zlacker

Someone show me how to get my xps-15 to run Ubuntu with comparable GPU and battery performance to Windows in less than five hours of work and I will be eternally grateful. I gave up and plugged it in permanently for work and use my Mac for mobile.

>>Waterl+(OP)
Pretty happy with my XPS and Fedora. I switch to X for gaming, and use Wayland for day to day usage / programming.

>>christ+q
Ooh I’ll try Fedora. Thanks!

Does it handle switching the dedicated GPU on and off when needed? Any tips on how to set up? Mine stays on and kills battery in about 90 minutes. I tried the switching and it would always just crash.

>>Waterl+(OP)
Hello! I have been using PopOS which is a derivative of Ubuntu that comes with Nvidia drivers baked in. Setup on every XPS since 2018 (I buy a new one every year), has been about 20 minutes. Dell devices have excellent Linux support. Battery is a problem, I can get 5-7 hours in PopOS vs. 5-9 hours in Windows, depending on what I'm working on by using $ powertop --auto-tune and $ tlp start. Disabling touchscreen, and disabling cores directly also works extremely well when I know I need a longer battery life (9+ hours on 2021 xps with half cores disabled, running around 6-8 watts). PopOS also offers the ability to turn discrete graphics on or off which can also increase battery life.

>>bberte+c5
Oh wow. I’m grateful you shared this. Wasn’t aware of PopOS and your experience with it sounds promising. I will gladly take 5 hours of battery. Currently I get 60-90 minutes in Ubuntu.

>>bberte+c5
> every XPS since 2018 (I buy a new one every year)

Haha, nice - I imagine it's satisfying to have a reliable and reproducible setup. Just curious, do you sell the used ones, or give them away..?

>>lioete+69
I keep one as a back up and if soneone in my family needs, I'll give it to them. I have another whose motherboard is toast, so it's just sitting there. Can't decide if it's worth $800 to fix it.