Ten years after launching a pioneering combination of pre-installed Linux on a commercial laptop with Sputnik ProjectDell and Canonical announced that XPS 13 Plus it is the first OEM PC certificate for Ubuntu 22.04 Long Term Support (LTS). That makes this an easy route to having a PC that just works without worrying about whether or not every component is Linux-ready.
Linux-equipped Developer Edition laptop models were already available, with prices starting at $1,289.00, but currently ships with the older 20.04 LTS software. Long Term Support releases offer what they say on the tin, with Mainstream Support ending for this release scheduled in 2027 and end of life in 2032. Certified devices undergo laboratory testing to verify the compatibility of each component, which means that your device has the specific drivers installed that will make all its features work properly.
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Image: Dell
That obviously applies to machines sold as Developer Editions with Linux out of the box, but it also applies if you’re installing a new OS on a machine that originally shipped with Windows 11. Marketing exec Barton George was one of the people at Dell behind the Sputnik project. In a 2019 interview with Forbes, He explained that the Developer Edition branding is intentional, applied to prevent people from accidentally buying a Linux laptop to save a few bucks and get an unexpected experience. These days, Dell ships Ubuntu on many other machines, and other variants of the XPS line, including Your XPS 13 Standard Carrier Redesigned – so it seems unlikely that the certified list will stay this short forever.
The Ubuntu 22.04 LTS package was officially released on April 21 and has a long list of updates that you can read about. hereincluding better power management, new touchpad gestures, and improved support for Bluetooth audio devices.
According to Dell, if you want to configure your XPS 13 Plus and its “capacitive touch row” with a hardware optimized version of 22.04, there are a few ways to do it. one is for order a new XPS 13 Plus laptop and wait for it to ship, starting in August. Otherwise, if you’re in a hurry (and backup everything anyway), you can do a fresh install and you’ll be good to go. The last option is to wait until August 4, when Ubuntu 22.04.1 is released, as it will activate the upgrade path for all LTS users so you can do as little work as possible.
