Dell's Precision 5540/7540/7740 Now Shipping With Ubuntu Linux

[RussianNeuroMancer]

This is pretty good is that it ensures all the drivers work on linux, including all the little stuff like keyboard backlights, media keys, etc...

Dell in the past has been good about making sure all the bits for linux to work are pushed upstream so you can use whatever distro you want.

At the same time the refuse fix breaking bugs in firmware, like this one: https://www.dell.com/community/Latit...e/td-p/6125388

Moreover, I find exactly same firmware issue on Dell XPS 9250 (share hardware with Dell Latitude 7275) this week.

Beware, costly Dell hardware does not equal good Linux support. You could have more driver issues with high-end Dell than with some cheap Lenovo IdeaPad or Acer Aspire.

[mold]

I would pay $200 to $300 more for a workstation laptop without Nvidia. Wayland + nvidia + per-display scaling is a huge pain. There are macbook pros, but those are not without their own unique Linux pain points. Really it's beyond price now. Never buying an Nvidia laptop again.

[mold]

I take it back. I see the Dell blog post mentions a Radeon GPU option. Hopefully that's available with 32GB or 64GB RAM.

[Ken_in_Texas]

MS windows on a laptop let's OEMs bundle third-party software on the device, generating revenue that partially lowers the so-called MS tax.

Asking for a Windows license key - a key you explicitly did not want you ordered your device, puts the OEM in the position of losing out on bundleware revenue.

As a reminder, the 'savings' for not paying MS license fee (if they even can be avoided) are offset by driver development and parallel support group for a less popular OS. In other words, a Linux laptop from Dell can cost more than the same spec laptop shipping with windows.

[edwaleni]

Source? A couple of years ago, In my country I bought a Dell Latitude 3467 with Ubuntu and payed around 10% less than the W10 version.

For the record:
https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar...on=35580053476
https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar...on=35618569024

Source? Me. I was alive and involved when the OEM's were complaining to MSFT. Google is your friend.

Dell can set any price they want regardless. If they want to establish a foothold of Linux they can price them cheaper than Win10. As long as they pay the aggregate OEM license fee, MSFT couldnt care less.

[horizonbrave]

what's the previous (of this one) Precision series and was it Ubuntu certified?
Try to same some money on my next (2nd hand) laptop.
So far I enjoyed installing Linux in old precision/latitude laptops, can't really complain

[edwaleni]

I knew that M$ is pretty bad about licensing their software to OEMs, but this sort of thing should result in a lawsuit against them. It makes it pretty much impossible to provide alternatives to Windows on pre-builts and laptops.

I guess people who don't want to give their money to M$ for something they won't use are better off going with a manufacturer that doesn't sell devices with windows in the first place. This is pretty bad, as I don't think that current offerings are decent. Librem (ME blobs, crappy modern Intel chips, inferior to old ThinkPads treated with me_cleaner and preferably coreboot) and System76 (NVidia GPUs, enough said) just aren't good. It feels like we're living in a wintel dystopia that's hidden in plain sight. Even when you despise of and boycott M$, you HAVE to support them financially. This should be dealt with via anti-monopoly laws.

A few have tried to challenge MSFT license practices. HP & Dell had tried in the earlier days and MSFT chilled to some degree. Someone from Gartner calculated that the per unit cost of the Windows OEM agreement during the Windows XP era was around $34 per unit. By Windows 7 that had declined to less than $23. Current agreements have other bundling or cost sharing terms so its probably harder to measure than it used to be. The guy who really knows who doesn't work for MSFT is Rob Enderle at Enderle Group.

The one company that exposed Microsoft treachery was Be Corporation. They had a deal on the table to OEM the BeOS with Compaq as a pre-install. Microsoft threatened Compaq with revocation of their Windows OEM deal if they went through with it. Which meant Compaq would have to pay for a VLA through a reseller, not an OEM, and the costs would be much, much higher. Compaq relented, BeOS died and today it is open source Haiku.

So to get hardware with no "tax" you have to go to an OEM hardware maker who does not sell Windows pre-installed. (like System 76)

Or like others, just buy your hardware parts yourself and do as you please.

But Win10 must be pretty cheap at the OEM level now, no one complains anymore.

[Danielsan]

I had the bad experience to have bought a System76 laptop... Now when you buy a laptop designed for a specific OS it doesn't matter if it is a M$ or any other Linux distro, because it is just design to work with it. Why just not doing a computer that is compliance with a specific kernel version so you can install whatever you want within the Linux targeted?

[GI_Jack]

MS windows on a laptop let's OEMs bundle third-party software on the device, generating revenue that partially lowers the so-called MS tax.

Asking for a Windows license key - a key you explicitly did not want you ordered your device, puts the OEM in the position of losing out on bundleware revenue.

As a reminder, the 'savings' for not paying MS license fee (if they even can be avoided) are offset by driver development and parallel support group for a less popular OS. In other words, a Linux laptop from Dell can cost more than the same spec laptop shipping with windows.

I'd happily pay to subsidize linux driver support. Heck, I'd DONATE if it was a crowd funded solution with decent third party developers. Extra eager to throw some $$$ for paid first party support of Linux hardware. I'm not buying the OS. I'm buying the time and effort for first party support, which to me is valuable.

edit: I never had an issue with Arch on Dell laptops, any version. So they are doing something right. Hardware seems to "just work" so they got my business.