I would think with a team as large as Ubuntu, they already have their "favorite developer laptop," and it just might be the XPS. (Disclaimer: I honestly don't know what it is.)
But his suggestion has merit: in addition to the high-end dev laptop that their team will just fix because they use it, it would be good to _publicly_ announce a mid-level consumer laptop at the time of release. It doesn't have to be a sponsorship. They can put disclaimers all over the announcement. etc. etc.
I see how you came to that conclusion, but it is wrong:
We don't have a "company blessed developer laptop" on purpose - we're small (compared to other companies with similar reach), so that's the only way we can cover enough ground.
Every technical employee works from home, and buys his/her own gear. People are expected to report (and fix, when relevant. Some teams do a better job at that than others, certainly) their issues with gear that is relevant to their own profile and market.
The company gives out money bonus for people to buy what they want and stay current every once in a while.
Source: I'm a Canonical employee (not working on the desktop - but expected to at least report my desktop bugs on the particular brand of laptop that I use).
But his suggestion has merit: in addition to the high-end dev laptop that their team will just fix because they use it, it would be good to _publicly_ announce a mid-level consumer laptop at the time of release. It doesn't have to be a sponsorship. They can put disclaimers all over the announcement. etc. etc.