Ubuntu 25.10 Continues Preparing For RISC-V RVA23 Baseline Requirement

This is all about RISC-V servers for now. Those are arriving soon (later this year). Both Vector extensions and virtualization are essential features. This is where Ubuntu is planting their flag.

RVA23 will be a great foundation for the desktop too but that is not going to happen until the end of 2026 or even 2027. Any then though, RISC-V boards may actually be powerful enough to compete. At that point, Ubuntu will be ready with a mature ecosystem.

It all makes sense but I feel it purposely leaves us desktop or SoC users behind.

2 comments

It makes sense (RVA23 is probably the first profile that is actually competitive for desktop use), but also is there a single real RVA23 chip available yet? Might be a little premature...
This is all about RISC-V servers for now. Those are arriving soon (later this year). Both Vector extensions and virtualization are essential features. This is where Ubuntu is planting their flag.
RVA23 will be a great foundation for the desktop too but that is not going to happen until the end of 2026 or even 2027. Any then though, RISC-V boards may actually be powerful enough to compete. At that point, Ubuntu will be ready with a mature ecosystem.
It all makes sense but I feel it purposely leaves us desktop or SoC users behind.