German Linux field vendor Tuxedo Computer systems has canned its long-planned Qualcomm machine, citing quite a few issues with the state of the Linux-on-Arm artwork.
After a yr and a half of labor, Tuxedo introduced that it’s discontinuing work on its deliberate Arm laptop computer primarily based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon System-on-Chip. There’s some excellent news mingled in with the dangerous, although. The corporate is planning to submit its assist code upstream to assist others attempting to assist computer systems primarily based across the machine – and in a considerably uncommon transfer, it hinted that the Medion SPRCHRGD 14 was the mannequin it aimed to OEM.
The machine was to make use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC, whose launch The Register covered in October 2023. In November that yr, that particular SoC was mentioned at the Ubuntu Summit as a goal platform. We reported that Tuxedo’s machine was coming in June 2024. Again then, the seller mentioned TUXEDO on ARM is coming, and one other replace followed in March 2025.
Though Qualcomm was talking about Linux support again in Could 2024, there have been already some caveats and purple lights. In June 2024, Samsung warned about compatibility issues, and in October 2024, Qualcomm stopped offering its desktop Windows Dev Kit devices.
As we close to the tip of 2025, Tuxedo says that it could not overcome a number of points:
A core drawback is that with this complete record of excellent points but to repair, the core SoC is getting comparatively outdated now. It is a two-year-old half, and Qualcomm introduced its successor again in September: the Snapdragon X2 Elite. One of many large unstated issues with a next-generation substitute Arm SoC is that, as a result of Arm {hardware} lacks a lot of the baseline firmware-level intercompatibility of x86 gadgets, a brand new SoC model means largely having to restart improvement.
These things is significantly more durable on Arm, even when the seller does assist. Tuxedo additionally calls out Linux-on-Arm specialists Linaro for his or her help. If the seller would not chip in, in fact, it is more durable nonetheless. Across the identical time because the Snapdragon X Elite, Apple announced its M3 SoCs, and two years later, the Asahi Linux crew is still working on M3 support.
We mentioned the longstanding Linux-on-Arm compatibility issues and issues like devicetree assist once we looked at the Mobian Linux project final month. Arm {hardware} tends to be cheap and really power-efficient, and because of this, there’s numerous small, low cost Arm gadgets on the market. Many ship with one particular model of the bootloader, kernel, and varied machine drivers, and lots of by no means get up to date once more. As we coated in some depth in 2022, that is the issue that Armbian exists to help with.
Though they confound newbies, long-term Linux customers are used to compatibility points. Battle-scarred veteran penguin-wrestlers know that you simply are typically higher off with older package – and to avoid Nvidia. We checked out getting Linux on a Lenovo ThinkPad X13S in late 2023, and with some points – like no digicam – it did work. The observant will be aware, although, that there was a protracted hole between once we first looked at the machine in March and once we bought Ubuntu put in – in September.
The X13S used a Snapdragon 8CX Gen 3. A later mannequin, the ThinkPad T14S Gen 6, makes use of the identical Snapdragon that Tuxedo hoped to promote. It reportedly works, and Lenovo even affords some documentation [PDF] – however the ThinkPad is a $1,721 (or £1,165) gadget. The Medion would not appear to be on sale within the US, however within the UK, it is somewhere within the region of half the worth.
As we’ve got mentioned before, many distributors of pre-installed Linux laptops resell current Linux-compatible fashions from authentic tools producers comparable to Taiwanese builder Clevo. This can be a widespread observe, and Clevo has been round for a very long time – the then-youthful Reg mentioned the company in 1999.
There are some large variations right here that many within the business do not like to debate. Even amongst Lenovo’s personal choices, the hole between, say, the premium ThinkPad and price range shopper IdeaPad ranges is substantial. The Reg FOSS desk owns quite extra aged ThinkPads than is strictly needed, and exchanging, say, a Danish keyboard for a UK one in a W520 is a straightforward five-minute job. Final yr, we repaired and upgraded an older IdeaPad 510 for a buddy’s son, and it was an expertise we aren’t eager to repeat – for instance, becoming a brand new keyboard meant both snapping off and re-melting plastic clips, or changing the whole prime cowl of the machine, trackpad and all. There’s additionally an enormous distinction between shopping for a pre-installed machine, the place you may moderately anticipate the whole lot to work nicely, and placing your personal OS onto a machine, the place the odd glitch is perhaps completely acceptable.
We reviewed one Tuxedo machine, the Stellaris AMD Gen 4. It wasn’t with out peculiarities – the two.2 kg (5 lb), 2 cm (practically 1 inch) thick machine had simply 4 USB ports and a slimline fold-up Ethernet connector – however the really feel of its mechanical keyboard was very good. Every little thing labored, even setting the colour of the underlit keyboard. We sympathize with the corporate if it wasn’t capable of ship that stage of integration with Arm-based {hardware}, and respect the choice to not ship it.
Tuxedo has contributed its customized devicetree and different patches to the upstream kernel. What this implies is that quickly, it is possible for you to to purchase an affordable Medion SPRCHRGD Snapdragon mannequin laptop computer and put Linux (or come to that, OpenBSD) on it your self with the cheap expectation that almost all issues will work pretty nicely. We advise dual-booting with Home windows so you continue to can improve the firmware – however then, we always do.
A fair cheaper route is to purchase an Arm-based Chromebook – varied distributors supply these, including Lenovo. As we reported in July, Google plans to merge ChromeOS with Android, and there shall be next-gen Snapdragon models. Because of a Google job ad on LinkedIn (archived here ought to it disappear), it appears like this shall be known as Aluminium OS, or ALOS for brief. ®
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