Today I wanted to share my experience of my recently completed 12 months with Dell Linux Laptop.
If you are wondering what is a Dell Linux Laptop then go here on Dell's website. I hope Dell doesnt change the URL anytime soon. But let me begin by saying that on a scale of 1-10 about my overall satisfaction with this laptop I would give it a high 9.5 or 10/10.
Now if you have followed my previous posts about Linux Laptops on Sony or Asus Bamboo Laptop you will notice that I'm a hardcore Linux OS person & that I cant stand Windowwws (aka Microsoft) or osxxx (aka Apple sauce ;-)). So there is a slight chance that I may be a little more critical any OS other than Linux but I believe with what other OSes do to End-User Freedom, its all well to be a little unfriendly to them...
I must say in my eyes, Dell is the only major hardware vendor who has in the last decade had the guts to take to the market with a Factory installed Linux laptop. The key word is 'major'. Other little hardware assemblers and VARs have been doing it for a while but they are not anywhere in the graph. In the hardware landscape if you are not in the top 10 you are really not there..Anyhow I digress. Dell had first come out with their first version of Dell Factory installed Linux Laptops in the form of the Inspiron 14 Ubuntu laptops back in 2007. And I remember I had immediately scooped one up eventhough it was a bit pricey at about $1500 then. Although it was not the top notch contender but hey you must recognize Dells effort and guts to do something other than what the cattle crowd of hardware players does for Microsoft. I had liked that incarnation for a while -- I still have it in my array of laptop collections and it does work still albeit slowly. But this second version of Dell XPS 13 preloaded with Ubuntu 12.04 that Dell came out with in 2012 was a kicker. Eversince I heard about it I was very eager to get one and finally in May-June of 2013 I did. Let me go a bit into its specs first...
What I wanted from my next laptop was:
1- Lightweight & less than 3lbs (this one was advertized as 2.96 lbs & I believe .69 inches thick). So check..
2- Hi Speed at 3GHz or more (this one has Intel i7 Quad core at around 3GHz & 8 GB RAM) so good on that front.
3- Low Heat and Fan noise (It is markedly cool and silent thanks to its Carbon Fiber Base and efficient circuitry-- I can barely hear the fan even when running videos and it is in quite in contrast to my frustration with the Sony vaio running linux. So we are good on that front..
4- SSD Hard Drive (this one has 256 GB of solid state disks) No more spinning spindles and cranking disks that also add to the weight besides being failure prone after prolonged usage..So check
5- Backlit Keyboard (very important for me because I work in the dark often like early mornings/late nights and without disturbing others--also good for airplanes when they turn off lights--you can keep working)
6- HD Graphics (this one has full 1080p HD screen with Intel IvyBridge Graphics card) so movies are a thrill..
7- Long Battery life of minimum 5 hours (this one gives 6 hours with lots of programs and about 7 hours when only surfing/browsing). Again much better than the Sony Vaio experience
8- Small form factor - this is where it really does good. Due to the edge to edge screen using Gorilla Glass Dell has been able to squeeze in a 13 inch in a 11 inch form factor..How cool is that?
9- Compact Power Adapter - I have had ugly bricks for power adapters in the past. This one is sleek, tiny and small like a cigarette case and puts the apple sauce people to notice. Not to forget the cool LED light on the connector is a useful innovation especially when you are trying to grope for the DC power port when working in the dark like me..
10 - Linux OS - Last but not at all least - How can we forget this. I have sworn to never buy a windows and or apple. So this one is all set..
And as you see, the laptop holds good in each of my wants. Infact the package is so cool that I have had several people in several countries/places stop and ask me about which laptop is it? where I got it from? how much I paid and that it really is a great looking beautiful lapto etc, etc..One guy thought this was a tablet..But nope this is a full featured laptop that holds the punch.
Now how much did I pay for it? About USD 1550 all inclusive. Granted its not the cheapest in its segment but Do you really want a cheap laptop and cut corners in your style statement? I dont. Plus look at it this way, its a fully loaded Ferrari of a laptop. Do you want to compare it to a Camry?
BTW, one thing I must say that the Ubuntu folks didnt do 100% on was the suspend mode. In 12.04 LTS (the default with this laptop) throws the following onscreen messages when you suspend the laptop or wake it up:
[12656.501533]PM:Device 00:07 failed to resume: error -19
[12658.420216][drm:gen6_sanitize_pm]*Error* Power management discrepancy: GEN6_RP_INTERRUPT_LIMITS expected 18000000, was 12060000
legacy_resume():pnp_bus_resume*0x0/0x70 returns -19
But suspend still works--only the above ugly cryptic errors show up. I believe it is something to do with the Power management routines that are called when suspend function is invoked in the kernel. Anyhow I chose to ignore it for a year and when in July of this year (2014), Ubuntu came up with the 14.04 LTS with bug fixes I upgraded to it promptly and now those errors are gone & I dont see them. This was the only reason I gave it 9.5/10 when 12.04 was running. But now with 14.04 LTS on and the error gone, I can give it 10/10. In other words in my first year with the laptop I have been extremely satisfied with the Dell XPS 13 runing Ubuntu. And for someone who changes laptops every 12-18 months, I think this one will hold for a long time to come who knows may be I will be surprising myself using the same laptop from 2013 in 2018 and yet not compromising on anything..who knows..
So next time you are faced with the decision to buy a laptop for yourself or loved ones, dont overlook the incredible quality, features and value of the Dell XPS 13. Put on a Tux sticker from Zazzle on the lid like I did and you will be very satisfied with your purchase, make a statement and also turn heads..
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Oh yes one more point..
I have never been a fan of Ubuntu's Unity Interface. So one of the first things I did to customize it to my taste (besides installing Chrome Browser) was to install gnome using the following command..
$ sudo apt-get install gnome-shell
You can find several tutorials to guide you through the process like this one here.
