Sputnik is the nickname for Dell's newest Linux laptop – the XPS 13 Developer Edition, a sleek ultrabook that runs Ubuntu out of the box.Home Support WorkCentre 3025 Drivers & Downloads. But with its project Sputnik, Dell has really embraced open source software in a way unique to all PC makers. Dell has long been one of the most Linux-friendly PC manufacturers. Also, this question addresses a question about multi-touch support, but the first answer tells us that the touchscreen generally works (as also. Install Linux On Dell Xps 10 Tablet Full Functionality On Is there any way to put the latest ubuntu onto the dell xps 12 and still have full functionality on it in both laptop mode and tablet mode.
![]() Install Linux On Dell Xps 10 Software In AOut of the box, Ubuntu 12.04 does indeed just work. Dell is trying to create a computer where everything just works – Linux without the tedious process of getting all your hardware humming perfectly.And I'm happy to say that Dell has pulled it off. I thought 20.10 was a better option due the the newer kernel looking at issues other people had.Dell's newest Linux laptop is a sleek ultrabook that runs Ubuntu out of the box.The XPS 13 Developer Edition is aimed squarely at people already working in Linux and already comfortable with the platform, but who'd rather do without all the fiddling. A $5 USB SD card reader fixes that, but it eats up a precious USB port and frankly, for a laptop priced north of $1,500, there should be a third USB port. There is no matte option.The real hardware disappointment though is the lack of ports – just two USB ports, a DisplayPort and a headphone jack. The screen is also glossy Gorilla Glass which makes it strong, but prone to glare. And while the specs are respectable, many developers may want more RAM and perhaps a larger storage drive, neither of which are currently available in the developer edition. Following Apple's lead, none of that hardware is upgradeable. The ultrabook features hardware from the higher end of the XPS line – 8GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics 4000 and a Intel i7-3537U CPU that clocks in at 2.00Gz. Search mac for files bigger thanIf you travel a lot and frequently have to connect to weak Wi-Fi signals, the XPS is probably not the best choice.On the plus side, battery life was good. A bit of research revealed that this is an issue across the XPS line, likely a result of construction materials and antenna location rather a problem with Ubuntu, but it's definitely a snag. Worse, in places the others had only two bars, the XPS failed to connect at all. Where my MacBook Pro, Asus netbook and iPad would all pull four bars, the Dell never managed to top two. Dell's wireless card works just fine in Ubuntu, but reception was terrible. As with nearly every company that works with Ubuntu, Dell is sticking with Canonical's Long Term Support releases, which lag a bit behind the Ubuntu mainline. Suffice to say that battery life is pretty good for a Linux machine, and if you're willing to dive deep into the power management config files you can probably coax even more out of it.The first thing I did when the XPS arrived was upgrade Ubuntu, first to 12.10 and then to the just released 13.04. More intensive tasks like compiling software will obviously eat up battery life much faster. Of course, how helpful you find Dell's developer tools will depend somewhat on the tools you need and how you work. But it's worth bearing in mind that if Ubuntu isn't your distro of choice, then the XPS 13 DE isn't necessarily any better than any other piece of hardware – you'll likely still be wrestling with drivers.If you wipe away Ubuntu, you'll also miss out on much of what makes the Developer Edition great. But personally I found nothing particularly compelling about the latest release, so I restored to the more stable 12.04 release using the built-in 4GB recovery partition, which made things fast and painless.I also managed to install the Ubuntu-based Mint Linux 15, and while the function buttons never worked for me, everything else seemed to be fine. While installing software in Ubuntu with apt-get is a fast, painless process it's still nice to find that many of your must-have apps – like tmux, VirtualBox, Python, Ruby and loads of extra tools for both languages – are already part of Dell's stock Ubuntu build. For testing on other platforms, I use VirtualBox.Dell has never announced exactly what sort of developers the Developer Edition is geared toward, but most of the included extra packages were tools I would have installed anyway. Instead, I rely on tmux to split my fullscreen terminal window into a variety of panes and tabs that run Python interpreters, vim, mutt and other command-line tools I rely on for work. As with most developers I meet these days, I don't use a monolithic IDE like Eclipse. You're working with a team, and you want everyone to have access to the same tools. The Profile tool gives you a way to clone and replicate a particular development environment and share it with others.For example, let's say you've set up and configured the perfect Android dev environment with all the packages you need. Far more useful and sophisticated is Dell's Profile tool, something you'll need to install yourself. But that's really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Dell's efforts. Free sonic games for macBut in three separate calls, I never spent the legendary hours on the phone in "Dell Hell," and the support staff was knowledgeable about Linux and the XPS 13 DE.The internal SSD and 8GB of RAM made for one of the fastest Ubuntu laptops I've tested. Granted I didn't have an actual hardware failure, nor could I test the on-site service. For $250 more, you can extend that to three years.While Dell's support line may be something of a running joke among nerds, support for the XPS 13 DE was, in my brief testing, just fine. The XPS 13 DE comes with a year of Dell's "ProSupport" service, which gets you 24/7 tech support (North American-based even) and next-business-day on-site servicing if you need it. It's still a work in progress (check out the GitHub page for more details), but eventually, Dell's Linux developers hope to offer a "signature series" of profiles which will allow developers to clone their environments and share them with others.The other major benefit of the XPS is actual support for a Linux-based machine. ![]() The XPS is a great Ubuntu laptop, but not great enough to justify the extra cost.WIRED Linux without hardware issues. Other PCs in this $1,300-$1,400 range are available from Samsung and Lenovo, as well.All this makes it about $200 or $300 more expensive than the norm. The Asus UX32VD can be had for around $1,400 with 10GB RAM and a dual-drive arrangement (24GB SSD and 500 GB platter), and that model lets you upgrade the hardware. A little too rich for what you get. No way to upgrade the hardware. Decent enough battery life.TIRED Poor Wi-Fi performance.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorFred ArchivesCategories |