Comments for Barton's Blog

Comment on Sputnik…Wow!! by Fajar Setiawan

Fajar Setiawan — Wed, 30 May 2012 13:01:58 +0000

wow indeed..been wondering bout the progress, cause i’m desperately in need of new gadget, wanna retired my toshiba m800.
first of all, I like to thank for those who involved to make this project happen. that said, please give some info bout, is there any plan for dell to refresh xps 13 to ivy bridge anytime soon (just d prosessor), like I said iam desperate or at least info baout average battery life on current xps 13 using ubuntu, is 5 hr of coding achiavable, just in case I endup buying current xps. thx

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 29 May 2012 23:07:12 +0000

I installed this on my Dell XPS 13 yesterday via a USB using the Universal USB Installer (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/).

Took over my entire hard drive. This badly needs a proper installer like the vanilla Ubuntu 12.04.

Also when I updated the OS the brightness fix stopped working. Was overwritten by an update or something.

Needs more work & possibly a software repository or two so updating is more functional.

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Why the CEO thinking Facebook Fails the Enterprise and its Employees | iGo2 Group

Mon, 28 May 2012 22:29:22 +0000

[...] issues such as whether the screen should be shiny or not. In addition, 35,000 people visited Barton George’s Web posting about the new laptop — 10 times more than any other posting he’s ever made, he said. [...]

Comment on Web Glossary part one: Application tier by Is RPG a “Dead Language”? – My reaction to Mel Beckman’s article at iPro and the reactions « Infosmarts

Sun, 27 May 2012 14:06:13 +0000

[...] Web Glossary part one: Application tier (bartongeorge.net) [...]

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Tweeks

Tweeks — Sun, 27 May 2012 05:14:01 +0000

Cool! I work in a group of Devs and a Linux engineers. I know one of our devs just recently bought this (or a similar Dell bus-class.laptop), paid the M$ tax, and then went on to nuke it and install a linux tiled window dev setup.

Many a linux geek, and now more just general IT geeks, and even librarians and grandmas are looking for preinstalled linux laptops (for obviously differing reasons . Offering a wide range of “pick your hardware” and “pick your OS” systems would be welcomed by MANY! Although I’m sure the the M$ licensing/sales contracts that Dell and other OEMs have signed has their hands tied (surprise surprise

Good luck with this project! Hope it strikes gold. I’ll sure tell MY Dev & IT friends about it!

Tweeks
(Pardon typos. On my Galaxy Epic4)

Comment on Redmonk on Developers and Project Sputnik by Radomir Dopieralski

Radomir Dopieralski — Sat, 26 May 2012 10:29:00 +0000

So, anything new with this project? It’s been rather quiet since the initial burst of activity. I have high hopes for this, can’t wait to hear more.

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Leejjon

Leejjon — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:28:07 +0000

I’d buy it. All the linux laptops that are being sold in my country are old and huge. And they still have compatibility issues. Right now I don’t want to buy one and pay for the included Windows license and then find out that the battery life sucks compared to Windows. And that I have to go through a lot of tweaking to get things as the touchpad, sound and wifi working.

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Yaroslav Halchenko

Yaroslav Halchenko — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:40:56 +0000

Since the majority of Ubuntu is developed actually by Debian developers, it would have been nice if “developers laptop” actually was “compatible” with Debian. And now it is the best time to assure that since Debian is about to freeze within a month, so ironing out of few of the remaining bugs could allow next stable Debian being stable on this baby, thus providing the developers with the system they could use reliably.

Comment on DevOpsDays: Crowbar, where its been and where its going by Puppet Labs, EMC Debut Razor Open Source Provisioning Tool | DevOpsANGLE

Puppet Labs, EMC Debut Razor Open Source Provisioning Tool | DevOpsANGLE — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:46:58 +0000

[...] bare metal – that Weaver says sets it apart from cloud deployment and automation tools like Dell’s Crowbar. Combine that with the much-discussed openness, and Puppet and EMC think they’re onto the [...]

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by seumas

seumas — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:11:21 +0000

Just downloaded it to test out. I should mention that the bzip2 compression seems to be a bit pointless as the ISO appears to be compressed already: it only saves 1MB in a 1.4GB file. Will give further feedback when we’ve tried it out!

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by carlos

carlos — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:38:34 +0000

The machine I was dreaming off for years. For sure I agree with the majority (higher hardware specs. 14″ screens, 512 SSD, 16GB RAM, video resolution, USB 3, HDMI, no Optimus, etc). I would carry 1/2 kg more with a happier face with all those specs.
I’ve used DELL laptops (now an old Vostro 1700 that needs a replacement in weeks) and workstations (now a high end Precision T1500) in the last 10 years. And in the majority of them I’ve installed various Linux flavours (Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Debian, Mandriva, …) with minor problems that I’ve always solved (no optimus – thanks).
Wathever configuration – dual boot, VBox, KVM – they have always worked. Now I’m with Ubuntu for many reasons (comunity support, version upgrade, Unity, Mark S., … and a large list more).

This is not true for other machines (Vaios, Lenovos, envys) for not talking about names.
But it true that with DELL I was always able to buy the machines configured almost the way I wanted, in particular without MS-W on it in the majority of the cases.

In summary, this is a very good bet from DELL. More and more the market is asking for an OS “option”.

Conclusion: I will wait a few more weeks for the new SPUTNIK.
In Spain I hope.

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by There’s No Such Thing as the Perfect Developer Laptop | lq0.info

There’s No Such Thing as the Perfect Developer Laptop | lq0.info — Sun, 20 May 2012 03:15:25 +0000

[...] that they are. For example, George commented on his blog that one of the next versions, if the project makes it [...]

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by thesenshikaze

thesenshikaze — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:30:32 +0000

any news on this? I have my credit card on standby.

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Project Sputnik: Dell plans Ubuntu laptop aimed at developers | pc-wallpaper.info

Fri, 18 May 2012 07:07:36 +0000

[...] Ubuntu-based ultrabook aimed specifically at developers. Dell Director of Marketing Barton George announced in a blog post this week that Dell has launched a new effort called Project [...]

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Ubuntu developers: Benjamin Kerensa: Thoughts on Dell’s Project Sputnik | Linux-Support.com

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:45:17 +0000

[...] many of you are probably aware Dell launched Project Sputnik which is a short 6-month pet project in which Dell will take a crack at making a laptop for [...]

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Thoughts on Dell’s Project Sputnik | Benjamin Kerensa dot Com

Thoughts on Dell’s Project Sputnik | Benjamin Kerensa dot Com — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:56:28 +0000

[...] many of you are probably aware Dell launched Project Sputnik which is a short 6-month pet project in which Dell will take a crack at making a laptop for [...]

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by New Laptop

New Laptop — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:37:02 +0000

[...] Dell XPS 13? http://liliputing.com/2012/05/first-…ntu-linux.html Reply With [...]

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Mike

Mike — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:45:45 +0000

Craig has some very good arguments, but missed one thing, if he wants a specific configuration he should talk directly to a sales rep. on the phone. The website simply doesn’t cut it. At least in Germany this has always been possible.

I’m personally waiting for the Latitude F Series (I REALLY hope there won’t be another E series model) with a seriously updated platform and proper docking station. This will replace my D830 (and D800 before that)

Specs wise I’m expecting:
-Display: resolution WUXGA or higher (ie >=1920×1200)
-Displayport/HDMI video/audio output
-As graphics “card” Intel HD4000 is a must.
Additionally NVIDIA (the best non-free drivers)
and AMD graphics options should be provided.

->=8GB RAM

-Proper USB3.0 integration

-Thunderbold interface

- The easy handling of the D800 cooling system.
ie. just remove 2 screws at the bottom and remove the
ventilator module. That makes cleaning out the dust quick
and simple. No more need to take the machine
apart completely, just to get the dust out.

- 3G/4G: the buildin antennas should support both. The modules
with 3G/4G modems will have to be different in North
America/Europe/Asia to it doesn’t make sens to speculate
about them too much.
- WLAN antennas should allow for at least a/b/g/n support

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Les Arbres Binaires de Recherche | Fiks It

Les Arbres Binaires de Recherche | Fiks It — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:17:04 +0000

[...] Source [...]

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Netlord

Netlord — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:22:13 +0000

This is all great, but when can students of computing science and digital forensics get our hands on it? I don’t want to wipe my Inspiron 1764 to install Ubuntu, but I want a small, highly portable laptop with 12.04 on it. Why bother to announce the sputnik project as a 6 month test and not make it available to testers in the field instead of your controlled lab environment? Come on guys! Maybe I am on the wrong website, but I would like to stick with Dell. Let me check and see what the competition is offering that people can actually get their hands on.

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Tom

Tom — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:48:05 +0000

Craig nailed it. I would immediately buy this one for all our developers.

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by novirus | Ubuntu 12.04 : plus simple que Windows 7 ?

novirus | Ubuntu 12.04 : plus simple que Windows 7 ? — Tue, 15 May 2012 03:31:42 +0000

[...] vient tout juste d’annoncer qu’il souhaite l’utiliser pour équiper son nouvel ultraportable XPS 13. window.___gcfg = {lang: 'fr'}; (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); [...]

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 265 | Ubuntu Linux FAQs

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 265 | Ubuntu Linux FAQs — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:27:33 +0000

[...] http://bartongeorge.net/2012/05/07/introducing-project-sputnik-developer-laptop/ [...]

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by avatar42

avatar42 — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:58:11 +0000

A 1080p (1920X1080) screen just makes sense. It is the size everything is going to for desktops and TV so why use something odd for a laptop? As far as power goes it needs to be able to run Firefox, at least 1 Eclipse and Tomcat and have plenty of RAM and CPU to spare. Graphics should be able to support a second 1080p display as well. USB 3.0 lets you move stuff off you don’t need while moving to save battery life while keeping most of your speed when docked.

Bottom line going cheap on a dev box is a false economy. Chances your developer’s time is the priciest part of any project. Any time not spent watching an hourglass is money in the bank. Like other posters said you might be better served by starting with the baddest laptop you can build and then make some cheaper models for the mass (non dev) market.

Comment on Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop by Dell readies Ubuntu Linux laptop for developers | Install Ubuntu

Dell readies Ubuntu Linux laptop for developers | Install Ubuntu — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:28:43 +0000

[...] director of marketing for Dell’s Web vertical, announced that Dell is working on creating an open-source laptop targeted directly at developers. It is based on the brand new Ubuntu 12.04 and Dell’s XPS13 [...]