Dell Now Preloading Ubuntu 22.04 LTS On New XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition

Last month Dell announced their new Alder Lake powered XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition laptop was certified by Canonical for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. At the time though it was still shipping to customers with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS while now Dell has moved to preloading Ubuntu 22.04 LTS directly from the factory.

The latest-generation Dell XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition laptop features Intel Core i7 12th Gen "Alder Lake" processors, up to 32GB of system RAM, up to 2TB of NVMe storage, FHD+ / 3.5k OLED / 4k display options, Intel WiFi 6E, and other modern connectivity. Now new orders from Dell will be shipping with Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS for those option for the "developer edition" rather than the standard Dell XPS with Microsoft Windows 11.

Pricing on the Dell XPS 13 Plus starts at $1299 USD for the Core i5 1240P with 8GB of RAM. Or for the Core i7 1260P processor with 16GB of RAM, pricing starts out at $1599 USD. Interestingly at least in the US they don't allow ordering the flagship Core i7 1280P model with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS preloaded at this time.

Those wishing to learn more about Ubuntu 22.04 LTS preloaded on the latest Dell XPS can do so at Dell.com.

It is worth pointing out that this Dell XPS Alder Lake model is one of those using the newer Intel IPU6 for its web camera tech that currently requires binary blobs for use on Linux with non-mainlined code. Greg Kroah-Hartman has recommended against these laptops as proper open-source support is likely a year away or longer.