Pitching Sputnik at Dell World (photo credit: Ryan the lawyer)
I wanted to get one more quick post in before I head out for the holidays. Things have been crazy since the XPS 13 Developer Edition launched almost three weeks ago.
In fact no sooner did we start to catch our breath from the product’s launch that Dell World took place. We had a lot of interest at the event and Im looking at following up with the folks I met.
Launch response
For the actual launch we had fantastic press, see the list below. That having been said, there were two areas where we got dinged by folks:
- Price — This turned out to be due to an internal pricing inconsistency and we were able to jump on it right away and dropped the price by $100 by the afternoon.
- Monitor resolution — We have heard the community loud and clear and are looking at ways to address this, stay tuned.
Partial Media Coverage
- Dell launches Sputnik Linux Ultrabook – The Register
- Dell releases powerful, well-supported Linux Ultrabook – Ars Technica
- Dell ships lightweight XPS 13 laptop with Ubuntu Linux – IDG
- Dell XPS 13 laptop: The Ubuntu developer edition arrives – ZDNet
- Dell’s ‘Sputnik’ Ubuntu Linux ultrabook: First in a new line? – PC World
- Dell launches Ubuntu-powered Sputnik for developers – The H-Online
- Dell’s Ubuntu Ultrabook goes on sale in the US – PC Pro
- Dell Ships High-End Ubuntu Laptop for Cloud Developers – The Var Guy
- Dell Unveils Powerful Linux Ultrabook for $1,449 – Mobile Magazine
- Dell Launches XPS 13 Ultrabook Developed Edition, Comes With Ubuntu Linux – StudentNews.ie
- Dell’s $1,549 Ubuntu-based XPS 13 goes on sale, $50 more than Windows variant (update: $100 price drop) – Engadget
- Dell is selling a nicely configured version of its XPS 13 ultrabook with Ubuntu Linux – CNET
- Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook With Linux Ubuntu Almost Ready For Launch – iTech Post
Thanks to everyone for helping to turn this idea from project to product. Stay tuned as we we continue to refine and expand on developer offerings in 2013
Happy Holidays!
Pau for now…
Barton's Blog 
I wouldn’t exactly call it a success yet. In Canada, the machine is pretty well unobtainable (and I have a wizard of a sales rep) and at double the price, of the win8 version, I would also disagree that the pricing inconsistancies have been fixed. ( http://www.dell.com/ca/enterprise/p/xps-13-linux/pd still shows $2349)
I thought I might follow the spproach that was originally sugested in the “beta” days to buy the win8 version and go from there, but when I mentioned that while trying to order, the salespeople (I tried a couple of times, just to eliminate the possibility that I got someone who didn’t know) made and then confirmed the statement that if I dare to run an os other than what shipped on the machine (linux/windows regardless) my warranty was void. Not just the prospect of getting software support, but that my _hardware_ warranty would be void.
Looks like there is still work to do, and I would love to hear suggestions on how to deal with the warranty voiding thing.
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@John from Canada They have identified the glitch in the system that has caused the Canadian price to be so out of whack and are working to fix it now. I apologize that its taken so long. Let me look into the warranty issue. Stay tuned
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OK so now I’m waiting for the increased resolution….Hopefully by then Dell will show South Africa some love and supply this laptop to the land where Shuttleworth was born, raised and made his fortune.
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@John From Canada,
Indeed, at $2349 – almost a $1000 premium over the same 8GB, Core i7, 256GB SSD version that the USA site lists it for, especially since monetary value is on par or less than $0.10/US dollar this is absolutely ridiculous!
Dell if this keeps up you’ll loose potential buyers on such a solid platform and offering that USERS WANT!!
I’m almost at a point now where I’d rather wait for Microsoft’s own Windows8Pro Surface hardware with Corei5 128GB SSD, 4GB RAM and install Ubuntu onto that!
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Unbelievable! Just tried to buy this from both dell.com and over the phone and am unable to on both accounts. Apparently this is only available if you have a small business account (we have a Dell preferred account), it’s not available to regular consumers!! The salesperson over the phone tried to push me to a windows ultrabook and install linux! Really wanted to support a vendor who supported open source on their hardware but guess I’ll continue to wait.
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Brady,
Let me contact you via email and get this sorted out. Needless to say this shouldnt have been blocked.
thanks, Barton
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Barton,
I would be interested in talking to you as well, as there appears to be a major training issue that needs to be fixed with the sales reps on up when I have now received a followup phone call from Dell (about trying to make the purchase in my earlier comment) saying sorry, your hardware warranty will be voided by installing Linux, even if you download it from Dell.
It took me mentioning to the manager that called be back the vendor’s legal obligation under Magnusson-Moss and it’s (roughly) Canadian equivalent S.N.B. 1978, c. C-18.1 before they suddenly “discovered” that no, the hardware warranty would not be voided by installing other software.
Really, I _want_ to see this succeed. I _want_ to buy a higher end machine from Dell running Linux. Dell just needs to make it possible, because today, it is not.
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Hi Brady,
As we discussed, anyone can buy the XPS 13 developer edition from the small office site but unfortunately you cant use your preferred account to take advantage of the 12 months interest free financing offer. The developer edition should be coming to the consumer site by next month.
thanks!
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Just found out that there’s going to be an optional 1080p display for the XPS 13. Is this going to be an option (or standard) on the Sputnik machine? If so that’s great news because it eliminates the last complaint that most people have.
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I can neither confirm nor deny 🙂
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You’re my hero
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Hopefully it will be an option before the month is over: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/06/dells-xps-13-getting-a-1080p-screen/
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[…] in this idea and this one on IdeaStorm. Barton George also mentions it in his blog post here. This feedback was consistent with what we heard from reviewers and other potential XPS 13 […]
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[…] we launched the Ubuntu-based XPS 13 developer edition at the end of November we got a lot of great press. That being said, the two complaints we heard loud and clear were 1) the resolution is too low, […]
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[…] For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://bartongeorge.net/2012/12/19/xps-13-developer-edition-takes-off/ […]
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