5 ms·

Android was leading the way in this (best sharing between online services etc). This looks like the first other OS to "get it" and push hard to integrate with t

Android was leading the way in this (best sharing between online services etc). This looks like the first other OS to "get it" and push hard to integrate with the cloud. I think in some ways this surpasses Android. Mean while we have iOS that's just congratulating itself for allowing photo uploads to twitter, meanwhile my Android phone has integration with services I've never even heard of. And MacOS and Windows... nothing. Stupid silent sitting on the internet. It's nice to see some real innovation in the Linux camp on the user end front.

tysonjennings 14y ago
Exactly right and one of the main things I missed about Ubuntu on my desktop over Android on my Xoom was Android's seamless integration of "cloud" data and the operating system. In comparison desktop OSs feel like a collection of silos. I'm very excited about the future of Ubuntu and am beginning to think that Canonical actually do "get it".
jcheng 14y ago
Win7 and IE9 had some integration, not sure if anyone used it but they are trying. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/222712/how_to_prepare_your_website_for_ie_9.html http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/222712/how_to_...
- vibrunazo 14y ago
  That looks like a copy of chrome's "create application shortcut" and is less than a tiny percentage of what ubuntu is announcing. Am I missing something?
  - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
    Last time I used it, Chrome's shortcut was just a shortcut and nothing more (which launched into a chromeless browser window). Perhaps that has changed. The Windows 7 stuff integrates more deeply into the OS, so you can pin a site to the taskbar and its icon will appear like any other app, you can create what they call "jump lists" which are available on right click of the taskbar icon, and from those you can visit deep links inside of a web app. So it's much more than the Chrome thing, but not quite as deep as this Ubuntu announce.
MatthewPhillips 14y ago
I think you're a bit confused, Android doesn't do a very good job of making web apps 1st class citizens at all. Even though I don't use it, iOS does the best job there. When you create a desktop shortcut for an app, it will get an icon that looks just like all other apps' icons, it will launch into a full-screen chromeless browser that you wouldn't know was a browser at all (with a loading image, even). You can also control web apps that play HTML5 audio with the built in music controls from the multitasking pane. Android has none of those things. I've had hit or miss experience of it even picking a decent resolution icon, and Chrome uses the favicon with an envelope behind it, so it sticks out as a second class citizen (chrome also doesn't go chromeless).
- tysonjennings 14y ago
  I think you might be missing the point. Android does a great job of integrating data from the cloud with the operating system. An example is the Google Music player streams your music from the cloud and integrates the player controls with Android on the lockscreen, in the widget, in the status bar etc. The demo video from Canonical shows this kind of integration with last.fm. Nobody is saying Android or Ubuntu is perfect or whatever but there are similarities to what Android does and what Canonical is doing here.
  - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
    The point of this (Ubuntu feature) is not that it's integrating proprietary Ubuntu services with the OS (it has already done that, with Ubuntu One), like your example of Google Music, the point is that it is promoting web applications to first-class citizens alongside the native apps. Android fails at this pretty badly.
    - tysonjennings 14y ago
      "web applications to first-class citizens alongside the native apps. Android fails at this pretty badly" Android isn't "failing" at something that it isn't trying to do. Web apps generally suffer from low performance when trying to do anything moderately complex on a mobile device. If you must use web technology to create apps on Android, there is webView in the sdk for you. Many web apps that have tons of users like Google Maps, Pandora, etc. have native apps that are actually performant, follow UI conventions, and have access to all the APIs.
no-espam 14y ago
I wouldn't say "first other OS to get it". Jolicloud has been doing this kind of integration for awhile. http://www.jolicloud.com/jolios http://www.jolicloud.com/jolios
jackalope 14y ago
OS X had all this in the Dashboard long before... anyone, maybe? There are some pretty amazing Dashboard apps, and quite a lot of them are well integrated with the Internet. They should have called it Floorboard, though, because that's where it seems to be hidden under, and system performance takes a huge hit as soon as you activate the Dashboard and every single app you've loaded into it, even if you only want to use one. If they had made them first class desktop citizens, you'd be praising Apple for this innovation. A nod should probably also go to Opera, which had something similar, but just as crippled in Widgets.

tysonjennings 14y ago

Exactly right and one of the main things I missed about Ubuntu on my desktop over Android on my Xoom was Android's seamless integration of "cloud" data and the operating system. In comparison desktop OSs feel like a collection of silos. I'm very excited about the future of Ubuntu and am beginning to think that Canonical actually do "get it".

jcheng 14y ago

Win7 and IE9 had some integration, not sure if anyone used it but they are trying. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/222712/how_to_prepare_your_website_for_ie_9.html http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/222712/how_to_...

vibrunazo 14y ago
That looks like a copy of chrome's "create application shortcut" and is less than a tiny percentage of what ubuntu is announcing. Am I missing something?
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  Last time I used it, Chrome's shortcut was just a shortcut and nothing more (which launched into a chromeless browser window). Perhaps that has changed. The Windows 7 stuff integrates more deeply into the OS, so you can pin a site to the taskbar and its icon will appear like any other app, you can create what they call "jump lists" which are available on right click of the taskbar icon, and from those you can visit deep links inside of a web app. So it's much more than the Chrome thing, but not quite as deep as this Ubuntu announce.

MatthewPhillips 14y ago

I think you're a bit confused, Android doesn't do a very good job of making web apps 1st class citizens at all. Even though I don't use it, iOS does the best job there. When you create a desktop shortcut for an app, it will get an icon that looks just like all other apps' icons, it will launch into a full-screen chromeless browser that you wouldn't know was a browser at all (with a loading image, even). You can also control web apps that play HTML5 audio with the built in music controls from the multitasking pane. Android has none of those things. I've had hit or miss experience of it even picking a decent resolution icon, and Chrome uses the favicon with an envelope behind it, so it sticks out as a second class citizen (chrome also doesn't go chromeless).

tysonjennings 14y ago
I think you might be missing the point. Android does a great job of integrating data from the cloud with the operating system. An example is the Google Music player streams your music from the cloud and integrates the player controls with Android on the lockscreen, in the widget, in the status bar etc. The demo video from Canonical shows this kind of integration with last.fm. Nobody is saying Android or Ubuntu is perfect or whatever but there are similarities to what Android does and what Canonical is doing here.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  The point of this (Ubuntu feature) is not that it's integrating proprietary Ubuntu services with the OS (it has already done that, with Ubuntu One), like your example of Google Music, the point is that it is promoting web applications to first-class citizens alongside the native apps. Android fails at this pretty badly.
  - tysonjennings 14y ago
    "web applications to first-class citizens alongside the native apps. Android fails at this pretty badly" Android isn't "failing" at something that it isn't trying to do. Web apps generally suffer from low performance when trying to do anything moderately complex on a mobile device. If you must use web technology to create apps on Android, there is webView in the sdk for you. Many web apps that have tons of users like Google Maps, Pandora, etc. have native apps that are actually performant, follow UI conventions, and have access to all the APIs.

no-espam 14y ago

I wouldn't say "first other OS to get it". Jolicloud has been doing this kind of integration for awhile. http://www.jolicloud.com/jolios http://www.jolicloud.com/jolios

jackalope 14y ago

OS X had all this in the Dashboard long before... anyone, maybe? There are some pretty amazing Dashboard apps, and quite a lot of them are well integrated with the Internet. They should have called it Floorboard, though, because that's where it seems to be hidden under, and system performance takes a huge hit as soon as you activate the Dashboard and every single app you've loaded into it, even if you only want to use one. If they had made them first class desktop citizens, you'd be praising Apple for this innovation. A nod should probably also go to Opera, which had something similar, but just as crippled in Widgets.