
Dell’s 2019 XPS 13 DE: As close as we currently get to Linux-computing nirvana - Tomte
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/02/dells-2019-xps-13-developer-edition-the-best-linux-laptop-til-the-2020-version/
======
ZeroCool2u
I'm blown away that the majority of comments here about people's experience
with their XPS 13 is so negative.

I've written about this before on HN, to the point where it's starting to feel
a little rediculous, but my experience has been so positive I view this
machine as the modern replacement of the glory days MBP. I have the 2018
edition of this laptop and to this day it performs amazingly well.

Battery life is on par with the new MBP I used for work in 2016. With
Terminal, Chrome, Signal, PyCharm, and Hangouts open I consistently get up to
5 days of battery life. Suspend and sleep mode works perfectly when opening
and closing the top. I do think TLP[1] is required for this though. If you
upgrade Ubuntu from your stock installation from Dell, the config might be
lost though.

It has literally never crashed on me. I've had absolutely no stability issues.

OS upgrades are seamless and have only resulted in performance improvements. I
haven't noticed any issues from Intel microcode updates, but this is anecdotal
and I haven't tested this thoroughly.

It's the closest I've gotten to a MBP in terms of mouse pad quality. Gnome on
Wayland provides great mouse pad gesture support, but X Org definitely still
works, though I permanently moved to Wayland over a year ago.

I can't comment on Dell support, because I've never actually had to contact
them.

Happy to answer any questions anyone has.

[1] [https://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-
ma...](https://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-
management.html)

~~~
dundercoder
How is the smoothness/precision of the trackpad compared to MBP?

~~~
oarsinsync
The unit I used briefly (~10 mins) is comparable to my 2015 MBP

~~~
NotSammyHagar
it's good. the problem is battery life.

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unlinked_dll
Mine is unstable and the screen just goes black multiple times a day, have to
restart it. I can only login with Wayland selected at the login screen. The
battery life is a joke. Dell support is not available over email or chat for
their Linux offerings, you have to call them.

It's a good machine but it's a pain in the ass to use regularly.

~~~
ProAm
Id be interested to see how these compare to the System76 line of laptops? At
least in terms of support and battery.

~~~
unlinked_dll
If they have a laptop that can go to sleep when it closes they have an edge
over the XPS 13

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as1mov
Slightly OT, but if you can't afford the XPS line or want something which you
can easily upgrade, I'd recommend looking for refurbed Dell Latitude series
laptops. I've been using an E7270 for the past few months with Ubuntu Mate and
it's been flawless (uptime goes usually goes in 30-40 days).

No port scarcity, adding extra RAM is just popping open the back panel and
sticking it in there. It even has physical trackpad buttons which I like very
much. Got it for less than $300, upgraded the RAM to 32GB DDR4 for another
$100 and now I have a beast of machine for $400 that can easily handle
anything.

The only gripe I would have against this machine is there is only one slot for
a NVMe drive. And the screen has some really chunky bezels but personally I
don't mind that at all ;)

~~~
turndown
I've been using a 2016 XPS 15 for about 3.5 years, cannot recommend the bezels
enough... they are heaven. I could never go back.

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dpc_pw
Dell's XPS and Lenovo are often mentioned as go to Linux laptop, but I went
through a couple of them last few years (employer provided work laptops) and I
always had some problems: wifi, audio, graphics, sleep, etc.

For personal use I buy cheaper, less powerful Asus netbooks (Zenbook 13
something something is my last one) and they have always worked perfectly for
me.

~~~
croh
For me too. Asus are really go to laptops for linux. Works perfectly with dual
boot windows and linux.

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robgibbons
I just got an XPS 13 for work this month (Jan 2020). I did not opt for the
Linux/DE edition, just an off-the-shelf one, because I wanted to dual-boot
Ubuntu alongside the Windows it came with.

It was a bit of a hassle to install Linux (Ubuntu MATE 18.04), requiring me to
disable FastBoot and BitLocker to even get Ubuntu Installer to recognize the
SSD (it initially said the USB drive was the only volume found.) That said, I
merely assume this is how it is with any modern Windows laptop. As a long-time
Linux user I expect to have to hold my tongue just right and hop on one foot a
few times.

After installation, I found that the WiFi chip needed a backported driver. I
managed to tether to my phone for 4G, and apt-updated my way to a working
network driver.

I have experienced some system errors (reported every time) and have had a few
black screens/crashes. I don't blame this on Dell, as I've often had system
issues, especially on newer hardware.

Overall, I am in love with the XPS 13 hardware. Any gripes I have with it are
either my own fault, related to software, or inherent to 13" laptops. It's an
awesome machine and I am happy to be using something this slick without a
fruit logo on it.

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chintan
This is true!

I have completed replaced my 2015 MBP with this Dell XPS13 DE and been
exclusively it using since Dec. I had also ordered a MBP 16 inch and System 76
to do a comparative evaluation for our entire company.

I haven't tweaked anything from the default setup with came with.

What is great about the machine:

* The display resolution on a 4K monitor screen just beats MBP (with a scaling factor) - my MBP colleagues are jealous of the resolution I get. The ubuntu font looks nice and crisp!

* The hardware/build quality is just strong - it is compact

* Very light 2.6lb (MBP 16 is almost 4.3lb/2kg!)

* Keyboard feels great and sturdy (even compared to the new MBP 16)

All the below work out of box:

* Airpod/bluetooth devices just works

* Zoom meetings

* Wifi switching / Personal hotspot while traveling

* Sleep/awake

What is not so good:

* Trackpad really sucks compared to MBPs - it took me few weeks to get used to it.

* For work requiring windows VPN client etc I have to use a VirtualBox

* At one point my zoom meeting and entire computer froze. Never had this with MBP for past 5 years.

* Battery is not as good as MBP.

* The screen size is small even compared to MBP 13inch to work for long hours.

~~~
ZeroCool2u
Out of curiosity, are you using Gnome on Wayland or X? When I switched to
Wayland it was a revelation. My mousepad performance improved _dramatically_.

------
Koshkin
I am probably lucky, but I've had nothing but nirvana-like experience with
Linux on a half a dozen different laptops and a netbook I have installed it on
over many years. (The netbook became unusable after just a few years of
Windows 7 updates, Linux allowed me to keep using it.)

------
nextos
Biggest change is 16:10 screen, which is great for programming. I wonder if
cooling is noisy. I find many Thinkpads and Dells way too noisy.

------
wayneftw
Here's my Linux laptop nirvana - a $700 laptop that I got a couple years ago
running Manjaro Linux perfectly including all advanced touchpad gestures
(required some setup) -

[https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/acer-
aspire-e5-575...](https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/acer-
aspire-e5-575g)

Dedicated GPU with dual video out (HDMI, VGA) up to 32 GB of RAM and easily
upgradeable SSD.

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maximente
> These days Dell's XPS line is not the cheapest Linux option, nor is it the
> most configurable or user-upgradable.

might as well get a purism then. the openness of the hardware/software means
that there aren't any issues getting set up with e.g. wifi, the trackpad is
decently ok, and you're financially supporting values that are extremely
important.

~~~
opencl
The Purism laptops look nice but I hope they get updated soon because I would
find it very hard to justify spending a minimum of $1400 on a laptop with an
old dual core CPU when the cheaper competition is shipping very dramatically
faster hex core Comet Lake CPUs.

------
tmpfs
I have hardware problems with jumping mouse and trackpad issues and no chance
of getting it resolved as i do not live in a country with support and had to
buy the machine in another country.

I now have serious reservations about Dell build quality and QA process.
Sadly, for linux users there are not that many choices.

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mnm1
I was looking to buy the xps 15 or the 13. Dell's return policy, however
states:

> Restocking Fees: Unless the product is defective or the return is a direct
> result of a Dell error, Dell may charge a restocking fee of up to 15% of the
> purchase price paid, plus any applicable sales tax.

That'd be close to $700 on a $3000 laptop if one ends up not liking it. The
sales rep in the chat said it wouldn't apply unless the unit was damaged but
that's not what their official policy states. With such an unfriendly return
policy, I will not even consider them. Lenovo has no restocking fees although
they seem unable to ship out anything in less than many months. I guess it's
back to Apple until some other company that cares about consumers decides to
make a mostly Linux compatible laptop. My experiences with most laptops
running Linux is that they don't work for long. I had no idea the customer
service and policies were so bad at Dell (or Lenovo).

~~~
turndown
You believe you should be allowed to privately test out a $3k laptop, and be
able to return it for any reason, free of charge? You are being unreasonable
here; I encounted this situation a lot of in the phone industry and could
never understand the entitlement. FWIW, I've been using a 2016 XPS 15 and have
never had a problem with Linux I did not do to myself.

~~~
mnm1
Both Lenovo and Apple offer this, so yeah I believe that because the
competition offers it and frankly is the standard for a product that can only
be ordered online. That doesn't make me entitled, it just makes me a picky
shopper. And frankly, at $3000 to $5000 a machine, why shouldn't I be able to
test it? Do you buy a car sight unseen too? The ridiculous position is the one
you advocate, to expect people to drop a small fortune on a laptop sight
unseen, without the ability to test it. That's ludicrous and absurd and the
reason Dell won't be getting my money.

~~~
turndown
If you're interested in a hands-on, you can go to a BestBuy or another store
and do so there. Nobody owes you anything to get your money, other than a
product. The only reason you're allowed to test drive anything is because they
really want you to buy the car. Many companies simply will not care as much
about guaranteeing the penny pinchers buy their products. In all reality, you
are the exact type of customer I seek to avoid - the largest amount of work
for the least amount of benefit.

And just so know you - going from picky shopper to entitled does not require
fitting through the eye of a needle. While what you're arguing isn't
entitlement, your posts reek of it.

~~~
mnm1
It's not on display at BestBuy or anywhere else that I know of. But you're
saying I should just buy any old piece of garbage or else I'm entitled? I
don't think you understand the meaning of the word "entitled" then.

------
nwallin
I have a 2016 XPS 13 9360 DE. It's been nothing but excellent. But the
warrantee will be ending soon, and I've started thinking about a replacement.

I'm really hoping for the next DE offering to have first class Zen 4xxx
support. If they do, it's a done deal. Otherwise, maybe I'll go with a
Thinkpad if they have a good offering, and if none of the above, I think I'd
honestly go with an off brand. It's time to move on from Intel and their never
ending stream of speculative execution bugs and plateaued performance curve.
I'm over it.

I'm willing to tinker around with wonky hardware on a cheaper laptop if the
performance is right and it kicks the Enterprise-y vendors (Dell XPS,
Thinkpad, HP Spectre) into getting their act together. It's time already.

------
ur-whale
Disagree. LG gram 15" \+ Ubuntu 19 FTW.

~~~
christiansakai
Is there any issues with LG Gram 15 with Ubuntu?

~~~
ur-whale
None in a year of use, everything works out of the box.

Performance is great, battery is amazing, weight is unbelievably light.

The only thing that doesn't have a driver yet is the fingerprint reader (which
I wouldn't use even if it did work).

~~~
christiansakai
Wow, I'm definitely eyeing one of those. Thank you for the review! I don't
care about fingerprint reader

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forgotmypw
My GNU-computing nirvana is a Fedora VM running on top of El Capitan on a
MacBook Air...

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jedieaston
I thought Linux computing nirvana was a high-end Chromebook wiped and
reinstalled with a full distro, since the hardware has full support in Linux.
Didn’t Linus use a Chromebook Pixel as his daily driver for a while?

