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Re: Dell prepares to rebrand

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On Tue, 14 Jan 2025, Theo wrote:

> D <nospam@example.net> wrote:
>> Ages ago when I was working at Dell, and later Dell EMC, there was an
>> internal linux fan group that tried to get as many laptops as possible to
>> work smoothly with linux. They had a public repository hidden deep, deep
>> inside some dell sub domain with tools and stuff.
>
> http://dell.archive.canonical.com/
> for Ubuntu.  You need to work out the codename for your laptop and then you
> can add the repo for eg:
> http://dell.archive.canonical.com/dists/bionic-dell-bighorn-grizzly-mlk/
> (mlk = Meteor Lake, whl = Whisky Lake, and other Intel CPU generations)
>
>> I would be surprised if you would not be able to run linux perfectly fine
>> on the latest and greatest XPS.
>>
>> I think they even sell an XPS variety with Ubuntu from the factory.
>
> Often the deal is that Ubuntu is often available for purchase with the
> latest XPS, but it's not always the latest Ubuntu - Dell are 1+ year behind
> because of their QA and testing.  If you buy a laptop today it might have
> 22.04 LTS on it, because it shipped around the time of the 24.04 LTS release
> and 22.04 was the current LTS at the time they did the development work.
> Their repo contains packages which patch Ubuntu to make it work out of the
> box on their hardware, plus some Dell management stuff you don't need.
>
> However, you often don't really need their repo.  Once the laptop has been
> out a few months, the patches get upstreamed and a fresh Ubuntu install
> works fine.  So what I'd do is install the latest interim release of Ubuntu
> (eg 24.10 currently) and keep on interim releases until you hit the next LTS
> (now 26.04), at which point you can decide whether to stay on LTS or keep on
> interims.  That way you should have an install that works for the first
> couple of years - the first six months after release can be bumpy but should
> settle down after that.
>
> Even then, most new laptops don't introduce anything new that isn't covered
> by existing releases.  This is really only for when something new is
> released and Linux/Ubuntu need to catch up.  In my case, it was the
> 'soundwire' audio drivers on an XPS17 shipped spring 2020 - I stuck with
> Dell's 18.04 until that had landed in mainline (20.10 I think).
>
> Theo
>

Thank you for the link and the up to date information! I've been using 1 
year old Asus laptops for the past 5 years and never had any problems.

Before that I used an old Macbook air 11.6", which also worked well. The 
trick is not to buy the latest and greatest, as you say, but to buy 1 
generation older hardware to make sure patches and support is in the 
kernel.

For regular day to day office machines, I have no problems with that. I do 
imagine though, that if you are a power developer, it can be frustrating 
that the latest and greatest might not work.

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Dell prepares to rebrand Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid> - 2025-01-12 03:59 +0000
  Re: Dell prepares to rebrand D <nospam@example.net> - 2025-01-12 12:46 +0100
    Re: Dell prepares to rebrand Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid> - 2025-01-12 20:47 -0700
      Re: Dell prepares to rebrand D <nospam@example.net> - 2025-01-13 10:51 +0100
      Re: Dell prepares to rebrand scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter) - 2025-01-13 18:08 +0000
    Re: Dell prepares to rebrand Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2025-01-14 17:26 +0000
      Re: Dell prepares to rebrand D <nospam@example.net> - 2025-01-14 18:58 +0100
  Re: Dell prepares to rebrand kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2025-01-13 00:04 +0000
    Re: Dell prepares to rebrand Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-01-13 08:32 +0000
      Re: Dell prepares to rebrand D <nospam@example.net> - 2025-01-13 10:53 +0100
        Re: Dell prepares to rebrand kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2025-01-14 02:31 +0000
          Re: Dell prepares to rebrand D <nospam@example.net> - 2025-01-14 18:56 +0100
            Re: Dell prepares to rebrand Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2025-01-15 10:02 +0000
              Re: Dell prepares to rebrand D <nospam@example.net> - 2025-01-15 19:05 +0100
      Re: Dell prepares to rebrand Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2025-01-13 17:37 +0000
    Re: Dell prepares to rebrand Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2025-01-14 18:27 -0400
      Re: Dell prepares to rebrand kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2025-01-16 00:33 +0000

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