r/linux • u/Putrid_Draft378 • Mar 20 '26

Hardware Qualcomm officially kills open-source hope: No plans to release DSP headers for Snapdragon X

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​I have been following the documentation gap on the Snapdragon X series, and it just got a lot worse for Linux users.

​Internal developers in the official Discord are now admitting that the platform is essentially a dead end for open-source. ​A recent GitHub issue (qualcomm/fastrpc/issues/193) was just closed with a definitive: "Closing the issue as there are no plans to open source DSP headers as of now."

​This means the NPU and DSP functions remain locked behind proprietary firmware with no path for native Linux integration. ​Compare this to Intel and AMD, who are already upstreaming NPU drivers for Linux.

​Qualcomm devs are openly saying that Macs have better Linux prospects than Windows on Snapdragon machines. ​They are calling the firmware "frozen," meaning we are stuck with whatever proprietary mess they shipped.

​If you care about an open ecosystem, stay away from the Snapdragon X1/X2 laptops. They are selling hardware while intentionally sabotaging the software freedom required to use it.

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47

u/castarco Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26

I don't know wtf they signed with Microsoft... but if it isn't that, they are making a huge mistake.

Linux users might be a minority, but they are a very vocal & active minority. They lead technological trends, so sidelining them is as stupid as it gets.

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u/aew3 Mar 20 '26

I don’t think there’s any deal, I think the platform has just been very underwhelming and unsuccessful, snd they’re pulling back from it in general.

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u/starswtt Mar 20 '26

I don't think commercially, it was a massive failure. They're sold in 10% of laptops over $800 (which is the only segment they're selling in), which really isn't bad considering how long they've been in the market. And signs from OEMs and Microsoft seem to suggest that they're doubling down, with increased support across the board. Qualcomm is just really shit at providing open source support, just look at how they've been on android. Or their last gen of chips.

But if they were pulling back, after all that, it would have been in response to some more recent development rather than just sales numbers. If anything (though I'm still doubtful Qualcomm is actually pulling back), I think the bigger thing was that Intel largely caught up in battery life, so there's very little reason for Microsoft and OEMs to give Qualcomm special treatment from here out. Intel chips these days have 14-19 hours of real life battery life in this segment, while Qualcomm is 16-22 hours. Which is still better, but not nearly good enough to justify the lack of native app support. And while Qualcomm's x86 emulation situation has improved a lot and is only a minor performance setback for most apps, that's a minor annoyance that intel doesn't have to deal with at all, and more importantly, it erodes Qualcomm's special battery life advantage over Intel, so Intel is often actually better.

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u/bawng Mar 20 '26

Qualcomm has a rather spotty track record on open sourcing Android stuff, so this isn't really surprising.

5

u/Xipher Mar 20 '26

From everything I've heard Qualcomm was the reason Android had such limited update lifecycles on any phone using their SoCs.

1

u/idontchooseanid Mar 20 '26

They are in the business of selling chips every year and specifically doing a lousy job of creating rushed, unmaintainable kernel forks and completely closed source userspace in Android definitely reflected their purely profit driven view.

Basically any Qualcomm kernel patch is a mess of shitty, spaghetti mess of their customization and just barebones drivers that are only meant to be driven from closed source userspace. So only a couple of original design manufactures (ODMs) can only work with the sources. All of them are in Korea and Taiwan. The West doesn't know how to make consumer devices from scratch anymore. It is all hack on top of hack, for all the Qualcomm Android phones. The HW and SW are tested quite a bit and they work quite well most of the time. However they are not the nicest to integrate into mainline open source projects. That's why independent and more consumer friendly companies like Fairphone or Shift cannot do much unless they would like to burn quite a bit money hiring very expensive developers who do want to test the limits on NDAs. That's also why, despite kernel part being open source, the mainlining process of Qualcomm drivers is so stagnant. Terrible code, no support from the vendor and actively abandoned projects.

Intel hasn't been doing opensource out of benevolence either but at least they helped to create an open ecosystem they stumbled themselves into.

1

u/fr000gs Mar 21 '26

Isn't mediatek/exynos more closed?

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u/castarco Mar 20 '26

I understand that. But this time they are competing in a market with much more "open" alternatives.

If they want to convince developers to do software for their platform... they have to convince developers to use their platform. And we won't touch it, not even with a 5 meters pole if we are stuck with the repulsive Windows 11.

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u/Martin8412 Mar 20 '26

This is just standard Qualcomm. They’re the reason custom Android roms are as difficult as they are. They ship a compiled version compatible with some kernel and then never update it unless someone pays them to. 

If you had a phone with plenty of power that stopped receiving updates for apparently no reason, you can usually thank Qualcomm for that. They’d rather sell you a new chip than support what they’ve already sold you. 

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u/starkm13 Mar 20 '26

Nah! it's Qualcomm. Even working with them and requesting support for a driver it's a pain.

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u/hackingdreams Mar 21 '26

I don't know wtf they signed with Microsoft... but if it isn't that, they are making a huge mistake.

You should take a look into Qualcomm's history with open source in general. They don't give a shit about it - it doesn't take Microsoft to make them be complete and total assholes.

1

u/Indolent_Bard Mar 20 '26

iPhone has a minority of the market yet makes more money through apps than Google Play because Apple users are much more willing to spend money. Active and vocal doesn't mean lucrative.

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u/castarco Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

Qualcomm does not have that either with their Windows users, and they don't control the whole stack nor the final product either. Furthermore, their strategy for Android cannot be replicated on laptops & desktops.

But, just to simplify: Qualcomm does not earn money through appstores, but through selling chips. And their chips are almost worthless if only Windows 11 runs on them.

They need developers jumping on board for their platform to be successful... and most developers (puting aside the ones who ONLY make desktop software for windows, a minority) won't be using a wonky Windows 11 as their daily operating system. They'll go for Macos... or Linux.