German Linux vendor Tuxedo Computers has discontinued its planned Arm-based laptop using the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC after 18 months of development. The decision stems from unresolved technical issues with Linux compatibility. The company will submit its support code upstream for community use.
Tuxedo Computers announced the cancellation of its Arm Linux laptop project, which was based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite System-on-Chip. The effort lasted a year and a half, with initial plans revealed in June 2024 stating that TUXEDO on ARM was coming, followed by an update in March 2025. The Snapdragon X Elite was released in October 2023 and highlighted as a target platform at the Ubuntu Summit in November 2023.
Key challenges included failure to achieve long battery runtimes under Linux, a strong selling point for Arm devices. Other issues were the absence of a viable method for BIOS updates, lack of fan control, no foreseeable KVM virtualization support, unattainable high USB4 transfer rates, and limited application support for video hardware decoding despite technical feasibility.
The SoC, now two years old, faces obsolescence with Qualcomm's announcement of the Snapdragon X2 Elite in September 2025. Arm hardware's limited firmware intercompatibility compared to x86 requires restarting development for new SoCs, complicating efforts. Tuxedo acknowledged assistance from Linux-on-Arm specialists Linaro but noted broader industry hurdles, such as those seen in Apple's M3 support by the Asahi Linux team.
The targeted model was the Medion SPRCHRGD 14, an OEM device priced around half of comparable Lenovo ThinkPad T14S Gen 6 models, which cost $1,721 or £1,165 and offer some Linux documentation. In a positive step, Tuxedo plans to contribute its custom devicetree and patches to the upstream kernel, enabling users to install Linux on the Medion laptop with reasonable functionality, potentially dual-booting with Windows for firmware updates.