Ubuntu 16.04?

Would appreciate it if either Barton George or DELL-Jared D could respond to this, even if it's to say "I don't know" or "I can't tell you now".  If Dell plans to offer a Precision 5510 with Ubuntu 16.04 pre-installed, then I'll just cancel my existing order and wait until April.

Sorry, I was out traveling the second half of last week.

Short answer: Not at this time.

Long answer: A long time ago, we used to factory install only the latest Ubuntu release (LTS or non-LTS). In the past 3-4 years, we've only factory-installed LTS releases because of the changed upstream support model for non-LTS releases (18 months to 9 months). At this time, we only do factory installation of one LTS release because of the high costs for us to pay for a newer release to be enabled. Even if we were to offer a factory install of 16.04, it would take us several months from the point 16.04 is released because of all the development, validation and factory piloting work that would be involved. (It's not just a matter of someone installing from a USB stick in the factory. In fact, no USB sticks are involved, and manual workarounds are a show stopper. Our process has to scale to tens and hundreds of thousands of systems) However, we would love to be able to offer the latest LTS release in situations like this, and if that ever becomes viable, I can assure you that we would try to pursue it.

Jared-

Are there plans to issue a Dell Sputnik supported ISO, which would support all the supported hardware on the 16.04LTS Image?

With the newest Snappy packages, will there be applied UEFI/EFI upgrades for the Dell XPS Sputnik projects?

Thanks,

-Brad

Hi Jared,

I've been reading your updates in the long "availability" thread, and I thank you for your continual updates there. Hopefully you guys will be able to announce shipping dates for the XPS 13 DE before the Apple announcements on 3/21 :)

I'm a little concerned in what I'm reading above. It sounds like there might not be an official effort to make sure the new Skylake XPS 13 DE has full hardware support for Ubuntu 16.04, which is releasing in 1.5 months. While 14.04 is technically supported for 3 more years, those that purchase the machine in a few months will have their extended 3yr warranties expire after security updates are no longer published for 14.04 (making them effectively dangerous/useless). Also, speaking more with my heart, I'll want to update to 16.04 by the end of this year, and not be using 2014's operating system in 2019.

I know certifying hardware and writing drivers is tough but it seems to be a necessity for this product. Thanks.

tvtb-

I think your on to something. Especially for the older hardware, the drivers are already written. Yet for some reason access for the consumers to the ISO image is not available. Thus negating the entire reason to use Linux in the first place. I hope dell turns about face and decides to provide support, and that even includes customer service support. Even manned by volunteers with a passion for linux.

The average consumer needs a home , where they can call up customer support and order a machine and have access to the drivers, ISO image. -Brad 

From Barton George's blog (permalink):

16.04LTS With regards to updates, although 16.04LTS will be shipping next month, we don’t have a date for when factory installation will become available. That being said, we do plan to support 16.04 LTS for those who choose to upgrade. To upgrade to the latest LTS, please follow the instructions at  www.ubuntu.com/.../upgrade

Great find,

But the problem still pervades unless.

1. The drivers are included in the stock image.

2. Dell provides access to the Sputnik image

Dell needs to turn about face and provide a simple solution for the average consumer, Jill America can call up buy a machine, and have simple support on the phone. As well have access to the Sputnik image and or be able to send in their machine to have it re imaged. If you havent had it happen before any updating to the Dell Ubuntu machine will brick your entire laptop. 

-Brad

I really can't believe what you're saying. I'm very appreciative that Dell is going as far as they are to offer this stuff to the public: first-rate hardware that runs a proper *nix OS suitable for developers and geeks, and world-class engineers available to solve the bugs in the upstream releases and to serve as uber online tech support in these forums.

This is sold as a developer system. Anyone buying this should be comfortable installing drivers, figuring out workarounds to everyday technical issues, and blazing their own trail if they're installing a bleeding edge release. I've been using Ubuntu since 6.06 and there's no avoiding the fact that, even though it's come far, Linux is going to demand a little more technical ability for the user to accomplish things that most consumers take for granted on Windows and Mac OS.

I've installed a clean 14.04 image on my XPS 13 (dual-booting with the copy of Windows it shipped with) and, following the workarounds here, fixed the few issues that existed after installation. I then did the same with 15.04. I've learned long ago, and recently confirmed on my hand-built desktop system, that upgrading Ubuntu distributions bricks almost anything. Let's not expect the impossible from Dell. This is way better than I've ever had it running Ubuntu on a laptop.

-Aaron

That's weird. I have upgraded existing Ubuntu instalations more than a dozen times over the last decade using both the automatic paths od 'do-release-upgrade' and also by just doing reformat ipgardes and have never had a bricked computer or laptop. In fact over the last 3 months I have gone from 14.04 to 16.04 using the automatic path on 4 different machines and on all 4 everything worked right away. Some repositories needed to be reset but otherwise everything went smoothly.

I get that Dell needs to be more thourough and their turnaround time will be longer than the two hours it took me to make the decision and upgrade but to say it could be months or years seems either overly cautious or very ignorant.

I would like to see Dell provide a quick upgrade path for my XPS and not force me to do a reformat upgrade.

It is 3 months after Ubuntu 16.04 LTS was released. It is still not possible to order combinations with some graphic cards or hard disks. Due to incompatibility with Ubuntu 12 and 14.

So I tried a Live-USB of Xubuntu 16.04 on my XPS 9350 (the i5 non-touch screen version) and from what I can tell, I have full functionality of the system.  All the function keys work (volume control, screen dimming, keyboard light control, Wi-Fi toggle, etc). The only issue I do not know is if the system suspend/hibernate control is going to work.  I'm having odd issues with power management with a ***-tastic ASUS 1015P netbook running Xubuntu 16.04. 

I'm prepared to just install either the base Xubuntu or Ubuntu 16.04.1 on my XPS 9350 and call it good.  I did make the Dell Ubuntu recovery USB image, so I can always go back to a factory install if need be.

Hi everyone! after the upgrade to 16.04 LTS, do you still have the button "restorefactory state" in the bios ate the beginning? it will be really useful. If you don't did you plan some backup solution to get the system back to the factory state?

Lorenzo