Hi All,

I have been really looking throw the web for weeks now and I am still not sure which one to get.

I would have preferred System76 Galago UltraPro but I am living in Germany so the price+shipping+VAT would not be nice for me.

I was considering the MacBook Pro only because I am sure it is a good HW and I was planning to install Linux on it. Also thought that having MacOS available as well would be nice, since I am a developer and might need to try something on the MacOS as well.

My other option is the Dell XPS 13 Developer edition, my only concern is that it is only a 13 Inch laptop, and so far I have been using either 15 or 14 so never tried a smaller screen.

I know that Dell also has Dell Precision M3800, which is a high end 15 inch laptop but It is not available in Germany.

My preferences is having a high end laptop which runs Linux smoothly, and I mainly run Ubuntu but I also test other Distros from time to time.

I would like to hear your inputs and recommendations.

Look at battery life (in addition to price) between the two. Maybe that would help you decide. Yes, screen size IS a factor. I think I ran in a tech preview of the Dell laptop that you mentioned and I read not so stellar comments by the reviewer about Dell's battery life. The preview also mentioned the price and I think both laptops are priced very similarly.
I'd go for the Mac. It's Unix, the hardware is guaranteed to work, something goes wrong you can always go to the Apple store and fix your laptop. Check if BootCamp (that's I think how dual booting is called in Apple Language) can work with Linux and which distro. As far as dual booting on your own, I am really not sure if Linux handles Retina as good as it should, and some other parts of your laptop that have Apple- exclusive drivers.

1 members found this post helpful.

Battery life in the Mac is outstanding. I have checked several reviews, and both laptops seems similar.

I would have went for the Mac, except that it is not a native Linux, and I have checked and found several how tos for Linux installation on Macbook Pros. My experience with Linux laptops were not very good. I had several issues with my previous ones with Linux and I am worried to get the Mac and find the same issues once more. This is my concern for the Mac.

For the Dell XPS I like that it has a touch screen. It is for me a nice to have. I also like to add to Linux based laptops sales.

I also had issues with previous laptops battery life, they look fine at the beginning but they get worse heavily by time. May be because my older laptops were not high end. I am confident with Mac battery, but have not read any comments about the XPS one after couple of months of usage for example. Does it stay good or gets degraded?

I saw a guy at the local LUG meeting the other day who had a Macbook. He said he installed Linux to it, but battery life was by far better with OS X - Probably OS X is better tuned to the hardware to make the best use of the battery. Just something you might want to keep in mind when comparing battery life stats of Macbooks vs. other Laptops.

I have had reasonably good experience with buying Laptops without OS (i.e. with FreeDOS) or Linux preinstalled.
And I make sure to only buy devices with intel graphics cards. The nvidia stuff is a mess, and I have heard that the radeon drivers are even worse.

Just my two cents

NightHorse,

Acer laptops are generally Linux-friendly, so have a look at this Acer Aspire E1-571:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Acer-Aspire-E...item2a4b0f7012

Tuxedo Computers (good, bad or indifferent? No idea):
http://www.tuxedocomputers.com/index.php

If any of the above use Linpus then wipe it and install Ubuntu, Mint or whatever is your personal preference.