. They intend to replace it with their favorite setup the moment they take the machine out of the box. What they want is a keyboard designed for productivity and hardware that is fully compatible with the Linux kernel. Some will only use free (libre) drivers. Some want a large touchpad, others just want a pointing stick, and others don't use a pointing device at all. Many want easy access to the inside of their computer. Then there are always the regular consumer issues like how pretty the machine is, does it have bluetooth, an optical drive, etc. All laptops have a tradeoff among portability (size and battery), performance (CPU, GPU, RAM, and display), and price (low is good). Most great laptops only excel in two of those categories. Different developers choose a different two.
maebert 14y ago
And there I am, wishing the headline was "Dell Announces a Linux Laptop Developed for Designers" instead.
reirob 14y ago
A developers laptop without a trackpoint, crappy keyboard and a screen that does not provide much vertical space? Other than this, I welcome Laptops designed for developers with Linux.

267 points by alexwilliams 14y ago

brunoqc 14y ago

It is only softwares for the XPS13?

klint 14y ago
So far, yes.

rhizome 14y ago

The most obvious thing about Dell's ignorance-promoting product page for the XPS13 (the differences are only defined in marketspeak) is that there is still no SSD available: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-l321x/pd http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-l321x/pd However, I'll keep the low-end version in mind the next time I'm shopping for "America's Best Protection." Oh wait, they all come with that. Hrm. Are they really hoping to get a piece of the Macbook Air pie with this?

ben1040 14y ago
The most obvious thing about Dell's ignorance-promoting product page for the XPS13 (the differences are only defined in marketspeak) is that there is still no SSD available: Says right there on the page you linked that the $999 base model comes with a 128GB SSD. So does the final summary if you went through their configuration tool (which is admittedly laughable because all it allows you to configure is what level of Windows/MS Office licenses you want bundled, warranty coverage, and accessories like a monitor/printer).
- rhizome 14y ago
  I'm not seeing any mention of an SSD on the page I'm looking at: http://imgur.com/JjneQ http://imgur.com/JjneQ
  - brunoqc 14y ago
    Check the yellow (telephone reception) thing on the right of the ram.
  - amitparikh 14y ago
    The yellow 'signal strength' bars under the 3 configurations -- 'Solid State Drive'. Also, a 'solid state drive' is mentioned in the feature details under 'Turns on instantly'.
    - rhizome 14y ago
      LOL. In my defense, those are extremely crappy UI signalling.
brunoqc 14y ago
I don't get the SSDs thing. I see somes with the three models on the linked page.

sgarrity 14y ago

A nice move. Too bad the XPS13 has a (reportedly) terrible display: http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/6/2848346/dell-xps-13-review#section_4 http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/6/2848346/dell-xps-13-review#...

ntkachov 14y ago

How about a laptop with a better key board, slim figure, larger special character keys and more feedback for keys? Then shove a great processor, a mouse pad that's not accidentally click able while typing, and a high resolution screen. That's a developer laptop. Ill install my own software, Thank you very much.

simonsarris 14y ago
I agree that all your points are far more important than whatever image is pre-loaded. At the very least a laptop designed for developers ought to keep the Insert/Home/PageUp + Delete/End/PageDown cluster in the normal formation, like Thinkpads do. We are typists before we are programmers, and software is something we do have control over. Dell should be fretting over the things we don't have the ability to change on a lark.
- protomyth 14y ago
  At least they centered the touchpad and set the keyboard so I can touch type from a center position (no numeric keypad).
  - redthrowaway 14y ago
    Lack of numpad is a matter of personal preference. I love it and use it almost exclusively, so lack of one is a big deal for me.
    - protomyth 14y ago
      My problem with a numpad on a laptop is where I center myself. If you center on on the keyboard so you aren't typing "side-ways" then the numpad means you're head is tilted to center of screen or you're looking directly at the left of the screen.
- tammer 14y ago
  Like thinkpads did... the ivy bridge models soon to be announced use a new layout. While the chicklet keyboards are largely an improvement (I've tried an E420 for a few moments and love the wider spacing), losing that row will take some getting used to.

seclorum 14y ago

Hmmm .. "devops" angle .. "developer profiles" .. these things don't seem necessary.

jf781 14y ago
DevOps is hot area right now.. applications are driving the infrastructure and it's changing what cloud is..developers are in charge

eterps 14y ago

If its vertical resolution is lower than 900 pixels I can't take it seriously as a laptop designed for developers.

seanp2k2 14y ago
Amen; I'm also a member of "Team 16:10" Not getting rid of my Latitude D830 (14.1" 1920x1200) until I can get something with /more/ pixel density and vrez
- jakeonthemove 14y ago
  Well, then you're s@@t out of luck :-)... though the 1920x1080 17.3 inch laptops aren't that bad - the resolution is good enough (well, it's the best vertical resolution you can get) and unlike Full HD 15.6 inchers, the text is big enough not to make your eyes hurt like you're welding without a mask...
  - Arelius 14y ago
    The Macbook Pro 17" Still ships with a 1920x1200 screen, still not as nice as the same on a 15" though.
- Zak 14y ago
  16:10? Let's bring back 16:12. There's something deeply wrong when the iPad is the portable computer with the highest resolution. I stare at a screen all day most days and would happily pay extra to stare at a nice one.
seanp2k2 14y ago
Amen; I'm also a member of "Team 16:10" Not getting rid of my Latitude D830 (14.1" 1920x1200) until I can get something with /more/ pixel density and vrez

pkmays 14y ago

I'm surprised they think developers would be interested in this. Having worked with Dell in IT, you couldn't pay me to use anything they put their name on. Dell have a bad reputation in both hardware and peopleware, and it's well deserved.

astrodust 14y ago
This comment would be meaningful if it even contained a hint of an anecdote. "Well deserved" how, exactly?
- gouranga 14y ago
  I'll chip in for him. They're made of cheese, unreliable, have shitty bios implementations, crap battery life and horrid screens and keyboards.
  - astrodust 14y ago
    That's an approximation of a review, but "shitty" is a relative thing. Compared to what? Nothing is more annoying than opinions like "I hate X because it sucks" without an insightful counter-point like "You should try Y because it's much better for reasons A, B and C."
    - gouranga 14y ago
      Shitty compared to my reference point of "fit for purpose".
- amackera 14y ago
  I've owned 3 Dell laptops in the past 2 years. First one's screen broke. Second one's graphics card was faulty. Third one's sound was messed up, sent the PC in for repairs. Dell technicians dropped it on the ground, blamed me for doing it, then refused to further support it. I don't care one way or the other if anyone else buys Dell; but there's no chance in hell that I will ever again.

astrodust 14y ago

I like the pop-under ad for gambling when you visit this site. Classy.

klint 14y ago
On devopsangle.com or somewhere else? We don't do any sort of banner advertising, popunder or otherwise so unless our site has been hacked (I'll look into it) then it sounds like you've got malware on your computer.
- astrodust 14y ago
  Well, I visited this link twice to be sure and Safari pitched up a pop-under ad both times. I assure you, I do not have malware. It happens when the justin.tv widget in the side-bar loads. It attempts to load something that redirects to http://rts.pgmediaserve.com/03d458/ http://rts.pgmediaserve.com/03d458/
  - klint 14y ago
    Thanks, I'll have our webmaster check with Justin.tv.
  - jf781 14y ago
    I cannot duplicate the error..sometimes i've seen providers have f'd up dns where some bad stuff happens..
    - astrodust 14y ago
      This is not a DNS issue. This is the justin.tv widget doing something fishy in the background. I have Little Snitch installed and locked down so it can't make any connections, but it tries two different sites over SSL in an attempt to fetch content for the frame. Curiously it works with AdBlock enabled, too.
  - jf781 14y ago
    I cannot duplicate the error..sometimes i've seen providers have f'd up dns where some bad stuff happens..

timtadh 14y ago

I know there is a lot more to a nice laptop than proper software integration. However, proper software integration goes a long way. I bought an XPS m1330 "N" with Linux pre-installed 4 years ago. I have had zero funky hardware/software dances with it through the many re-installs I have done. I don't relish the idea of replacing it. So this is good news to me. I looked into recent Dell's and found that there is almost always something slightly "wrong" with them when you run Linux on them. Either weirdness in power management or the touchpad or some other random thing. Just being able to buy a computer and not have to worry if it is going to work with my OS is very nice. I have too much to do and don't want to spend a week futzing with drivers and other nonsense (I have done enough of that for a life time).

nicholassmith 14y ago

On every single Dell I've used I've hated the keyboard within 10 key presses at most, and I've tried a good 2 dozen over the past 15 years. And there in lies the problem, every other spec is fucking useless compared to 'does this keyboard suck'. If it sucks you can have 32GB of RAM, a draw that spits out toast and Knuth built into it and I still won't buy it.

zandorg 14y ago

Running SUSE 9.1 on a Dell Precision M70. Huge screen works fine in Suse, and as I use an external PS2 keyboard, no chance of accidentally tapping the mouse pad. Wifi works fine on M70's internal wifi card. Great cheap Linux laptop.

libria 14y ago

I fully expect it to be $140 cheaper than a comparable machine running Windows 7 Pro.

technomancy 14y ago
Can't tell whether this is sarcastic or not, but if you think Dell pays full price for Windows licenses you are in for a surprise.
- pm90 14y ago
  I don't know the backstory on this....does Dell pay much less than the full price? How much less?
  - technomancy 14y ago
    The OEM agreement prevents the exact numbers from being disclosed, but I believe it's common knowledge that it's quite small; probably well under USD50 for a company like Dell.
  - commandar 14y ago
    When people have managed to get refunds for preinstalled Windows licenses from major OEMs, the number's generally been in the $35-50 range. Keep in mind that the manufacturers also subsidize the cost of systems with all the preinstalled crapware that comes on a lot of machines.
jiggy2011 14y ago
I think dell gets subsidies from installing all that crapware, so I would expect it to be offset by that.

xaa 14y ago

People can develop on 13" screens?

mistercow 14y ago
I have been doing so for about 6 years. In my experience, gaining screen real estate is amazing at first, and losing it really hurts at first, but in the long run, it doesn't make much difference.
there 14y ago
I develop on an 11" screen.
- joneil 14y ago
  My laptop is in for repair and is taking a disturbingly long time, but my friend lent me his out-of-use EeePC with a 10" inch screen. I'm amazed at how much work I have actually managed to get done. When I'm in the office I dock it to a keyboard/mouse/monitor, but even on the road I've found myself able to use it, once I adjusted to the keyboard. If you run light-weight ubuntu (lubuntu for me), have your browser/editor/terminal in fullscreen, and you can get back to work. The slow processor does struggle with our companies rails app though...
jamesbritt 14y ago
My dream machine was a 12" Toshiba Portege with an extra battery, 1920x1200 rez and a trackpoint. Great form-factor, especially on planes. It eventually started falling apart, and I never found quite the same thing again.
dsirijus 14y ago
I do it on 12". Absolutely no need for any more for development, not even one bit. Now, design work obviously needs a lot more, but that's offset by the fact that my HP 2730p is also a tablet with stylus, which made me extremely productive in dishing out graphics.
pirateking 14y ago
My 13" Macbook Air serves me well as my primary development and design workstation. For purely development, I would love to use an 11" Air, but Photoshop is a bit too cramped on it. My 27" display gets used for watching movies mostly these days. I do go through phases though, and will probably try using the large screen for work again eventually. For now, I find the smaller screen less distracting.

tsm 14y ago

"Configuration as code". In other words, "configuration as plain text files". Another innovation that's actually been in *nix since forever. As a result of this, I can turn any computer into a me-friendly machine in about an hour. Install my favorite Openbox-based distro (Crunchbang), copy over dotfiles I've already customized, and install every package from a list that's been exported from my main laptop.

fierarul 14y ago

>Project Sputnik, a product of Dell’s new internal incubation fund, features not just full hardware support for Ubuntu on the XPS13, but a notion of “profiles” for developers They could have stopped at "full hardware support for Ubuntu". Nobody cares about their crapware. Just two weeks ago I bought an HP ProBook for a colleague for the sole reason of being Linux certified. It came with a Suse license but he's using it with Ubuntu. The one Dell laptop I could have bought came with an Ubuntu version from 2010.

seanp2k2 14y ago
Agreed that I don't want/need their crapware. It'd be great if companies that make hardware had a clue what people wanted, but that's why Apple is going to be the biggest company in the world while IBM lays off seventy-some percent of their workforce, HP has 100 models of notebook that all do the same thing, and Lenovo forgets what made their older laptops so nice.
- bretpiatt 14y ago
  IBM and Apple compete about as often as GM and Boeing do. One builds servers, systems, and writes business software wrapping it all with services and the other sells end user devices, media, and minimal software wrapping it all in a brand LVMH is jealous of.
- pdelgallego 14y ago
  One of them developed Siri and the other Watson.
- Drbble 14y ago
  Lenovo's good laptops were IBM. IBM sold out the Thinkpad brand and it died.
Karunamon 14y ago
Not sure if I'd classify it as crapware.. they're going to be legitimate and useful tools, not "CLICK HERE TO INSTALL OFFICE 2012!!"

dman 14y ago

I think this thread is a great example of why developers are notoriously tough customers (myself included)

pm90 14y ago
Actually, the things that we are asking for are not that difficult for a hardware vendor to implement. Besides, we usually tend to buy the higher end models rather than the entry level ones, so the profit margins are higher for each developer

alasdair_young 14y ago

The worst part for me is that the XPS13 only allows a MAXIMUM of 4GB of RAM. This is ridiculous for a dev box, especially when I want to run a VM or two.

jakeonthemove 14y ago
They all say that - I'm 99% sure you can install at least 6 GB, if not more...
- dlwh 14y ago
  Aren't the ram chips usually soldered to the mobo on ultrabooks? Crucial indicates they can't upgrade ram on the XPS13. And a little googling says soldered RAM... Nothing on the Dell website suggests they can upgrade past 4.
  - jakeonthemove 14y ago
    Damn, you're right, the XPS 13 is non-upgradeable. the Samsung Series 9 and Series 5, as well as the Toshiba Z830 are, though...
encoderer 14y ago
The 4GB is (obv) the limit of the Macbook Air as well. I agree, running a VM leaves you at the redline. Running 2? Good luck. I do run with a single Ubutnu VM nearly 100% of the time, but I skimp on it and only allocate 384MB usually. Sometimes I'll bump it up depending on what I'm doing in it. All that said, I do wish that I could have 8 GB in my Air. But, with the extremely fast SSD, it's not essential. I use this machine as my daily driver (for mostly web-based Python, PHP and Go development) and love it. It's honestly my favorite development machine ever. I've never enjoyed developing on-the-go more, and at home plugged into a Cinema display it's a real joy to use.

davidw 14y ago

In the spirit of... well... "thinking differently" we might call it, I'll actually say I'm pretty happy with the Dells I've had. They're solid workhorses with relatively good value for the money I spent on them. Certainly, they are not glamorous or beautiful, but they work well, have good support, and have generally run Ubuntu pretty well. That said, if someone came along and really did good Linux support, I'd probably switch.

jamesbritt 14y ago
I've been pretty happy with my Dell laptops, running Ubuntu. But they lost me when they dropped WUXGA. That extra 200-pixel row may not matter to folks using their machine to watch movies, but it's missing developer real estate to me.
- davidw 14y ago
  Ouch, they have? That does stink, I have one of those, and love it. Sigh...
  - jamesbritt 14y ago
    I think you have to go to 17" or something to get WUXGA from them. It pains me that there's no good way to assemble or upgrade laptops to one's liking. It's pretty much take it or leave it.
- corin_ 14y ago
  Ditto - and it's not just a developer thing, it's an "anything except video watching" thing. I hate the shift towards widescreen in laptops for pretty much any activity, and it's only bearable in desktop monitors because there's no real size limit on them, so it can be adding width rather than just reducing height.

mindcrime 14y ago

Great, now offer Fedora on it and you might have a shot at selling me one. I'm in the market for a new laptop Real Soon Now, and I will definitely be looking for something to run Fedora on.

brandon 14y ago

The biggest possible upside to this project will be if Shuttleworth & Company get on board to support the XPS13 as a first class Ubuntu platform because of Sputnik. And when I say first class, I don't mean "give it the Supported Platform stamp." I mean "respond to user reports of touchpad bugs" and "fix them."

pm90 14y ago
This is actually a pretty great Idea. I wouldn't mind paying a support fee instead of the ridiculous Windows License fee that I have to pay every time I buy a laptop (only to erase and install Ubuntu the moment it arrives). If only Dell had the courage to stand up to Microsoft...

agumonkey 14y ago

What would you think about a contemporary GRiD Compass? Emphasis on durability and ergonomy before slim-ness, providing : - Stronger structural material for laptop frame - Shock and torque absorbing bits around corners, and hinges - Stronger hinges that you can manipulate carelessly - Better ergonomics by balancing weight - More space for internal addition (PCIe, USB3) for modders - Ease of access to internal, repairability. - Easier heat dissipation aiming for 35-50C min-max range with minimal fan speed. Beside, add: A true 8bit IPS LCD. A thinkpad class keyboard. A nice vintage black box that handle 25 years of hackery without a glitch.

krakensden 14y ago

It would be nice if you could get them to ship it preinstalled.

glogla 14y ago

This is kind of sad. XPS 13 is not exactly good -- the display resolution is terrible, there's no ethernet port, and for ultrabook it is not very thin, feels real cheap in hands, and the keyboard is not very good. It's almost like someone tool everything bad from the ultrabook trend and nothing good from it. And when people won't care because the hardware is not worth it (especially when it's not that much cheaper than MBA), it will be interpreted as "no one wants linux".

diminish 14y ago
i agree, a developer ultrabook must be more modular, and more equipped.

jf781 14y ago

Big time developers have always said that OS X is a better Unix development environment than Linux. Dell is smart to come out with a power Linux development station. My friends have been replacing their unix workstations with Macintoshes. Mac OS X is basically plain Unix -BSD flavor. Now Dell is going there. Smart by Dell @furrier

warmfuzzykitten 14y ago

So I immediately went to the Dell website to check the XPS13. The only OS choices were Windows or Windows. Apparently they didn't announce Linux internally.

xxiao 14y ago

what's new here, because xps13 is a fancy ultrabook? i installed ubuntu on my laptops and they always worked fine, why is this big news. i might be missing something...

xando 14y ago

This is kind of interesting for me. I'm trying to find for myself a proper Linux machine. Right now on Dell e6410, a bit regret that I bought it. In my opinion nearest to the ideal developer machine on Linux is Lenovo X1 or X220. Screen 13": is enough, even 12" is enough. If you are kind of developer who moves his behind from meeting to meeting or spends some time on plains or conferences. 13" (max) is your choice. You can buy really cheap big monitors and plug you machine, in every place where you work. Processor and Memory: this is out of discussion i7 and 8GB ram. Memory is so cheep those days that giving developers less than 8GB is a sin. HDD: SSD 128. This works for me. I have external drives, as a developer I don't keep movies, games, photos on my computer. Graphic Card. I had a rule that if I'm using Linux I'm using Nvidia cards. This probably not true any more. I've heard from people that Intel Cards work well. But still, switching screens is done decently in NVIDIA drives. Screen: for me Glare. Battery: should follow at least MacBook Pro 13". which is 3-4h. Price if this will be more than 1400 $ people will buy MacBookPro. Ubuntu: I'm using Xubuntu. Unity still keeps me angry, and as smallest as possible number of installed programs. Because I'm developer it doesn't mean that I'm using Eclipse.

zerostar07 14y ago
X220 is really nice, as long as you use an external screen. Apart from being small, the screen (although bright) has a big aftereffect problem .
replax 14y ago
I am actually surprised that the battery only lasts 3-4h on a mbp on linux. on the x220 i get around 6h with the 6cell battery, obviously depending on use.
magnetikonline 14y ago
+1 to the NVIDIA requirement with Linux - when looking for a new Linux dev laptop, this was a must since I use an external monitor most of the time when docked - you can trust this will work 110% with NVIDIA - Intel GPU's have been a bit shaky with this in the past. But this might be better with newer Linux kernels/Xorg shipping with distros like Ubuntu 12.04. In the end, I went for a speced up Thinkpad T420 with i7/NVIDIA/8GB - works really, really well.

jakeonthemove 14y ago

I don't know, I think matching hardware to software is a stupid idea. Just focus on building the hardware as a platform, don't lock it down with custom BS solutions and let the software developers handle the software. What kind of developer doesn't have their own workflow and customize their own workstation to their needs? You just can't mass produce a one-model-fits-all laptop for developers... Of all Dell laptops, the Precision line is the only one I'd buy - the M6600 looks especially good now that HP abandoned the near-perfect design of the Elitebook 8740/8540w (just for the sake of a new design it seems)...

jebblue 14y ago

With Linux slowly growing in popularity among developers this is good news to me. Now if IT shops at large companies will start supporting Linux for developers more that would be cooler.

akmiller 14y ago

I'd like the ability to have 16GB of RAM in a machine that's the size of an Air or Ultrabook. It seems at the moment, that is impossible to find.

bookwormAT 14y ago

the negative and aggressive attitude in this thread is depressing. :-(

trafficlight 14y ago
Maybe Dell should have consulted their target market first.

rch 14y ago

The XPS13 doesn't really seem equipped to appeal to professional developers, but Dell might be specifically targeting the entry-level and enthusiast markets. I would have enjoyed having something along these lines in high school, for instance.

rickmb 14y ago

So their target audience is developers that are incapable of installing their own tools and that are cool with the cheap look and flimsy build quality of Dell laptops. Unfortunately, that market actually exists, and nine out of ten times that lack of caring for quality is reflected in their work.

vibrunazo 14y ago
Official driver support matters. You won't run the risk of buying a notebook, install Linux, find that driver xyz doesn't work, then find the store won't take it back because reinstalling the os voids warranty. And waste money. This is a big risk when shopping for Linux laptops. Specially for cheaper brands that you can't easily find online reports about whether it works or not. Official support makes shopping much easier.
- kijin 14y ago
  > reinstalling the os voids warranty That's why you should make a disk image before you wipe Windows. Plug in a Linux Live USB, use dd + gzip to create a bit-for-bit copy of your hard drive (it should compress well because there's no data on the machine), keep the copy in an external hard drive, and then wipe the internal hard drive. Nobody at Best Buy will know what you did.

za 14y ago

They can start by unfucking the internal/external display mode key. http://www.osnews.com/story/23202/The_win_p_Mess_Will_Microsoft_Ever_Learn_ http://www.osnews.com/story/23202/The_win_p_Mess_Will_Micros...

auggierose 14y ago

Just get a Macbook Pro 17 inch. Best machine ever. The only serious laptop for developers ;-) Bought it last week, and did almost go for a Macbook Air after the Linus endorsement. I am so happy I didnt!

dsirijus 14y ago

Standard size function keys. No media keys, only volume/mute control. Trackpoint is a must. I can even live without a track/touch pad.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

va_coder 14y ago

Someone must be able to make a viable business model out of selling Ubuntu on Ultrabooks.

rbanffy 14y ago

If I'm allowed to design my dream laptop, I'd make it have - a 13 inch 1080x1920 screen - two video outputs (for when its docked) - an SSD for the OS and my tools - an average hard disk for my data - a good keyboard - enough memory - a camera and audio - 3G data (or better) - Bluetooth for the keyboard and trackpad when it's docked. And the rest of it would be a humongous battery. And power it with an Atom-class processor so that the battery lasts a day. Leave the software alone. Make it pretty.

badragon 14y ago

I would buy a Ubuntu laptop. I feel like a fool that I spent money on a MacBook Pro. I was too lazy to get a Linux laptop working.

valugi 14y ago

this is a advertising stunt and a scam. They see now a market niche and probably got a free hand from M$ to produce a laptop without Windows. After years of not being allowed to choose your OS I find this insulting from Dell.

gaius 14y ago

Why would a laptop running Ubuntu be for "developers"? Not to get into a distro flamewar, but (for example) many large organizations use RHEL on their servers, and developers on the back-end would want to develop there so it will run on their customer's systems. They should be clearer that it's for "web developers".

dsrguru 14y ago

Linux developers by and large don't care what distro or software comes preloaded. They intend to replace it with their favorite setup the moment they take the machine out of the box. What they want is a keyboard designed for productivity and hardware that is fully compatible with the Linux kernel. Some will only use free (libre) drivers. Some want a large touchpad, others just want a pointing stick, and others don't use a pointing device at all. Many want easy access to the inside of their computer. Then there are always the regular consumer issues like how pretty the machine is, does it have bluetooth, an optical drive, etc. All laptops have a tradeoff among portability (size and battery), performance (CPU, GPU, RAM, and display), and price (low is good). Most great laptops only excel in two of those categories. Different developers choose a different two.

maebert 14y ago

And there I am, wishing the headline was "Dell Announces a Linux Laptop Developed for Designers" instead.

reirob 14y ago

A developers laptop without a trackpoint, crappy keyboard and a screen that does not provide much vertical space? Other than this, I welcome Laptops designed for developers with Linux.