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this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2025
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Without Intel processors, Linux wouldn't have been possible in the first place.
But today we have good processors from many different manufacturers. The Linux community must, and can, stay alive even without the support of one major player.
We don't have that many other processors, though. If you look at the desktop, there is AMD and there is Apple silicon which is restricted to Apple products. And then there is nothing. If Intel goes under ground, AMD might become next Intel. It's time (for EU) to invest heavily into RISC-V, the entire stack.
ARMs are coming. RISCV are coming. Some Chinese brands have been seen, too.
Neither are commonly available in desktop form factors and they usually require custom builds for each board to work.
And for many x86 will remain an important architecture for a long time
ARMs are more oriented towards servers and mobile devices for now. Sure, we saw Apple demonstrating desktop use but not much is there for desktops for now. RISC-V is far away, Chinese CPUs are not competitive. It's coming doesn't help in short term, questionable in mid term. 🤷♂️ Yes, alternatives will come eventually, but it takes a lot of time and resources.
You can get workstations with Ampere Altra CPUs that use an ARM ISA. It's not significant in the market, more of a server CPU put in a desktop for developers, but it provides a starting point, from which you could cut down the core count and try to boost the clocks.
There is also the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus with some laptops on the market from mainstream brands already (Asus Zenbook A14, Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, Dell Inspiron 5441). That conversely could probably scale up to a desktop design fairly quickly.
You're right that we're not there, but I don't think we're that far off either. If Intel keeled over there would be a race to fill the gap and they wouldn't leave the market to AMD alone.
Why did Linux need Intel processors specifically?
The PC was new. There were only Intels in PCs. Linux was made for the PC.
Backstory: Prof. Tanenbaum was teaching operating systems. His example was MINIX (his own academic example). This motivated one student to try to make a new operating system for PCs, doing some things like the professor, and other things quite differently. This student knew the specifics of the Intels and used them good for performance etc.
Sure, but if Intel hadn't made the 8086 and that entire family line was severed, Linux would have just been made for Motorola 68000 series or something. Or one of the Acorn ARM chips that did the rounds at the time.
Oh man, you just unlocked memories of my Mom's 8086 back in the late 80s... her first pc was an Apple but the software... there was more for the Intel. I remember so much disk inserting and printer interface issues and the DOS. We had like boxes and binders of those huge discs...