news
Canonical and Ubuntu RISC-V: a 2025 retro and looking forward to 2026
-
Canonical and Ubuntu RISC-V: a 2025 retro and looking forward to 2026
2025 was the year that RISC-V readiness gave way to RISC-V adoption. It’s been quite a journey. What began years ago as early architectural exploration and enablement has matured into real silicon, systems, and deployments. In particular, RVA23 provides a stable and predictable baseline we can align on with our wider ecosystem of partners.
At Canonical, we’re committed to making RISC-V a viable option for anyone who wishes to adopt it. We’ve taken deliberate steps to align with the ecosystem and our partners as a trusted software partner that makes RISC-V practical, scalable and production-ready.
Our goal is to provide a stable, predictable, production-grade Linux platform that silicon vendors, OEMs, ODMs, and developers can build on with confidence.
Let’s take a look at the efforts we have undertaken to empower that vision.
-
RISC-V Linux will be ready for wide adoption in 2026, says Canonical
RISC-V is the hot new CPU architecture on the block, with the potential to displace x86 and ARM processors in everything from tablets to servers. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, says RISC-V computing will be ready for the masses in 2026.
Ubuntu Linux has made slow but steady progress on a RISC-V port for the past few years. It's available on boards like the StarFive VisionFive 2, AllWinner Nezha, and Pine64 Star64, as well as RISC server systems. Ubuntu also switched the minimum supported RISC-V profile to RVA23, starting with Ubuntu 25.10. That left behind some older systems, but Canonical says it was needed to "avoid ecosystem fragmentation and keep in step with our hardware partners."
Canonical said in a blog post today that RISC-V systems will move "from adoption to scale" during 2026. The main element is Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, due to arrive in two months, which will be the first long-term support release with RISC RVA23. That will give hardware manufacturers a more stable platform for long-term deployments, just like Ubuntu on x86 and ARM systems.
Also: