Dell refreshes XPS 13 and XPS 15, and debuts XPS 12 tablet hybrid | Hacker News Reader

Dell refreshes XPS 13 and XPS 15, and debuts XPS 12 tablet hybrid

arstechnica.com

10 pointsn10006 comments

The Dell website can't stand the storm it seems. Apple is pushing me so hard away with all the bugs (kernel panics for many Intel HD 4000 GPUs) in OS X and the ridiculous design decisions in the MBPs (Ethernet, antiglare anyone?) that I am considering Windows / Linux for development for the first time in my life... The Dell XPS seem to become a very reasonable alternative.

I recently purchased a Dell(not a XPS though) and develop primarly on Ubuntu. Unity has gone long way in terms of usability and i'm totally fine with it. And you don't really miss out on dev features compared to OS X.

For those out there looking for a developer edition/or to run linux, rumors are these refreshed/new units are no longer carrying the troublesome Broadcom components that were causing kernel panics. These units were designated as "9343/XPS 13 Early 2015".

If your considering picking up a used XPS13 9343 on the cheap and plan to install Linux - be forewarned, we are waiting on BIOS A06 to fix the keyboard jumping issue.

A great source of insight on the Dell XPS13 / Linux program is available at Barton Georges blog - http://bartongeorge.net - he is the founder/lead of Project Sputnik (Dell's internal effort to create the ultimate Linux/Ubuntu developer laptop).

I have an XPS 13, and it's the only windows laptop I've ever had that can deal with the dev work I do and is comparable to the Mac. An update can only be a good thing.

I like the XPS line myself (especially since they are probably the best laptops you can buy pre-loaded with Linux), but as for pure Windows dev, I'll have to wait and see what the reviews are for the Surface Book. I think that could give the XPS line a run for their money.

I totally agree, the Surface should give them a run for their money. Whilst the XPS was by far the best Windows laptop I've ever had (fast boot up, fast etc. Good graphics support) It still had some flaky aspects. Sleep resume was erratic and the wireless adaptor power saving didn't know what to do sometimes - so I did have to reboot to fix some problems. It also had a monitor colour temperature issue - sometimes it couldn't work out what the correct setting was, or their was a problem with the firmware, I dunno, but I used to get subtle magenta then green then magenta casts on the screen. It wasn't bad enough to worry about, but still not good. Aaaand It borked one time, so I had to restore from backup. I've never have to do anything on my 3 year old MBP.

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