How Much Space Does Ubuntu Require?

Ubuntu is one of the widely used Linux distributions as it is properly being managed by Canonical. Canonical releases a new version of Ubuntu every six months and each update of Ubuntu comes with new features and improvements. And every update needs some space from your hard drive. So, it is better to have a rough estimate of how much space Ubuntu requires with its all-upcoming updates.

We often have three categories:

• Requirement to install Ubuntu Desktop on system
• Requirement to install Virtualized Ubuntu Desktop
• Requirement to install Ubuntu Server

How Much Space Does Ubuntu Desktop Require

According to Canonical Ltd, and Ubuntu official guidelines, following are the requirements one should follow before getting Ubuntu desktop on your system. Before going through the recommended requirements, keep in mind that the latest machines that have capacity to run Windows Vista, Windows 7, and XP can easily have faster Ubuntu even with less specifications:

• 2GHz dual core processor (minimum)
• 4GB System Memory (RAM)
• 25GB free hard drive space (8.6 GB for minimal & other for external drive but check LiveCD before getting alternative way)

In addition, 2Ghz is necessary for base installation, however if you plan to run all additional packages, then it would increase the minimum space requirement.

How Much Space Does Virtualized Ubuntu Desktop Require

Many users use Ubuntu in the virtualization environment through DropBox or VMWare. Therefore, the requirement would be different in that case:

Let’s look at the recommended requirements a user might need before having a virtualized Ubuntu desktop:

• 2 GHz single core processor
• 2 GB system memory (RAM)
• 10 GB hard drive space

How Much Space Does Ubuntu Server Require

There’s a big difference between Ubuntu Server Version and Ubuntu Desktop Version; Ubuntu Server doesn’t support graphical user interface (GUI). As there is no use of GUI and its dependencies and every instruction is done by command line, so it requires less system requirements.

According to Canonical guide, following are the recommendations:

• CPU – 1Ghz
• System Memory (RAM) – 512 MB
• Hard Drive – 2.5 GB

Moreover, if you are having old systems with less capacity storage, light-weighted desktops are also offered like Xbuntu, Lubuntu through which you can work efficiently. However, these desktops can also be used on new devices.

Conclusion

Ubuntu is one of the famous distributions, having several running applications free of cost.

In this write-up, we have mentioned how much minimum space is required to install Ubuntu on a system. We have multiple categories in this field like what we are going to install. Either a simple Ubuntu desktop, a virtualized Ubuntu desktop or Ubuntu server.