Earlier in 2012, Dell announced Project Sputnik. The main goal of the project was to build a great Linux laptop out of Dell’s XPS13 Ultrabook with Ubuntu 12.04.

Yesterday, Dell came forward announcing the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition. The specs are above predicted and are as follows:

• 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3517U (4M Cache, up to 3.0 GHz)
• UBUNTU Linux 12.04
• 13.3″ HD 720p
• 8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
• 256GB Solid State Drive
• Intel HD 4000
• 1366×768 display resolution

Immediately, the only way to judge this computer is to compare it to the 13″ Macbook with Retina. The XPS 13 measures 6 mm (0.24″) at its thinnest point and only 18 mm (0.71″) at its thickest point.

On the other hand, the 13″ Macbook registers at 19mm (0.75″). Although the screen resolution does not equal the Macbook’s 2560-by-1600, the price is less than the starting price of the Macbook ($1,699.00) and it comes standard with double the storage and an i7 instead of an i5.

As for the software, Dell has reportedly worked extremely hard to ensure that quality drivers are available for all of the laptop’s hardware. Additionally, the XPS 13 comes standard with Ubuntu 12.04LTS, a group of developer tools and utilities, and two beta projects: the cloud launcher and the profile tool.

What do you think of the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition, does it stack up against the competition?

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