[reasonabl_human]

I get the business case of universal pre-built inventory, but offering a Linux version out of the box signals that all hardware is compatible and fully functional... supported at a first-party level.

More and more developers in big tech companies using Linux just expect it to work and aren’t interested in monkeying around with drivers and configs.. not to say they can’t, but why increase friction for your dev setup?

This is one of the reasons why the XPS 13 Developer edition exists. Guaranteed first party support for Linux.. you know the next kernel or major revision won’t Bork your setup... you can just focus on working within the env.

Offering a preinstalled Linux variant captures the market referenced above, and signals to tinkerers that this is a good platform to build on since all hardware is supported without jenky workarounds.

Alternatively, if you can’t make offering dedicated Linux installs an economically feasible thing, then perhaps offer a mirror or set of instructions to set up latest LTS builds of various Linux flavors, to indicate full compatibility? Because that is the real selling point. Knowing all of your hardware is supported as a first party product. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I chose an XPS this time around, and considered a System76 machine as well.

[nrp]

Great feedback. We will definitely at minimum post guides and compatibility test results for the most popular distros and ensure that at least Ubuntu LTS has a straightforward path to full hardware functionality.

[wing-_-nuts]

Good man. I bought my XPS 13 explicitly because of dells 'developer edition'. I don't need my OS pre-installed, but I do want it fully validated and working. Make a 14" and I just might give this laptop to my parents and buy yours.

[Valkhyr]

Seconded. I don't really need Linux pre-installed, but when I make a buying decision I would be much more likely to buy a laptop that is (a) guaranteed to be fully compatible with Linux out of the box, and that (b) the manufacturer will honor their warranty no matter which OS I choose to run.

That said, I think offering Linux pre-installed would be very nice as a signaling function to attract technical-minded users.

[bo1024]

nrp's reply makes complete sense, but I like this argument as well.