Fans of Linux may reckon the excitement which greeted the announcement of “Project Sputnik” earlier in 2012. The project is aimed to make a laptop that is preloaded with Ubuntu, particularly for the developers with “client to cloud” solution.
Dell starts selling a configured version of XPS 13 ultrabook with Ubuntu Linux onboard.
The sleek Dell XPS 13 ultrabook having Ubuntu Linux 12.4 comes with a high-end hardware and is priced at $1,549. It is the fruit of a Dell Project Sputnik to manufacture a laptop based on Ubuntu. Dell said that their first project is launched for United States customers and that they loaded the super sleek device with Ubuntu so developers shall have the needed essentials. Dell undercuts Cupertino, so the question is when people would want to pay some more for a PC that runs Ubuntu instead of Windows for dev.
Indeed the device is full of many fast silicon including Ivy Bridge processor Intel Core i7-3517U, SDRAM of 8GB DDR3 at 1600MHz and a solid state drive of 256 GB. Its 13.3-inch display comes in 1,366 by 768. For the more price-conscious, Best Buy also sells Windows version of XPS 13 with the chip Intel Sandy Bridge (which foreruns Ivy Bridge). Its drive is 128GB solid state, has 4GB RAM and it is priced at $799. Stocks appear to be limited though.
Dell XPS 13 is one of the ultrabook designs which emerged as better from the top-level PC vendor. It quite diverts a typical 12-inch screen for laptops to 13.3-inch. It boasts Gorilla Glass and is constructed from carbon fiber and aluminum.