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Other Discussion Boards => Technology & Information => Topic started by: juner on March 10, 2016, 10:59:54 PM

Title: Linux on a Dell XPS 13
Post by: juner on March 10, 2016, 10:59:54 PM
I have a Dell XPS 13 9343 that was issued to me by work. It has decent specs (i7/8GB RAM/256GB SSD), and came loaded with Windows 10. I primarily use my MacBook for everything, at-home work included, so the XPS has sat collecting dust for months. The only time it really got any use was a couple days last month when I bricked my MacBook Air (http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=4586.0). After I got my 13" Retina Pro to replace my dead Air, the XPS went back on the shelf. I decided to at least reload Win10 on it because it still had the OEM image. But, I hate Windows 10. A lot. Come to find out that this particular model also has a developer version which was built around Ubuntu, and most of my version's internals are the same. Ubuntu is not my favorite distro, but for what I would use this laptop for, it was way better than Windows 10. I threw 15.10 on a bootable USB drive and had a clean install going in less than 15 min. Nearly everything worked flawlessly and smoothly from the start, even the touchscreen and trackpad multi-touch. I had some issues with Bluetooth, but ended up just extracting a cab file, converting it to a hcd, and copying it to the proper firmware directory; issue solved. Anyway, it has been a very enjoyable experience thus far. I think I may replace my primary work computer with it and give it a go. Anyway, if you have a XPS 13 and don't like, want, or need Windows, I recommend Ubuntu for a good Linux experience.

No, Parsifal, I am not putting OpenBSD on it. I already have a laptop for that specific purpose. (http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2423.msg61081#msg61081)
Title: Re: Linux on a Dell XPS 13
Post by: Thork on March 10, 2016, 11:08:35 PM
The XPS is a nice laptop. What a waste.

I did see a nice Linux box though. It is called the cirrus 7 and ships with Ubuntu.

(http://www.cirrus7.com/media/images/blog/cirrus7-nimbini-front-blog.jpg)
Nice little fanless design.

Of course I'd have to get that filth off its hard drive and install Windows 10.
Title: Re: Linux on a Dell XPS 13
Post by: xasop on March 11, 2016, 02:59:36 AM
Ubuntu is basically never a good Linux experience. If you really want Linux and aren't a *nix geek, Fedora is your best bet.

That said, you should really reconsider using OpenBSD.
Title: Re: Linux on a Dell XPS 13
Post by: juner on March 11, 2016, 03:01:57 AM
Ubuntu is basically never a good Linux experience. If you really want Linux and aren't a *nix geek, Fedora is your best bet.
I prefer the Fedora-based distros. Mostly because I have to support CentOS and Red Hat.


That said, you should really reconsider using OpenBSD.
>o< I already have a laptop that runs it. Quite nicely, in fact.
Title: Re: Linux on a Dell XPS 13
Post by: Pete Svarrior on March 14, 2016, 09:49:10 AM
Install Gentoo OpenBSD
Title: Re: Linux on a Dell XPS 13
Post by: juner on March 11, 2017, 05:44:41 AM
I have a Dell XPS 13 9343 that was issued to me by work. It has decent specs (i7/8GB RAM/256GB SSD), and came loaded with Windows 10. I primarily use my MacBook for everything, at-home work included, so the XPS has sat collecting dust for months. The only time it really got any use was a couple days last month when I bricked my MacBook Air (http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=4586.0). After I got my 13" Retina Pro to replace my dead Air, the XPS went back on the shelf. I decided to at least reload Win10 on it because it still had the OEM image. But, I hate Windows 10. A lot. Come to find out that this particular model also has a developer version which was built around Ubuntu, and most of my version's internals are the same. Ubuntu is not my favorite distro, but for what I would use this laptop for, it was way better than Windows 10. I threw 15.10 on a bootable USB drive and had a clean install going in less than 15 min. Nearly everything worked flawlessly and smoothly from the start, even the touchscreen and trackpad multi-touch. I had some issues with Bluetooth, but ended up just extracting a cab file, converting it to a hcd, and copying it to the proper firmware directory; issue solved. Anyway, it has been a very enjoyable experience thus far. I think I may replace my primary work computer with it and give it a go. Anyway, if you have a XPS 13 and don't like, want, or need Windows, I recommend Ubuntu for a good Linux experience.

No, Parsifal, I am not putting OpenBSD on it. I already have a laptop for that specific purpose. (http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2423.msg61081#msg61081)

Oh hey it has been a year since I made this post. I still have the XPS. But it is now running the Insiders latest build of Win10 with Bash on Ubuntu on Windows.