No Ubuntu Laptops available in AU

[Paul Gear]

On 13/06/16 18:04, Anil Gulati wrote:
> I've been looking at getting an Intel Skylake NUC 6i5 because I can
> get one with 32 GB RAM and a fast 2,200 MB/s NVMe PCiE M.2 SSD for
> under AU$1000.
> But then I hesitated because if I get a laptop I can be mobile, I'm
> not dependent on having a monitor and keyboard set up somewhere.
> But who sells Linux laptops in Australia, or even the world?
>
> After slowly researching for months I'm now of the opinion that I
> should only buy from System 76 or Zareason, because all the main
> stream suppliers are lame.
>
> There was news in Jan/Feb that woo hoo the Dell XPS 13 Developer
> Edition ("the world's best Windows laptop") was available with Ubuntu,
> nice high spec and slim form factor. The news article said that Dell
> is selling the 5th gen CPUs at a discount because Skylake was coming.
> It's selling it like there's a channel and a market and waiting list.
>
> Getting on to Dell.com.au <http://Dell.com.au> I can indeed find an
> XPS 13 Developer Edition but it says no longer available, and click
> through to the replacement provides Windows 10 only. Vapourware.
>
> Amazingly, after getting on to Dell chat, it took two operators over
> half an hour to admit there was another Dell Linux laptop available
> http://pilot.search.dell.com/precision, Ubuntu of course, but at
> around $3000 for 6i5 16GB RAM and no specs on the speed of the 1TB SSD
> were available (PDF spec sheet link gave server error). And it looked
> like these would come from US anyway.
>
> The chat read like the Norwegian Blue Python sketch. Does Dell have
> any Linux laptops? Well . . .
>
> Lenovo has Linux laptops . . . then I find the news article is dated 2007.
>
> I'm not happy with the support and commitment I'm seeing from main
> vendors and there doesn't seem to be value for money if they have an
> offering at all. Is this correct?
>
> My judgement is that I pretty much have to buy either System 76 or
> Zareason, they are the best value all round, and there is no
> Australian provider. Can anyone tell me if that's correct?
>
> I'm also wondering why there isn't a prominent Ubuntu page that says
> this as well? I've seen Ubuntu has made attempts at providing hardware
> selection channel before but it seems to have petered out? Isn't this
> the most important thing to provide after Ubuntu itself? Which
> hardware to buy to install on?

Hi Anil,

I asked about worldwide availability of laptops shipping with Ubuntu in
a recent company videoconference in Canonical.  The short version is
that although we have ongoing relationships with both Dell and Lenovo,
the hardware vendors control the availability of the resultant systems.

I have not seen any of the results of these relationships appear on
either vendor's Australian site.  I'd also really like to get my hands
on an Ubuntu phone and/or tablet, but they're not available here either.

My subjective opinion (without having gathered precise data) is that
most folks in Canonical run Lenovo ThinkPads (T4xx and X2xx are the most
popular series), with Dell XPS (our CEO, Jane, runs a Dell shipped with
Ubuntu [1]) and Apple in 2nd & 3rd.  I currently use a ThinkPad X230,
but will probably switch to the latest T4x0 model on my next refresh.

Both Dell and Lenovo are pretty compulsive about asking you to fill out
a survey about why you visited their site and how you liked it.  One
useful thing you could do would be to add a comment stating that you'd
like to buy your laptop with Ubuntu.

Regards,
Paul

[1] https://twitter.com/silbs/status/733318533208236032

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