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.
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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 ...
You’re definitely right about having to learn the new system. It’s that way with anything, but it’s always a pain. However, once I did learn it, it was definitely worth the trouble. Especially since MS changes silly stuff in Windows that makes you re-memorize how to use a lot of things for little/no reason fairly often.
Off the top of my head, I think the TV stuff you’re doing would be far easier on Linux and could be easily automated with command line tools and a little ingenuity. It would take some learning and maybe a little cursing for a few days, but you’d never have to waste 15 minutes on it again once you did.
My TV setup works differently than what yours sounds like, but is entirely automated. I update the code a couple times a year to add features and address the occasional bug, but it just works seamlessly all the rest of the time. It is a beautiful thing.
I only use Windows for a few programs I need to use sometimes and I do that in a Virtualbox VM.
Dell has been known to refuse to work with gun related businesses, and at one time had a link to the old “Handgun Control, Inc.” on their website.
Do not trust Dell.
I have a 10 year old laptop that is still running strong because of Ubuntu. Started getting BSODs 6 years ago and so I decided to make the leap.
I have been running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on this laptop, an HP ProBook 4540s for nearly 3 years with great results. It has an Intel i5 processor with 8 Gb of memory and an 750 Gb hard drive.
I went to the local computer store and bought the machine with Windoze 7 already installed, I blew it away, reinstalled the Win 7 system with a GPT partition table instead of the usual MBR disklabel and left plenty of room for Linux. That allows me up to 128 partitions instead of the usual 4.
I have the windoze 7, Ubuntu 14.04LTS, CentOS 6, and room for more. I am going to upgrade the CentOS 6 to CentOS 7 soon and add OpenSuse.
Of course, you don’t have to do like I did to get a good Linux machine. You can look at emperorlinux.com, thelinuxlaptop.com, zareason.com, or system76.com, all of whom sell Linux laptops and desktop machines.
I can tell you the Windows 7 rarely gets booted as I use the Ubuntu system most of the time.
Dell is a very anti-gun company. Make your purchases appropriately.
I have an old netbook. Took the XP off and loaded Linux Mint on it. Runs better than it did with XP.
No thanks. It’s a hack job. I realize HP is making a play here, but so far it’s a fledgling attempt. Why make your wallet their QA department?
Show us the battery life figures on a Sputnik laptop, HP. Then show benchmarks. Show me its hardware peripheral support. Then show me it’s not going into thermal meltdown when you start taxing its CPU and Video subsystem. That’s the current state of Linux in laptops, unfortunately.
If you don’t want Windows on your notebook and you’re spending more than a comparable MacBook/MacBook Air/MacBook Pro Retina to construct an Ubuntu/Mint laptop using an HP or Dell, you’re a goofchop. Turn around and go the Apple Store and save yourself a boatload of heartache.
Seems a bit overpriced.
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Well it is an “XPS” which generally means gaming quality high performance.... but I’d love to see DELL sell a business quality laptop with Linux for a price difference equal to their cost on a windows license.
I’ll have to load it onto a flashdrive on my Win 7 box and then move it over to the XP machine. It’s not clear to me if I need a separate installer to get it onto the XP system, some of the instructions say that it will, others seem to say otherwise.
Thank you. I will try it out.
A possible backup plan should the need arise.
ping
Just download the ISO file and a program called UNetbootin to your Win 7 machine.Inert your USB drive. Run UNetbootin. Choose DiskImage - ISO and point to the ISO file. Click OK. After it is done, go to your computer that you want to install Linux on and plug in the USB drive. You will have to go into the BIOS settings and change the boot order to make your USB drive first to boot. When it boots, it will run off of the USB ( so will be slow) . You can test it out. If you like it, there is an icon on the screen that says install. Just click that. It will give you different choices. If you just want Linux on the system, choose "delete hard drive and install Linux " . It is as simple as that. You will want it connected to the internet so when it installs it will update it.
Inert = Insert
The only problem I’ve seen is with older machines that don’t have PAE. I have an old Thinkpad that won’t load the latest Ubuntu but it does give a warning when you try to install the OS. Some Linux OS distros will work with non-PAE machines. I use Linux Mint for the most part, like it better than Ubuntu.
One other thing. After it is installed, remember to change your boot sequence back to the hard drive.
They are also a hrc.org national corporate partner.
No thanks.
PAE?
thanks
In computing, Physical Address Extension (PAE), sometimes referred to as Page Address Extension,[1] is a memory management feature for the IA-32 architecture. PAE was first introduced in the Pentium Pro. It defines a page table hierarchy of three levels, with table entries of 64 bits each instead of 32, allowing these CPUs to access a physical address space larger than 4 gigabytes.
Older computers don't have it. The more mainstream Linux aps make use of it. My old laptop will run Ubuntu 12 but not 14 because it lacks PAE. I believe that there are some tricks you can do to get around it but, for that machine, 12 is fine.
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