Earlier this afternoon Microsoft announced the new Surface Laptop 13-Inch and the new Surface Pro 12-Inch, both of which are running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Plus chipset. Both also run on Windows 11. But before the Snapdragon X2 Plus, there was the Snapdragon X2 Elite, which now supports Linux, and is being certified for Ubuntu.
Qualcomm made the announcement official this afternoon during its 2026 Snapdragon Summit, where it also announced its two new flagship mobile chips. The Snapdragon X2 Elite was announced at Snapdragon Summit 2025, but since the chip’s release it has only support Windows 11. Now Qualcomm is ensuring wider adoption of the chip by enabling the use of Linux and the specific Ubuntu Linux distro. Qualcomm says that certification is aimed for the first half of 2027, which means it’s likely to be that long before any actual hardware pops that comes with Linux and the Snapdragon X2 Elite out of the box.
ASUS is the first partner for bringing Ubuntu to laptops powered by the Snapdragon X2 Elite
There aren’t a lot of specifics available yet, but ASUS officially spoke at Snapdragon Summit, stating that it was “excited to Ubuntu to our devices powered by Snapdragon X2 Series in the first half of 2027.” That’s the other key detail, is that customers won’t be able to expect any devices on this chip with Ubuntu for at least a few months.
ASUS doesn’t specifically mention any laptop models that will be coming with Ubuntu, just that some of its hardware will be coming in the first half of the year. However, ASUS does offer a variety of Snapdragon X series-powered laptops, so it’s possible that it could be working on Ubuntu releases of those models, or completely new models. It’s also reported that Snapdragon will have Linux support with Debian at the end of 2026, but no exact timeline has been given at this point in time.
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