Hardware support remains one of Linux’s biggest problems, and it may never change

I love Linux. I know many of our readers do too, and there are good reasons for that. Between a generally snappier experience, fewer intrusive “features,” easy setup, and extensive customization options, there’s a lot to like about Linux that makes it hard to go back to Windows.

But every now and then, when I have to test something Linux related and reinstall it, I remember one of its biggest problems: hardware support, especially for the latest platforms. If you have a relatively new computer, switching to Linux can be particularly annoying because some essential features may not work, or the operating system may simply not work at all. It’s like the opposite Windows problem, where old hardware was abandoned before its time; With Linux, the problem is often being at the cutting edge of technology.

When things don’t work out

Hours of troubleshooting for no reason

In my past experiences with Linux, I’ve had more than my fair share of hardware issues. It all started with one of my very first experiences installing Linux Mint. When I first installed Mint, I was using a Dynabook laptop with a 12th generation Intel Core processor. Mind you, it was 2025 and these processors were already several years old.

Despite this, Linux Mint shipped a fairly old version of the Linux kernel, which did not include support for the Wi-Fi driver required for many of these laptop processors. I had to connect the laptop via Ethernet and then install an optional kernel update to get things back on track.

I also remember having issues with a lack of audio output, although it’s been a while and I don’t remember all the details. But I know this has happened with more than one computer and distribution, and it was very frustrating. Fortunately, I haven’t had any such problems in a while.

But with new enough hardware, problems can arise even if you’re on the cutting edge of technology. I recently switched to Linux on another laptop which also happens to be one of my favorites. It has Intel Lunar Lake processors, so performance and battery life are excellent. And I loved almost everything about this experience. The problem is waking up from sleep. Occasionally, if I put the laptop to sleep, when I pick it up a few hours later, there will be a few minutes where all the CPU cores are stuck at 400 MHz, rendering the laptop almost unusable until the problem is resolved, which can take up to a minute. I had hoped that Linux kernel version 7.0 would improve this, but so far that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Interestingly, a similar issue was reported with the Lunar Lake-powered Dell XPS 14, as mentioned on this Arch Wiki page. However, this laptop’s problem seemed to be resolved with Linux version 6.18. No luck for my Asus model.

Sometimes you just won’t be able to install it

In extreme cases

There are some situations where you may not be able to install an operating system at all due to hardware support. Again, this may depend on the distro you’re trying to work with, as hardware support is usually tied to kernel versions. This has been particularly difficult in recent years as laptop processors have undergone major changes in their architecture.

A while ago I had to try to install SteamOS on a mini computer, but SteamOS just wouldn’t install on my Intel machines. And even when I tried one of AMD’s Ryzen AI processors, it still didn’t work. These processors were a big step forward for AMD laptops with many changes, maybe that’s why.

Shortly after, I tried a similar experiment with Bazzite, and while it worked with my AMD Ryzen AI machine, it still didn’t work with an Intel Arrow Lake processor. And I faced a similar problem a few months ago when I was testing Tails OS, which ships with a fairly old version of the Linux kernel. This presented compatibility issues with some even older machines where it simply wouldn’t boot.

Again, this may be due to the fragmentation of Linux and the distro you are installing. If you install a distribution that has been recently updated or receives frequent updates like Fedora or Arch Linux, you are more likely to have something that at least boots. But it’s not perfect.

However, emerging architectures will always have problems. I wanted to upgrade my Snapdragon-powered Honor laptop to Linux, but no distribution supports this specific hardware. Even those that offer Arm versions don’t work because the hardware support is more complex than that.

We can’t fix it

It all depends on the companies

This situation is one of the biggest problems for Linux adoption, and the real problem is that it might never really change. One thing people tend to like about Linux is how it supports a lot of older hardware that Windows may have abandoned, or performance may be better on that hardware. But the reason this type of support is possible is because this material is in the hands of many people willing to contribute to the project and, aside from time, it doesn’t cost them very much.

However, with the new hardware, there won’t be many people willing to spend over $1,000 on a device just to install Linux on it and then test and develop things to help it work. It takes time for these devices to get into the hands of people who can improve Linux. As a result, anyone trying to upgrade to one of these devices may have more trouble.

The only ones that might change are the companies that make these devices and their components. If they contributed more directly to driver development in Linux before product release like they do for Windows, things could be significantly improved, but that’s unlikely to happen because the financial incentive to improve Linux isn’t really there for most of these companies. Even those that support Linux tend to take a little longer to provide adequate drivers.

There are of course positive signs on this subject. Some companies primarily sell Linux hardware, including System76 and Framework. Perhaps the most notable example is Valve, which sells the Steam Deck and, at one point, the Steam Machine. However, Valve also operates with somewhat limited hardware scope. These are just two devices with few configuration options, and both are based on AMD processors, so you may not see much work done for Intel-based devices. And even System76 and Framework are relatively small companies that typically don’t launch as soon as new processors become available, so their impact isn’t as big as it could be.

Companies like Intel and AMD, as well as industry-leading PC makers, are the ones that need to support Linux with appropriate drivers that can improve the experience on the new hardware as soon as it is released. But that seems unlikely to happen any time soon.

Linux is still better on slightly older hardware

As much as I like to recommend Linux, it should always come with a healthy dose of caution when dealing with newer hardware. Linux continues to be a great option for more mature hardware that has had time to receive appropriate driver updates. And in those cases, it can definitely be better than Windows in many ways. But when it comes to new computers, it’s going to be an uphill battle, and most users probably won’t want to face it just to use their devices.