Hacker News Reader

Comment by happymellon | Hacker News Reader

Yes although that is the X series, I've been browsing after my comment and had noticed that there is a mix and some seem to be Ubuntu and some Fedora, which is great.

I also appreciate that they are saying that everything should work, including the fingerprint reader which is one thing I'm a little bitter about the XPS series. They'll sell you a laptop that is Linux compatible, but not everything will work.

Actually the X series seems to let you pick you Linux flavour. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-x1/X1...?

View on HN

> They'll sell you a laptop that is Linux compatible, but not everything will work.

That is despicable on Dell’s part. The definition of ‘compatible’ is that everything will work.

Completely agree, which is another reason I wouldnt buy XPS, aside from the terrible webcam.

> That is despicable on Dell’s part

Meh. It was well known when I bought one so it's not underhand and I find it a pretty irrelevant feature anyway. Ubuntu logs-in very quickly so using a power button finger print reader is a more convoluted gesture to me than putting hands on the keyboard. It would need that newer feature that caches the fingerprint from the power-on event to be worthwhile.

then I have never bought a single "compatible" appliance ; all my windows-preinstalled laptops always came with a few issues

Lenovo is actively submitting kernel patches for the finger print readers, they should be 100% compatible.

I have the Precision 7750 with power fingerprint button, but I'm not losing sleep over it. I will suffer a lot more than that before I go to Windows or worse, Apple. Besides, usually it's just a matter of time before the driver gets into a kernel.

As would I. But I would still prefer if they sold XPS' that supported Linux.

There are multiple versions of the XPS 13 and XPS 15.

Most are Windows based. Only the “Developer Edition” of the XPS13 is sold as Linux compatible and everything on it works with Linux.

Mine lacks a fingerprint reader because Dell couldn’t, at the time, get the OEM to provide decent Linux support. So they just left that out of the build.

The other Windows builds are not sold as Linux compatible so if you go that route you’re not getting any guarantees things will work.

For 15” laptops you have to move to Dell’s Precision line for Linux compatibility rather than the XPS 15.

Seems poor marketing to me. They should have a line where all the models are linux compatible and it would much easier for consumers.

I have recently written up my experience of installing Debian on a Dell XPS 13 7390, in case anyone is interested.

http://h2.jaguarpaw.co.uk/posts/how-i-use-debian-dell-xps-13...

I believe there are drivers available for fingerprint riders for Ubuntu 20.04. Needs an up to date bios update and I'm not sure about compatibility with older models e.g.

http://dell.archive.canonical.com/updates/pool/public/libf/l...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com