Update on XPS 13/15 2016 Developer Edition availability

Barton it would be really nice if you could tell if there will be the version with i5 6200 and 256GB SSD and FHD Display. I am not sure if i should buy the Windows 10 version (which is 100€ off at the Moment) because i would need to buy it TODAY to get the discount.

If there was a Ubuntu-version i guess the Discount would not matter since Ubuntu should be cheaper. I would appreciate the convenience of having a pre-configured Linux but if this config won't come out there is no other choice...

Thanks in advance

Barton posted on Mar 16th, "The config we have coming online will be i5/8/256 FHD NT/Intel 8260 and it should be under $1,100"

> I recently managed to get a Windows XPS 13 from the Dell outlet (i7-6560U, 256GB SSD, 8GB Ram) and was looking forward to installing Linux on it myself. However I can't find any driver downloads on the Dell support sites for Linux, only windows drivers.

I have the same problem :) It would be extremely useful to know how to reproduce Dell's factory settings with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Have the settings been integrated in the official distro? If not, how can we reproduce them on a Windows preinstalled machine? Not everybody could wait for the Developer Edition :P

why would anyone run something as old as Ubuntu 14.04? In any case I repeat what I wrote earlier: try contacting support, asking for the packages. Just because they're not available on the Homepage, doesn't mean you cannot get them at all. 

Unless you bought second hand (i.e. Dell can verify that you actually did buy the XPS, I don't see a reason why you couldn't get the files, but of course IANAL)

And no, the stuff has not been integrated in the official distro, at least not to a old version. That's why it is custom packages and everyone recommends to run something newer. Even the 2015 XPS runs much better with updated version of Ubuntu, just because the stuff that gets upstream takes a while to end up in the distro-version. You cannot expect and old distro, released two years before the new hardware came out to support that new stuff. Adding support for new hardware is not part of Ubuntu's Long Term Support stuff. That only means security updates..

Hardware-support is all backported by Dell's contractors (i.e. Canonical for providing packages and to some extent Intel/Broadcom for actually writing drivers for that new stuff to begin with) - but that's all custom to Dell's release, nothing that would end up upstream.

And in case for proprietary firmware, even impossible to have it part of a default upstream install.

So again the recommendation: if you want to install non-dell version of Ubuntu, go for the latest release (or ask support whether you can get the files for Ubuntu 14.04. But if the touchpad is the same as in the 2015 model: just go for the later version of Ubuntu, the experience is much better with a more current version of linux)

I recall reading that the Developer Edition will be shipped with some hardware (e.g. WiFi chip) replaced with Intel hardware that has better Linux support. Wouldn't that mean that to get to the DE from the current Windows XPS is not simply a matter of loading a different OS (?).

This. 100%.

Please be more concrete when we may expect an update. Once we can start pre-ordering in Europe then at least I don't have to continuously check for updates.

Indeed ! But can't customise the order on the french/uk website yet. For instance, I want to choose something else than the 1 year default warranty.

seems to be there :)

Edit: Everything okay

It's a shame that there is no i7 Version with FHD though. Anyways, I read the Intel Iris Graphics has worse Battery life than Intel HD so I should be fine.

Does anyone know if there are going to be more configuration options available for the UK version? It'd be good to know before making a purchase.

Yay, XPS 13 DE is available in Switzerland! But it's impossible to choose the keyboard layout (only the Swiss one is available, while I really prefer the US one). Any ideas if there will be an option to customize this? (it's possible to choose US layout for all the Windows-based XPS 13)

It's now also available in the Swiss store.

But BitCoin payments is still missing.

The dell.com/sputnik landing page just went down for about 5 minutes (US). Seeing the posts about EU availability, I got really excited thinking maybe they were pushing out the i5 configs here.

But nope. And I have to say, I'm getting really sick of seeing the numbers 1549.99 strung together. Just seeing that string of characters, day after day, is like a slap in the face. ;)

Dear Barton,

As much as I admire Dells OpenSource and Linux activities I have to tell you this:

I just had a look at Dell.fr and Dell.de : They don't offer a US keyboard version of a *DEVELOPER* Notebook. This is simply ridicilous!

I think your laptop does not deserve this name if you do not offer a US keyboard layout version!

The easy access to [] {} are extremely convenient to real programmers.

Please fix that :(((

Tormen

Hi Tormen,

Ive reached out to European team regarding this (you arent the only one who's brought this up).

thanks for pointing this out.