> Dell ships a closed-source, user-space driver in the Ubuntu build it offers on the XPS 13.
Not really Dell's fault. Intel has become incredibly bad with Linux support for some of their newer hardware.
You buy one of these, and then 2 months later call up Dell and say the Wifi on laptop is not working, then it can go one of two ways.
If you're running Ubuntu 22.04, then you'd be justified in demanding they support it, and repair/replace as appropriate.
If you're running $SomeOtherRandomDistro, then their support team you're dealing with may not have the right tools/processes to test and diagnose the issue. It would, I would argue, be justified for them to reject your support request until you can show it failing in Ubuntu 22.04. Assuming it wasn't something obviously physically wrong with the device.
But you make a fair point because I can't find a similar announcement last month for the certification completion itself. There is probably a strategy behind that, we might simply not understand what Dell is trying to achieve with their developer edition.
22.04 LTS is a useful reference though, even when planning to use another distro.
Dell isn't targeting Linux veterans, they're targeting people who have heard of this Linux thing and get led to Ubuntu by Google.