Do Devs Need Custom Linux Laptops? Dell Thinks So
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As Apple built a beautiful consumer OS on top of a *nix core, Google could build a power-user OS on top of Linux for the business / developer / smart, skilled people-with-work-to-do market that its PhDs ought to understand more than they understand consumers.
With their money, they could come up with the next gen business platform and build into it the web services orientation they live for and make the hardware / OS / drivers combo to rival Apple, but for influencers instead of the consumers. (They have enough money to buy nvidia if they can't get Linux drivers.)
Who else is better positioned to produce the next gen power-user platform as Windows fades and Apple makes it clear they are a consumer electronics company?
Well, not exclusively, if I recall correctly, they get to choose Goobuntu, Windows, or OS X.
Also, I believe they stopped offering Windows a couple of years ago.
There really isn't a reason for them to release it externally. Just use Ubuntu LTS if you want what they're using.
This is a very nice idea (although with mobile share plans, we may see 4G support gain popularity in laptops, making this less of a factor). However, I feel that the hardware was neglected to the point that software gimmicks can't make up for it.
I wrote about my experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon on HN a week back[0], and the hardware simply blows the XPS 13 out of the water. The fact that installing Xubuntu (which is much more pleasant for devs and power users than Ubuntu) on an X1 Carbon is laughably easy doesn't help Dell's case.
my requirements for a Laptop are:
- it must be cheap, $300 is fine, because a Laptop can easily be stolen, or damaged.
- it must be light, less than 2lbs, because I don't own a car, and still want to carry my laptop around
- it must boot Linux from network to boot into backup cycle.
- the hardware must be 100% supported by free drivers.
- it should not bundle a Microsoft tax.
I don't care much about the preinstalled OS. I'll replace it anyway. I see no sense in bundling a spyware Ubuntu, and even less in some cloud service crapware on a developers laptop. I don't know if other developers think similar, but I fear that the hyped Sputnik will just give Dell the excuse to abandon Linux laptops again, because of low sales.
The class of $300, 2lbs Linux laptops created fear for Intel and Microsoft instead. Thats why they are no longer sold.
No, the reason they generally aren't sold is because consumers don't want them -- most consumers would rather have a tablet, as evidenced by sales. It's not some massive conspiracy, it's just that your needs are not the needs of most consumers.
So every system has a backup before it even exists on its own disk, and installation is just a normal restore of a backup.
Also on Chromebook, specs tells some funny CPU, and only 2+16GB of SSD. Thats much lower than an old eeepc1000. Especially as it likely ships some funny crippleware, and not a minimal Debian, Arch or Gentoo.
Clarification added later that I never anticipated to be needed: my point here is that there are more significant departures from mainstream needed to call something a "custom Linux laptop for developers": most likely, significant hardware changes.
I don't understand how you can be snarky about a company that picked an OS (I, for one, am shocked that they picked a popular distribution) and then got a good set of drivers and tools for it, packaged it up and want to support it.
If you want to install something else, install something else. If you don't want to pay the Dell or the Sputnik tax, then go buy something else. I don't get the shitting on Dell for trying to accommodate another market segment.
* Dell Price $1449: http://www.dell.com/us/soho/p/xps-13-linux/pd
But for the rest of us, for instance in Canada (where I'm automatically redirected):
* Dell Price $2,344: http://www.dell.com/ca/enterprise/p/xps-13-linux/pd
On the other hand, the MBA averages (both Canada/US) at ~1199$.
I don't feel embarrassed.
Furthermore, you should keep in mind that you're not comparing two machines that are identical spec-wise. The Macbook Air has an i5 processor whereas the XPS 13 has an i7, and memory/storage-wise, the comparable Macbook Air would be the model that sells for $1499 in the US.
In other words, in the US, the XPS 13 is comparable to the Macbook Air that seems to cost $1,699 when I enter in all the upgrades on Apple's website.