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.
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
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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.