HP Dev One is the name, at least in code, of the new team for HP developers, one that will come with Linux pre-installed… and not just any Linux: Pop!_OS has been the distribution chosen by the computer giant to govern its hardware.
In fact, although the HP Dev One you already have your own site by way of landing page Provisionally, the announcement of the device was made in a somewhat soulless way by Carl Richell, CEO and founder of System76, through his personal Twitter account. The good thing about this, however, is that given the little information available, the questions have accumulated and he has answered a few, expanding the details about this launch that is still in the making.
In short, System76 has partnered with HP to launch the HP Dev One, an AMD laptop aimed at developers which, due to its conception and style, indicates that they want to compete with Dell’s XPS, the first of its kind and, for quite some time, the reference in this type of equipment.
It’s not that HP didn’t have extensive prior experience in selling computers with Linux: for years the American company has been offering computers with distributions such as Ubuntu or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) preinstalled, although until the launch of the portátiles HP ZBook for a couple of years now, it had been about lower-end laptops.
The HP Dev One confirms the company’s change in strategy, although the most surprising thing is that they have teamed up with System76, with the permission of Dell, their most direct competition in the particular segment of Linux computers, to carry it out. This is more surprising, in fact, than having replaced Ubuntu or RHEL as pre-installable alternatives, which have even been certified.
Hp-Pop Hooray! Check out https://t.co/gf2brjjUl8
— Carl Richell (@carlrichell) May 20, 2022
It should be remembered that System76 is the most popular international brand specialized in Linux computers, as well as the developer of the Pop!_OS distribution, a derivative of Ubuntu focused on developers and creators, designed initially as a head system for the System76 teams, but available to any user who wants it. Its latest version, by the way, came out just now: Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS.
Regarding the characteristics of the HP Dev One, a processor is advanced AMD Ryzen 7 PRO octa-core with integrated graphics, 16GB of 3200MHz DDR4 RAM, 1TB NVMe M.2 storage and a 14-inch FHD ‘anti-glare display’. These, at least, would be the basic specifications that appear on the official site, where a starting price of $1,099.
Richell, on his own, reveals some other additional details, such as that the memory will be expandable up to 64 GB of RAM, or that the firmware can be updated with LVFS; In addition to other more curious things, such as the fact that they have been collaborating for months to develop the HP Dev One, or that in System76 they have trained an HP team to provide technical support, although if they have extra work, they will help them with that too.
And this is all that is known at the moment of HP Dev One, a laptop for developers that points ways, even though much remains to be known. For now, those interested can sign up for a waiting list that will notify them when it is available.