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 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?
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