Well after spending all afternoon with this new Dell XPS 13 9315 I absolutely love it. The fit and finish feels exactly like a Macbook Air.
I have Linux installed (Pop_OS) and the only two issues I had were getting the webcam running and the fingerprint reader. I managed getting both of them up and now the hardware is 100% operable! I am so happy I kept giving Linux a go and found a great laptop with few compatibility issues.
Thanks to all of you who recommended Dell laptops. There were a couple minor problems, but both were solvable with a bit of ddg searching.
EDIT: I've decided to return this Dell XPS 13 based on some of your replies about the 12th gen intel being out of date for the price and build quality issues with Dell in general. I went with a Lemur Pro i7 Raptor Lake, 40gb ram, 1tb storage System76 build for only $200 more. Only downside is I have to wait a bit for them to confirm my order, assemble, and ship. It'll be nice to have a machine built exclusively for Linux!
My god an actual trackball user!
Sorry I just hardly ever see any these days.
I have also found PopOS! to be a fantastic distro. Easy to setup, user friendly, has tons of software that works with it , great UI, and I have not had a main OS patch/update break anything since I think 3 years ago now.
And it also does not punish you too hard if you tinker under the hood a bit!
Only real room for improvement is the PopShop, but thats relatively easy to fix, so I do think it makes more sense for them to focus harder on general stability, compatibility, and the new Rust based DE.
You can always install synaptic or the debian software manager for deb based stuff, and a flatpak store if you get tired of the PopShop and want to stick with PopOS's deb/flatpak paradigm.
I miss the old days when someone was being annoying and you could take the rubber ball out of your mouse and bounce it off their head haha!
I bring mine to work everyday. My manager has one, and oddly enough the manager at my old job did too lmao.
I used them as well, and I know of at least 3 more coworkers who use them as well.
I got started when I got one for free with a used computer I bought. I've since then switch full time to using an MX Ergo (like OP) on my desktop, and a cheaper M575 I keep in my laptop bag.
I even game with them, and haven't touched a computer mouse in probably 2 years.
The MX Ergo is far superior to any other I've used, highly recommended.
You can always install synaptic or the debian software manager for deb based stuff
One word: aptitude. Learn no mark your packages as dependency installed (capital M) and do it every update. The only downside is that it doesn't sync that info with synaptic. But if you use it exclusively for package management you'll end up with little to no stay packages after dist-upgrade.
The interface is very similar to and predates synaptic, but it's a terminal tool in ncurses. So even if you lose access to the GUI you still have something friendly to try and recover.
Enjoy this little guy and Linux! You won't regret your choice.
As I mentioned in the other thread, I'd advise to keep your firmware up to date with fwupd. Litterally one command line and your system will automatically update all firmware for you (including the bios). This is too often overlooked while very important and this tool makes the process so simple (no search, no manual download, no complex commands).Pop_OS has a firmware updater built in! Already updated all of it.
Right, I didn't know updating firmware from the fwupd service was came pre-installed in Pop_OS.
So you only have one more task on your list: enjoying your new laptop! :)
I’m really happy to be reading your posts. I kind of forgot about the xps line and have been wanting a “cleaner” computer and something with better hardware.
I was looking at Mac’s but you get so little for the money you spend on them.
I think it’s similar cost with the xps line, but you get at least double the ram and storage.
I’ll probably go the XPS 15 when I’m ready to upgrade at this point.
Yooo is that a trackball? I made the switch to a trackball because I'm a giant hipster a few months ago, but mine is an index finger one, not a thumb one. Setup looks good - an XPS is definitely on my radar for whenever the Surface I've been using for the past seven-ish years dies, it looks so clean.
Yep it's the MX Ergo by Logitech. I prefer the thumb style tracks for whatever reason. I've been using them for decades.
Would you mind sharing your Linux Hardware DB entry? I'm curious about the results.
That machine looks slick af 👌 I find linux distros are so much nicer to use when the hardware itself feels great. Enjoy!
I thought you wanted to use Geforce Now. Something changed? Or you just not going to game much on your Dell XPS?
I'll just go with the 1080p/60 version for now. Maybe I can hack something together in WINE down the line. Heh it rhymes.
I forget what its called off the top of my head but there are decent debian screen recording softwares that can record a game in fullscreen that work on PopOS!
