Ubuntu Raises CPU And RAM Requirements Above Windows 11 Amid Linux’s Steam Surge
Canonical has posted a new set of system requirements for the release of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, otherwise known as Resolute Raccoon, and they are now higher than what Microsoft recommends for Windows 11. Notably, the new requirements arrive amid another surge in Linux usage on Steam, with the latest Steam survey revealing an all-time high metric for Linux.
According to the release notes for Ubuntu 26.04, the desktop build requires a 2GHz dual-core processor or better, at least 6GB of RAM, and 25GB of free hard drive space. The requirements for Ubuntu Server 26.04 LTS are a bit tamer, checking in at 1.5GB of RAM and 4GB of storage, though they scale with your use case.
To put it into perspective, the system requirements for Windows 11 call for a 1GHz processor with two or more cores, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. There are other requirements, of course, but those are the key hardware metrics for both platforms.
The good news is, Ubuntu's updated specs are still relatively lightweight. And if comparing to Windows, Microsoft's TPM 2.0 requirement likely leaves out more PCs than Ubuntu's updated specs.
There are also additional requirements for the Copilot+ designation that rise above Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. Microsoft dictates that Copilot+ PCs must feature a chip with an onboard NPU capable of at least 40 TOPS, which can be a Ryzen AI 400 or 300 series CPU, Core Ultra 300V or 200V series CPU, or Snapdragon X series SoC.
In addition, Copilot+ PCs require 16GB of DDR5 or LPDDR5 memory and 256GB of SSD or UFS storage.
Regarding Ubuntu, the requirement changes are mostly academic, save for owners of much older PCs. You might also get away with running Ubuntu 26.04 LTS on a system that falls short of the new requirements, though obviously your mileage will vary.
Meanwhile, the latest Steam survey highlights a rise in Linux usage, which jumped over 3% last month to 5.33%. That pales in comparison to Windows, which dropped down to 92.33%, but it represents and all-time high for Linux on the world's most popular digital distribution platform for PC gaming.
The caveat there is that Valve's monthly Steam surveys are not all-inclusive, and so they don't paint a complete picture. They're also prone to misleading swings depending on which systems are participating and various trends that can skew the results. Even so, it's one of the best snapshots available of the PC gaming landscape.
