I had enough hiccups getting a clean install of Windows 10 Pro to function fully featured on my XPS15 (6 individual drivers to get full support from the Thunderbolt dock), I couldn't imagine getting a Linux environment going.

Had the same experience with Dell XPS and ubuntu 17.02 and earlier versions.

Upgrading 17.10 and everything is working perfectly.

Still would rather use my MacBook though because of software incompatibilities.

Interesting, so everything works on the xps 15 w/ Ubuntu 17.10? I want to pull the trigger on buying one but I am concerned about the Linux support.

Also, do you know if the new XPS 15 support a two hard drive configuration?

technically it does not "work" but after some amount of hours of googling specific issues that pop up you can get it going. it's painful though.

Any pointers on specific issues to look out for? I'm thinking of upgrading from 16.04 on my XPS 15

I use the precision. my biggest issue was with getting encrypted drive setup. the trick was to use the dell recovery image to install with encryption. this works but leaves the machine with an older kernel that doesn't have all the tweeks around usbc and wifi and such. You have to switch to the Hardware Enablement Stack to get it running well.

I have the Dell Precision M5520 developer edition which is the Linux version of the XPS 15 with Intel WiFi and I opted for only integrated graphics to avoid graphics drivers on Linux.

It works flawlessly with Ubuntu 17.10. I have the UHD screen which looks great with 2x scaling. I do a lot of work with Docker and can work much faster on Linux than before when I was on a MBP and had to run a VM.

Do you manage to get the 11h hours of battery they promised when they first marketed the laptop ? Because I get 4h on a good day.

I probably get 5-6 when coding and browsing in Linux. I have the big battery that fills the hard drive bay.

Everything works great for me, no problems.