Select an image
Ubuntu is distributed on two types of images described below.
Desktop image
The desktop image allows you to try Ubuntu without changing your computer at all, and at your option to install it permanently later. This type of image is what most people will want to use. You will need at least 384MiB of RAM to install from this image.
There are two images available, each for a different type of computer:
- 64-bit PC (AMD64) desktop image
- Choose this to take full advantage of computers based on the AMD64 or EM64T architecture (e.g., Athlon64, Opteron, EM64T Xeon, Core 2). If you have a non-64-bit processor made by AMD, or if you need full support for 32-bit code, use the i386 images instead. Choose this if you are at all unsure.
- 32-bit PC (i386) desktop image
- For almost all PCs. This includes most machines with Intel/AMD/etc type processors and almost all computers that run Microsoft Windows, as well as newer Apple Macintosh systems based on Intel processors.
Server install image
The server install image allows you to install Ubuntu permanently on a computer for use as a server. It will not install a graphical user interface.
There are five images available, each for a different type of computer:
- 64-bit PC (AMD64) server install image
- Choose this to take full advantage of computers based on the AMD64 or EM64T architecture (e.g., Athlon64, Opteron, EM64T Xeon, Core 2). If you have a non-64-bit processor made by AMD, or if you need full support for 32-bit code, use the i386 images instead. Choose this if you are at all unsure.
- 32-bit PC (i386) server install image
- For almost all PCs. This includes most machines with Intel/AMD/etc type processors and almost all computers that run Microsoft Windows, as well as newer Apple Macintosh systems based on Intel processors.
- 64-bit ARM (ARMv8/AArch64) server install image
- For 64-bit ARMv8 processors and above.
- PowerPC64 Little-Endian server install image
- For POWER8 Little-Endian computers, such as Power Systems S8xxL/LC Linux-only servers.
- IBM System z server install image
- For IBM System z series mainframes, such as IBM LinuxONE.
Server install image
The server install image allows you to install Ubuntu permanently on a computer for use as a server. It will not install a graphical user interface.
There are two images available, each for a different type of computer:
- 64-bit PC (AMD64) server install image
- Choose this to take full advantage of computers based on the AMD64 or EM64T architecture (e.g., Athlon64, Opteron, EM64T Xeon, Core 2). If you have a non-64-bit processor made by AMD, or if you need full support for 32-bit code, use the i386 images instead. Choose this if you are at all unsure.
- 32-bit PC (i386) server install image
- For almost all PCs. This includes most machines with Intel/AMD/etc type processors and almost all computers that run Microsoft Windows, as well as newer Apple Macintosh systems based on Intel processors.
For ARM hardware for which we do not ship preinstalled images, see ARM/Server/Install for detailed installation information.
A full list of available files, including BitTorrent files, can be found below.
If you need help burning these images to disk, see the Image Burning Guide or the USB Image Writing Guide.
![[ICO]](/icons/blank.gif){kind=icon}
![[PARENTDIR]](/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
![[TXT]](/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[ ]](/icons/unknown.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/icons/folder.gif){kind=icon}