Lenovo won the laptop war? They won it because they ship Ubuntu pre-installed? Where are you getting these jokes from?
this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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Dell also sells computers with Ubuntu installed. And I trust Dell.
That said, Ubuntu isn’t my favorite flavor, so I’m likely to wipe it and install a different distro no matter what.
I've had such a miserable experience with the XPS 13. Kind of bitter about it.
Thanks for the warning. I’m looking to replace my Inspiron, and the XPS series seems to be a contender.
I’ve had a couple of issues with the Inspiron (the hinge broke just after the warranty expired and the keyboard has a busted spring that blocks five keys from working), but it also lives on my backpack for teaching, so I probably can’t really complain.
Why? What wasn't working right?
Still haven't gotten the camera working. They seem to load up their custom firmware in their Ubuntu build but I wanted Arch btw. Also have some issues with recovering from sleep but can't say for sure if it's hardware/driver related.
Non-Linux related, it's only got 2 USB-C ports for external connectivity. Temperatures also seem to be all over the place. All might be forgivable if the keyboard wasn't basically a flat sheet of plastic where your fingers can't tell the keys apart.
Man if you insist on Arch that's a you problem and not a hardware platform problem. I'm not a Dell fanboy but my XPS 13 is doing great, six years in with a battery change running of all things Win10 with WSL. It's hassle-free dev environment.
Is DBAN still the go to for a clean wipe?
Doesn't the installation of the new OS do the wiping? I was wondering because I never did it differently.
I haven't a clue, I just never chanced it. When I'd sell a PC I'd always DBAN it.
It all depends on how sure you want to be that whatever was there previously is unrecoverable.
DBAN is up to DOD standards if I remember correctly.
Pretty sure it's still a functional option at least... Seems to remember it still being there on the last Hiren's boot I used.
I’ve never used it, but it seems to have good recommendations. Honestly, I just rip out the HDD/SSD before letting the machine out of my sight. That’s the only method I really trust.
For wiping before a Linux install, I usually use gparted or the installer’s tool.
Curious - what do you prefer wrt other distros? I'm just fascinated by what drives people in their individual directions. (I used to exclusively install Debian on things, but recently revitalized an old laptop by wiping windows and putting on Ubuntu. Have used CentOS too, but the Debian package stuff is just easy for me...)
I prefer Mint for ease of installation and use. It comes in Ubuntu or Debian flavors.
I also have a RaspberryPi that runs Raspbian (Debian based, I think) and a tiny Linode server that runs Debian. Honestly, I tend to go with the easiest or most lightweight, depending on hardware.
I tend to like Debian-based. It's just more familiar for me. Ubuntu has been nice because it seems to add in a few of the quality of life defaults I'd have done manually in Debian (things like aliases in bash, sudoers memberships, 3rd party repos, etc). Easily done in Debian, but slows down initial setup...
I ran CentOS for a while, but I feel life's too short to learn yet another package management system! (not that is hard, I just have finite brain cells...) 🙂
I hear you about finite brain cells. I had a group of international students several year ago who ran Zorin on their laptops. As the tech coordinator for our academic department, I tried to learn enough to help them out. But it was apparently the first thing I flushed after they left. :)
Personally, I use Fedora KDE Spin because it's stable, has an aggressive update schedule and if I want something from AUR or something, I'll just use its OCI in distrobox and get it anyway. I also prefer flatpaks over snaps.
Much obliged!
The company I work for buy them Dell with Ubuntu pre installed and then install the corporate windows enterprise version they already pay for. I asked them why and they told me that this way they don't need to pay for windows twice.
We would do the same but having Windows preinstalled allows us to have Dell add the device to our AzureAD tenant so we can ship the devices to users hands off.
I bought myself a workstation earlier this year and saved £70 by choosing Ubuntu
I support it in principle, but I prefer to install from scratch as I'm picky when it comes to partition schemas and filesystems.
I think they're great for giving OEMs extra incentive to ensure that Linux runs well on the hardware and providing consumers a slightly cheaper option. If I knew I wasn't going to need Windows at all, I'd definitely go the Ubuntu route, but there's software I use that doesn't run on WINE, so I'd personally be more inclined to get a laptop with a Windows license bundled in.
I've bought my last two laptops from System76. They default to their own PopOS now but you can still get ubuntu if you prefer.
Also, i didn't realize there was a laptop war. But if anyone is winning, i'd have to say it's apple. Obviously anecdotal, but i think i see more macbooks than any other specific laptop manufacturer.
I considered ordering my next machine from System76, but they're located in the US and I'm Canadian and don't want to pay import fees/duty.
I like it, because it means everything will work on Linux, then I blast the weird OS and install Fedora.
The laptops themselves are usually quite good. But I tend to prefer the vanilla experience on the software side. Somehow they always put their own spin on it, like some stupid OEM software, outdated drivers or just their own wallpaper. And they often have Gnome as the default DE and I prefer KDE.
I'm just waiting for one issue to be tackled in Bazzite so that I can get rid of SteamOS on my Steam Deck.
I think Frameworks idea is better, you can buy their laptops without an os
It’s a step in the right direction. Linux has come a long way to becoming a user friendly OS that most people can easily use. The main problem is adoption, since most people can’t be arsed to research and download a distro, make a bootable usb drive with it, configure the bios to boot from the usb drive, and install linux. Having it pre-installed makes it easier for to people to hit the ground running. That said, companies need to explore more than ubuntu. I think Mint should be the default gateway distro. They can also maybe give the buyer an option during purchase to choose what distro they want to try.
I bought one from Dell and everything worked without any tweaks. It was a great out of the box experience.
I'm in favour, but I also prefer Linux Mint and think it makes a good starter OS for transitioning Windows users.
linux mint
They don't give you an option to install a dual boot setup out of the box so now I have to do it myself. I mean, yeah, it is kind of a good thing because I don't have to deal with the garbage bin that Windows has become since the last decade, but I sometimes rely on Windows for some software that simply isn't available on Linux (other than games).
But I'm pretty sure most well known laptop manufacturers do sell some models with Ubuntu preinstalled instead of Windows. They've been doing it for quite a while.
so mark shuttleworth won the linux war?? he did something amazing, get companies to pre install linux!! even google loves it yea!!
Chromeos sucks fucking ass. Gtfoh. I support shipping ubuntu on by default, maybe the user will learn basic stuff and go on to linux mint debian edition or beyond to fedora, arch, debian, etc
I think ChromeOS has its place, i.e. institutional settings and users with minimal tech literacy. I do IT for a non profit that employs and helps folks coming out of prison after long terms (many of whom have literally never touched a computer in their lives). As much as I dislike many of Google's practices, Chromebooks make our work possible. I can't imagine trying to singlehandedly manage hundreds of Windows/Mac/Linux systems by myself, to say nothing of teaching the additional intricacies. Is chromeos my ideal daily driver, absolutely not. However, it's an incredibly accessible tool that allows folks with limited tech expertise and limited budgets to engage with the modern infrastructure of life.
I think its a weird call but I know how to install Windows so its fine.