Meanwhile on my raspberrypi 4 running Ubuntu server:
And my tablet running stock Ubuntu:
this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
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In post PC ownership cyberpunk dystopia well all be running slack
I would be but I misplaced the “a1” disk.
Regardless of the OS, if you're using the computer for anything productive, the application software, not the OS, will eat the majority of the RAM anyway. If you're looking at the minimum requirements, chances are you're not looking to do anything besides browsing the web with 5 tabs open.
It sucks though, I agree - software should get more efficient over time, just like hardware does. Out of curiosity, do we have anything more specific, i.e. how they tested that, what apps were running and so on? Or maybe they now deem that more things should be running?
Which is exactly what Ubuntu is doing. The desktop and even most native desktop applications that come with it will run just fine with 1 or 2GB of ram. If you used it like a 90s computer for 90s computer tasks, it will work fine.
In practice, however, users will open a web browser to some “modern” websites or a couple electron apps and have a very bad experience.
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Assuming around USD $220 for a 16GB kit of DDR5, it now costs $27.50 more to run Ubuntu.
How will this affect Linux Mint, and should I make my move to Linux Mint: Debian Edition?
It doesn't. If you're doing anything in a web browser you're going to need that much RAM for a reasonable experience no matter what DE you're using. Ubuntu are just trying to set more realistic expectations.
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My Tandy Sensation required 256MB and everything worked fine.
Really unfortunate seeing GNOME is part of the problem here. Linux desktop environments shouldn't need to be tied to large RAM requirements, never mind increasing ones, for basic functionality. For example, the Start menu key was introduced by Microsoft in Windows 95, but this toggle still isn't available in most "light" desktop environments like XFCE.
The MacBook Neo, of all things, is chomping at the heels of the idea that pretty, feature-rich OSes need a lot of hardware to function.
I found a lot of flawed measurements which ended up measuring different things. This seems like a fairly respectable measurement even for being a few years old
https://itvision.altervista.org/linux-desktop-environments-system-usage.html
Simple environments like xfce or mate under X11 are around 600 MB. Gnome X 1300MB Gnome Wayland 1400. Seems pretty clear that gnome is a significant factor in the increase on the other hand most machines now come with 8-16
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If you don't like GNOME, Ubuntu officially supports other, less resource-intensive DEs, like Lubuntu, Kubuntu or Xubuntu
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I just checked Woot.com and you can get a refurbished Thinkpad with 16gb of RAM for $230. And there's a scratch and dent Dell netbook with 8gb of RAM for $60.
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