I recently saw that Dell is now offering new XPS laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed. I wanted to know if Dell has a history of supporting Linux on their laptops. Also, if they support Ubuntu, does that mean other Linux distributions, like CachyOS, will work well on their hardware?
7 Answers
Yeah, both Dell and Lenovo tend to have good compatibility with Linux.
Dell generally keeps their hardware fairly open source friendly, which means you can usually run pretty much any distro you want without major issues.
Absolutely! I've been using various Linux distros on Dell laptops for almost 20 years, and the drivers you need are available for almost any distro, not just Ubuntu.
While I'm not sure what exactly qualifies as a good track record, Dell has supported Ubuntu for quite some time, and I doubt that it would have any issues with other distros.
I've been using Linux on Dell business laptops and desktops for nearly 20 years without any problems. Dell is actually one of the biggest manufacturers of Linux pre-installed business computers, especially through their partnership with Canonical for Ubuntu. From my experience, the support has been excellent, but it’s worth noting my focus has been on their business line like Latitude and Optiplex, not the consumer models.
While Dell offers Linux options, I've found their laptops lacking in performance. My experience with the XPS line has been better than average, but some of their other models really lag behind in benchmarks. If you're serious about performance, I'd recommend looking into Lenovo Thinkpads or other alternatives.
Yes, Dell has been selling Linux laptops for over a decade, so they definitely have a good track record.
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