Posted on 03/18/2016 8:01:34 PM PDT by markomalley
In a world of PCs dominated by Windows and Macs, Dell's line of "Project Sputnik" laptops with Ubuntu Linux have secured a cult following.
The latest Project Sputnik laptop is the XPS 13 Developer Edition, which shipped last week. With its sleek design, the XPS 13 brings a new, sexy look to otherwise dull Linux laptop designs.
The XPS 13 DE is also significant because it brings new technologies from the Mac OS and Windows to Linux laptops. The XPS 13 DE models have 4K screens, Intel Skylake chips and the Thunderbolt 3 interconnect, which are new to Linux laptops.
(snip)
The XPS 13 DE isn't limited to Ubuntu alone. Dell can certify XPS 13 to work with other Linux distributions, as many drivers developed for the laptop are "upstreamed" to the Linux kernel, George said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cio.com ...
I’m eyeing one of these for my next laptop.
I am almost ready for a new laptop, and all of mine run Ubuntu already. I hate Windows, if it wasn’t for Quickbooks for my business, I would never use it.
I tried loading Linux on an older Windows XP desktop without success. Didn’t want to spend the time to figure out why it wasn’t working, I know just enough about computers to frustrate myself. I would be interested in a pre-loaded laptop like this.
I had 2 Win 7 machines, one desktop and this hp laptop. About the time MS started pushing windows 10, I pulled the HDD’s out of both, replaced them with SSD drives and installed Linux Mint.
Everything I do, which is almost exclusively web browsing, works just as well on Linux as it did with Windows, including wireless connectivity and broadcasting to my TV from the laptop using chromecast.
For what I’m doing, Linux is now just as easy to use as Windows and I couldn’t be happier. Now I know for sure I’m the one that decides which version of the OS I want to run, not MS.
I upgraded to Win 10 on my HTPC, then started dual-booting Mint.
Mint does everything I need. I never boot it into 10 anymore.
The fact that it spies on you constantly is what pushed me over the edge.
Seems a bit overpriced. Prices range from $979 at Amazon.com up to 1599.99.
I have seen other Linux laptops in the $500 range.
$899 right now at Dell’s website.
what they need to do is offer them with professionally set up “GPU Passthrough” so that they can run windows in a virtual machine on native graphics card so that users can run a VM and run windows programs as well- Linux is fine, but windows still rules as far as gaming and programs go (ie Photoshop, and others)
All of the ‘workarounds’ to get windows software working do not cut it as far as running smoothly liek on windows based machiens-
There needs to be a ‘best of both worlds’ solution, which i think woudl draw larger crowds
If you want to try again, without making a major commitment, you can make a bootable USB flashdrive using unetbootin from
https://sourceforge.net/projects/unetbootin/
There’s a brief 2 minute video tutorial but the girl has a heavy accent.
In essence, unetbootin is a windows executable that copies a “live” Linux distribution to your flash drive that you can boot to.
I used unetbootin to see if my machines were compatible with Linux before I decide to go full time with it.
I went with Linux Mint and had no trouble at all with configuration or setups. Whatever changes you make to configuration only last until you reboot.
If you want to try Linux again without going all in, this is the best way to go.
[[I tried loading Linux on an older Windows XP desktop without success.]]
It’s really really easy to install- what version of linux did you try? Soem are quite hard to isntall- soem are very easy- Download Linux Mint or Ubuntu and give it a try (I prefer linux mint cinnamon as it’s not far different from windows)
also try just runnign it in a ‘live version’ off the CD IF you just want to see how it looks and feels— the iso of some linux versions allow you to run it off CD without installing it
[[Everything I do, which is almost exclusively web browsing, works just as well on Linux as it did with Windows, ]]
Yup- it does everythign you need it to do that windows can do online-
What I did was install windows 10 from their free download ISO- then installed linux right along side it- I now dual boot- for when i want to run windows only programs- but i don’t allow windows to access the Internet- when i want to use Internet I boot back into linux
I was in the same position a little while ago. I found a solution that works for me. Quickbooks offers a hosted solution (this is not the same as Quickbooks online) that allows you to access all of your information from whatever browser/OS you want. There is a monthly fee for the hosting service and of course Quickbooks isn't free but overall it is an excellent way to use Linux with Quickbooks and only one license is needed for using it from any of your computers, not limited to one installation.
another thing you can do is run windows in a virtual machine (VMWare Workstation, or Virtual box) and run quickbooks from there- it shoudl run absolutely fine i na virutal machine as it’s not overly graphics intensive liek a game or photoshop woudl be
That is my concern with Linux — having to learn a new system to do things I can rapidly do in Windows.
The trouble with Windows is that it is moving away from productivity toward glitz and glitter.
I still use Win7. I checked out Win10 and it was a boondoggle.
I can load older Windows programs (Word, Excel, Frontpage, Publisher) and do what I need in short order. To load the newer ribbon menu version is crap. It takes 10 minutes just to figure out where they hid the various functions.
I suspect there would be similar with Linux. General stuff, such as watching a video or typing a letter or viewing an image would be easy. But doing actual productive work would have a hefty learning curve.
I currently like to take a TV program, save it to TiVo or Hauppage (.ts) and shrink it to work easily as an MP4 on a widescreen TV. It takes some effort, but I can do it on my Win7 machine in about 15 minutes. I wouldn’t have any idea where to start on Linux.
This is a top of the line laptop. There are laptops that cost less than this just like there are cars that cost less than a BMW.
[[But doing actual productive work would have a hefty learning curve.]]
Not really- not if you run them in a virtual machine running windows- it will take you a few days at most to learn how to set up the virtual machine, but once it’s set up- all you do is run it, and click whatever programs you have installed inside of the windows VM just like you would normally
[[I currently like to take a TV program, save it to TiVo or Hauppage (.ts) and shrink it to work easily as an MP4 on a widescreen TV. It takes some effort, but I can do it on my Win7 machine in about 15 minutes. I wouldn’t have any idea where to start on Linux.]]
That i have no idea how to do- never even knew you coudl do that lol-
It’s been awhile so my memory isn’t fresh. I think it was some version of Ubuntu. I got an initial screen but I couldn’t get any farther. Since nothing I tried to do got me any farther and I didn’t know what to do I admitted defeat. The machine is an HP a1690n box, Media Center XP.
I was just nosing around the net and looking at what you are suggesting. I’d like to try it again and I think a flashdrive is what I’ll try.
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