The GPU case, which is not really a choice
GPU nodes here run Ubuntu 24.04 with CUDA 12.4, PyTorch 2.5, TensorFlow 2.18, JupyterLab and the Hugging Face inference server already on the disk. That is not a preference; half the general-purpose distributions cannot run the CUDA stack without a fight, and an accelerator billed by the second is the worst possible place to have that fight.
Whole cards are passed through, never a time-sliced fraction, and the host is sized so the accelerator is the bottleneck rather than the loader.
LTS or nothing
Only the LTS releases are offered. Interim releases have a nine-month support window, which means a server built on one is an unplanned migration inside a year, and there is no honest reason to sell that to somebody.
24.04 is the default. 22.04 stays available because a large amount of production tooling is pinned to it and will be for years.
Ubuntu against Debian, honestly
They share a package base and most of the commands. The differences that actually decide it: Ubuntu has vendor packages, firmware and drivers arranged for you, plus snap, which some people want and some people remove within the first minute. Debian has none of that and moves more slowly.
If a supplier’s documentation says Ubuntu, run Ubuntu. If nothing is telling you what to run, Debian is the quieter machine.
What is not in the image
No monitoring agent, no telemetry package, no vendor repository beyond Ubuntu’s own, and no cloud agent reporting to us. The image comes from upstream and the first thing added to it is your key.
Questions people actually ask
Which Ubuntu do GPU nodes use?
24.04 LTS with the CUDA stack preloaded. A custom image is possible on request if your pipeline needs a specific container base.
Can I remove snap?
Yes, it is your machine with full root. If you would rather it had never been there, Debian is the same package base without it.
Do you offer interim releases?
No. Nine months of support is an unplanned migration inside a year and we would rather not sell it.
What it is genuinely good at
- Vendor support. Commercial software, driver packages and installation documentation assume it, and that removes an entire category of problem.
- Fixed, published LTS dates, which makes a five-year plan something you can actually write down.
- The only image here that GPU nodes run, because the CUDA stack is built and tested against it.
Choose a different one if
-
Debian
You want the same package base without snap, without the vendor layer, and with a slower and quieter release.
-
AlmaLinux
Your vendor certifies against Enterprise Linux specifically rather than "Linux".
That list is here because a page that cannot name a situation where something else is the right answer is an advertisement. Every image on this estate is included in the price of the machine, so there is nothing to sell you here — only the one that fits.
Versions and support dates are checked against upstream when they change. Last revised 30 July 2026.
Every price on this estate is published in full, in one place. See the whole catalogue