Here's a look Inside Dell's strategy for Linux PCs

CIO ^ | 3/18/16 | Agam Shah

[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.

[ShadowAce]

[Pelham]

Thanks. I’m not sure what CPU is in it. Could be an AMD. It’s 2005 vintage whatever it is.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

Glad to see that some OEMs are starting to have Linux as an option.

i'd be happy if they just produced units without an operating system that will fully support Linux. This way i can do a fresh install of the OS, and not have to worry about what kind of mischief the manufacturer has made with the software. The hardware of course...you pays your money, you places your bet.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I have to think that with all the stuff around windoze pushing unwanted updates and forcing people to upgrade to windoze 10 people are hungry to free themselves from the clutches of Redmond.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Why not find another machine to load Linux on....There are switches to shave the Monitor ,keyboard ,mouse and audio between the two machines by using Hot keys or a witch , puushbutton,

Look for KVM switches....I have used some good ones from IOGEAr.

Much easuier than Daul Booting ,,,,etc,,,,

Newegg and Microcenter have specials running all the time on refurbished machines for some very good prices,

Lot of OLD Corporate Machines showing up....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I remember those days,...Things are much better now.

I use Gnome 3 because of the zoom in the accessibility options,,,,fantastic aid for us Low Vision people,

Current;y running an Aussie version of Fedora,(KORARO)...,much better for me than Ubuntu,....

I do have a 39 inch Seiki 4k TV and a R9 285 Radeon that address the screen at 3840 x 2160 resolution and is driven thru the HDMI port.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I hate Windows, if it wasn’t for Quickbooks for my business, I would never use it.

I made the switch 3 months ago. Quicken was the only thing holding up the switch. I set up Linux Mint 17.2 on a used Dell Optiplex and am now using PlayOnLinux to run Quicken. It works like a champ. You might want to try it.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Look for KVM switches....I have used some good ones from IOGEAr.

That's what I'm using. One XP PC and one Linux using the same mouse, keyboard & monitor. Works great. I rarely use Windows XP these days.

[eyeamok]

Hey Thanks, I tried Crossover, but no go. I do have it running in virtual box on Ubuntu, just haven’t made the full switch. I will checkout PlayonLinux.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I had considered Crossover but I'm cheap. Plus...I stumbled on PlayOnLinux and was happy to see it is free. It is much the same as Crossover since it uses WINE under the covers.

Crossover gave my Quicken Basic 2005 a Bronze rating so I wasn't hopeful. But it has worked wonderfully so far.