Dell's New WD19 Thunderbolt/USB-C Docks Should Be Playing Nicely On Linux

In addition to Dell releasing "budget-friendly" laptops with Ubuntu Linux on Wednesday, the company released new Thunderbolt and USB-C docks that should be working fine out-of-the-box on Linux.

This shouldn't come as a big surprise with Dell's existing TB16 Thunderbolt Dock working well under Linux (I personally use the Dell TB16 with Dell XPS 9380 as my main production workstation to which it drives fine dual 4K displays, wired Gigabit Ethernet, and USB peripherals) but the new WD19 line-up is also ready to take on Linux mobile systems for docking.

The new line-up of Dell docking stations include the WD19 130W, WD19 180W, WD19TB, and WD19DC with a range of power delivery and connectivity capabilities. The docks feature dual DisplayPort, one HDMI, USB-C, USB 3.0 Type-A, Gigabit Ethernet, and the other usual connectivity options. The Thunderbolt versions can continue driving multiple 4K displays while the USB-C versions multiple HD displays.

Red Hat's Richard Hughes shared that even the firmware updating for these new Dell WD19 docks should be working fine from launch-day on Linux. Hughes has been using a WD19 the past number of months as Dell wanted to ensure the LVFS+Fwupd support was squared away nicely in time for yesterday's launch. Those interested in the Linux firmware support details on the WD19 can see Richard's blog post for the interesting technical bits.