Kieran from Framework Here - Using it as my main machine for development running Ubuntu 20.04 right now.
The main tweak is running a mainline kernel with some distributions as Tigerlake support is new.
Nice to see that many of the developers/members of the team are GNU/Linux users. I would like to see if it can run other popular distros, like Elementary.
Don’t get me wrong, it’d be great to have a good Linux laptop on the market. However, I’ve read too many Dell XPS reviews to stay on Mac(which is suboptimal due to the nature of my work). There’s always something that is misbehaving on Linux laptops: WiFi, the sleep mode(i.e. you open the laptop and it’s ready to work), touchpad, fingerprint reader. Maybe it’s too much to ask, but i) is your laptop MacBook-level smooth on Linux ii) how could you achieve it when big players with much more resources failed?
I bought a Lenovo X1 Carbon expecting excatly the situation you describe so stuck with the preinstalled Windows 10 for some months. I was pleasantly surprised when I summoned up the courage to try Debian. I had no trouble at all with all you described except the fingerprint reader (which Windows 10 also had trouble with FWIW). Was not planning on Linux as my daily driver but from Day 1 it worked well enough as an immediate replacement for Windows 10. The trackpad is not quite as good as the Mac but again seemed on par with the experience in Windows 10. Surprised you stayed on Mac despite listing fingerprint reader as a must have—I'm not aware Mac laptops have these?
Fingerprint reader is definitely not the top priority, but saves a lot of typing when retrieving a password from the password manager. And yes, I think all MBPs that have a Touch Bar had one, new airs as well.
How’s battery life and thermals under Debian? I guess all Intel CPUs get hot, but at least my MBP is quiet enough. Battery life life isn’t that great though.
The Dell XPS works fine on Linux if you get a model that is at least 6 months old. Usually what happens is on day one people go and add support for the wifi card and then it takes 6 months for ubuntu to ship a version that includes that support.
After using both a macbook and a dell xps on linux this year, I'm a whole lot happier using the dell xps. The XPS has functional cooling at least.