What about it? It doesn't seem to be enormously useful, given I can do so much better on my own.

I got the laptop to have well-supported hardware, not because I was expecting a lot of help from Dell.

Is that all there is to it, just well supported hardware? Dell didn't configure Redhat in any way, to make better use of the hardware? I'm thinking trackpad, sleep and hibernation, graphics etc.?

Ubuntu, not Redhat.

And no, it seems they didn't. They haven't forced deep sleep, for example.

Thanks, very interesting to know about these little shortcomings, and how you solved them.