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Intel Operating Systems Hardware Linux

Windows 10 Haters: Try Linux On Kaby Lake Chips With Dell's New XPS 13 (pcworld.com) 234

Posted by msmash from the affinity-for-Linux-laptops dept.
Attention Linux enthusiasts. Your OS of your choice can finally work on laptops with Intel's Kaby Lake chips. Dell is releasing three new models of slick XPS 13 Developer Edition that will be available with Ubuntu OS and 7th Generation Core processors in the U.S. and Canada starting on Oct. 10, reports PCWorld. From the article:Prices for XPS 13 DE will start at $949. Dell also announced the XPS 13 model with Kaby Lake and Windows 10, which will ship on Oct. 4 starting at $799. Dell didn't share details on what version of Ubuntu desktop OS will be preloaded. It officially supports Ubuntu 14.04 in existing laptops, but could pre-load version 16.04 on the new XPS 13 DE. Dell has remained committed to Linux while major PC vendors shift to Windows 10 on PCs. Intel made a major commitment to supporting Windows 10 with its new Kaby Lake chips but hasn't talked much about Linux support. XPS 13 DE is perhaps the sexiest and thinnest Linux laptop available, with an edge-to-edge screen being a stand-out feature. It is the latest in Dell's Project Sputnik line of laptops, and it is targeted at computer enthusiasts who want a Windows or Mac alternative. A knock against Linux is that the OS has lagged behind Windows on driver development and on supporting the latest technologies like USB-C ports, 4K screens, and Thunderbolt. Project Sputnik started four years ago as an effort between Dell and the open-source community to bridge that gap, and since then, the resulting laptops have achieved cult status among Linux enthusiasts. A Dell XPS 13 with a Core i5 chip will have a full HD screen, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. Another configuration will have a 3200 x 1800-pixel screen, Core i5, and a 256GB SSD. A fully loaded model will have a Core i7 chip, a 512GB SSD, 16GB of RAM, and a 3200 x 1800-pixel screen.
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Windows 10 Haters: Try Linux On Kaby Lake Chips With Dell's New XPS 13 More

Windows 10 Haters: Try Linux On Kaby Lake Chips With Dell's New XPS 13

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  • What if I am an Ubuntu hater, too? (Score:4, Funny)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Friday September 16, 2016 @02:42PM (#52902449)
    Can't I get one with Fedora?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Well, obviously:

      Ubuntu Haters: Try Windows 10 On Kaby Lake Chips With Dell's New XPS 13
      Yours truely,
      Microsoft

    • I hear they're tossing in a ballgag if you're into that sort of thing. Seriously though, what exactly is the appeal of Fedora? Familiarity via using RH Enterprise at work? I'm not saying I'm in love with Ubuntu in particular, but Fedora has long puzzled me in this regard. Beyond the (perhaps familiar to many) rpm ecosystem, what does it offer? It's not topping the list on life cycle, stability, user-friendliness, tweak-ability, respect for users or pragmatism (see their "not our problem; go yell at Adobe "

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by armanox ( 826486 )

        Fedora is a very upstream distribution, and also does very little modification to the bundled software. They also contribute more back upstream then any other distribution does. Finally, The changes that happen in Fedora set the stage for Linux in general - the Fedora team does things first (PulseAudio, Network Manager, GNOME, systemd) and every one else follows.

        • Fedora is a very upstream distribution, and also does very little modification to the bundled software.

          Like Debian, Gentoo or Arch? Maybe I'm misinformed but I thought Ubuntu was the only one well known for that sort of thing.

          They also contribute more back upstream then any other distribution does. Finally, The changes that happen in Fedora set the stage for Linux in general - the Fedora team does things first (PulseAudio, Network Manager, GNOME, systemd) and every one else follows.

          And that's a positive, is it?

          I don't mean to start a religious war here... at least, not on Poettering. I mean with systemd, whatever, there are some valid arguments on both sides there. But GNOME is some kind of bizarre BSDM experiment or something. They've managed to show less respect for their users than Microsoft. Removing as many user choices as possible has long been an expl

        • Almost no one is following with GNOME 3; instead, they abandoned it and created MATE and Cinnamon and Unity, or they switched to Xfce or LXDE or KDE.

          Fedora/RH seems to do some useful infrastructural stuff, but DEs they're terrible at. Why they keep pushing GNOME is a mystery; it's a terrible DE.

          • MATE and Xfce are moving to GTK3, however slowly.
            gnome-disks is commonly included, it allows to add /etc/fstab entries with UUID by clicking around. Which is very helpful, although explaining what's a fstab UUID entry to your mother-in-law or auntie is left as an exercise for the reader.

            • MATE and Xfce are moving to GTK3, however slowly.

              MATE is a fork of Gnome2, which uses Gtk2, so it makes sense that they'd want to move to a newer and still-maintained toolkit. However it may or may not happen; Gtk3 is notorious for bad maintenance, as it's developed and maintained by the Gnome3 devs, and basically they do whatever they want with it, without any regard whatsoever for other projects using it, backwards compatibility, or anything. LXDE ended up converting from Gtk to Qt for this and other re

      • It runs the software I want to run. I have been using Redhat/Fedora Core/Fedora since the original version 3. I'm not looking for it to entertain me.

    • Can't I get one with Fedora?

      If I get SteamOS, does that count as non-Ubuntu? Particularly since this is the one Linux that would property utilize all the firepower of Kaby Lake

  • Ubuntu is a poor choice to demo. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Hylandr ( 813770 ) on Friday September 16, 2016 @02:44PM (#52902461)

    Try Korora Linux instead.

    Debian/Ubuntu slow, Fedora/Centos Fast.

  • Stupid 16:9 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Stormwatch ( 703920 ) <rodrigogirao@POL ... om minus painter> on Friday September 16, 2016 @02:52PM (#52902555) Homepage

    3200 x 1800 is still 16:9, which is shortscreen bullshit. Fuck that. Why can't they give us a good 4:3 screen, the way good screens are supposed to be?

    It's depressing, the only laptops with decent screens now seem to be Microsoft's Surface line and some Panasonic Toughbook models.

    • 16:9 isn't so bad.

      It at least can display 4:3 content, if the resolution is high enough.
      A 4:3 display trying to display widescreen 16:9 on the other hand, often results in crushed vertical resolution because it has to scale the horizontal to fit the smaller screen.

      What I want to see, is screen resolutions that are better than a stupid assed TV panel. We had higher screen resolutions on CRTs in the 90s than we do today.

    • 4:3 screens were largely limited to 1024x768, with some outliers in the 5:4 ratio of 1280x1024. The highest 4:3 ever *really* got was 1600x1200, which 3200x1800 handily beats.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Shinobi ( 19308 )

        For 4:3 there were 1600x1200 screens. What I want is something in the 5:4 ratio, like 2500x2000

        • A 1920x1920 desktop monitor exists, although highly priced. (from Eizo, monitor brand specialized in four-figure prices)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cdrudge ( 68377 )

      It's depressing, the only laptops with decent screens now seem to be Microsoft's Surface line and some Panasonic Toughbook models.

      No Surface model has ever had a 4:3 aspect ratio. First 2 generations were 16:9 and subsequent have been 3:2. Only two current models of Toughbook do, both are 1024x768. Yuck. I haven't seen that resolution, let alone a desire for it, in a new machine/display in over a decade.

      • Yes, I know the Surface is 3:2, which is pretty close to 4:3.

        Now, come to think about it... there are other tablet PCs with 4:3 or 3:2 screens. For example, the Teclast X98 and Onda V919 lines use a 9.7" QXGA (2048x1536), while Xiaomi's MiPad line uses a 7.9" at QXGA. Add kb+m and they're sorta-almost complete PCs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

      Why can't they give us a good 4:3 screen, the way good screens are supposed to be?

      And a hercules Graphics Card [wikipedia.org], the way green-phosphored monochrome computer screens are supposed to be!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )
      It is running Linux so no problems. Laser cut a stencil with a 4:3 aspect ratio and stick it to the screen then reconfigure the display to only use the remain visible pixel. As a bonus you will get that Apple look border instead of that Dell edge to edge display.

      Problem solved!

    • I agree it's a bit bad, but 3200x1800 is a very decent resolution. If you use 200% scaling (which I believe sums up what Cinnamon, Ubuntu, Gnome can do with HiDPI) then you get a shiny 1600x900 equivalent, which gives decent room for stuff. If you have to use software which really doesn't work with the scaling, use physical 1600x900 resolution instead.

      To paraphrase someone's sig
      Slashdot logic : 1440x900 is better than 1600x900

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday September 16, 2016 @02:56PM (#52902599)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • A hater is one who hates. Reasoning doesn't play into it.

    • I as well as many other slashdotters have legitimate substantiated grievances with the business practices and technical decisions made by Microsoft. Quit trying to marginalize dissent in the ranks of your advertising audience.

      So wait, are you the Judean People's Front or the People's Front of Judea?

  • which means...yum, delicious baby kale chips.

    • Kale is a trash crop. I can't wait for the fad to die. Then again, it'll likely be replaced with something equally as obnoxious and awful. Remember flaxseed? Remember quinoa? Remember acai? These are some bad member berries.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PRMan ( 959735 )
        Acai isn't bad, but the rest are absolutely inedible.

        • Acai isn't bad, but it's not good either. The wave of popularity it rode was entirely manufactured and undeserved. The marketing push was obnoxious.

      • collard greens provide pretty much the same nutrition without tasting like a green bottle brush
      • Quinoa is pretty fricking mainstream. You might as well say "remember oats? Remember burrios?"

        • Quinoa had a disgusting rise in popularity recently. Not sure what caused the fad. Did some quack claim it was a "super food"?

  • Thats what I used 2 years before I was forced to go to Windows 10 because of my Virtual Reality Setup Htc Vive with GeForce 1070 Gtx.

    And Windows 10, unlike mint linux, sucked from day one by not even having drivers for the network card of a perfectly brand new motherboard, gave me several blue screens with the wonderful QR code smiley during the 2 weeks, screwed up the drivers so the HTC vive froze, untill I screamed so loud at windows support that they sneakily exported 369.09 Nvidia drivers trough the C

  • Advertising? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Chmarr ( 18662 ) on Friday September 16, 2016 @03:03PM (#52902687)

    Aren't articles like this supposed to have a brown title bar, or something? I'm confoozed.

  • "Your OS of your choice can finally work on laptops with Intelâ(TM)s Kaby Lake chips."

    *sigh*

  • What makes the difference between the XPS DE and the regular XPS, aside from the OS? Why wouldn't I want to order the cheaper model and just ditch Windows in favor of my favorite distro?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )
      It uses different chipset parts for some functions, WiFi from memory, to ensure there will be no driver problems. First laptop I have owned where Linux installed with every device working 100% at first boot. No more detective work and long hunts for drivers etc. Also you don't have to pell off all those Windows stickers that are present on the other laptops. Just wish they had changed the keyboard to get rid of the Windows meta key but a sticker fixed that.

      • Thanks! That's the answer I was hoping for.

        > Also you don't have to pell off all those Windows stickers that are present on the other laptops. Just wish they had changed the keyboard to get rid of the Windows meta key but a sticker fixed that.

        I do that, too! Here's my current setup [dropbox.com]. Ne'er an OEM sticker to be found aside from the important ones on the bottom of the chassis, though I still need a sticker for the meta key and something to cover the Dell logo.

        It's a decidedly middle-of-the-road Inspiron; I

      • How does your battery life compare to the Windows version, Linux (unfortunately) almost always takes a hit on this. My x220, even with every trick I could find, still lost 10-20%, by contrast, while I'm still tweaking it, my Macbook Air loses 60% (ouch).

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ukoda ( 537183 )
          I haven't needed to run it for a long time under battery yet so can't give a meaningful answer to that question. The USB Type-C is cool, I am keen to get a charger for that port and try it.

  • The title made me immediately think: "so that you stop hating win10 by comparison". Somehow it doesnt sound like a recommendation to me.

  • so if you have to hate windows 10... (Score:3)

    by dejitaru ( 4258167 ) on Friday September 16, 2016 @03:33PM (#52902979)
    ...to like linux, and windows 10 now includes linux bash shell in windows 10... does that mean windows 10 hates windows 10? If so, then I think Cortana might have become self-aware and reached AI levels of humans to learning the gift of self-hatred...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by waspleg ( 316038 )

      Step 1.) Embrace - "Now you can run bash in windows!!"

      Step 2.) Extend - "But why would you want to with powershell!!"

      Step 3 is left as an exercise in learning history to any read under, say, 25 years old.

      • I don't think we have to worry about Microsoft extinguishing anything considering they seem to be unable to consistently embrace things nowadays.

  • Shame it appears to be US only (Score:3)

    by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Friday September 16, 2016 @03:43PM (#52903081) Homepage
    The XPS13 is a fine PC, I installed Mint 18 on it with zero hassle and everything worked first time. I am very happy with now I have it but buying it was a major mission as from what I can see it is a US only product. I live in New Zealand where you can not order it from the NZ version of the Dell website. I had to get access to a USA issue credit card to pay for it and ship it to a USA based address. I real hassle. The funny thing is Dell know who pays for their products and who they ship it to but never bother to ask who is buying it or who the owner will be.

    Bottom line is Dell are a PIA to deal with but have a first class product, way nicer that the Apple MBA it replaced.

  • 128GB SSD to small for the basic system.

    Also no ati or nvidia video in any system.

  • >"Attention Linux enthusiasts. Your OS of your choice can finally work on laptops with Intel's Kaby Lake chips.[...] available with Ubuntu OS"

    Being a Linux enthusiast doesn't mean being an Ubuntu enthusiast.... despite Canonical's hopes/thoughts/dreams.

    But it is still meaningful, if Ubuntu will work, then so will Mageia, Fedora, SuSe, Mint, whatever.

  • Why is the Linux version $200 more than the Windows 10 version? This is seriously just taking the piss.

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