I didn't get the touchscreen version intentionally. That's not to say that it's better with/without touchscreen. I just didn't want it, and wanted a lower resolution FHD screen for power savings. I know that gnome has basic support for touchscreens and just switched away from using a Surface Pro 3 with Gnome. It was just ok. I'd say you'll be fine since you've got a keyboard and trackpad as solid backup for the touchscreen.
There is no hardware difference to the windows/linux machines... the hardware on the dev units isn't any less or more powerful. You will, however, want to make sure your BIOS is upgraded to the current rev (A04 as of this posting). http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDet...
XPS13 windows 8 with the QHD/ultra high res screen here -- it has issues scaling windows apps -- Adobe Photoshop CC included. The apps imho are the weak link as not all have been designed for the higher resolution display.
Sure, this will change in time for both OS but its quite annoying on a productivity machine.
Edit: With that said, the XPS13 with 256gb ssd, touch screen and 8gigs of ram is a very smooth running machine. Very happy with my purchase.
There is no hardware difference to the windows/linux machines... the hardware on the dev units isn't any less or more powerful. You will, however, want to make sure your BIOS is upgraded to the current rev (A04 as of this posting). http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDet...