Dell has been really good about shipping Dev versions of their XPS lineup which include Ubuntu by default instead of Windows. However, the new 2024 14" and 16" don’t show it as an option. Did they stop offering linux dev versions?
I have not seen any official announcements but I think they have stopped offering it for a while. Except for some regions, i saw the xps 13 plus with Ubuntu at their German website a while ago.
I think the best case I hope for is that they are just waiting for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
It appears that the XPS 13 will be the only dev edition according to everything I’m seeing from searching. Even Dell isn’t answering that question. However from what I have seen on forum posts, including one within the last 3 days the answer may be no, at least for now.
I’ve been disappointed in general with the XPS line in recent years. Dell has made some keyboard changes that I am not a fan of:
- A touch bar instead of function keys? Why? Did they not learn from Apple’s mistake?
- Changing Fn + Left to Page Down instead Home? And Fn + Right to Page Up instead of End? Once again, why?
I’ve been purchasing the XPS line of laptops since 2013, but I stopped as soon as those changes landed and the Developer Edition of their laptops shipped with inferior hardware compared to the Windows ones.