Dell to launch “Sputnik” Ubuntu developer laptop

Earlier this year Dell launched “Project Sputnik” , an innovative attempt to see if it could fuse the world’s of the modern laptop with that of the Linux based Ubuntu operating system. The laptop is aimed towards software developers as opposed to the everyday laptop user. The initial project was a combination of a Dell XPS 13 ultrabook with Ubuntu 12.04.

The software environment is tailored for developers, where it features a bunch of useful tools and a framework for automating the installation of specific development stacks and cloud deployment tools. Dell also worked on hardware enablement, where they tweaked drivers which improved touchpad support, as well as adding support for toggling Wi-Fi from the keyboard.

Project Sputnik was a pilot project, a 6 month testing opportunity for Dell to see if the demand and interest for such a project would be there. This week Dell announced that it was happy to proceed with turning this concept/project into a reality. Sputnik is to be launched (forgive the pun) some time later this year and will be available to consumers in “selected markets” – probably the UK, US and Europe.

Dell’s marketing manager had this to say about the project:

Since we announced project Sputnik a little over two months ago, we have continued to be amazed by the amount and quality of interest and input we have received. By listening to developers, Dell can provide them with solutions and products to help make them more productive and allow for greater innovation.

The current Dell XPS 13 is an Ultrabook, with a 13.3″ display (1366×768 resolution) , 4GB of RAM, Intel HD graphics, an SSD, and the option of either an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor.

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