Dell is now offering the XPS 13 Developer Edition Ultrabook with Ubuntu Pre-installed. The release is the culmination of ‘Project Sputnik‘, an initiative to create a fully supported build of Ubuntu for developers that would work with the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook. The project started back in May when Dell asked the developer community what they wanted in a laptop. The company also passed out some of its Sandy Bridge XPS 13 Ultrabooks to collaborate with the community to port and test drivers and other software. The fruit of Project Sputnik, the XPS 13 Developer Edition, is now available for purchase from Dell.

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Dell’s project Sputnik was formed to create a Linux-based developer-focused distro that would run on specific hardware. Over the last 7 months Dell have been working to build a final product with developers and component suppliers using the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook. Developer edition models went out in July.

There have always been thoughts that a real product would hit Dell’s product range but that’s been confirmed now by project manager Barton George.

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It’s not clear whether a Linux-based ultrathin with Ultrabook hardware specifications can be called an Ultrabook. Probably not because ZaReason don’t mention Ultrabook at all in their information on the Ultralap 430 – a Linux-based laptop built on  Ultrabook hardware that’s now available. The Ultrabook name is not going to matter to this audience though.

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We’re big supporters of what Dell and Canonical are doing with project Sputnik. It’s not just another Ubuntu-based Linux distro, it’s a Linux distro with funding and a defined hardware target and the fact that the hardware target is an Ultrabook makes it even better. If you’re a Linux fan, check out our first post on the subject and then, read-on here…

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Dell have just kicked off a project with Ubuntu Canonical. Project Sputnik is a 6-month effort to try to pull together a solid Ubuntu build on a solid laptop, for developers. The Dell XPS13 has been chosen as the first target platform.

We’re constantly getting questions from developers about which Ultrabook to buy but the problems is the word ‘developers.’ I’m a developer myself but the only tool I use is VI as I hack my PHP and HTML for the Ultrabooknews product database. Other, more serious, developers need source code control, collaboration tools, compilers and integrated development environments. Project Sputnik is aiming to deliver a standard Ubuntu build (currently based on 12.04) and additional, downloadable profiles. So if you’re developing for the web, you might add in a web-focused profile. If you’re developing for Android, there could be a better profile for you.

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