I also appreciate that they are saying that everything should work, including the fingerprint reader which is one thing I'm a little bitter about the XPS series. They'll sell you a laptop that is Linux compatible, but not everything will work.

Actually the X series seems to let you pick you Linux flavour. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-x1/X1...?

That is despicable on Dell’s part. The definition of ‘compatible’ is that everything will work.

Meh. It was well known when I bought one so it's not underhand and I find it a pretty irrelevant feature anyway. Ubuntu logs-in very quickly so using a power button finger print reader is a more convoluted gesture to me than putting hands on the keyboard. It would need that newer feature that caches the fingerprint from the power-on event to be worthwhile.

Most are Windows based. Only the “Developer Edition” of the XPS13 is sold as Linux compatible and everything on it works with Linux.

Mine lacks a fingerprint reader because Dell couldn’t, at the time, get the OEM to provide decent Linux support. So they just left that out of the build.

The other Windows builds are not sold as Linux compatible so if you go that route you’re not getting any guarantees things will work.

For 15” laptops you have to move to Dell’s Precision line for Linux compatibility rather than the XPS 15.

Seems poor marketing to me. They should have a line where all the models are linux compatible and it would much easier for consumers.

http://h2.jaguarpaw.co.uk/posts/how-i-use-debian-dell-xps-13...

http://dell.archive.canonical.com/updates/pool/public/libf/l...