Discontinuation of ARM Notebook with Snapdragon X Elite SoC

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall Reaction to Discontinuation

  • Many are disappointed but unsurprised: given Qualcomm’s history and ARM-on-PC struggles, people expected this to fizzle.
  • Some note Tuxedo did the right thing if they couldn’t deliver a good end‑user experience; better to cancel than ship a half-broken Linux laptop.
  • Several had been excited by earlier promises of equal Linux/Windows effort on Snapdragon X, and feel that promise never materialized.

Qualcomm, Documentation, and Openness

  • Strong criticism of Qualcomm’s secrecy: hardware docs are hard to get even for partners, let alone the community.
  • Some argue you can’t credibly claim “equal effort” for Linux without full hardware documentation (even under NDA); others point out they also don’t publish that for Windows, yet Windows still works via tailored drivers.
  • View that Qualcomm could have become “the Intel of ARM PCs” but seems more comfortable with closed, phone-style ecosystems and exclusive deals with Microsoft.
  • Contrast with Apple: even less documentation, but fewer devices and a big, motivated reverse‑engineering community (Asahi) make Linux support viable there.

x86 vs ARM for Linux Laptops

  • Several say Intel’s Lunar Lake (and upcoming Panther Lake) largely wipes out the Snapdragon X Elite’s appeal for Linux users: similar perf/W, full mainline support, no emulation, and good battery on well-supported models (ThinkPads, XPS, LG Gram, etc.).
  • Observation that improving x86 mobile efficiency reduces ARM’s main desktop advantage; switching architectures is a big software and ecosystem cost for small gains.

Battery Life and Power Management on Linux

  • Experiences range from “terrible” to “better than Windows,” heavily dependent on hardware, firmware, and drivers.
  • Root causes discussed:
    • Broken or vendor‑tuned ACPI tables that assume Windows drivers will “fix” things.
    • Modern Standby / S0ix and device‑level suspend where one misbehaving device can ruin idle power.
    • Poor or missing drivers for proprietary sensors, PMICs, dGPUs, and custom ASICs.
    • Polling-heavy desktops and background services keeping CPUs out of deep sleep.
  • Tools like powertop help some, but others report breakage or negligible improvement.
  • Consensus: with careful tuning and “Linux-friendly” hardware, you can get excellent battery life, but it’s fragile and not turnkey.

ARM for Development, Cross-Compilation, and Use Cases

  • A few use ARM laptops to build/debug for ARM servers; they find native ARM CI and local debugging much easier than wrestling with cross-compilation and qemu emulation.
  • Others argue well‑designed pipelines plus emulation are enough, and that the added platform pain isn’t justified unless ARM becomes broadly viable on the desktop.

Vertical Integration and Ecosystem Power

  • Comparisons to Apple: tight co‑design of hardware and OS leads to smooth performance, battery life, and power management; PC OEMs can’t match that without similar control plus a strong software ecosystem.
  • Some suggest that for Linux, boot/driver support is the true bottleneck; the userspace stack is already highly portable across architectures.
  • View that no one besides Apple has the combination of hardware control and developer leverage to “force” mass migration to a new architecture; Microsoft is constrained by legacy, Google by Android fragmentation.

Alternatives: Mediatek, Chromebooks, RISC‑V

  • Suggestions to target Mediatek SoCs instead; they already power Chromebooks with decent Linux support.
  • Chromebooks are framed by some as de‑facto “Android laptops” as ChromeOS and Android components converge, though others insist a full merger keeps being promised and delayed.
  • A minority argues ARM itself is a licensing “monopoly” and distraction; long‑term, RISC‑V is seen as more promising, though proprietary extensions there are also a concern.

Linux Desktop Market and Vendor Incentives

  • Debate over Linux’s growing but still small desktop share (around mid-single digits), and whether it’s nearing a tipping point where vendors must take it seriously.
  • Some argue the real power is in consumer behavior: return laptops that don’t work with Linux, and buy from vendors with good Linux firmware paths; that’s the only way to shift OEM priorities.

Firmware, BIOS Updates, and LVFS

  • Firmware updates are another pain point: many laptops still ship Windows-only BIOS updaters.
  • Others report good experiences with LVFS/fwupd, especially on major vendors’ “Linux-certified” or business lines, where UEFI, dbx, and dock firmware all update smoothly.

Why Linux-on-Snapdragon Struggled Here

  • Multiple comments infer that usual ARM advantages (standby, battery, thermals) simply weren’t achieved under Linux on Snapdragon X, in contrast to Windows.
  • Speculation that Qualcomm’s Android-style device-tree approach and out‑of‑tree kernels don’t scale to general-purpose laptops where mainline support and long-term maintenance are expected.
  • Tuxedo’s note about possibly revisiting X2E later is seen as sensible, but many are skeptical that Qualcomm’s culture or documentation practices will change enough to make it easy.