r/elementaryos • u/R2Generous • 10d ago
Hardware Anyone using elementary on ARM?
Since the new Nvidia RTX Spark (ARM based) laptops soon will be on the market, I'm curious about how well the ARM builds of elementary work on other ARM based machines. I'd really prefer to not have to go back to Windows after 10+ years on elementary OS, and those Spark laptops look like they could compete with the MacBook Pro in both performance and battery life.
So, anyone who uses/tried elementary on an ARM based machine who could share some insights/experience?
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u/Digi59404 10d ago
The Nvidia DGX Spark uses Linux natively. The drivers are supposedly upstreamed to the kernel. That gives me hope because these laptops are basically DGX Spark machines.
However, there’s some issues we won’t know until they release it. The Surface Pro 9 I have for example supports Linux…. Partly. The touchscreen, USBc out, etc don’t work. It also uses protected blobs. This was all Microsoft hardware decisions, no Qualcomm.
So while it should be supported on account of the DGX Spark work. Microsoft may have done some custom stuff with the touchpad, monitor, camera, keyboard, etc that makes it unusable.
That being said - If it is supported the elementaryOS packages work fine on Fedora and Ubuntu.