> I live in a country (Taiwan) where no one knows about Linux. It's impossible to buy a pre-installed Linux laptop here.

Quite some years ago, I went into a smaller electronics store in Germany because I had seen a nice notebook model on their website that had an SKU without operating system.

When I spoke to the clerk, he was completely puzzled that I would want a notebook without Windows. I can still hear his words in my ears: "But you need an operating system!" I tried to explain to him that there exist other OSs, but to no avail. I walked away from that purchase after imagining how support would go if I had any problems with the hardware.

Go online and buy corporate versions (that usually come with FreeDOS) so it gets a corporate license and no builtin windows

@ePierre:

> I wish I could. Unfortunately, I live in a country (Taiwan) where no one knows about Linux. It's impossible to buy a pre-installed Linux laptop here.

It's odd because Taiwan has a very strong IT root, and the Open Source community there is strong. It's true regular PC users don't use Linux, so are the regular PC users in America. Even government supports open source softwares.

[1]: https://www.mindmeister.com/303031964/open-source-community-...

There was another post on hackernews today about some new Dell ubuntu-based workstations[1]. The webpage that the post refers to mentions worldwide availability, so maybe dell might be an option for you at some point?

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13360339

Also, it looks like that their ubuntu edition and the windows edition of XPS-13 come with the same wireless cards this year (It used to be broadcom on windows, intel on ubuntu versions), so there might less differences between the two this time around.

Not sure about GP, but here in Argentina a packages can take lots of months (or just a few days if you're lucky!) to get through customs. Not to mention 50% import tax, amongst other things.

It ends up being so complicated and expensive, that just buying a winbook is cheaper. (fun fact: a plane ticket to NYC plus the price for my MBA is less than what it sells for here!).

That is not quite true.

For example, every time I see these type of news and go to the German web site, those laptops are usually listed as "product not available" or "product no longer available".

Same, never have I gone to Dell and seen XPS in stock in a European store. EVER. It's a while since I checked and maybe I'm just always there at the wrong time in release and stocking cycles, but XPS seems almost impossible to get hold of from the Dell store.

Edit: just checked and they have them in stock. Well done Dell.

For what it's worth, though the prior XPS line did come with Broadcom wireless on the Windows variants, they give you a full service manual describing how to replace it. It took me about $30 and half an hour to put the same Intel chip that the DE comes with in the Windows one I bought at CostCo. Wireless has been flawless with that chip.

That's bizarre, considering 40% of Dell computers sold in China come with Linux.

Parent is from Taiwan and not China. They are different countries(for most parts of world).

Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan,_China

  >> However, the term is problematic and potentially ambiguous because since 1949, two sovereign states with the name "China" exist, namely the Republic of China (ROC, founded 1912 and now commonly known as "Taiwan") and the People's Republic of China (PRC, founded 1949 and now commonly known as "China")

Sort of different countries that share a sea border and a common tongue, I have at least a base understanding of 20th century Chinese history. It would be bizarre if you were unable to buy a Linux laptop in Canada if 40% of Dell's sold in America came with Linux.

It's a sea border with visa requirements and mutual distrust, and the US does not hide behind a Great Firewall (yet :P). I don't even think the common tongue helps a lot, both the characters/translations and the physical keyboard are different. In my experience, the IT world in Taiwan is pretty independent and not any closer to China's than to that of the USA/Western world.

My guess: They will not have Linux for long after their purchase.

I had the same issue I live in Australia I bought a XPS 13 from dell (same laptop as developer edition) I had not choice but to have Windows 10 preinstalled. No idea why they made the OS choice region locked...

The XPS 13 has a different wireless chipset than the developer edition. The only way to get the same chipset in Australia is in the Precision line.

The xps 13 this year seems to have the same wireless chip on both windows and developer editions. They both seem to have the same killer wireless chip.

Developer edition xps13: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-9360-laptop/pd?3x_n...

It is good to note though that not all "same laptop but different OS" are actually the same laptop. Be wary and check hardware before buying the windows version to put linux on... it wont always work. (In this case obviously, the wireless is at least a non issue)

yes the 9360 is exact same model I purchased in Aus.