Canonical Aims to Make ARM64 a First-Class Ubuntu Architecture

Canonical has shared an update on the state of the ARM64 architecture in Ubuntu Linux. The statement came from Ravi Kant Sharma, engineering manager of the Ubuntu Foundations team.

According to him, Canonical's goal is to make ARM64 “a truly first-class architecture” within the distribution. The idea is for ARM64 support to match the level of maturity traditionally associated with x86_64.

Interest in ARM64 across the Linux ecosystem has been growing steadily in recent years — driven both by the spread of ARM-based server processors and by the popularity of devices on this architecture in the consumer and enterprise segments. For distributions like Ubuntu, this means having to pay more attention to testing, package building and overall stability on ARM platforms.

Canonical has long offered Ubuntu images for ARM64, yet full parity for the architecture — in terms of development priorities, the pace of updates and package base coverage — has historically remained a topic of discussion in the community. The statement from the Ubuntu Foundations representative indicates that the company views the further development of ARM64 support as one of its priorities.

The announcement does not provide details on specific technical steps or timelines for carrying out these plans.

Source: Phoronix