-> Updated June 22, 2018 – Three 16GB/FHD configs added to the line up in the US
-> Updated Jan 26, 2018 – Added list of countries that offer the XPS 13 developer edition offline.
Today I am excited to announce the availability of the 7th generation of the Ubuntu-based XPS 13 developer edition. Project Sputnik’s latest and greatest system is now simultaneously available in Europe, Canada and the United States.
The new XPS 13 developer edition (9370) 
features the 8th Generation Intel Quad Core, a brand new chassis, an improved display and smaller borders.
The 9370 is even thinner, lighter and smaller than its already svelte predecessor, the 9360. (Note, the 9370 does not replace the 9360, as the two will coexist.) If you want more detailed specs, please scroll down dear reader. Before we get to the product details however, here’s a quick Project Sputnik backgrounder.
Project Sputnik, a recap
It all started back in 2012 with the wacky idea of creating a high-end Linux laptop targeted at developers. An internal innovation fund gave the scrapp
y project team a little bit of money and six months to see if this idea would fly.
From day one, project Sputnik publically solicited input from the developer community. It was this input and the tremendous community support that pushed the effort from project to a product.
The initial XPS 13 developer edition, available only as one configuration, debuted on November 29, 2012. Fast forward five years and not only are we announcing the 7th generation of that initial product but the project itself has now expanded to become a full line of developer-targeted systems.
US and Canadian configurations
In North America, as mentioned above, the new XPS 13 developer edition is available in both the US and Canada. The following are the available configurations in the two countries (Note: the links below point to the US configurations).
CPU | Memory | Storage | Display
- i7 | 16GB |512GB| UHD touch (3840 x 2160) – available with 1TB
- i7 | 8GB |256GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
- i5 | 8GB |256GB | UHD touch (3840 x 2160) – available with i7
- i5 | 8GB |128GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080) – available with 256GB
- i5 | 4GB |128GB| FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
Available as of April 3, 2018
- i5 | 16GB |256GB| FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
- i7 | 16GB |256GB| FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
- i7 | 16GB |512GB| FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
-
European configurations
European configurations
The new XPS 13 developer edition is available online in Europe in the following countries:
Online: UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland (French and German), Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark.
In the following countries you can get a hold of the XPS 13 developer edition offline (phone or chat):
Offline: Czech Republic, Denmark, Emerging countries , Finland, Greece , Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, South Africa.
The following configurations are available both online and offline.
CPU | Memory | Storage | Display
- i7 | 16GB | 1TB | UHD touch (3840 x 2160)
- i7 | 16GB | 512GB | UHD touch (3840 x 2160)
- i7 | 16GB | 512GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
- i7 | 8GB | 256GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
9370 Specifications
Here’s a bit more detail behind the system specs. These options are available as noted above.
- 8th Generation Intel® Quad Core™, i5 (US and Canada only) and i7 versions
- Memory options: 4GB, 8GB or 16GB Dual Channel SDRAM
- Storage options: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB
- Ports
- 2x Thunderbolt™ 3
- Noble lock slot
- Headset jack
- DC-In & DisplayPort 1x USB-C 3.1
- MicroSD card reader
- Display options
- UltraSharp 4K Ultra HD (3840×2160) InfinityEdge touch display
- FHD (1920 x 1080) InfinityEdge display
- Ubuntu 16.04 LTS preloaded
- 1 year ProSupport
Who’d a thunk it
I gotta admit that five years ago the team and I would never have thought that we would be posting a blog announcing the 7th generation of the XPS 13 developer edition. The thought of even a third generation would have bogled our minds.
Five years ago, thanks to the support of the community, Project Sputnik reached escape velocity. This support, input and direction has not only continued but has grown over the last five years, enabling the Sputnik team to stop focusing on survival and instead focus on supporting a broader range of developer needs.
As we go forward, please keep driving us by sharing your input and experiences, be they be good, bad or ugly. 🙂
Thanks!
Barton
Extra-credit reading
- 2018 starts with the best Linux laptop by Dell – Swap and I discuss the new system – VIDEO
- Meet the New XPS 13: Stylish, Powerful and Better by Every Measure – Direct2Dell
- Line up — New XPS 13 developer edition — (9370)
- Line up — XPS 13 developer edition — (9360)
- Project Sputnik Turns Five! – November 29, 2017
- 2012 — year one
- Project Sputnik announced — May 7, 2012
- Project Sputnik to go from Pilot to Product — July 18, 2012
- 1st gen Dell XPS 13 developer edition in the US — November 29, 2012
Pau for now…
Barton's Blog 
Any chance we see India for new XPS 13 developer edition to be available there soon? Thanks.
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Hi Anil, I can ask our team over there. Each country/area gets a certain number of systems they can offer and they pick those that they feel will serve the most number of customers.
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any update on this?
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Hi I’m seriously considering jumping ship from Macbook Pro to Dell XPS Dev, Edition.
I’ve worked for some years in US and prefer that keyboard layout, but I’m living in Sweden, and it seems difficult to order an XPS with a US keyboard at dell.se (which Apple always have offered on their Macs on their Swedish website).
Would it be possible to order it through dell.com instead?
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You need to give a phone call to Dell sales department in your current country, and ask them for the exact keyboard layout you want.
I’m French and recently bought a Dell Inpiron 5000 2-in-1 with an AZERTY (silly accented letters… 😉 ) keyboard from Dell Poland when I was living there.
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Hi Henry,
A US International keyboard is available offline (via phone or chat) in Europe. Seeing Loris’s comment, it sounds like there are even more options 🙂
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I would love this config in US
i7 | 16GB | 512GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
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Same, and by “love” I mean “I won’t buy a pro-glare display, full stop.” Dell still doesn’t want to take my money, so I had to go elsewhere; there’s no shortage of vendors who are willing to sell what I’m willing to buy.
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Hi Brad, the displays that come with the new XPS 13 dev edition are anti reflective. Here’s the official messaging around it:
High brightness for viewing in bright light, like outdoors. Provides more clarity. Brighter than a typical panel (at 200-nit). Plus, with anti-reflective coating, get the beautiful gloss of the touchscreen without the glare; an ideal mobile experience when you’re outdoors or working at outside at Starbucks at with the 9am sun.
Spec: 400-nit brightness + 0.65% anti-reflective
HTH
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Hi Yury, I appreciate the feedback and will pass it along to the team. During the product lifecycle often times we will evaluate the configs we are offering and, based on customer interest, add or drop some.
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Congratulations! Project Sputnik is awesme, and I’ve been following the project since the beginning. In fact, I’d order one right now without hesitation if there was an option beyond 16 GB of RAM. But with 16 GB… not. 😥
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Hi Socordia, thanks for the support! If you want 32GB you may want to check out the 20 Precision 55http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/workstations-isv-certified-dell/precision-5520/spd/precision-15-5520-laptop if you want super beefy, check out either the Precision 7520 or 7720
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First, fantastic work on Project Sputnik–it’s such a boon for the developer community. And the XPS 13 is gorgeous, but I’m another dev looking for more memory. Do you know if/when the 5520 is going to get an 8th gen processor?
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Thanks! I appreciate the support. wrt to 5520 + 8th gen, my lips are sealed 🙂
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Please have the XPS 15 available in India. I’m using XPS 13 9350 and plan to replace it by the latest XPS 15 at the end of this year!
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Hi Kanishk, are you talking about the Windows ver of the XPS 13/15? If you’re interested in the XPS 15 (which only comes with Windows) you should check out the Precision 5520 which comes preloaded with Ubuntu http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/workstations-isv-certified-dell/precision-5520/spd/precision-15-5520-laptop
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Are these compatible with the Dell docking stations? Always been interested in Linux, but need as many monitors as possible.
Thanks for any info.
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Hi, 1) I notice there are no standard USB ports (usb2/usb3). I guess there must be dongles available, but bah! It makes life harder, especially as a developer who uses USB peripherals. I don’t know if the old version had them but if they did, removing them is a big minus.
2) I don’t want the power hungry ultra res touch screen but there doesn’t appear to be a way to get 16GB memory without it. Is it a conventional sodimm module that I can swap out myself if I buy an 8GB FHD version?
3) It would be great if you could improve the keyboard feel. That’s one thing Lenovo has been mostly ok about (even though they messed up the layout).
I’ll be in the market for a new laptop soon and the XPS13 developer edition will definitely be a contender! But Thinkpad X series is probably still the favourite.
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2) You can’t swap RAM on XPS13 – it’s soldered
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Intel ahahah, good timing eh.
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[…] XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available 135 by warp | 202 comments on Hacker News. […]
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The web re-directions are broken.
When I go to:
http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/xps-13-developer-edition/spd/xps-13-9370-laptop/CAX13W10P2C610UBUNTU
I am redirected to:
http://www.dell.com/en-ca/
And I can’t find this model.
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Tom, I’m sorry its taken awhile to get back to you. Are you still being redirect to the Canadian site? Have you been able to find the model you’re looking for?
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I am also getting the same redirect for Canada.
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Hi Eric,
we’ve tried to reproduce the error on our end and havent been able to. The only thing we can think of is that you might be that you are cookied into Canada. Have you tried clearing cache and cookies?
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Does it have Bluetooth?
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Yes
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I have a XPS 13 9350. Currently it’s running Ubuntu 16.04, and the battery life is abysmal. Is there anything from Sputnik I could apply that would help with that?
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Try installing tlp with “sudo apt install tlp”. You can find details about TLP here (don’t worry, it will work great without having to fiddle with options):
http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-management.html
I run TLP on my 9343 (the generation before yours) and consistently get 8+ hours when developing even though it is 3 years old.
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I’ve already tried TLP. As well as powertop. If I remember correctly, I spent a day or two googling and trying different things to see if it increased my battery life. 😦
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Ah, by try, I mean TLP is running right now.
— TLP 0.8 ——————————————–
+++ System Info
System = Dell Inc. XPS 13 9350
BIOS = 1.2.3
Release = Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
Kernel = 4.11.0-14-generic #20~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Aug 9 09:06:22 UTC 2017 x86_64
/proc/cmdline = BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.11.0-14-generic root=/dev/mapper/Reach–vg-root ro
Init system = systemd
+++ System Status
TLP power save = enabled
power source = AC
When I pull my plug, the battery indicator says I have 1.5 hours of life left…
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David, have you reached out to Dell support re this issue?
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I hadn’t thought to reach out to Dell support since it was originally a Windows 10 laptop that I wiped and installed Ubuntu on. Would they still help in that case?
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ahh, got it. It probably still makes sense to try and contact support. In a case like this most likely they would make “best efforts”
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Well, I just asked for help, we’ll see what kind of help I get with an older laptop that’s out of warranty. 🙂
FYI, when I looked at the US/CA sales pages you linked in your post, I had to turn off HTTPS Everywhere before I could see anything except the header and footer.
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Just an update for anyone curious. I tried contacting Dell support. It was incredibly painful trying to get them to actually use email. They really really wanted me to use the phone and talk with someone I couldn’t understand due to their accent. Unfortunately, I have not been exposed enough to different accents that I can understand them easily. And a technical support call isn’t the best place to learn, at least I think.
Ultimately, the different reps I talked to did not respond to my questions directly. The one about Sputnik was outright ignored. And the one about how much it would cost was only partially answered.
I ended up ordering a new battery from Amazon for about the price it would cost send my laptop in for diagnosis. Installing the new battery wasn’t too hard, and it has fixed my power issues.
So, I’m glad I didn’t end up paying however much extra a new battery installed by Dell would have cost, on top of the $69 for sending it in… (The new battery was $59.98, plus 20 for some tools I didn’t have….)
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Hi Barton,
I very much appreciate what you are spearheading and I wish you luck.
I really wanted to believe that I could go all in on Linux on the desktop. I’ve been a Linux user since the mid 90’s starting with the SLS distros.
My brand new $2k xps de 9360 with QHD+ display has been a huge disappointment. I’ve had to keep my 5 year old MacBook Pro around and it outperforms it almost every way. Every way that matters for me with a portable developer machine. The battery life is terrible on the 9360, the touchpad drivers for Ubuntu (libinput, even with all of the recommended tweaks) still leave a stuttering user experience. It’s slightly better when dual-booting Windows 10. Is Synaptics the only game in town for touchpads?
I regret having spent the money and will be giving it to my son. It’s back to Macs for me at this price range. It makes me sad because I do love Linux.
James
Austin, TX
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Hi James, I apologize for your experience. Wrt the touchpad it sounds like it may be faulty and needs to be replaced. The easiest way to get hooked up with support is via Twitter @DellCaresPro. In your tweet ask for ^JKC (JKC is Justin who provides front line support for the Sputnik team). He is aware that you will be reaching out.
thanks!
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Do you mean 8th gen? You’re article titles in my feed are showing 7th gen.
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Hi Mike, its a bit confusing but the processor is 8th gen and the XPS 13 developer edition is 7th gen
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Does it still have Windows logo on super key?
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Unfortunately yes 😦
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Do we know how the battery life is compared to the Win 10 version?
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Dunno – nor care – what the Win10 battery life is – but I get 5+ hours of binge watching Jessica Jones on Netflix or 8-10 hours of “office” work (browsing, configuring lxd containers, Python hacking, etc…).
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Forgot to mention: 9370, FHD display, reduced brightness (it’s very bright at max brightness)
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I’m currently in the market for a laptop with MacBook-Pro-comparable performance, but running Linux. The XPS 13 series was recommended multiple times, but I just cannot get the configuration I want – 2560×1600 or better display, at least 16 GB RAM, and ideally an international or US keyboard layout – on the German DELL site (plus it seems significantly more expensive there, and I can’t find anything labelled “developer edition”).
Unfortunately it’s not the first time I failed to navigate the DELL stores. Once I had to purchase 30+ devices, so I could offload this to business sales, but as a consumer, I don’t see any option to get what I want. Can you maybe help with that? Is there some workaround?
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I’m not sure about availability in Germany, but the better analogue to the MacBook Pro is the Precision m5520 which is available with Linux as a build-to-order option and is (unofficially?) part of the Sputnik family. It is a 15 inch laptop with up to a 4K display and 32 GB of RAM. I upgrade from a MacBook Pro to the m5520 at work and couldn’t be happier.
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Hi moeffju, Im sorry its taken me so long to reply. Have you been able to locate the XPS 13 developer edition on the German site? Also, as ryanplusplus suggested, depending on your needs, the Ubuntu-based Precision 5520 might be a better fit. The 5520 should definitely be available on the German site. thanks
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go to dell.de, type “xps 13 ubuntu” into the search box – that gets you to a comparison page – several of the systems have Ubuntu as OS.
It’s not called developer edition on the german site it seems.
It’s available with FHD or 4k displays and with up to 16 GB.
I got the FHD version (don’t like touch displays, FHD is plenty and don’t want the power and money wasted on 4k – YMMV) with 16 GB since a week ago and am very satisfied with it.
In case you buy it – see this (MS still being annoying – @Dell: We wants a precious Ubuntu or Tux key anyway 😉 ).
Wakeup after suspend has issues though.
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Enjoy your coil whine and the lack of solutions from dell customer $upport.
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Dell customer support have been exemplary here in Australia.
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Is the developer edition available with the fingerprint reader?
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Based on what I see on Dell (CH) website there is no fingerprint reader. Sadly, I cannot even select USA / International keyboard in Switzerland. Also you have to search explicitly for “9370” to find the product as it’s not listed on the catalog (or I couldn’t find).
I would also prefer to have fingerprint reader and international keyboard.
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Unfortunately, at this time the developer edition doesn’t support the fingerprint reader. The current Linux solution is not polished enough for us to feel comfortable supporting.
@davidlt, you should be able to get the US international keyboard on the Dell switzerland site by contacting sales via either phone or chat.
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You should invest months/a year for upstreaming efforts of various components before the product launch, that would definitely help. E.g. Intel is currently upstreaming new silicons we should see in a year. Google is doing something similar with Chromebooks.
The page was updated I can now select USA/International keyboard.
Thanks!
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How come there no option with 32 GB ram?
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Hi Valdis, while the XPS 13 developer edition doesn’t have a 32GB config, you may want to check out the Ubuntu-based Precision 5520 which does have a 32GB option
http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/workstations-isv-certified-dell/precision-5520/spd/precision-15-5520-laptop
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Any chance of this arriving in Australia too? Ideally with the same configurations as EU (and in particular the “i7 | 16GB | 512GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)” version).
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How does this new XPS handle battery life? I remember having to setup bumblebee on my XPS’15 because battery life wasn’t as good compared to Windows.
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How is the trackpad? I bought a Dev Edition XPS13 a couple of years ago and the trackpad was unusable. It was the only issue I had, but, was a deal-breaker.
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Trackpad (on my Ubuntu 9370) is very good IMHO.
Only issues I have it with wakeup after suspend. Everything else is extremely smooth.
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Dear Barton,
can you tell us for how long will the 9360 model be manufactured yet? I am aware of the huge effort you did on the 9370, but honestly the 9360 seems to fit better my needs and I would be very sad to see it discontinued in the mid-term future.
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Hi Danny, I cant give you a timeframe but we are offering both because we know that there will be customers like yourself who will be better served by the 9360
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What about coil whine?
I bet it still there.
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I have read some reports by people who still seem to get it on the 9370 – but mine is super quiet.
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How will updates be handled? That is, will hardware support be built in to all versions of Ubuntu’s Linux kernel? The reason I ask is that I have an intel computer stick that came preinstalled with Ubuntu, but could not be updated because you then lost hardware support.
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Hello,
I don’t know how to provide feedback to Project Sputnik and so… I leave it here in the hope it may be useful. I’m sorry, since it’s definitely the wrong place for providing feedback.
—
As a developer, I look for 2 things in a laptop (or in a computer in general):
1. A lot of memory
2. A very nice keyboard
Regarding memory:
I’ve always installed the double of memory adopted as the maximum mainstream. And I’ve never regretted of doing that.
I’ve already installed 16Gb of RAM in desktops and laptops officially supporting up to 4Gb or up to 8Gb.
The “problem” with soldered memory is that I cannot install 32Gb in this Del 13″ because 16Gb is soldered. It would be great if Dell considered 32Gb and 64Gb options too. I bet that insane developers playing with Big Data would buy it.
Regarding keyboards:
It’s only me or there are people around looking for mechanical keyboards? Ok, ok… maybe I’m asking too much.
Let me drop this requirement and discuss another requirement: the arrow keys cluster. All keys should be the same dimensions.
I can understand that up-arrow and down-arrow being half size and sharing the space of only one key may be even convenient for regular users. But such configuration is far from convenient for developers, who employ arrow keys not only for browsing the web but also for typing regular text and code.
Regarding my buying options and decisions:
Memory: I may consider a 15″ laptop if I can get 32Gb on it.
Keyboard. I require a keyboard which presents an arrows cluster with keys of same dimensions. It means I cannot consider the vast majority of vendors. The only vendor that comes to my mind at this point (and CES 2018 may change that!) is Lenovo.
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Thanks Richard for sharing feedback! Ill pass along to the team. Above you mentioned a 15″ laptop w/32GB, if you arent familiar with it, you should check out the Precision 5520 http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/workstations-isv-certified-dell/precision-5520/spd/precision-15-5520-laptop
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The above link takes you to Windows 10 laptops and the drop down on the page does not offer Linux. Likely you know this but for the benefit of others I’m mentioning it here.
Thanks for all the Linux work you have done at Dell, much appreciated.
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Hi CJ, Im sorry, I should have added info on how to get to the Ubuntu version, its a total pain to find. To get to the Ubuntu option, you have to scroll down to the green “Customize & Buy” button. This will take you to a page where you can customize the system including which OS you would like. We are talking to the web team to see if this can be changed so that you can choose “Ubuntu” on the front page. I appreciate your having asked the question. Thanks!
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Hey! Does the Developer edition have the integrated fingerprint reader as well? And does this work under Linux? Im assuming this would mean that your team added support for it to libfprint.
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Sadly you don’t get fingerprint reader, it’s mentioned on website once you are doing configuration.
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hi @unntouchab1e and @davidlt As you mentioned, the fingerprint reader is not available with the developer edition. The current Linux solution is not polished enough for us to feel comfortable supporting. thx
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I understand that the infrared cameras will unlikely be supported with this developer edition, given their dependence on Windows Hello, but I’m curious if this has support for the fingerprint reader.
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Hi Justin, Unfortunately, at this time the developer edition doesn’t support the fingerprint reader. The current Linux solution is not robust enough for us to feel comfortable supporting. Thanks!
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hello, congrats on this wonderful project. I need some advice here, If I want to dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu what is the best path for me? Buy the Ubuntu version or the Windows version and then install the other on top?
thanks
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Wrt dual boot, It tends to be easier if you start with Windows and then add Ubuntu. You’ll want to make sure you have Dell Prosupport and although we don’t support dual boot we will make best efforts to help.
Thanks for the support!
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Hi All,
I used to be a big time Linux user with experience with lots of different distros. Then had move on to the Mac due to various reasons. I’m now looking for a laptop which has a gorgeous design like the new XPS 13 and 16 GB of memory. I couldn’t be happier about the new XPS 13 9370’s announcement. However I’m not able to find the Developer Edition on any site not the configuration I want. I’m fine with FHD and not interested in touch display. I just want a good looking, light, 13” laptop with 16gb memory. Looks like it’s currently not available in Turkey but I can’t find it on German, UK and US sites as well. ☹️
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Hi Alper,
What is specific config you’re looking for? Im assuming that one of the following doesnt fit your use case?
US/Canada
i7 | 16GB |512GB| UHD touch (3840 x 2160) – available with 1TB
i7 | 8GB |256GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
i5 | 8GB |256GB | UHD touch (3840 x 2160) – available with i7
i5 | 8GB |128GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080) – available with 256GB
i5 | 4GB |128GB| FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
EMEA
i7 | 16GB | 1TB | UHD touch (3840 x 2160)
i7 | 16GB | 512GB | UHD touch (3840 x 2160)
i7 | 16GB | 512GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
i7 | 8GB | 256GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
Thanks for the support!
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I bought it (9370, FHD, 16 GB, Ubuntu) from german Dell site.
Just go to dell.de and type “ubuntu xps 13” in the search box – that lands you on a comparison page that also lists the Ubuntu variants.
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Any updates on this?
> Beyond the thirteen countries above, there is a much longer list of countries where the 9370 is available offline
Interested to know if they’ll be available in Australia
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Hi Andrew, I did recently get the list of other countries but they are all within EMEA. Id love to have the XPS 13 developer edition available in Australia but unfortunately there arent any plans currently to add it. The way it works at Dell is each region/country has a certain number of systems that they can offer. They decide which ones they think will be most popular with their customers. Ill need to go back again to our Australian team and see if they’ve had a change of heart.
Although it may not what you’re looking for but if you want the developer edition’s big brother, the Ubuntu-based Precision 5520, its available in Australia http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/workstations-isv-certified-dell/precision-5520/spd/precision-15-5520-laptop
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Will Dell ever consider getting Ryzen processors for the XPS as an alt option for those worried about Spectre and/or Meltdown?
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Just a reminder that AMD (and Intel, ARM, IBM, etc) are affected by Spectre. Meltdown has a proof-of-concept for Intel, but researchers are trying other silicons chips also. Quote from official site: “Currently, we have only verified Meltdown on Intel processors. At the moment, it is unclear whether AMD processors are also affected by Meltdown”.
Situation is still ongoing.
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Hello Barton,
this is great news, thanks for sharing and also you for your effort to make project Sputnik a success.
Please, would you mind commenting on the coil whine issue? People on the forums speculate on that but I haven’t found a single post confirming or denying existence of the problem in the new model. Is coil whine gone with 9370?
Thank you again.
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I have an XPS 13 9370. It’s there. Especially when plugged in. Nothing helped to solve it.
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Hi ndl,
Justin from our team is going to reach out to see what might be going on with your system.
thanks!
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Barton – a recurring theme in this comments section is the desire for a sku with 16 GB of ram and a FHD display. I’m not going to recap the reasoning I left in the comment above, but I did want to highlight that it’s not a niche desire. I suspect that a top-spec SKU without the cumbersome touch QHD display would be a top seller. I’d hazard to guess that even at the same price it would sell more than the QHD model.
Without a config that offers a ram upgrade and a screen that won’t frustrate me to the end of the world, I’ll be be holding onto my 2014 XPS 13 dev edition in the hopes that y’all “fix the glitch” next year.
PS: Love what your group has done! It’s simply amazing. I didn’t want to leave you with only gripes 🙂
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Thanks Evan for the support! And thanks for the input re the 16GB/FHD configuration. Im compiling all this for the team to review
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Thanks for considering to release 16GB/FHD version. Is it possible to get notification if that became available (via any channel: this blog, g+, gmail, etc)? I would buy one.
Thanks for your work!
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Hi Yuri,
If the 16GB/FHD version becomes avaialble, I will post in on my blog and tweet it from @barton808
thanks!
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I’m sure that FHD and 16 GB is available for 9370 – because that’s what I got a week ago. 🙂
(from german site as Ubuntu edition with 512 GB storage)
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Wow is it ever a pain finding these on the Dell Canada site! And a real shame that the configurations are so limited.
What I really want is one of the European configurations:
i7 | 16GB | 512GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080)
FHD is a feature for me, not a downgrade – I specifically do not want the higher res touch screen. I don’t use touch and the higher res screen doesn’t work with 100% of the software I use.
16gb vs 8gb ram is a must for me these days as my development work sometimes involves running quite a few VMs simultaneously.
I really want to support Sputnik, it’s just the lack of configuration options that is keeping me from pulling the trigger
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Hi Robert, I apologize for the difficulting in finding the developer edition, its something we are working on improving.
Thanks for the config input, im seeing a lot of support for the FHD. Im compiling all this to review with the team.
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Any progress on making a more developer-friendly configuration available? Is it going to happen or is it a pipe dream?
Cheers
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Hello,
I was able to configure
i7 | 16GB | 512GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080) | Ubuntu on dell.com
http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/xps-13-laptop/spd/xps-13-9370-laptop?appliedRefinements=302,203
Probably it’ll be available in Canada soon
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Hi Robert, I apologize for the slow response.
As Yuri points out, as of April 3 we offer three 16GB/FHD configs
:
i7 512GB,
i7 256GB
i5 256GB.
I tweeted this out but neglected to update my blog which i will do now.
Please let me know if they are not appearing for you.
thanks!
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Wow! thanks for having the ubuntu versions ready at the same time as new hardware! I’m still using my 9350/8gb/FHD and tempted by the coffee lake quad core.
I’ll add my request for a 16GB/FHD version. I see it as the configuration that makes the most sense for a developer on linux. I’ve even considered buying a 16gb motherboard to swap out in my existing laptop.
One question though – has the 9370 FHD fixed the adaptive brightness control issues with the 9350/9360 FHD? And by fixed, i mean either removed the ‘feature’ or at least finally provided a way to disable it?
Thanks!!
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For the third generation of XPS 13s in a row I’m disappointed to see a FHD/16GB option either not exist at all, or be European exclusive. I’d love to see that config in North America, please!
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Thanks for the input, there are others who’ve made the same comment. We’re keeping track. Often times there is a point in the product lifecycle where we look at the configs offered and see how they’re doing. There are times when we are able to add or subtract configs at at that point
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Does it work with eGPU?
Hope dell store will available in Viet Nam
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Hi NamPNQ,
It’s not easy building a highly performing laptop under ½” thick :). We’ve tried to give you the best of both worlds – great performance and mobility. If you’re looking for additional flexibility and performance with discrete graphics, you should probably chose a bigger solution.
thanks!
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I love the hardware but… wow, errors straight out the box:
I enabled encrypted home directory, apt-get update, apt-get upgrade:
Now I see this *every* package that it tries to update:
Please enter passphrase for disk cryptswap1 on none!
i7 | 16GB | 1TB | UHD touch (3840 x 2160) (UK)
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Do these things even exist? I ordered on Jan 4th and I haven’t gotten a ship notice yet. It was supposed to be delivered by yesterday. I’m having a hard time figuring out how it’s going to be here by yesterday when it hasn’t shipped 😦 I’m in the US if it matters. I emailed the help line a day or two before it was supposed to be here and asked where it was shipping from and if it was still going to be here on time and he just insisted it was still scheduled to be here.
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Hi Mr. George.
I am looking for a laptop that is as light as possible while still being great. Do you know the weight of the i7 | 16GB |512GB| UHD touch (3840 x 2160) model? I have seen that it says starts at 2.67 lbs, but was wondering it that edition weighs more.
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Hi John, here is what I just got back from the team re. weight:
With touch 2.91 lb
Without touch 2.69 lb
HTH
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hello Barton,
Is it possible to turn the touchscreen capability of the display at BIOS level on the new Dell XPS 13?
thanks!
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Hello. Not sure about new 9370 but on my 9360 I’ve did it – it was pretty straightforward
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Hi Alex,
I checked with the team. The touchscreen can be toggled on/off in the system BIOS, similar to the previous iterations 9360. The option is in the same location as the older system, under System Configuration > Touchscreen
HTH
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Mine finally showed up a couple of weeks after the original delivery estimate. I’ve only used it for one evening. I noticed that the keyboard misses keystrokes when typing fast. I found other threads on the official dell forums. People on both windows and linux complaining about the same thing. Affects the built-in keyboard only, not attached USB keyboards. This is very disconcerting. The support person on the dell forum linked to a page about reinstalling keyboard drivers in windows and also suggested shaking the laptop (har). Since multiple people are having the same problem (and all with fast typists — ~120WPM) I suspect it’s not a driver issue. Is dell tracking this internally? Is there going to be some kind of update that will fix this? A workaround is to “type slow” but that isn’t great 😦
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Hi BMAN, i apologize for the slow response. In talking to the team at our last meeting, your best bet is to contact our customer support team. This will ensure that your issue officially gets into the system and can be tracked. Most likely, once in the system it will make its way back to a few of the folks on our team. thanks!
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Barton,
I really appreciate the info you’ve put in the blog post, as well as the replies to most comments. As a (potential) customer looking for a good lightweight Linux laptop with good battery life (ideally 6+ hours), I’m looking at either the 9360 or 9370. I have one question: do you know if the dell adapters DA200 and DA300 *work* with Ubuntu 16.04 (on any of the LTS enablement stacks)? I know the devices aren’t *supported*, and that’s fine, but I’m wondering if they *function* (and to what degree).
Hoping you can provide an answer,
–John
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Dear John, the DA200 adapter works if you use Linux 4.13 from the LTS enablement stack [1]. Unfortunately, Dell or Canonical didn’t bother to backport the fixes. On another note, we have already four broken DA200 adapters out of 20(?), which had to be replaced.
[1] https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/LTS_Enablement_Stacks/
[2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/dell-sputnik/+bug/1726759
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I got the DA300 and so far it works for me. I haven’t tried every function. My report so far is here:
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[Actually posted on January 27th, 2018, but seems to have gone missing.]
Thank you for the post. I am happy about the success of the project *Sputnik*. Unfortunately, my experiences with the Dell XPS 13 9360 are not perfect. Especially, as the reaction of the Dell support is, that no support for the shipped Ubuntu is given, and that the Ubuntu forum is the right contact point. That is unacceptable, as Dell sold the laptop and shipped the operating system.
Additionally, it is not transparent, who is responsible for the support. Dell or Canonical? How can problems easily be reported without wasting time with the Dell support?
QA is also lacking. The DA200 adapter doesn’t fully work with the Linux kernel shipped in Ubuntu 16.04, which is a shame, as this upset our users. It’s fixed in recent Linux (at least 4.13), but neither Dell nor Canonical backported it to the Ubuntu 16.04 Linux kernel.
Also, boot and resume times do not seem to benchmarked from QA. The Google Chromebook teams do that with their devices. That causes a bad feeling with the Dell high-end devices, as it feels slower. Additionally, Linux features, like, for example, KASAN and KUBSAN, to find bugs are not utilized by the QA team, and undefined behavior errors were not found and shipped in a production system.
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Hi Paul,
I apologize for your experience, Dell does support the Ubuntu-based developer editions. Justin who handles front line support for our team will be reaching out to you to see what happened and how we can help.
BTW Im not sure what might have happened to your post on Jan 27. I went back and looked and the only post from that day was from iv597.
thanks!
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Barton, I just checked and all the premium XPS 13 offerings continue to be hampered by a UHD display. I can’t stress this enough; as a developer, having a screen whose native resolution is of a non-standard pixel density is a liability and ultimately a downgrade. The fact that this also lowers the battery life just adds insult to injury. I’d gladly pay the same or more for a premium hardware configuration with a reliable, and standard, FHD display.
Anyways. I know I’ve said this before, I just wanted to check-in a month later. I’ll continue to bump this every month until my keyboard runs out of ink 😛
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How to play with the new xps 13’s IR camera under ubuntu?
Best regards!
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Adding my voice to those looking for a 16gb non-touch display version, ideally with upgradable HD as well.
I _want_ to move on from my aging MacBook Air. But my 2014(!) model runs on 8gb ram/256gb drive — making it difficult to ‘upgrade’ to a 2018(!!) XPS with same amounts of ram and storage. The Precision suggested as an alternative is nice, but too big for frequent travel. At this point, many of us are in “just take my money” territory, if we can just get better specs on the non-touch models.
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All those comments are missing a Thank You. So yes, thank you for the many improvements and keep rocking! 🙂
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Much appreciated Nicolas!
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Indeed – thanks. 🙂
It’s nice not to have to wipe and replace Windows for a change.
And not to inflate Windows numbers with my laptop buy while I have been using Linux instead for a decade. And having to pay MS for an OS that I don’t use is a tad bit annoying too.
Thanks for helping to fix that bug.
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Thanks for continuing to support the market for great linux laptops. I’ve been loving my 2015 model, and would be ready to upgrade-
but I need 16Gb of ram and don’t want a 4k screen. So another vote to bring the i7 | 16GB | 512GB | FHD non-touch (1920 x 1080) to the USA.
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Thanks for the support Jay! We appreciate the input re the 16GB/FHD non-touch, we are keeping track of the requests.
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Thanks for the amazing work! Unfortunately, the local Dell doesn’t offer the dev edition, and I’m hearing about 60-90 day lead times on importing a few units. What can I expect to go wrong installing 16.04 onto a Windows configuration?
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I live and work in Spain and would like to get the latest XPS 13 as a new laptop. Unfortunately I can’t select the developer-edition in the online shop and the hotline tells you to use the website instead of putting you in touch with a real agent. The chat function also doesn’t seem to work.
Any suggestions? I’d hate to have to get the windows version
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Hey Daniel,
I apologize for your experience and I appreciate you flagging this. Let me fwd this to our European team and see whats going on.
Stand by!
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Great, thanks so much!
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Hi Daniel, here is the response i got back from our folks in Europe (let me know if this doesnt work)
We don’t actually market it as Developer Edition in Europe anymore. Ubuntu offers are a part of the line-up, present among the Win ones. Customer needs to browse to the right and choose by operating system – 4 hardware configs are available with Ubuntu as well, for both individuals and businesses
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When will this model be available in India?
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Unfortunately the developer edition is only available in the US, Canada and Europe. The decision as to which systems to offer is up to region. Each region has a finite number of configs that they can offer and choose those with the greatest customer demand.
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Is there ongoing work so we expect an upgrade from 16.04 to 17.10 soon?
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17.10 isn’t an LTS release but 18.04 is. So it’s better to use 18.04 I think
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Yes, of course. I don’t know why I confused the to versions, sorry.
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Stay tuned 🙂
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Now on dell.com in configurations I see Ubuntu 18.04 🙂
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18.04 was not found for my 9370 with the 16.04 Software Updater before I just changed “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” from “For LTS versions” to “For any new version”.
Then I ran an Upgrade to 18.04 (2192 packages) on 9370, which held a dual-boot grub2 setup for add-installed openSUSE Leap 15 and kept the original 16.04.
The Upgrade to 18.04 did not run quite clean however:
An early message was “Could not install ‘gnome-menus’.
Later when it asked about “Configuring grub-efi-amd64”, I just accepted the default “keep the local version currently installed”.
Several “/usr/sbin/dkms line xxxx write error broken pipe” scrolled over the terminal some later.
At last it told “Could not install the upgrades, The upgrade has aborted, your system could be in an unusable state, A recovery will now run (dpkg-configure-a)”, followed by “Upgrade complete, there were errors during the upgrade process”.
I therefore was rather surprised when 18.04 booted directly, a system problem was detected and a crash report created, which I reported. The dual-boot grub2 menu was gone, and I had to re-create it from booting the Leap 15 Update installation from media.
Beyond the above, the 18.04/Gnome 3.28 desktop could be extended by Gnome shell integration, and customized as preferred (a first test). But I am unsure I can trust on this installation because of the messages I interpreted as not a clean installation?
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Please make the Developer Edition laptops available in Australia!
Also please tell the Dell designers that the webcam needs to return to the correct position 🙂
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[…] to Project Sputnik lead George Barton, the reason you can't get it is because Dell limits the "number of systems that they can offer" by region — in this case, the DE models don't make the […]
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Hello Barton,
Many thanks for all of the hard work on this. I have just ordered one of these and am very excited to finally have a machine coming without Windows!
I have two, related questions:
1) is it possible to enable full-disk encryption through the installer (need it for company policy/GDPR etc etc); and
2) if not, and I need to reinstall with a stock version of Ubuntu 18.04, are there any repos or anything I need to enable to support the hardware properly?
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Hi Aaron,
Sorry for the delay in answering your question, but stuff happens.
For #1, I have no clue, but I know folks that are smarter than I. Stay tuned.
#2, Everything in the Dell ISO should be up streamed to the default repo by the time we launch the system. Let me know if you’re missing Dell-specific drivers.
#iworkatdell
g.
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Many thanks Geoff.
I have now received this and it is a wonderful laptop.
On 1, it did not seem possible to enable full-disk encryption through the installer and it seems difficult to do this manually after the fact. It would be great if you could please work with Ubuntu to come up with a way to make this work!
It was a shame to have to reinstall Ubuntu after buying it preinstalled, but doing so meant that I could easily enable encryption through the installer. As you say in 2, everything worked perfectly out of the box after the reinstall, which was great!
Many thanks,
Aaron
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Happy owner of a 9343, and I just ordered the 9370 – unfortunately I bought the windows edition because the developer edition wasn’t available with an education promotion I wanted to use.. but I will be putting Ubuntu on it, I’m sorry if my purchase doesn’t count as support for your project because I really appreciate it.
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Thanks Jay, I appreciate the concern 🙂
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This is something I needed to do too. In Australia the developer edition isn’t available at all so I had to get a normal windows version although it was bought because of the Linux support. Thanks for continuing this project
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Thanks Andrew for the support!
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Similar story here: I’ve switched whole office to Dell (mostly Windows versions unfortunately) only because my Dell XPS 13 DE is awesome 🙂
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I love it! 🙂
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I love the fact that these DEs exist! I want to get one and was wondering why the rose gold version is not available as a DE. Do you happen to know by chance?
I would definitely prefer the lighter colour and am actually considering buying it with windows just for the color, but it does not feel right.
Any hope of getting a “girly” DE without buying the windows version? 😀
Thank you for this project!
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Hey Sophie,
Thanks for the kind words.
Unfortunately you cant get the Rose gold version without the fingerprint reader and currently Linux doesnt do a good job of supporting the FPR. Given the potential of a frustrating customer experience, we made the decision to not offer the rose gold version. I appreciate your allegiance to the DE platform, but if you really want the rose gold version, I wont tell anyone if you buy the Redmond-edition of the XPS 13 🙂
Barton
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[…] 7th gen XPS 13 developer edition available – January 4, 2018 […]
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