Dell is so frustrating

If you're in the EU, I can heartily recommend Tuxedo computers. Specifically targeted towards Linux use.

Better hardware manifacturers for Linux:

• Clevo (ODM, nearly exclusively from companies like below)
  • Novacustom
  • System76
  • Kubuntu Focus
• Tuxedo
• Framework
• Slimbook
• Starlabs (only order what is in stock)
• Lenovo Thinkpad

Even on the Windows side of things they're frustrating. Company took my perfectly working Thinkpad and replaced it last September with an "upgraded" Dell Inspiron laptop. It's a piece of crap. Wakes up all the time in my bag, randomly drops wifi, and randomly drops ViewSonic monitors. Official IT solution: this happens sometimes, we don't know why, and we're going to send you Dell monitors instead.

*Edit I guess it's actually a Precision, not Inspiron. I don't buy Dells so I don't know all the names!

The problem is, that there are not many notebook producer, that are

• Supporting Linux
• Have reasonable prices and hardware
• (Are not from an authoritarian country that has shady spying practices and uses slave labour)

There is Dell, Acer, Framwork and that's it, I guess?

The issue is whether the thing is running a mainline compatible or distro kernel. If the device is running an orphan kernel, you're screwed. This is the depreciation mechanism built into Android. It is "not Linux" because they are all orphans.

Technically even this is not enough if you want to get in the weeds. Technically the device can be on mainline but the company has a full time dev maintaining the required modules while the hardware itself it undocumented. If the hardware is documented at the api/registers level and it is already on mainline, it will likely remain supported for decades.

This is the true benchmark of ownership; public hardware documentation and fully merged support in the mainline kernel. Just for reference there is not a single mobile device that fully checks all of these boxes. Just to further illustrate how pervasive this is and how ignorant most of us are, the Raspberry π is proprietary with its full documentation locked under NDA. The vast majority of the silicon is made for a defunct TV tuner box, but you'll never find documentation about any of this hardware at the registers level.

Your computer is the same, the microcode on ×86 is undocumented and things like the ALU architecture are not fully known except that it is a CISC wrapper around a RISC architecture. ARM is mostly proprietary at the registers level. All modems have been proprietary since the Atheros stuff over a decade back. The closest you can come to a FOSS computer are the old Duo series Intel chips supported by Libreboot and that is only because of the wonderful Leah Rowe's hacking skills.

If you want to know what really works, go to https://linux-hardware.org and search. Either way, get the Hardware Probe from flathub or your package manager, run the test and review/upload your results to save the next person from similar issues. Seriously, don't just ignore this. Upload your scan to the database with 233,034 other tested computers and 474,877 parts that have already been tested and uploaded. You can also see the configurations other people have used on the same hardware and get an idea if another kernel might work.

I have a gen 6 X1 carbon. Have Pop on it, and it's a dream. Got it new, half price from lenovo, as it was a couple years old and they were shifting stock. Best laptop I've had, and an exceptional Linux experience.

I bought a dell xps15 circa 2017 and it is god awful with Linux. I will never buy another dell ever again.

Not to mention they sell proprietary parts and couldn't sell me a replacement ac adapter for my docking station. They wanted to force me to buy a new docking station instead of just purchasing an AC adapter.... Horrible company and horrible compatibility.

Do not buy dell... They are like apple without the whole "good products" part.

Is it the XPS 13 (9370)? If so, apparently everything works fine in Arch, except the fingerprint sensor. So might be worth a shot giving it a try.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of your issues are partly related to Ububtu. Personally, I wouldn't recommend using it even if a device has official support for it.

Hmmm. I didn't know Dell had a Linux laptop. I bought a vostro with windows pre-installed and flashed fedora on it, expecting to get no WiFi webcam but everything worked out. It's interesting that their windows machines run Linux better than their flagship Linux machine.

You are lucky. My laptop's fingerprint scanner did not work out of the box. I also had troubles with audio ("subwoofer" was disabled) and WiFi (losing connection). This all was fixed in later Ubuntu updates, but I had to wipe out Dell's spyware manually. So I'd say Dell with preinstalled Ubuntu is the same as any laptop with FreeDOS: you have to install the OS you need instead preinstalled one and troubleshoot all the driver issues. No guarantees that all hardware is Linux compatible.

I don't think you're right on this. When DELL is branding a laptop as "linux supported", then the hardware normally works out of the box with at the very least, Ubuntu (and probably by most other distros too). If you're seeing hardware incompatibilities, it's probably because the Linux kernel itself might have dropped some of the older hardware drivers from its list of support. I'm writing this on a DELL Latitude 5480 from 2017, and I have installed the latest ubuntu without any hardware issue whatsoever. Everything's just supported out of the box. No special image from DELL was ever required. So if you're seeing your hardware stop working, you should look if DELL provided closed source drivers or firmware for your laptop's hardware. If that's the case, then you didn't have a "linux supported" laptop, you had a laptop with specifically-added Linux support after the fact. I wouldn't have bought that in the first place.

I've been more fortunate than you apparently. I've got a xps15 5520 which is not officially supported, but thx to the return policy I felt safe to buy it and give it a try.

I've been using mint on it without any problems. Hibernation was what took me the most with to get working. Very happy user so far.

Just gonna leave this here for anyone who wants a laugh. It wasn't a Linux based desktop, but it was hilarious. Buying a PC with Dell: my journey into hell

Exactly, never going to buy any Dell anymore... I'm so pissed with their XPS 13 issues.

That's surprising to hear because my Skylake XPS 13 had everything upstreamed and worked flawlessly.

LVFS support too. Are you trying with an XPS 15?

Fuck Dell with the rust backend of a sword.

I experienced the same shit with their dumb hardware. Honestly, I don't know why they are Ubuntu Certified. It feels more like a cash grab from Canonical for non-linux vendors to be able to target corporate customers who only buy "linux certified" stuff. Then they pay off a few mainstream tech bloggers or tech "newspapers" to write a raving review about it and non-corporate people purchase it thinking they're getting good linux hardware.

@[email protected] gave a good recommendation: tuxedo computers. They do linux hardware well - albeit it's pricey.

And of course Linux Preloaded is a great page to find other vendors.

I had a Dell back in the day (like 20'ish years ago) and I had the same experience on the Windows install it came with. Sad to hear that they just switched the issues over to Linux from Windows. :(

Dell are shit. It was a good day when the last Dell in the family was switched out for Macs.*

*I don't like Macs either but I could plausibly refuse to support them on the basis that I didn't know how they worked and the hardware is all locked down.

Not sure why anyone would by linux certified laptops and expect to be treated with the same level of care as windows users.

Sorry you got ripped off, but hopefully this will be a lesson for the future.