Summary

DHH shares his genuine enthusiasm for Dell's 2026 XPS laptop line after years of dismissing Dell's personal computers as cheap or corporate-grade. He praises Dell's rapid reversal from 2025 design missteps—capacitive touch function keys and dropped XPS branding—contrasting it favorably with Apple's stubborn seven-year Touch Bar experiment. The XPS 13 and 14 now compete directly with Apple on specs, screen quality, build, and price, while running Linux (his Omarchy setup) superbly. He frames the XPS 13 as an ideal thin client for AI agent workloads via Tailscale/SSH to a home server. The broader conclusion is that competition from Intel and Dell is healthy for the industry, and Michael Dell's leadership—still willing to pivot quickly after 40+ years—deserves real admiration.

Key Insight

Dell's willingness to quickly admit and reverse bad design decisions—unlike Apple's stubborn multi-year experiments—has produced genuine MacBook competition, proving that strong leadership paired with competitive pressure delivers better outcomes for consumers than market dominance alone.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 7

  Unlike Apple, which introduced that cursed Touch Bar back in 2016, and then crammed it down everyone's throat for seven long years, Dell rebooted this nonsense almost immediately.

• 6

  The XPS 13 has a great 120Hz screen (something you don't even get on a MacBook Air at twice the money!)

• 3

  Dell could still have stuck these chips into forgettable machines, and I wouldn't have had any interest.

• 7

  Is this an ad??? No. This is not an ad. I bought the XPS 13 with my own money, and frankly, you couldn't pay me any sum to use a laptop I didn't like.

• 4

  It was Apple's M chips that rejuvenated the laptop market, and they held a supreme lead for years. So it's lovely to see Intel, Dell, and others actually being ready to meet the challenge from the low-cost Neo right out of the gate.

• 5

  Forty-plus years at the helm, not too proud to pivot quickly, and now the maker of my favorite Linux laptops. Well done, sir.

• 6

  The obvious answer is of course to run these agents off a home server in the closet, connect them to something as slim and light as an XPS 13 over Tailscale, and then control it all over SSH.

Tone

enthusiastic, opinionated, celebratory