Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is coming soon, but it also brings a significant increase in hardware requirements, especially when it comes to memory.
According to official information, the new Ubuntu requires at least 6 GB of RAM, a processor of at least 2 GHz with two cores and at least 25 GB of disk space. It represents a serious leap compared to earlier versions.
Ubuntu 26.04 raises the requirement to 6 GB of RAM
Although installation is possible with less memory, the operating experience will not be optimal. The reason for the increase in requirements lies in modern software and an improved graphical environment, primarily the new version of the GNOME desktop, which goes from version 46 to 50.
Along with that comes the latest versions of applications such as Firefox, LibreOffice, Thunderbird and GIMP, which further increase resource consumption.
For the sake of comparison, Windows 11 officially requires a minimum of 4 GB of RAM, but below that limit installation is not even possible, while in practice such a configuration can hardly provide a usable experience.
It is interesting that experts call this move a “real increase in requirements”, because Ubuntu does not actually become drastically more demanding, but the minimum requirements are adjusted to the real needs of modern use.
Historically, Ubuntu 18.04 from 2018 required a minimum of 4GB of RAM, while Ubuntu 14.04 could run with as little as 1GB, which seems almost unbelievable today.
This trend clearly shows that Linux distributions are also following the growth of modern software requirements, so “light Linux” is increasingly becoming a thing of the past when it comes to the desktop experience.