Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

> There is, of course, the Dell XPS Developer Edition models that come preloaded with Ubuntu 16.04 (or just in the past few days, Ubuntu 18.04). Though for my purposes I went with the Dell XPS 13 preloaded with Windows 10 due to running some benchmarks there prior to wiping the disk, faster shipping time going from B&H Photo Video over Dell.com, and running Fedora Workstation as my preferred main OS rather than Ubuntu.

Unfortunately, from what I've been told by one of the guys in Dell's Sputnik program, they gauge interest on the Linux Dell laptops strictly by the number of people who buy Developer Edition laptops. So the author is not helping the cause by buying a Windows 10 laptop and loading Linux onto it.

Believe me, I get it. The Windows ones go on sale, while the Developer Editions pretty much never do. I'm guilty of buying a Win10 one myself before this was explained to me. Just passing that info on. If you want to support the future of Linux on Dell laptops, I strongly urge you to buy the ones with Linux pre-loaded, from Dell.

It really is perverse to get a discount when you go with the $120 OS.

Did Dell stop giving online customisation option to users? I bought my first computer in 2007 - it was a Dell Vostro laptop and if I remember correctly I had placed the order online and I could choose whether I want Windows or Linux on it (or maybe I am confusing one for the other). I think I could even make some hardware choices too.

No, you can still do it from different pages. I don't fully understand why. But if you go to the main page for the XPS 13 and 15 you can customize them after picking a base version...

Yes, it's messed up. Just as you describe, nobody should get the Developer Edition. The vanilla edition is regularly on sales for hundreds of dollars less. Also, many attractive configurations aren't available at all with the Developer Edition. Biggest example is obviously the 15" XPS, because why would developers care about screen size for a development workstation, right?

I'd have hoped Dell realizes this, and doesn't make the braindead assumption that only DE customers are interested in Linux. Most people I know who bought an XPS bought the vanilla (Windows) edition, and then installed Ubuntu - which is easy.

If Dell slips up and, say, introduces hardware not supported by Linux, it will lose all these customers.

> So the author is not helping the cause by buying a Windows 10 laptop and loading Linux onto it.

Yes, let's all donate $100+ to Dell to help the cause. In the mean time Dell will continue with its flawed business strategy for Linux laptops by always pricing them above Windows laptops and never giving any discount.

Do you know what the best way is to get my hands on one in the EU, preferably with a US keyboard layout?

Buy one on ebay and have them ship it, use a forwarding service, ask a state side friend to buy one and ship it to you, or take a quick vacation and pick one up.

EDIT. It would be 3% PayPal fee + Cost of shipping ($50 or so) is you asked a friend to do it.

Dell offer a choice of local or US keyboard:

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/laptops/xps-13-9370-lap...

This is probably a better plan than importing something without paying taxes. If Brexit happens, there's still Ireland for an English Dell website in the EU.

(Like most other European layouts, the British/Irish one will mean the ISO layout rather than the American (ANSI) layout. Other than the additional key giving space for £ and ¬, there's not much difference; so you might prefer that if you want to keep a vertical-shape enter key.)

There's a 9370 on mindfactory.de, doesn't say it's the dev edition, but the os is specified as Ubuntu. And the exact configuration I want, i7 16/512 FHD. The price seems ok, the only flaw being the german layout with the vertical enter key.

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