Putting the KDE Slimbook through its paces

Although Linux-compatible hardware is not nearly as serious an issue nowadays as it was, it's still something of a minefield. This applies, in particular, to peripherals, such as multifunction printers, but also to other hardware like notebooks. The KDE Slimbook is a notable exception [1], as it already comes with a preinstalled and configured Linux operating system.

Compatibility is not only an issue for end users, but also for software developers, who have only a limited selection of hardware available to test their software. The colleague with whom you're working on a project probably does not own an identical notebook with compatible hardware. The KDE developers have now come up with a solution to this.

The Slimbook, like Dell's XPS series, is primarily aimed at developers and Linux fans. In designing the 13.3-inch small Ultrabook, which bears a striking resemblance to the MacBook Air, KDE Project developers wanted hardware that would work seamlessly with the operating system, Plasma environment, KDE applications, and KDE frameworks.

One for all?

The KDE Slimbook not only provides the KDE developers with a comparable work base, but also ensures that device owners have the same hardware compatibility issues they do when using software. Last year Jonathan Riddell, former lead KDE developer, took the first steps towards establishing a common base.

With the release of the project KDE neon, developers created a reference operating system, which made two out of three potential error sources easier to compare. The operating system and desktop environment were already in place, only the hardware remained a great unknown. The KDE Slimbook is designed to provide a solution to this problem and to serve as a reference platform for this third component (Figure 1).

Figure 1: The Fairphone OS has no superfluous applications.

Old Faithful

The KDE Project provided us with one of their first Slimbooks for a week. We received the more powerful version running an Intel i7-6500U processor with a clock rate of 2.5GHz. Our testing machine had 8GB of DDR3 RAM (the standard is 4GB) at 1600Mhz. The basic model is equipped with an Intel i5-6200U CPU with a clock rate of 2.3GHz. The prices for both models without any hardware upgrades are EUR729 (~$797) and EUR849 (~$928) respectively. Our test model was worth EUR909 (~$994). The manufacturer offers a two-year warranty.

Both processsor types are dual core, which use hyperthreading based on the Intel HD-520 integrated graphics unit. The economical ultra low voltage (ULV) processors offer a thermal design power (TDP) of 12W or 15W. The Intel platform used is called Skylake, which has now been succeeded by Kaby Lake.

The Slimbook's RAM can be upgraded up to 16GB (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The command-line program Inxi reveals what is in the Slimbook.