Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Raises Recommended RAM Requirements to 6 GB
Canonical has quietly bumped the recommended system memory for the upcoming Ubuntu 26.04 LTS "Resolute Raccoon" to 6 GB of RAM — a nudge that will matter for people still running older hardware (and yes, that includes some trusty laptops).
The release notes now list 6 GB as the baseline for comfortable PC use. CPU expectations (dual-core at 2 GHz) and free disk (25 GB) are unchanged from previous LTSes; think of those as the same old floor, but the memory ceiling has moved up.
That 6 GB figure is 50% higher than the 4 GB recommended back in Ubuntu 18.04, and it’s a long way from the days when a system could get by with 1 GB. Numbers don’t lie, but they do tell a story about what people actually run today.
It isn’t that the kernel suddenly got bloated — rather, the software people use has. GNOME has gained features, modern web browsers (e.g., Firefox) chew more memory, and everyday suites like LibreOffice add to multitasking loads. Put several of these things together and RAM becomes the bottleneck.
NB: 6 GB is not a hard limit — you can still install 26.04 on machines with less RAM, but expect degraded responsiveness. Early tests show the OS can boot and operate on 2 GB systems, albeit with noticeable slowdowns. The 25 GB free-space requirement for the desktop remains mandatory.
Because 26.04 is the next LTS, there are still paths for low-spec setups: official lighter spins (Lubuntu), community options like Linux Lite, or a manual minimal install that keeps the footprint small. On servers, Ubuntu Server can often run with ~1–1.5 GB RAM, depending on workload and configuration (i.e., what you actually plan to run).
Development continues, with the official release slated for April 23.