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Dell Precision 5510 First thoughts
Hardware :
The good :
The Dell Precision 5510 laptop is a well built in laptop and it reaches
around 80 to 90% of a macbook pro quality which is for me a very good
score.
I am very happy that you can configure the laptop the way you want
with processor, ram, screen...
The F hd matte screen was a key element for me to get the Precision.
No glare, far enough pixels for a 15" screen, lower power consumption, no
need for touchscreen on a laptop. That's rare and perfect.
Ability to unscrew, remove, change and tweak things around.
The Bad :
For a professional laptop I am wondering why a 15" don't get any
numpad ? It could have been a difference between XPS and Precision.
People dealing with calc or blender or whatever professional software
will miss a numpad.
Hinges could be smoother as it is impossible to open it with one hand.
The Carbon surface gets dirty very quick.
No home nor end button which is very useful for many softwares.
Enter key is tiny. I can't tell about the keyboard as I still need to get
use to the feeling before I give my appreciation, but keys are tinier
than my former 13" laptop. I think lenovo is far better on that part.
Software :
The good :
I am very grateful I was able to buy a Gnu/Linux computer from a very
well known brand.
The first install runs smoothly and everything seems to work except
the *** super key !
I know that the Gnu/Linux team is small and working hard and I
can imagine that the project is not 100% supported by Dell. I guess
they need to fight internally everyday to maintain the project alive.
That is why it is important for me to support and buy that Dell DE.
The bad :
The super key is not working even when removing the dell-super-key
package and that annoys me a lot !
I've had to recover from a video crash after 3 days of work because
I was not able to log in anymore. Fingers crossed now !
No info on the next 16.04 support. Are the Dell tweaks all included
in kernel 4.4 ? we don't know and I am preparing to struggle on that
part.
the install routine is not great as you are not able to partition the
system yourself. There is only 1 / partition and we are not able to
encrypt the disk nor the /home... Pretty strange for a professional
edition.
I get a 32 Gb swap partition ! With 16 Gb of ram and knowing that
hibernate is not available anymore in Ubuntu. This is useless.
We have no information (afaik) about what is part of ubuntu and what
is made by Dell so that we can't use a standard ubuntu and install it
the way we want.
It would have been great to tell us how to make everything run with a
14.04 ubuntu and an additional Dell script or ppa or packages.
Conclusion :
For the moment (1 week) I am almost happy with my laptop and I am
proud to support Barton and Jared but Dell needs to push up on
support and give the team more resources in order to make things
work smoother for Gnu/Linux users.
I don't think the laptop will run perfectly on 16.04 as I saw some
support coming with the kernel 4.6. We may have to wait until Ubuntu
16.10 to get full support for our 16.04 using the enablement stack.
Last, I want my super key back !
Sorry for my english, I am non native (french)
Eric
dthiery
27 Posts
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April 12th, 2016 12:00
If you find a way to get the super key working let me know because that's driving me nuts!
DELL-Jared D
350 Posts
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April 12th, 2016 14:00
Not every professional wants a number pad, but if you do, the Precision 3510 and 7510 both have one.
obrow
4 Posts
1
April 13th, 2016 04:00
The question is why has the team disabled the super key ?
My thought (I may be wrong) is that the super key is branded windows and Microsoft has demanded Dell to deactivate it when they pre install another Os. A kind of copyright madness...
The nice thing is that if you unglue the ubuntu sticker from your laptop, it sticks very well on the "windows" key :-)
I could get my super key back in fact uninstalling the dell-super-key package and then through compiz-config-setting-manager you can affect the super key to get the launcher.
compiz will ask for another key as you type the shortcut but if you exit after hitting the super key, it works !
obrow
4 Posts
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April 13th, 2016 05:00
You are right, other machines have the numpad but those machines are different (no infinity edge, far more heavy, twice the height...)
XPS and 5510 have the same chassis so it would have been interesting to have the option on the 5510 so that people can choose between both.
Moreover the laptop is dedicated to image processing and engineering with the quadro graphic card and most softwares from adobe avid blender... use shortcuts with numpad.
And finally, I am sure most professionals deal with numbers sometimes through spreadsheets, erp or whatever...
Jared, could you tell us how many people are dedicated to ubuntu at Dell ?
Keep on pushing, you are doing a great job !
eric
DELL-Jared D
350 Posts
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April 13th, 2016 12:00
I wish we had more. :)
obrow
4 Posts
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April 13th, 2016 16:00
I think I understand !
If someday you or Barton come to Dell montpellier in France, tell me and you'll get a free beer :-)
DELL-Barton George
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
•
538 Posts
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April 13th, 2016 18:00
Its a deal @obrow! :)
dthiery
27 Posts
0
April 14th, 2016 14:00
That worked for me! Though I just had to remove the package and then log off and on again and it started working without doing anything else. Thanks!!