Ten years after releasing a groundbreaking suite of Linux pre-installed on a commercial laptop Sputnik ProjectDell and Canonical announced that XPS 13 Plus It is the first OEM computer A certified For Ubuntu 22.04 Long-Term Support (LTS). This makes this a straightforward path to just owning a working PC without worrying about whether or not every component is Linux ready.

Developer Edition models of the Linux-equipped laptop were already available, with prices starting at 1,289.00 USD, but currently shipped with older 20.04 LTS software. Long-term support releases deliver what they say on the box, with the end of standard support for this release scheduled in 2027 and end of life in 2032. Certified devices are lab tested for compatibility of each component, which means your device gets specific drivers installed that make all of its features work properly.

Photo: Dell

This obviously applies to devices that were sold as Developer versions with Linux out of the box, but it also applies if you’re installing a new operating system on a device that originally shipped with Windows 11. Barton George was one of the folks at Dell behind Project Sputnik. in 2019 interview with ForbesAnd the He explained that the Developer Edition trademark is intended, and applied to prevent people from accidentally buying a Linux laptop to save a few dollars and get an unexpected experience. These days, Dell ships Ubuntu on many other machines — and other flavors of the XPS line, including XPS 13 Redesigned Standard Stand So it is unlikely that the approved list will remain that short forever.

The Ubuntu 22.04 LTS package was officially released on April 21 and has a long list of upgrades that you can read through. over hereincluding better power management, new touchpad gestures, and improved support for Bluetooth audio devices.

According to Dell, if you want your XPS 13 Plus and its “class of capacitive touch functionality” with hardware-optimized version 22.04, there are several ways to achieve it. One is ORDER A NEW XPS 13 Plus Laptop And wait for them to ship, starting in August. Other than that, if you’re in a hurry (and backed up everything anyway) you can do a fresh install, and you’ll be good to go. The last option is to wait until August 4th when Ubuntu 22.04.1 is released, as all LTS users will click on the upgrade path so you can do as little work as possible.