One version of "Sweet spot" is having Linux preinstalled at the factory, which at least guarantees working drivers on new hardware. Obviously costs more than an older machine, though. Dell offers this on a bunch of models, including several Latitudes -- as do Lenovo, and a whole bunch of specialty manufacturers.
I got a new XPS13 for work with Ubuntu pre-installed about 4 years ago and it was far from the "sweet spot".
Hibernate/sleep didn't work out of the box (although the fix was relatively straightforward), wifi was flakey (I switched to wired) on the office network but most annoying of all, I could never get a satisfactory second monitor to work without scaling issues and I tried every permutation of suggested fixes known to google.
As a macbook owner (for non-professional/non-dev stuff), I didn't appreciate the chore of having to semi-actively manage the system to preserve battery. The burden wasn't huge but it was irritating having to regularly close browsers and the like as most of the applications were clearly designed for a desktop environment.
In the end, the compromises were too much for me even as a long-time user of Linux on the desktop.
Another counterpoint: my at-home install of Debian on a 2022 XPS 15 is absolutely fantastic. WiFi is solid and sleep works perfectly. (I don't think I have hibernation enabled though.) I don't use a second monitor, but projectors have always worked fine for me.
Power management at first wasn't great, but simply installing Intel PowerTOP and having it apply all its suggestions on each boot made it easily the most power-conservative laptop I've ever owned. (The OLED screen I think helps with that.)
Whereas my work MacBook Pro (2021 model maybe?) had decent power management up until macOS 12 junked up GPU switching, making typing horribly laggy unless I disabled GPU switching entirely -- but since that forced the external GPU, battery life took a nosedive.
Counterpoint: I've had a fantastic experience with System76 for a decade now.
I think the difference is that, like Apple, System76's existence depends on Linux (for Apple, OSX). In contrast, Dell is basically a Windows laptop vendor with a small Linux side business.
Comments
One version of "Sweet spot" is having Linux preinstalled at the factory, which at least guarantees working drivers on new hardware. Obviously costs more than an older machine, though. Dell offers this on a bunch of models, including several Latitudes -- as do Lenovo, and a whole bunch of specialty manufacturers.
Not in my experience, unfortunately.
I got a new XPS13 for work with Ubuntu pre-installed about 4 years ago and it was far from the "sweet spot".
Hibernate/sleep didn't work out of the box (although the fix was relatively straightforward), wifi was flakey (I switched to wired) on the office network but most annoying of all, I could never get a satisfactory second monitor to work without scaling issues and I tried every permutation of suggested fixes known to google.
As a macbook owner (for non-professional/non-dev stuff), I didn't appreciate the chore of having to semi-actively manage the system to preserve battery. The burden wasn't huge but it was irritating having to regularly close browsers and the like as most of the applications were clearly designed for a desktop environment.
In the end, the compromises were too much for me even as a long-time user of Linux on the desktop.
Another counterpoint: my at-home install of Debian on a 2022 XPS 15 is absolutely fantastic. WiFi is solid and sleep works perfectly. (I don't think I have hibernation enabled though.) I don't use a second monitor, but projectors have always worked fine for me.
Power management at first wasn't great, but simply installing Intel PowerTOP and having it apply all its suggestions on each boot made it easily the most power-conservative laptop I've ever owned. (The OLED screen I think helps with that.)
Whereas my work MacBook Pro (2021 model maybe?) had decent power management up until macOS 12 junked up GPU switching, making typing horribly laggy unless I disabled GPU switching entirely -- but since that forced the external GPU, battery life took a nosedive.
Counterpoint: I've had a fantastic experience with System76 for a decade now.
I think the difference is that, like Apple, System76's existence depends on Linux (for Apple, OSX). In contrast, Dell is basically a Windows laptop vendor with a small Linux side business.