Hacker News Reader

Comment by debo_ | Hacker News Reader

Author doesn't cite how they decided that only MacBook or Framework would fit their needs. I've never had trouble with Dell laptops with any Linux distro I cared about. If I wanted a powerful Linux laptop, I'd probably look at something like Dell's premium model:

https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/laptops-ultrabooks/dell-16-p...

View on HN

I bought a few refurbished Dell laptops/desktops in recent years, and while older models hold fine, more recent models broke down quite easily within a year. Sure all of them are refurbished models (purchased through official website) that cost from $400 CAD to $800 CAD but I'm sketchy of the build quality of recent models.

Good to know. My most recent is from 2021 and it holds up quite well.

What model did you buy? Was it a new one? I'm looking for anything that can live up to 5+ years. I have seen all kinds of issues, and the most frustrating thing is, most of the issues are small but deal-breaking.

The XPS 13". I like highly portable laptops. The hardware has held up quite well.

Thanks. I always bought workstations, maybe I should try XPS instead.

My first laptop back in 2005ish or so was a Dell Latitude. Ran XP until Vista came out and I switch to Linux which it ran for a couple years until it was stolen from my car. I recall unimaginable pain and suffering due to wifi, which, IIRC, I side-stepped by buying replacing the stock Broadcom card with an Atheros card and I'm certain is not nearly much of an issue as it used to be.

2005 is a really long time ago.

Yeah, 2 decades!

I was just enjoying a bit of nostalgia for that old clunky grey laptop.

I regularly installed debian back then, and it would take me a week to get things working pretty much every time.

Reminds me of how the MC in Pantheon uses an old clunker :)

When it comes to WiFi on Linux, 2005 experiences are irrelevant to today.

Things have come a long way!

For years after I would only buy Atheros WiFi cards, these days its usually Intel ones.

I've had two Dell XPS laptops (a 13" 2015 model and a 15" 2-in-1 2018 model). Both had significant touchpad issues: not sure if that's a driver thing or a hardware thing, but both would sometimes act as if there was a phantom touch somewhere on the trackpad which messed with my actual input. One of them had a keyboard where key caps of frequently used keys (super, shift, ctrl) would split in two after a ~year of use; this was not fixed under warranty, I paid out of pocket after a year of ownership, another year later it happened again.

After those two Dell XPS laptops, I got a MacBook Pro 2021 with an M1 Pro instead of getting the keyboard fixed again. No issues. Linux support isn't great, but at least macOS is a relatively competent UNIX so it's fine.

I might consider another non-Mac laptop in the future. But it's not gonna be a Dell.

I think I may have the same 2015 13" model you are describing. Which distro were you running out of curiosity?

Mostly Arch Linux at the time, though I've had Elementary OS on it as well. I used to run i3 (and eventually Sway) on it, which worked well since I could have a keyboard-centric workflow and not rely o bc the trackpad.

Huh. I wonder if they were both hardware issues. I've run arch on my laptop with no issues.

I have had many Dells that have been great with FreeBSD and with Linux. You do have to do your research though.

Frankly, I wouldn't expect any touchscreen to work with Linux. That's not a Dell issue though.

Interestingly, the touch screen of the 2-in-1 worked really well! I often relied on the touch screen to do light web browsing when the trackpad was acting up.

The XPS I bought in 2018 has a Wacom digitiser for touch/pen and I believe those are very well supported.

A clean install of Ubuntu and the touchscreen and all pen features worked perfectly and never had a hiccup since.

Dell build quality and longevity vary wildly.

My XPS 15 had a host of issues, all of which occurred commmonly but weren’t knowable at the time of purchase since it was early.

1. Battery swelling which wrecks the touchpad

2. Sleep issues so it would turn into a furnace in a backpack

3. Screen and keys randomly stops responding

4. Creaky body

5. Screen gets weird temporary burn in.

I did briefly look into the XPS series but it seems this series isn't really a thing anymore? I also found a lot of comments describing recurring issues with the trackpad (or was it the keyboard? I can't remember). Basically it seemed like too much of a gamble.

I'm not a massive fan of the hardware or anything, but most Dell laptops (including this premium one I linked) are tested to work with Ubuntu. If you're ok to use an Ubuntu-derivative as your distro, you should almost always have that as an option. Much like the Framework, it should be easily returnable if you have an issue.

Please don't trigger my Dell PTSD. This is garbage tier hardware designed to harass employees.

Nothing says quality like a display option with a picture comparable to a cheap portable DVD player from 2007.

This is a good call.

I wonder what this means:

> featuring up to 80W of performance

Probably marketing reading the power adapter

Yeah but why is marketing regarding the power adapter in the headline?

If your company demands/keeps buying the shittiest, cheapest plastic Dell laptops instead of XPSes or higher end Latitudes/Precisions, that's not Dell's fault.

My company uses XPSes and Precisions. They work great.

XPS are pretty mediocre build quality in my experience. Precisions are better.

How is Dell's firmware security story?

I can't think of many things I care less about than firmware security, so I am personally not sure.

Sure, it's only a place for permanent rootkits and bootkits to proliferate, why care about it at all?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com