
Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro? - kornakiewicz
Hi,
I&#x27;ve been waiting few months for yesterday&#x27;s MacBook upgrade and I&#x27;m dissatisfied, as most of you. I read many comments about alternatives and one of recurring favorite is Dell XPS Developer Edition. Could I ask you about your experience with this model? I&#x27;m interested in high-end version (16gb and UltraSharp screen). Is it worth this money (less than Macbook, but still)? I actually want to buy &quot;best machine money can buy&quot;, which is powerful (for JVM development, besides personal stuff like movies and web), but still easy to carry-on while traveling. Most of the machines are Windows-oriented, which doesn&#x27;t fit my workflow and there&#x27;s a limited choice of laptop fully compatible with Linux. Dell XPS 13 seems like one. Do you have positive experiences with this? Would you recommend it?<p>I just get rid of normal desktop and use mainly my office machine - heavy, powerful ThinkPad W541 with 32GB ram and i7, but it&#x27;s plastic and the screen is so-so.<p>Thanks!
======
zeusk
Yes,

I've been using a Retina MacBook Pro 13" (early 15) and 15" (mid 15) and just
picked up the xps 13 9350 with iris pro.

There are definitely some quality control issues but once you get a working
model with no faults (I had one that wouldn't reboot and had terrible coil
whine, one that had loose trackpad and yellow tint on screen but this could
also be because of Amazon's shitty packaging where the laptop was in a box
with only some brown paper crumpled in) - atleast they took them back no
questions asked. I'm amazed how far windows laptops have come along.

The only real downsides are that it power throttles (and thermal too, but I
placed my own aftermarket thermal paste and it doesn't cross 66 C on full load
now) due to the iris GPU itself consuming 18W at it's rated turbo boost with
the SoC's TDP being 15W (long turbo) and 25W (short turbo). Perhaps go with
the i5 model that has the HD 520 or the new 9360 that has kabylake with better
thermal and power consumption (HD 620 is roughly similar to HD 540 but won't
throttle). You can also use Intel's XTU to undervolt and better battery life
and throttling if you're going to use windows.

Linux runs flawlessly, infact so does OS X if you can replace the wifi card.
AMA

~~~
caconym_
> once you get a working model with no faults (I had one that wouldn't reboot
> and had terrible coil whine, one that had loose trackpad and yellow tint on
> screen

I never understood how people can deal with multiple rounds of RMAing (or
whatever) a defective product and still turn around and recommend it to other
people. If a company can't consistently deliver their products intact and
functional, why should I waste hours of my time (which effectively increases
the price of the product by hundreds of dollars) picking up their mess?

The fact that this is still a thing kinda says to me that PC laptop OEMs still
aren't ready to go toe to toe with Apple in the customer experience
department, despite the overall improved quality of their offerings.

~~~
zeusk
well let's not get into how bad Apple screws customers when it does so. I had
the macbook (was it '12?) that had the gpu death issue - apple denied that the
issue was a defect until a class action was brought against them; I was out
at-least a thousand dollars as I had to toss the unit because apple wanted me
to pay for the repairs which cost almost as much as a new unit in my country.
Did I mention I faced the same bullshit with iPhone 4? Maybe I was just
holding it wrong.

And as I said, `but this could also be because of Amazon's shitty packaging
where the laptop was in a box with only some brown paper crumpled in` - I'm
not even sure if the issue was because of improper shipping or factory defect.
If you're all that worried about wasting your time, go to the nearest retail
store and test your unit as you buy it.

I also forgot to mention, I bought the defective models through Amazon
Warehouse Deals - so it could very well have been a return due to the said
defects.

------
wolfkabal
I went with a ThinkPad P50. It's not nearly as bulky as some think. I specked
mine with the Xeon processor, and 1080p screen (but 4k is an option). Also
specked everything else as low as possible (HDD/SSD, RAM). I upgraded these
items myself after. I now have a server grade processor, have put two 512 SSD
in it (one M.2 NVMe), and 64GB of RAM. It's a beast. I can also swap out the
LCD panel directly for the 4k panel if I so choose with an after-market one
later if I so choose. Initial base price was only around $1400 (was on sale),
and about $500 for the SSD/RAM on my own dime (would have been well above
$1000 on lenovo's site).

So for ~$1900 I have something that blows the MacBook Pro out of the water.

~~~
wolfkabal
P.S. I do own the a 2014 MB Pro as well, so not being ThinkPad bias. Just
stating the options and route I chose as a replacement.

------
pbohun
One gem I found when I was shopping for a laptop is the Dell Inspiron 7559
(part of their "gaming" series). I bought the most expensive $1300 version
last winter and it's been great.

\- 4k touchscreen

\- i7 Skylake processor w/ identical stats to that on the $2400 15" macbook
pro

\- 16 GB RAM

\- 128 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD (I replaced the HDD with a 500 GB SSD from Amazon)

\- NVIDIA GTX 960m w/ 4 GB GDDR5 RAM

It's sturdily made, I take it everywhere. The only thing I miss from my mac is
the trackpad. You can't beat mac trackpads. However, the trackpad on the
Inspiron is great, much better than many of the others I've tried. When you
take into account it has better graphics acceleration than the $2800 macbook
pro, you find that dollar for dollar, it's one of the best value laptops out
there. (Seriously, compare it to even Dell's XPS 15, you'd have to pay ~$1650
for an XPS 15 to get comparable specs to the $1300 Inspiron 7559. The Inspiron
even has _double_ the graphics card RAM of the $2550 XPS 15!)

~~~
hxegon
Wow, those are great specs for 1300. what's battery life like?

~~~
pbohun
It's one of those "it depends" answers, but mine lasts around 4-5 hours when:

\- cranked the screen to 80% brightness

\- have two browsers open with multiple tabs (plus YouTube playing in the
background)

\- doing development

I'd say it's about average. If you play games the graphics card is going to
soak up energy within a couple hours, but for heavy gameplay you'd want to
plug it in anyway. I always want more battery life, but it does well enough
and has such good specs otherwise that I can't complain.

~~~
vacri
Have you done any tuning with 'powertop'? If not, that can add some non-
trivial time to your battery life.

------
oxymoron
I carried a 2013 Dell XPS Developer Edition and a MacBook Air in parallell for
a while this year. Note that not all of this necessarily applies to more
recent versions of the XPS.

* My XPS has a really awful touchpad. When I first got it, it was definitely my main reservation. I tried a 2014 model and noted that it wasn't much improved.
    
    
      * The battery life is much, much worse on the XPS, which is probably the main reason why I find myself reaching for the mac. I've kept Ubuntu 12.04 on it, so Linux power management has likely gotten better but there's still no comparison.
    
      * other than that, I've loved my XPS. It's super light, has a brilliant keyboard, excellent specs and still works well after three years.

~~~
TYPE_FASTER
Yeah, touchpad is crap if you're used to a Mac. I think the battery life is
because the OS config is not optimized.

------
t0mas88
I have had a few models of the XPS 13 now and each one seems to get better and
better. They're both light enough to carry around and they are still quite
strong, I have seen a lot of them dropped without any damage.

Initially I though I would never use the touch-screen, but it is actually
quite useful when reading things (scrolling) or quickly clicking basic things
when not really sitting behind the keyboard on a desk. Same for the light in
the keyboard, very useful when working at night and on airplanes etc. The
screen in general is really really good, some colleagues have the 1920x1080
screen, I would pick the 3200x1800 screen again next time since it's much
nicer to read from and allows you to use smaller fonts (= more code on one
screen)

Linux support is generally much better than other relatively new notebooks
I've had, but still sometimes things break. The Developer Edition is released
a bit later than the Windows models, probably to stabilize Linux support. I've
only used it with Ubuntu, but I see others use several other distros which
seems to work without much issues.

~~~
criddell
Does Linux use the touchscreen?

~~~
sprucely
It does on my install of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

------
kminehart
My girlfriend recently bought one for her daily driver. We decided to go with
Arch Linux to gain access to packages as they release, rather than wait for
the next iteration of Ubuntu or Fedora to get updates.

Here are my pros and cons:

Pros:

1\. The hardware is great; the developer edition favors more Linux-compatible
hardware (obviously), and for us, it didn't require very much setup. Usually
the default configuration will be enough. The touchpad, like the MacBook, has
a glass surface and feels excellent.

2\. Like the MacBook, it's very light. The screen looks great, and honestly on
Linux I prefer 1080p.

3\. Dell has a very reasonable warranty, and is very quick to respond.
Example: You can install whatever Linux distribution you like, replace the SSD
(so long as you don't ruin anything while you're there, of course).

Cons:

1\. It's fragile. Unlike the Macbook, you have to be at least (more) careful
with this thing. We ended up breaking the screen without much effort; I wager
it was the fact that it was in a backpack that got dropped somewhat
aggressively.

That being said, we also bought the $60 accident protection, and Dell sent out
a technician from a local repair shop to fix it for us within that week. If
the technician can't fix it, they will over-night you a shipping box and a
FedEx label to send your laptop back in.

Just be careful with it; treat it like the $1000+ machine that it is.

2\. No replacing the RAM. It's soldered onto the board. That's not a problem
for me because I barely push ~4GB.

Conclusion: I use a MacBook now; my XPS 13 is actually coming in tomorrow and
I'm very excited. I think it's a great machine and a great MacBook
replacement, and has excellent Linux compatibility. Dell's customer support is
great, just be careful with it; it's not an aluminum body or several layers of
glass in front of the screen. Make sure to buy the one with the right amount
of RAM so you don't regret it later. If you're worried about storage, there's
a $150 500GB M.2 SSD on Amazon, buy the lowest storage version and upgrade it.
Get the protection plan. It's cheap compared to the cost of buying a new
device.

~~~
vladimir-y
I used Arch Linux for a few last years, but recently switched to the Manjaro
(Arch Linux based distributive). Manjaro has a little better stability than
pure Arch Linux since Manjaro before shipping packages does (I hope) some
testing and verifying that core system components are not broken after
updating. When you know what to do having you laptop not bootable after system
update (not so likely, but it happens), then Arch Linux is for you :)

------
dolguldur
No. I had the Dell XPS 15 9550 and there were several issues.

• Trackpad much worse than on a Mac

• Coil whine

• Bad fan control means it was sometimes noisy in near-idle contitions (though
in idle it was very silent)

• there were some flicker issues with the GPU (might have been resolved
though)

• one key was bouncy, meaning it sometimes triggered twice

• it woke up from sleep randomly, sometimes while in my bag, often completely
emptying the battery

In the beginning it also crashed very often, however this was resolved with an
update.

So all in all the quality wasn't on the level of a Mac.

And I wouldn't even start speaking about the OS. If you're used to macOS, it's
still such a day and night difference.

Connecting a normal low dpi display to the 9550 with HIDPI display lead to so
many annoyances with Windows and all the programs that won't support this for
the years to come. I'd barely consider it useful. Although the display itself
was quite nice.

~~~
rstuart4133
This I think is the Windows perspective. The Linux perspective (Debian in my
case) is somewhat different:

\- Hardware wise the Trackpad is identical in performance to the Mac. All the
same gestures are recognised - but the software doesn't use most of them. In
fact the software side was terrible until libxinput took over from the old
synaptics driver. Now if it works, it works well - but it's still a little
lacking on the gesture front.

\- Coil whine should be no different - but I've never heard it.

\- Fan control is perfect, which is weird. Maybe it was old BIOS?

\- Intel's GPU firmware & driver has been a 18 month long cluster fuck. It's
the same cluster fuck on Windows and Linux. It _still_ isn't perfect, but it's
much better. At the rate they are going, they may get it right 2 years after
the initial release of the CPU. Here's hoping. I don't know how Apple could
escape this mess. Maybe they knew they couldn't, so escaped it by not
upgrading the CPU's for donkey's years.

\- Oddly the wakeup problem happened on Linux too. Once I opened by bag and it
was so hot I though I'd destroyed it. The issue has gone now.

\- Linux has the same issues a Windows when it comes to mixing HIDPI and
normal displays. In Linux it's a fundamental limitation of X. It can be fixed
in Wayland.

One piece of advice: update the BIOS religiously. At least until Intel fixes
their Skylake GPU issues.

------
086421357909764
14" Razer Blade 1060, grab a dbrand matte skin to cover the hideous Razer
logo. No problems with Ubuntu 16.10 currently installed. Also have a 13" Dell
XPS dev edition used for specific work. It's a nice system as well. The Razer
def has more power if you want a full replacement.

~~~
troyk
I'm considering moving from a macbook pro to the blade and adding the core to
get a beefed up desktop experience with the ability to unplug and take work
anywhere it needs to go. I'm assuming I would need to stay in windows land
with linux via Hyper-V. Besides iMessage, all my apps run on linux (more-so)
or windows (less-so). Any thoughts?

~~~
086421357909764
The only loss i've felt so far is my documents that were written / design in
pages & keynote. Still have a older mac around to handle them. Otherwise i'm
back to Windows 10 fT with the Hyper-V bash and docker. So far so good (going
on a month now).

------
sbrother
I have a new XPS 13. It's impeccably built, you can use it comfortably on an
airplane, and it runs Linux with no issues. But I wouldn't use it for daily
development. The 13 inch screen just doesn't have enough real estate, and it
often feels like it's struggling to drive the 4k screen whenever I try to
switch applications.

If you don't mind something heavy, check out the new Thinkpad P50 or P70. They
have actual desktop-level performance, terrific screens (matte, color
corrected 4k IPS!) and the new NVMe SSDs. I do most of my daily development on
a P70, and increasingly just lug it along when I travel even though travel was
the reason I bought the XPS 13.

~~~
KerrickStaley
I don't own a P50 or P70, but one complaint I would have is that having a
numpad on laptop ends up putting your hands in an awkward position. I almost
never use the numpad anymore since I can touch-type on the number row and my
main laptop (a Mac) doesn't have one.

------
mkroman
The XPS 13 was recently upgraded to Kaby Lake, so if you're fine with the
smaller display, I'd say go for it, I've heard great things.

Also, do realize that the UltraSharp model will have a significant impact on
battery life. The comments I've looked at for the XPS 15 9550 (4K display) say
that the battery life is basically halved, but it's supposedly still around
4.5 hours of battery life.

If you prefer the 15-inch, you might want to wait for a while - they still
only feature Skylake CPUs and I think an upgrade is imminent (given the recent
XPS 13 upgrade and all.)

I don't have any personal experience with the machines, but I'm planning to
buy the XPS 15 once it gets an upgrade.

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
Confirmed on the battery life. With Linux on my Dell XPS 13 9343 QHD+ version,
even running tlp and powertop, I'm lucky if I get more than 6 hours. If I do
music streaming or any kind of video, it plummets to 4.

------
mirekrusin
I'd love to see some real competition with macbooks but I haven't seen
anything close yet... Alternatives do exist but they are still very
expensive... I mean really, they are bloody expensive. When I'm thinking about
putting this kind of money on the table, I just go to apple store, no?

Why on earth there's no startup which just puts together linux laptops? I'm
sure you can grab Chinese/Taiwanese/Korean whitelabelish product customised
with linux friendly peripherals or just put the box together yourself with
engraved penguins here and there. Half of devs would love it, another half
would hate it - but that should be enough to survive, no?

~~~
xenomachina
> Why on earth there's no startup which just puts together linux laptops?

Do System76 or ZaReason count? They even have non-Windows super keys. (Ubuntu
logo or Tux, respectively)

I have no experience with their laptops, but I have a System76 desktop, and
have no complaints.

~~~
matheweis
Woah, I'd not heard of System76 - the specs on that Oryx Pro are jaw
dropping!! I wonder how well it would do as a hackintosh...

------
manav
Consider the outgoing Macbook Pros. You can probably get a good deal on one.

~~~
rbanffy
They are still being sold, much like the previous one.

~~~
kornakiewicz
This is a buy I consider, but since I decide to get new computer once in five
years, I would like to choose best option.

~~~
rbanffy
For the next 5 years, I'd wait until the 32GB option appears. It'll probably
be a very minor manufacturing process change that'll most likely come with
slightly better processors. If the current support for the previous-gen model
is any indication, the new ones will be supported for a very long time - the
previous-gen 13-inch was sold from 2008 up until this week.

------
pyrophane
I personally prefer the XPS 15 for the quad-core CPU and discrete graphics,
but it looks like getting it to play well with linux could take some work, and
there might still be some issues:
[https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2317843](https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2317843).

Out of curiosity, what has you disappointed with Apple's new laptops?

------
piptastic
I had a laptop from System76 at my previous job, which runs Ubuntu:
[https://system76.com/laptops](https://system76.com/laptops)

I liked it, but I didn't travel with it so not sure how carry-able it is.
Current shop is Mac oriented but I would have gotten another one if it had
been up to me.

------
dhruvtv
Quite interesting that no one has mentioned the Microsoft Surface Book here.
Anybody has any thoughts on it?

~~~
jaxn
That's where I am headed.

I bought a Surface Pro 3 to play around with and to use for my one .NET
project. I loved it, but I gave it to my assistant b/c I didn't really want to
use two computers.

Well, time to buy a new computer and I think I am going to ditch my MacBook
Pro and switch to a maxed out Surface Book. I'll keep the MBP around in case I
need to do any iOS dev.

I am hoping that the Linux on Windows 10 stuff will make the terminal feel
familiar enough.

------
revicon
Question for the iOS developers on the thread thinking about switching (or
have already switched) away from macs as you dev machine. How do you plan on
continuing to do iPhone/iWatch/iPad dev given apple's requirement to use their
hardware?

------
bnewton
Unfortunately XPS Developer Edition does not support external 4k displays @
60Mhz like Dell's own P2715Q. If that kind of thing matters to you.

Otherwise I think it a great machine.

~~~
Bigsy
I think people are talking new gen XPS here right? Think all of them have
supported 4k external @60hz as they have nothing older than broadwell.

I'm sitting here now with a gen1 xps 13 2015 pushing a 4k monitor at 4k 60hz.

My xps 15 in work also supports 4k @60hz although needs an annoying usb-c to
displayport dongle.

------
CyanLite2
Best developer laptop is a Dell Precision 5510. Up to 32GB ram, thinner and
lighter than a Macbook, SSD that does >1.5GB/sec, and has a docking station.

~~~
hunterr986
Half of my my company i.e. ~2000 developers and ~2000 other associates
switched to the dell 5510(dell xps 15) this year and its absolutely amazing.
Its carbon fiber !!!! 32GB ram, 512 SSD. Amazing edge to edge display. So far
the best trackpad (after apple) with gesture controls. Superb laptop!
Definitely a MBP replacement. I am not a big Windows fan but with the recent
windows 10 update i am warming up to it. I hope Microsoft will soon support
Linux completely within windows.

I wish there was a well funded linux operating system like the macOS or
whatever so that we all could switch over from MBPs. Apple has been mocking us
for the past few years with its lame products and specs and extremely high
prices.

------
gerbal
XPS 13 is well worth it. Its only downside is the webcam looking up your nose.
It's lighter than a macbook pro and is about as sturdy.

------
crbelaus
I have one for the work. It is absolutely wonderful. I am currently using
Ubuntu 16.04.1, and I feel it lightweight and performant. The battery lasts
about 9 and a half hours (doing web browsing and light programming).

I suppose that the thing will only improve with future Ubuntu Hardware
Enablement Stacks that include new kernels and so...

------
sliken
Be warned that the current XPS 13 is kaby lake and has a rather slow (non-
IRIS) gpu. 3200x1800 is quite a few pixels and the built in GPU is pretty
weak.

Might want to consider the skylake version, sure it's the previous generation,
but the CPU perf is pretty similar, and the Iris 540 is a significant GPU
upgrade. Not a nvidia/ati killer by any means, but much better than the normal
intel integrated graphics.

Either that or way for similar to ship in it's kaby lake incarnation.

Also keep in mind that the "upgraded" 3200x1800 screen about halves the
battery life and is reflective. Not really worth it for me (at least in a 13"
screen).

Sadly you can't get more ram or an i7 with the 1080P (they called it FHD)
screen.

~~~
kupiakos
It might sound vain, but all I really want is the Rose Gold on a non-touch...

------
vasilakisfil
I have xps 9550 FHD with 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM. I installed Ubuntu gnome
16.10. Everything worked out if the box. I even played steam games on Linux
(like firewatch). I get around 6 hours of Rails and Ember development.

I think it's really good machine.

------
ceor4
Same boat here, although I'm a bit worried about the downsize from 15" to 13".
Perhaps with a docking station, it might not be so bad. But hopefully dell
jumps on this opportunity to make a 15" developer edition

------
oduis
I got a Dell XPS 15, the 9550 edition. Before purchasing I was scared of the
bad stability reviews it had when it was release. However Dell treats it with
updated drivers regularly, and with latest drivers it works great. It can even
handle 3D shooter without thermal throtteling etc. I use it as a developer
machine with Windows 10.

Just be careful with the Dell Thunderbold 3 TB15 dock (not sold any more I
think). I got one, and with the latest drivers it works, but has some quirks.
Also be careful to sort out complaints about the XPS in the net: may have
problems using the dock, not with the laptop itself.

And the touchpad is great by the way.

------
koenigdavidmj
Looks like they come with Ubuntu...is that bog-standard Ubuntu, or does it
have custom drivers for things like the touch screen? (Basically, I would be
curious whether it's easily replaced by another distribution.)

~~~
IMcD23
It's regular Ubuntu, I believe. You can install whatever distro you want, but
Ubuntu is guaranteed by Dell to be fully supported. I installed Arch on mine
with no issues.

------
pepperpo
It is a beautiful machine but I want to voice my experience having tried on
the XPS 13 for size:

[https://medium.com/@securitystreak/buying-a-professional-
pen...](https://medium.com/@securitystreak/buying-a-professional-penetration-
testing-laptop-for-2017-6cd21e65dc2)

Granted I owned the older 9343 model but despite the many BIOS updates (and
several Linux distros) my laptop kept up phantom right clicks and cursor jumps
- very annoying! No issue with Windows 10 though.

I sold it onward and happy with the real-estate 15" provides me once more.

------
alphabettsy
Sounds like everyone below is saying the XPS is great, with exceptions of the
battery life, build quality, trackpad, and webcam. So you're probably better
off buying the now last gen MBP.

~~~
Chos89
And still paying a premium price for a 3 year-old specs laptop. If money
wasn't an issue people would just but the 4300$ mbp

------
slavik81
I'm on my fourth motherboard for a year-old Dell XPS 13. They've released a
new model since then, but the experience was pretty awful. Each failure is
hours down the drain dealing with tech support and a hard drive wipe. The
overall experience of using it as your primary computer is made painful by the
inability to depend on it working.

The warranty just ended, so unless they finally fixed it for good, the machine
may have been a waste of a thousand dollars. I'm crossing my fingers and
hoping it keeps working.

------
papaf
I recently got a Dell Latitude 12 7000 Series for $work and I was surprised by
how good it is:

\- Plays 4k video under Windows 10

\- Runs Arch linux without any hardware compatibility problems

\- Silent, portable, fast (pick all three)

It sounds like an advert but this was a machine I didn't pick myself and it is
the best computer I have ever used. The next time I spend money on my own
laptop I will move from Thinkpad to Dell. This is after using Linux on
Thinkpads for the last 13 years or so.

I thought this was worth mentioning as the Latitude is probably a bit cheaper
than the XPS.

------
phjesusthatguy3
I don't know about the developer edition specifically, but I just had a XPS13
(with a skylake processor, so not what's available on the store right now)
with stock Windows 10 pro on my desk, and debian stable installed just fine
except for the wireless card (which is the only network interface on the
machine). It wasn't mine to play with so I didn't try to figure that out but
whatever version of KDE that gets installed with Debian 8.6(?) seems to be 99%
of the way there.

~~~
phjesusthatguy3
I _really_ liked the physical feel of the trackpad. It'll be a sad day when
that rubberized cover gets nicked. The KDE system setup couldn't set the
trackpad up for taps instead of clicks but I didn't spend a whole lot of time
with it. ISTR that kernel 4.4 had wireless NIC drivers but I didn't have time
for that.

------
eadz
In a similar boat. The closest machine to the Macbook Pro is the razer blade
stealth.

[http://www.techradar.com/reviews/razer-blade-
stealth-2016](http://www.techradar.com/reviews/razer-blade-stealth-2016)

It's basically a rip-off of the (2015) macbook machined aluminium body design.
It has the 7th gen processors rather than than the 6th of the new macbook, and
a similar price.

Not sure about linux support, from what I've read there may be an issue with
the webcam.

~~~
sakopov
I'd say Stealth is more compatible with Macbook Air. The dual-core processor
is really the only thing that stops me from picking one up.

------
davb
I had the first gen XPS 13 and while it was a beautiful machine it ran
extremely hot at time. So much so that I couldn't use it while on my lap. I'm
not sure if the deciding has changed much since then but it's worth taking
into consideration.

I ultimately went with a retina MBP (early 2015). My next laptop is likely to
be either a Lenovo T460 or a Dell P50 (or their successors).

~~~
criddell
Dell P50?

------
criddell
The nice thing about an OSX machine is that it (legally) runs more software
than any other operating system.

It sounds like the software you need is available on all three operating
systems, so the Dell machine is a fine choice.

I'm assuming that the movies you want to watch are rips or Netflix and not
something like UltraViolet streams.

------
Kalium
I've got a Dell Precision 5510 with Ubuntu. I've been very happy with it. My
only major grievance was the slightly slow graphics drivers, but it's not like
I'm gaming on the thing.

I got some very good - and upgradable - hardware at a good price with an
extended battery. Good call, would buy again.

------
arekx
If you go for XPS then really be careful about coil-like noise (google for
"dell xps coil whine forum"). Dell doesn't consider this to be a fault - it's
"normal" from their point of view. And for you such coil whine could be like
chinese water torture - constant pain.

------
davidw
I have one, and love it, but I have used Linux for the past 20 years and am
not about to switch any time soon.

------
snehesht
Give Razer blade a shot [http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-
blade](http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade)

I do think XPS keyboard is little off, I use Thinkpad T440s with ArchLinux.

------
pcvarmint
ASUS Zenbook Pro UX501VW

[https://marclewis.com/2016/04/25/installing-
ubuntu-16-04-lts...](https://marclewis.com/2016/04/25/installing-
ubuntu-16-04-lts-on-asus-zenbook-ux501vw/)

------
TYPE_FASTER
The quality control concerns in the comments mirror my experiences. I would
not buy one. I would still rather get the new MBP with function keys vs. the
Dell XPS Developer Edition.

------
kag0
Linux users on the xps13/15, with synaptic you typically can't rest your thumb
in the corner of a touchpad while using it. Do you have this issue or any work
arounds?

------
hihihoho
Thinkpad X1

~~~
mirekrusin
Can you replace this windows key with a pingwin? I'd buy it but I can't look
at windows logo so many times a day (yes, it is really a problem for me).

------
caleblloyd
I have been using an XPS 13 9350 for around 6 months now, coming from an 13"
2015 MacBook Pro. I picked up a basic FHD core i5 model with 8GB of RAM on
sale, replaced the WiFi chip with an Intel 8260NGW and replaced the 128GB SSD
with a 256GB Samsung 950 Pro NVMe. All said and done, I spent less than
$1,000.

Ubuntu 16.04: Pretty much works flawlessly as long as you have Intel WiFi- I
had some issues with a flashing screen at first but they all seem to have been
resolved using `apt-get upgrade`. Suspend/resume, audio controls, and
brightness controls all work fine. I run docker images for pretty much
everything and it's great to have native docker without a VM involved.

Physical Characteristics: It is very light and easy to use on the lap, on the
couch, or in bed. It feels more like a MacBook Air than a MacBook Pro. Fans
are on the bottom but they don't really spin up that much, even when I don't
have anything under it.

Keyboard and Touchpad: Keyboard is fine. Touchpad is a lot smaller and more
"clicky" than a MacBook Pro. The force touch on the MacBook Pro is way better
(it's pretty much the gold standard of touchpads).

Screen: I have the FHD screen because I don't care about touch, and it is
Matte (the QHD+ touchscreen is glossy). DPI scaling in Ubuntu 16.04 is hit or
miss. In my experience, some apps, like Chrome, only respect DPI Scaling if
it's in multiples of 0.5 Other apps, like Firefox only respect DPI scaling if
it's an even number. JetBrains products do a good job of respecting DPI
scaling though. I keep it at 1x DPI scaling, so everything looks pretty small
at 1920x1080. If you go with the QHD+ touchscreen, native resolution is
3200x1800 so 2x DPI scaling will be an effective resolution of 1600x900, and
it will look great. I think most apps should work fine at 2x DPI scaling.

Webcam: The webcam location really is stupid. I dislike video chatting on this
computer so much I'd rather use my phone. I use Android and kind of miss
iMessage and FaceTime from the mac (it's how I would talk to some Apple
friends), but whatever.

Other Thoughts: Linux FTW. IMO, the last good release of OS X was 10.6.8.
Everything after that either changed the scrolling direction or added some
sort of bloat to the OS. I'd run 10.6.8 still if I could. Ubuntu 16.04 feels
like getting your life back. It's super quick, you can use apt-get to install
dev tools instead of hacking around with homebrew, you get the real version of
`sed`, and you don't feel like Apple controls your life anymore. Gotta say it
twice- native Docker support and no messing around with VMs anymore!

Take the leap of faith and get the XPS 13. Or a Lenovo with good linux
support. Part of me wants to try out the big ass trackpad on the new MacBook
Pro but none of me wants to go back to paying $2k every time I want to upgrade
my laptop.

------
ifhs
I recommend carbon 3rd gen

~~~
buckbova
Seconded. I have this running xubuntu and all is fine with the world.

My only complaint is the limited ram.

~~~
mirekrusin
Apparently there are a lot of complains on quality, as in "quality control"
before shipping to people doesn't exist, if you are lucky, you're fine, if
not, you'll need to return, is that true?

~~~
buckbova
Could be true. I had no problem with mine.

------
synthecypher
Does it run macOS? No? In which case no its not a good replacement for a
MacBook Pro.

