Company Updates

Expanding the Dell Portfolio of Ubuntu Laptops and Workstations

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Last month, PCWorld told Linux enthusiasts to rejoice because “super-thin ‘Project Sputnik’ XPS 13 laptops from Dell with Ubuntu and Intel Skylake chips should be just around the corner.”

Well, that corner was turned today. The 5th generation of the XPS 13 developer edition is now available in the U.S. We are starting out with three i7 configurations – including a much-asked-for 16GB version – and plan to add an i5 option.

And while the date for global availability of the XPS 13 is still to be announced, worldwide Precision 5510, 3510, 7510 and 7710 mobile workstations now all come in Ubuntu flavors.

This means our complete Precision mobile workstation portfolio is now available globally with Linux pre-loaded. To get to the Ubuntu option, click on the “Customize & Buy” button on the system you wish to purchase, then select Ubuntu Linux in the operating system section.

Project Sputnik leader Barton George noted how this came about in his personal post about the latest developments:

“Thanks to your support the XPS 13 developer edition has gone from one, to multiple configs. On the higher end, in response to the continued interest in a larger system, OS architect Jared Dominguez spent a bunch of late nights putting together instructions on how to get Ubuntu running on the Precision M3800. From here interest kept mounting and a year later the Ubuntu-based M3800 became an official product.”

George also discussed how when Dell first kicked off Project Sputnik, the idea was that it would be a DevOps platform. A key piece of this platform would be a “cloud launcher” that would allow developers to create apps within “micro clouds” and then deploy them to a public or private cloud.

“Unfortunately this turned out to be a lot more difficult than we had hoped. As luck would have it however, a couple of years later, Docker came along and allowed us to do what we hope the cloud launcher would,” said George. “Docker containers allow applications created locally to be pushed, as is, to the cloud. And because Docker containers run on Linux, developers don’t have to run them within a virtualized environment like they would on other platforms.”

George’s blog also notes that there were several minor fixes that were not available in time for launch but have been made available as over the air updates so make sure to run all Ubuntu updates. These fixes pertain to both the XPS 13 and Precisions, so hop over there to read more.

About the Author: Laura Pevehouse

Laura Pevehouse was profiled as one of five “social media mavens” in the March 2009 issue of Austin Woman Magazine and named an AdWeek’s TweetFreak Five to Follow. She has been part of the Dell organization for more than 15 years in various corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, marketing, branding, social media and online communication roles. From 2014-2018, Laura was Chief Blogger/Editor-in-Chief for Direct2DellEMC and Direct2Dell, Dell’s official corporate blog that she help launch in 2007. She is now a member of the Dell Technologies Chairman Communications team. Earlier in her Dell career she focused on Global Commercial Channels and US Small and Medium Business public relations as part of the Global Communications team. Prior to that, she was responsible for global strategy in social media and community management, as well as marcom landing pages, as a member of Dell’s Global SMB Marketing, Brand and Creative team. When she was part of Dell’s Global Online group, Laura provided internal consulting that integrated online and social media opportunities with a focus on Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. She managed the home page of Dell.com, one of the top 500 global web sites in Alexa traffic rank, and first brought web feeds and podcasts to the ecommerce site. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in the virtual world Second Life. Laura has earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Louisiana State University. Before joining Dell Financial Services in 2000, she worked at the Texas Workforce Commission and PepsiCo Food Systems Worldwide.