Dell Precision 'Developer Edition' mobile workstations run Ubuntu Linux and are RHEL certified

While Dell is mostly known as a Windows PC manufacturer, the company is also a big proponent of Linux. Its "Developer Edition" models can be configured with Ubuntu, for instance. Of course, despite this branding, non-developers can buy them too. The XPS 13 "Developer Edition" in particular is a svelte machine that should make many home Linux users very happy. In addition to home users, Dell manufactures solid business-class mobile workstations, and the company recently announced four such Linux-powered models. These Precision "Developer Edition" laptops run Ubuntu and are RHEL certified. One of these notebooks, the Precision 3530, is available today, while the other three will be available soon.

Librem 13: A few problems

I bought my old Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon (1st gen.) when I entered grad school for my Master's program, in 2012. And after six years, the Thinkpad still ran well, but it was getting old, so I figured it was time for a change. I went back and forth about what kind of system should replace my laptop. I don't travel that much, so I figured a desktop would be better. And I could get a bigger screen. After going back and forth on the decision, I decided to get a laptop. I don't often travel with a laptop, but when I do, I prefer to use my primary system so I don't have to keep things synced. Of course, I wanted my system to run Linux. Purism is aimed at the Linux laptop market, and I wanted to support that. So I bought a Librem 13. I've had it now for about a week, and I love it now. But I'll be honest, I didn't love it right out of the box. I'd like to note two issues for folks who are thinking about getting a Librem laptop, so you aren't surprised like I was.

Linux 4.17-rc7

So this week wasn't as calm as the previous weeks have been, but despite that I suspect this is the last rc. This week we had the whole "spectre v4" thing, and yes, the fallout from that shows up as part of the patch and commit log. But it's not actually dominant: the patch is pretty evenly one third arch updates, one third networking updates, and one third "rest". The arch updates are largely - although not exclusively - spectre v4. The networking stuff is mostly network drivers, but there's some core networking too. And "the rest" is just that - misc drivers (rdma, gpu, other), documentation, some vfs, vm, bpf, tooling.. The bulk of it is really pretty trivial one-liners, and nothing looks particularly scary. Let's see how next week looks, but if nothing really happens I suspect we can make do without an rc8. Shortlog appended as usual. Go out and test.

Today in Techrights

• The Way Things Are Going in the Eastern District of Texas and Other US District Courts, South Korean Companies Might as Well Exit the US Like They Exit China
• The Patent Extremists Resort to Trump-Styled China-Baiting in an Effort to Destroy US Patent Policy
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• Another Week of Federal Circuit Supporting PTAB and Acting Tough for Patent Quality in the United States
• The Irish Knowledge Development Box (KDB) is Just Another Tax Evasion Ploy
• Software Patents Advocacy and UPC Lies Go Hand in Hand
• IAM Warns That China is Outpacing the United States at Granting Rubbish, Unproductive Patents on Abstract Things
• On Ethics of Patent Lawyers
• Techrights at 24,000