Dell has got to be one of the most frustrating companies that put out a linux laptop. They put out a laptop certified for ubuntu but then never support newer releases. A big part of their hardware is always proprietary drivers like webcam, fingerprint reader etc… Then you update to a new LTS release because lets be serious 20.04 at this point is going to sunset in a couple of years… However after you update the webcam stops working, or some other hardware stops working. Then you are constantly troubleshooting to get it working and every kernel update it breaks again. If you ever did ask support they will just tell you to go back to 20.04 image from dell. Not to mention all their OS tools are made for windows even the ones for making linux recovery images… like WTF! I am two years in on this laptop and I am just getting rid of it I cannot put up with this nonsense anymore from them.
I don’t think you’re right on this. When DELL is branding a laptop as “linux supported”, then the hardware normally works out of the box with at the very least, Ubuntu (and probably by most other distros too). If you’re seeing hardware incompatibilities, it’s probably because the Linux kernel itself might have dropped some of the older hardware drivers from its list of support. I’m writing this on a DELL Latitude 5480 from 2017, and I have installed the latest ubuntu without any hardware issue whatsoever. Everything’s just supported out of the box. No special image from DELL was ever required. So if you’re seeing your hardware stop working, you should look if DELL provided closed source drivers or firmware for your laptop’s hardware. If that’s the case, then you didn’t have a “linux supported” laptop, you had a laptop with specifically-added Linux support after the fact. I wouldn’t have bought that in the first place.
You have this view because your hardware is from an era where fingerprint reader largely weren’t a thing and webcams were connected via internal usb. The issue is not that the Linux kernel drops anything (between you and op, you’re the one with the old hardware). The issue is, that fingerprint readers became a commodity without ever gaining universal driver support, and shengians like Intel pushing its stupid IPU6 webcam stuff without paving the way upstream beforehand
In that case, the solution is to buy hardware that is linux-certified.
So not Dell, apparently. OP has a valid point. Dell claims to support Linux but in practice doesn’t.
Specifically the shitty IPU6 situation is on Intel, and is invariant to any laptop manufacturers. I also have a Thinkpad X1 with that issue. So for that the situation that one manufacturer would support it properly (i.e. upstream) and others don’t can’t exist, as soon as anybody puts it upstream it works for everybody. Thankfully there’s some progress (search for libcamera) and in the not too distant future it should work ootb. For fingerprint readers it is a different story though, as there are many different ones, so that one is on Dell indeed
Fuck Dell with the rust backend of a sword.
I experienced the same shit with their dumb hardware. Honestly, I don’t know why they are Ubuntu Certified. It feels more like a cash grab from Canonical for non-linux vendors to be able to target corporate customers who only buy “linux certified” stuff. Then they pay off a few mainstream tech bloggers or tech “newspapers” to write a raving review about it and non-corporate people purchase it thinking they’re getting good linux hardware.
@admin@lemmy.my-box.dev gave a good recommendation: tuxedo computers. They do linux hardware well - albeit it’s pricey.
And of course Linux Preloaded is a great page to find other vendors.
Anti Commercial AI thingy
I have cheap used optiplex and even something as simple and old as fans have to be something special. They not only use non-standard 4pin fans, but also use a weird controller that can’t really be controlled by Linux. So you have the chance to either use it in turbine mode, or use some weird old library that doesn’t work in some distros and only manages to permanently dial down the fan - which isn’t good if you actually do something demanding. Extremely frustrating.
My Fujitsu on the other hand, doesn’t even have a fan, but if you plug one into the standard 4 pin header , it works perfectly fine right out of the box.
I bought a dell xps15 circa 2017 and it is god awful with Linux. I will never buy another dell ever again.
Not to mention they sell proprietary parts and couldn’t sell me a replacement ac adapter for my docking station. They wanted to force me to buy a new docking station instead of just purchasing an AC adapter… Horrible company and horrible compatibility.
