Dell Takes Another Crack at Linux Boxes with Project Sputnik, Launching This Fall

We don’t usually get to make puns about a product “launching”, but Dell made it easy by naming its latest foray into Linux-based computers “Project Sputnik”. Dell said that Sputnik is the result of an internal innovation fund and has been employee-driven.

Essentially, Project Sputnik will consist of a developer notebook based on the Dell XPS 13 running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) featuring a “complete client-to-cloud solution” that will let users create micro clouds locally and then deploy them seamlessly.



Dell launched Sputnik as a pilot program not long ago, and due to the overwhelming response, the company decided to move it into the product phase already. It sounds like developers will be working on the kinks before the average joe will get to play with one of these machines, but that’s a good thing--bringing Linux products to market before there’s adequate support is a mistake Dell admits it has made before.