Dell seeks Linux fans to try cut-price Ubuntu Ultrabook
'Help us build dev device of choice'
Dell is tempting Linux developers with the promise of a cut-price XPS 13 Ultrabook running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
The machine is the outcome of Dell's Project Sputnik, which it kicked off back in May in a bid to create, with the commmunity's help, the best laptop for coders.
The PC giant isn't quite ready to put the machine on sale, so it's testing the water by inviting "a limited number of applicants" to sign up for a shot at buying the Sputnik Beta release and fine-tuning it for broader consumption.
Dell's not saying how many machine it will have on offer, or the extent of the discount, though it should be the cost of a Windows 7 licence at the very least.
Interested developers can head over to Dell's website to put their names down.
Dell currently sells the XPS 13 Ultrabook with Windows pre-installed; Linux fans are invited to head over to the Canonical web site and load up a custom Ubuntu 12.04 build equipped with the necessary drivers.
Dell hasn't offered a mass-market machine with Linux pre-loaded since 2010. ®
COMMENTS
"A viable GNU/Linux machine that works out of the box"
I'm not sure what Dell is on about, unless Dell laptops are full of nonstandard hardware that needs odd, proprietary drivers.
I supect that the "driver download safari" is mostly FUD (created after Linux became well-known) to frighten the average semi-technical bloke away from trying a non-Windows OS on their machine. I've been running Linux on Thinkpad laptops since 1996, and I must say that it's been many years since I encountered anything that didn't just "work out of the box". I have had far more problems getting 64-bit Win7 to play nicely with the hardware in new laptops than I do with mainstream Linux distributions.
Don't ask Windows users what they want
Or you will end up with something looking like a Fisher Price design.
What's that ? They did and called it Metro !
Didn't the last Linux laptop from Dell actually turn out to be more expensive than the Windows version?
Re: re: Performance of open source drivers
Certainly: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_june_2012&num=1
The same goes for ATI cards.
And to anyone who has thumbed down my comment, you have your heads in the sand and are ignoring the evidence. It's OK to be a fan of Linux, but not to be blinkered.
Re: For that matter...
My last machine shipped with Win7 and Win7 didn't have drivers for it's wifi card.
Neither did Intel. INTEL. Not some fly-by-night hardware vendor.
I had to install some for a totally different card which somehow worked.
All the linuces I put on there worked perfectly out of the box.
