How to get the Ubuntu package to run on the Windows edition

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The most usable buld right now is Ubuntu 15.04. This is only available as a beta release right now, but most things work well.

I downloaded Ubuntu  Gnome 15.04 and used UNetBootin to put it onto a USB stick. Boot from this to get to the desktop and check it all works. If your XPS13 has a Broadcom wireless card you probably won't be able to connect to the internet yet - you'll need to get hold of a USB wireless adapter. Alternatively, you may be able to find a Deb file for the Broadcom card which you can copy onto the USB drive before you install.

I used the live version to shrink my Windows partition and then install using the "Something else" option. If you do this,  install the boot manager onto the partition marked "EFI". This will enable dual boot. Leave all the other partitions - most are small. I created three new partitions in the extra space, one for root (/), one for home (/home) and one for swap. This should let me install newer releases without losing all my personal data.

Once installed, it all came up perfectly. You'll hit issues over font sizes and the use of touch (it's not great in Ubuntu yet) but I expect all these will be resolved in time.

Hope this helps!

That was excellent help... thanks!

Gene