Today, Ubuntu announced that starting today, you can get the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS was first released in April, and this is the first laptop to ship with the OS. This year"s XPS 13 is actually the 10th anniversary of Dell"s Project Sputnik, the program for the company"s Linux-based Developer Edition laptops.
"We’re delighted to see the first Dell systems ship with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Enterprises are increasingly equipping their developers and engineers with the operating system of their choice ensuring high end-user productivity. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on the latest Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition offers the performance developers demand with the assurance of security and long term support that IT management needs," said Martin Wimpress, Director of Desktop Engineering at Canonical.
The currently shipping XPS 13 Developer Edition comes with Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu says that 20.04 LTS has the following improvements:
- GNOME 3.36 adding improved user workflow and performance enhancements
- New and updated applications including LibreOffice 6.4, Thunderbird 68.7.0
- Over 6,000 snaps from the Snap Store including Visual Studio Code, Slack, Spotify, Plex and the JetBrains portfolio
- New desktop Yaru default theme with light and dark modes
- Improved settings for WiFi, wallpaper and application groups in the ‘Activities’ overview
Of course, the Dell XPS 13 is a premium PC on its own. We reviewed it (the Windows 10 version) in April and called it one of the best laptops on the market. With narrow bezels, Dell calls it a 13-inch laptop in an 11-inch chassis, and it now had a bigger 16:10 display, Intel Ice Lake processors, up to 32GB of RAM, and more.
The XPS 13 Developer Edition starts at $1,099.99, and you can check it out here.