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

But every now and then, when I have to test something related to Linux and reinstall it, I'm reminded of one of its biggest problems: hardware support, specifically for the latest platforms. If you have a relatively new computer, switching to Linux can be especially annoying because some core things may not work, or the operating system may just not work at all. It's like the opposite problem of Windows, where old hardware has been abandoned before its time; with Linux, being on the bleeding edge is often the problem.

When things don't work

Hours of troubleshooting for no reason

In my past experiments 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, this was in 2025, and these processors were already multiple years old.

Despite that, Linux Mint was shipping a fairly old version of the Linux kernel, and that didn't include support for the Wi-Fi driver required for a lot of these laptop processors. I needed 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, though it's been a while and I don't recall all the details. But I do know that it happened with more than one computer and distro, and it was very frustrating. Thankfully, I haven't had such problems in a while.

But with new enough hardware, problems can arise even if you're on the bleeding edge. I recently switched to Linux on another laptop that also happens to be one of my favorites. It has Intel Lunar Lake processors, so the performance and battery life are great. And I loved almost everything about the experience. The problem is waking up from sleep. Every now and then, if I put the laptop to sleep, when I pick it up a few hours later, it will have a few seconds where all the processor cores are stuck at 400MHz , making the laptop nearly unusable until the issue fixes itself, which can take up to a minute. I had hoped maybe the Linux kernel version 7.0 would improve this, but so far, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Interestingly, a similar problem was pointed out with the Lunar Lake-powered Dell XPS 14, as mentioned on this Arch Wiki page. However, that laptop seemed to have its problem fixed with Linux version 6.18. No such luck for my Asus model.

Sometimes you may just not be able to install it

In extreme cases

There are some situations where you might not be able to install an operating system at all because of hardware support. Again, this can depend on the distro you're trying to work with because hardware support is usually tied to kernel versions. It's been especially rough the past couple of years because laptop processors have undergone some major evolutions in regards to their architecture.

A while back I had to try and install SteamOS on a mini computer, but SteamOS simply didn't install on my Intel-based machines. And even when I tried one of AMD's Ryzen AI processors, it still wouldn't work. These processors were a big leap for AMD laptops with a lot of changes, so that might be why.

Not much later, 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 issue a few months ago when I was testing Tails OS, which shipped with a fairly old version of the Linux kernel. That had compatibility issues with some even older machines where it just wouldn't boot.

Again, this can come down to the fragmentation of Linux and the distro you're installing. If you install a distro that's been recently updated or one that gets frequent updates like Fedora or Arch Linux, you're more likely to have something that at least boots. But it's not perfect.

Emerging architectures are always going to have some trouble, though. I wanted to switch my Snapdragon-powered Honor laptop to Linux, but there are no distros that support this specific hardware. Even those that ship Arm versions don't work because hardware support is more complex than that.

We can't fix it

It's all up to companies

This situation is one of the biggest problems for Linux adoption, and the real problem is it might never really change. One thing people tend to love about Linux is how it supports a lot of older hardware that Windows may have dropped, or performance may be better on said hardware. But the reason that kind of support is attainable is because that hardware is in the hands of a lot of people who are willing to contribute to the project and, aside from time, it doesn't come at much of a cost to them.

With new hardware, though, there aren't going to be a lot of people eager to spend over $1,000 on a device just to install Linux on it and then test and develop things to help make it work. It takes time for those devices to make it into the hands of people who can make Linux better. As a result, anyone trying to make the switch on one of these devices is prone to having a harder time.

The only ones who could change things are the companies building these devices and components. If they contributed more directly to driver development on Linux ahead of product releases as they do for Windows, things could be made significantly better, but that's unlikely to happen because the financial incentive to make Linux better isn't really there for most of these companies. Even those that do support Linux tend to take a while longer to provide adequate drivers.

There are some positive signs for this, of course. Some companies do sell Linux hardware first and foremost, including System76 and Framework. Perhaps the most notable example there is Valve, which sells the Steam Deck and, at some point, the Steam Machine. However, Valve also works with a somewhat limited scope of hardware. Those are just two devices with little configuration options, and both are based on AMD processors, so you might not see much work done for Intel-based devices. And even System76 and Framework are relatively small companies that typically don't have launches as soon as new processors become available, so their impact is not as big as it could be.

Companies like Intel and AMD, as well as the PC manufacturers that lead the industry are the ones that need to support Linux with proper drivers that can improve the experience on new hardware as it comes out. But it doesn't seem likely that will happen anytime soon.

Linux is still best on slightly older hardware

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