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Comment by zaidhaan | Hacker News Reader

A bit off-topic, but if that's the case, then why don't you just buy the Windows version, then wipe the disk and install Linux on it. You effectively save yourself $200.

Is there something I'm missing? Does selecting the developer version use different hardware that has better Linux support?

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the kaby lake xps 13 linux skus had a different wifi card that was more reliable on linux (and arguably in general). could be some other subtle differences like that. to me it's easily worth $200 to not deal with those sorts of issues.

also, I believe they sometimes don't offer the lowest tier windows hardware with linux at all.

Replacing the Killer WiFi card with an $40 Intel one is the first thing I do to every Dell laptop I get.

Yep, totally. I had some issues with Bluetooth coexistence on my Realtek WiFi card, tried installing various different drivers but nothing fixed it. Replaced it with an Intel one and it worked flawlessly.

Except that a wifi card costs $20.

the card itself does, but how do you value the time you spend on research and doing the replacement? I bought the windows version of that laptop when I was a student, and replaced the card myself. that made sense then, but if I bought it today to get work done, I'd gladly spend $200 extra to have it ready to go out of the box and not think about it. just my two cents, feel free to do whatever works for you.

To know that Intel is one of the best for Linux? I kinda have known this for years. To find online and buy one? Maybe 15 minutes. To replace? 10 minutes. I do such things without thinking. You can send me your laptops along with a 200 per laptop.

Exactly. I feel like the costs of swapping out such components for better ones likely wouldn't exceed $200.

Maybe pwg is right and the discounted price with Windows is due to the paid pre-installed software. But that still leaves the customer with complete freedom to install something else on it.

Depends how much you value your time, and how many laptops you’re buying.

Some people want their laptop to work out of the box, and will happily pay $200 to ensure they get a HW/SW combo that’s been validated to work together by the manufacturer.

If you’re a company buying 10+ laptops, paying an extra $200 per laptop is probably cheaper than the faff of separately finding and acquiring wifi cards, then finding the time to swap them all.

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