Tuxedo Computers Cancels Attempt to Manufacture an ARM-powered Linux Laptop
https://itsfoss.com/news/tuxedo-computers-shelves-arm-notebook/
Yeah, the news is over a month old, but still interesting. They tried for 18 months before deciding it would never work out.
The notebook was built around Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite (X1E) SoC. TUXEDO faced numerous technical roadblocks that prevented a viable Linux experience. KVM virtualization support was missing entirely on their model. This eliminated a critical feature for developers and power users who rely on virtual machines.
USB4 ports failed to deliver the high transfer rates expected from the specification. Fan control through standard Linux interfaces proved impossible to implement. BIOS updates under Linux presented another problem.
Battery life fell far short of expectations. The long runtimes ARM devices typically achieve under Windows never materialized on Linux. Video hardware decoding exists at the chip level. However, most Linux applications lack support to utilize it, making the feature essentially useless.
Etc. Hey, maybe we should be praising MicroSoft for being able bring one to market? Sounds like it’s a much more difficult task than anyone thought. Or maybe it’s just that much easier with Windows compared to Linux.
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It’s not like Linux (-derivatives) on ARM haven’t been done. Android and ChromeOS for major examples. Others:
System76, the Pop!_OS Linux developers, also make the most powerful commercially available desktop using AMD’s Amphere ARM chip and Ubuntu Linux.
Asahi Linux works on M1 Apple Silicon, with various degrees of support for newer chips.
And Valve has SteamOS (Arch Linux) coming for the Frame Headset using Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Their FEX translation layer is like Proton for ARM and looks promising for future Linux on ARM implementations.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite (X1E) SoC maybe just isn’t a good choice for Linux.