[gshulegaard]

I have written this elsewhere (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492941), but I caution everyone away from the 13 DE and go with the Precision instead (15"). I could dig up the litany of Dell Forum posts I wrote and responded to for my XPS 13DE (9343), but it would be time consuming. They eventually sorted it out, but the issue isn't the Sputnik team, its the hardware in the 13" XPS. The Precision M3800 has better hardware suited for Linux (Intel vs. Broadcom wireless for example).

Also the Precision has thunderbolt...absolute must if you want a reasonable docking solution under Linux.

Also consider: https://system76.com/

Their stuff has been rock solid for me.

[eximius]

What issues did you have besides wireless? I just bought one and ordered an intel card to put in (now waiting on a torx screwdriver because I didn't noticed I didn't have one! XD)

I'm planning on Arch, but if I get sick of that or find my terminal-fu lacking, I'll probably go back to Mint.

[sethish]

Heh. The list I could make for you my friend. For one, there is a dynamic contrast 'feature' that can't be disabled from linux. When you look at dark screens, it will decrease the brightness of the backlight. The goal here was when looking at light screens it increases the brightness to make it look like it has great contrast. Suspend and powersaving is an issue (see MJG59's blogpost about the chipset), almost unworkable if you don't get powersaving sata working first. Thunderbolt support is non-existent. 1/3 of the time I hot unplug a displayport monitor my machine freezes. You can't disable the keyboard backlight, it turns back on whenever you press a key. Oh, and no one on the sputnik team has tested the displaylink video out adapter they sell with the device. Oh, and my alt key popped off 31 days after getting the machine.

[gshulegaard]

sethish has some comments about the Precision M3800 I think (he mentions Thunderbolt and the 13 only has mDP), but here is a short list:

- Keyboard drivers (phantom keys, double key registers, no registers). Keyboard was basically unusable until kernel 3.19. - Synaptic PS/2 mouse drivers. Like keyboard, mousepad was unusable until 3.19. I still can't use it with tap-to-click because palm detection is so bad. But that is ok for me since press to click is my preferred anyway. - Power management was awful (again until 3.19) - Misc. usability problems - mDP/external display connectivity issues - Suspend/resume issues

Those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. At this point I think I have a stable machine, but with some quirks...but as a Linux user I sort of expected quirks so they aren't deal breakers for me anymore. Still, I would recommmend M3800 over the 13" DE.

Oh one more:

- Sometimes PS/2 drivers report mouse movements as touch movements (I have touchscreen)...this means using Chrome is impossible since moving the mouse "scrolls" as if you were on a touch screen.

[kbody]

The just released XPS 13DE (9350) has an Intel wireless, so there are no issues on that front.