Last month, Dell announced that the XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition notebook was certified for Canonical's Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. This means that users can install Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and automatically get the same hardware-optimized experience as the new developer edition.
Dell has now pre-installed Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on the XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition straight from the factory. Dell's new orders will come with Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS pre-installed by default for those who opt for the "Developer Edition" instead of Microsoft Windows 11.
The latest generation of Dell XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition laptops feature Intel Core i7 12th Gen "Alder Lake" processors, up to 32GB of system memory, up to 2TB of NVMe storage, FHD+/3.5k OLED/4k display options, Intel WiFi 6E, and other modern connections.
The Dell XPS 13 Plus with Windows 11 is currently priced at $1,299 in the US with just the base configuration: FHD screen, Intel Core i5-1240P CPU, 8GB RAM, 512GB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe, and Intel Iris Xe graphics . A model with an Ultra HD touch display, an Intel Core i7-1280P CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD is $2,399. For consumers in the US, however, they are currently not allowed to order the flagship Core i7 1280P model with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS pre-installed.
Check out the official announcement for more details .
Last but not least, this Dell XPS Alder Lake model uses the newer Intel IPU6's webcam technology, which currently requires binary blobs to use non-reduced code on Linux. Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman advises against using these laptops, as open-source support for new hardware to match could take a year or more to materialize.