Qualcomm promises its first Linux laptops will be ready in 2027

This was one of those “just one thing” surprise announcements: “For many years, developers have asked us for one thing: Linux on Snapdragon,” said Qualcomm General Manager, Compute and Gaming, Kedar Kondap, at this year’s Snapdragon Summit 2026. “We heard you.”

Beginning with the Snapdragon X2 series, he added, “Linux is officially supported on Snapdragon. Linux support with Debian will be available at the end of this year.”

One of the first products will be the Humain Horizon Ultra AI PC, which we covered last year. “That PC delivers a brand new agentic OS that showcases what’s possible on the Snapdragon X2 when it is paired with innovative software that’s built on top of Linux,” said Kondap. “This will be available in the first half of 2027.”

While Qualcomm committed to support on X2 silicon, it hasn’t yet committed to the first generation of silicon. “We’re just saying we’re prioritising X2 because when we talk about Linux, or any support for that matter, it just means we’re going to test everything out on our side,” said Kondap in a separate briefing.

“We’re going to test the operating system, the distribution. We’re going to optimise for power, performance, just everything on the platform, and so we’re just being prioritising which ones we’re starting with first.”

First Debian on Qualcomm, next Ubuntu

If Qualcomm is to make a dent in the world of Linux PCs, it has to support Canonical. According to Cindy Goldberg, in a pre-recorded video during the keynote, it soon will.

“[The Ubuntu] community has been very eager to build on Snapdragon, so today I’m proud to share that the Snapdragon X2 series platforms will be certified to run Ubuntu, and we’re targeting certification in the first half of next year,” she said. “And that means the platforms will be rigorously validated for performance and stability to deliver the best Ubuntu experience out of the box.”

Kedar confirmed that OEM partners such as Dell and HP will be producing Qualcomm-powered devices with Linux distros, including an XPS laptop. But it looks like Asus will be the first.

“Asus is bringing Ubuntu to their Snapdragon X2 series devices, starting in the first half of next year, with two of their most beautiful designs in the industry, the ZenBook A14 and the ZenBook A16,” he said. “I can’t wait to see all the developers and enthusiasts bring this foundation to life.”

Kedar Kondap comments on Linux development

On Thursday 25 September, I had the chance to ask Kedar Kondap about the Linux development. In particular, if the time taken to support Linux was due to significant development hurdles?

“The way I categorise it is that it’s not hurdles,” he answered, during a round table with several other journalists. “It’s just been very surgical in how we’re approaching the launch of our Snapdragon PCs, right?”

He said that Qualcomm’s strategy was to launch the X Elite with Windows, then to follow up with the X Plus family of processors. “Then we launched the X. Then we expanded to launch our second generation with the Elite and the Plus. Then we access the full [market] with the Snapdragon C.”

Only with these landmarks complete did Qualcomm start “expanding to other form factor devices, and then expanded into other OSes with Googlebooks and Linux.”

Even now, regarding Linux, Qualcomm isn’t trying to support every distro, he added. “So we started [with] Debian. We’re talking about Ubuntu with Canonical.” And, he added, they’re starting with the X2 generation of processors, with the possibility of support for the first generation – but no guarantees.

Article updated on 25 September 2026 with more detailed comments from Kedar Kondap.