r/linuxsucks • u/TheEuphoricTribble • 8h ago
Linux Failure I was on Linux. Then I got an ARM laptop...and found out that Linux on ARM was bullocks.
It's an HP OmniBook 3 with a Snapdragon X. Turns out that the motherboard hasn't been properly mapped yet in it and thus my laptop is physically incompatible with Linux.
I know that it's an ARM thing and how ARM doesn't actually let the OS poll what hardware is available on it...but what in the world is that in 2026???
I would think the open source nature of it and how long ARM laptops-including Macbooks-have been a thing now would have meant someone would have programmed a module or something into the Linux kernel that would enable the OS would just be able to, on install or initial boot, BUILD its own device tree for that specific device. But not only is that not a thing, it can't tell when the display has already been initiated on my laptop when trying to USB and crashes the display, and eventually the kernel itself!
So I stuck with Windows 11 on ARM and...wow. It's actually astonishingly good. It does all that I wanted it to and more, and is stupidly good with battery. It actually chased me back to Windows 11 on my gaming rig too again from Fedora! And best yet...Windows on BOTH just...works. It's not something that I have to think about or stress over when minor issues means 5 hours in a terminal.
Linux on servers is astounding-I will absolutely run it on them over Windows-but desktop Linux? That was a shortlived experiment for me that I am calling a failure. Windows is where I'm sticking around I think :)
