> Official hardware that just-works, Nexus-of-Ubuntu (130 weight)
I really like this one. I'd made comments of wanting pre-installed Linux, but the Nexus concept is a much better idea. It's following a model that seems to have worked well for Google.
It's a fantastic way to break the chicken and egg situation of getting pre-installed Linux available.
Offer a pre-installed Linux version of a machine at higher cost, but do your best to upstream patches and homogenize hardware with the Windows pre-installed version.
Seems to split the difference between "a Linux laptop is economically unfeasible" and "with a little care in component selection and upstreaming drivers / fixes, compatibility can be assured."
Offer a pre-installed Linux version of a machine at higher cost, but do your best to upstream patches and homogenize hardware with the Windows pre-installed version.
I actually find the fact that the Linux version is more expensive to be insulting. If anything, it should be cheaper, given that you're paying the "Windows Tax" on the W10 version of the laptop.
Now if they cost the same price, with the caveat that the $80 or so that would normally go to the W10 license is instead going to Dell's Linux team to ensure hardware compatibility and/or submit upstream changes to Canonical / Red Hat, then I'd be all for it.
I actually find the fact that the Linux version is more expensive to be insulting. If anything, it should be cheaper, given that you're paying the "Windows Tax" on the W10 version of the laptop.
I just created a product comparison¹ on Dell's site and it looks like the Ubuntu version of the XPS13 is $100 cheaper than the Windows version.
In terms of man hour costs to Dell to verify that everything is working, I'd guess that the Linux laptop costs more for Dell to produce than Windows.
This is the same reason why other sellers will happily give you a computer without an OS and take the price off, but they won't give you any even basic support for installing anything else.
If Linux users were willing to pay more, then there'd be an incentive for sellers to put the effort in pre-install Linux.
Also, that final OS support cost per laptop is total_dev_hour_to_support / number_of_machines_sold. So if the denominator is small, that can still be a big enough number to surpass $OEM_Windows_cost.
We (sadly) don't get the luxury of pretending the markets for Linux on laptop and Windows on laptop are identical except for the OS.
> I actually find the fact that the Linux version is more expensive to be insulting. If anything, it should be cheaper, given that you're paying the "Windows Tax" on the W10 version of the laptop.
Unless things have changed since the Windows 7 days, you're paying the Windows Tax on both units. Dell (and other major manufacturers) pay Microsoft for every unit sold no matter what ends up on the hard drive. That's why it's half-jokingly called a "tax" in the first place, and it's likely why the Linux version costs more; the base price is the same no matter which OS is installed, and the little bit more you pay for the Linux model goes towards recouping that extra work integrating Linux.
> Now if they cost the same price, with the caveat that the $80 or so that would normally go to the W10 license is instead going to Dell's Linux team to ensure hardware compatibility and/or submit upstream changes to Canonical / Red Hat, then I'd be all for it.
I love that idea too, and maybe the smaller OEMs can get away with that if they have a per-install license fee from Microsoft instead of a per-unit-sold fee.
Does anyone has a service tag for a dell xps 13 2016 (preferably 9350) with Ubuntu preinstalled? I would like to download the iso for a reinstall... I bought mine with win 10 V__V...
My understanding is that because all the required patches and drivers have been pushed upstream, you can use a vanilla iso directly from Ubuntu and it will "just work".
I just bought my second Dell Precision pre-installed Ubuntu machine yesterday. I loved my first one (which belonged to my previous employer). And I'm considering getting a System76 desktop later this year.
So to me, the check and egg situation is already solved.
I really like this one. I'd made comments of wanting pre-installed Linux, but the Nexus concept is a much better idea. It's following a model that seems to have worked well for Google.
It's a fantastic way to break the chicken and egg situation of getting pre-installed Linux available.