4 ms·

> Hopefully porting from linux will be fairly straightforward too.. just a new UI support?, giving apps that work from desktop to mobile. Not to mention that is

> Hopefully porting from linux will be fairly straightforward too.. just a new UI support?, giving apps that work from desktop to mobile. Not to mention that is has most of the FFOS advantage too. I wouldn't trivialise the effort required to create a touch-friendly UI, especially from an existing desktop application (with the expectations that go with it).

AnthonyMouse 14y ago
Well, you're assuming they would need a new UI. You know what would be really nice to have on a phone if it didn't take any real effort to get it there? bash, ssh, nfs/sshfs/samba, etc. I know the typical user isn't going to care, but I could see how it would be a big win for developers, and as we all know, "developers developers developers."
- wmf 14y ago
  That didn't work out for Maemo. Is this time going to be different?
  - AnthonyMouse 14y ago
    I don't know. But Maemo didn't also happen to be the most popular desktop Linux distribution. And it was effectively abandoned at birth by its creators, which I have a suspicion Canonical is not about to do.
  - regularfry 14y ago
    Depends if it gets shackled to a completely schizophrenic manufacturer or not.
  - jstanley 14y ago
    I use Maemo every day and I'd say it definitely worked out.
- nathan_f77 14y ago
  I love my jailbroken iPhone for this reason. Bash, SSH and SSHFS are really useful to have.
zem 14y ago
I got some basic n900 apps up and running pretty easily with vala and the maemo touch widgets. porting an existing ui might be hard, but building one around a set of touch widgets is relatively straightforward.
lttlrck 14y ago
And what happens when a desktop monitor is connected? Will it give me the same small-screen touch-optimized app or are the apps supposed switch to desktop UI mode? The former would be disastrous, and the latter would be optimal but extremely unlikely (to put it lightly). It seems half-baked...
- primitur 14y ago
  There is absolutely nothing stopping us developers from sensing when it occurs and switching accordingly. This is really the point: we can choose to scale from Desktop to Mobile UI's, sanely, without having the market separation enforced upon us by those who would control the industry.
primitur 14y ago
Do you know how easy it is to port touch-friendly UI frameworks/SDK's such as MOAI (http://getmoai.com/ http://getmoai.com/) to Ubuntu? Damn easy. In fact, its already done: and right now, MOAI - and similar tools, just like it (Love2D, Cocos2D, &etc.) - are already out there, running on the existing OS's, and providing multi-touch interfaces that definitely compete with existing Frameworks/SDK's. There is little that Cocoa does, for the 2D gamer/mobile developer, that MOAI cannot do, also. (Granted: native interfaces are a weakness, but then again: non-native, truly cross-platform UI's are a STRENGTH in the face of the existing market) By making this move, Canonical has just invalidated all the proprietary bullshit the average Objective-C developer has to contend with, in order to develop an app for the mobile platform. Same with Android - both Objective-C and Android investments have just been bumped down a few tens of points, in my opinion. Why bother learning proprietary locked-in crap, when you can pick a framework that will run easily on all of the platforms, including the up and coming new Ubuntu-Mobile? Where once we have over-specialization and a slavish devotion to technocratic dogma from an oppressive regime (Apple, and in lesser yet still significant ways, Android too), we now have a real ability to choose our tools and standardize on the ones with which we most feel comfortable. Make no mistake, this is a genius move. Not only do we have Mobile becoming Desktop becoming the Cloud, finally, but we have it with Open Tools, that no other company has the balls to produce.
- elithrar 14y ago
  > Do you know how easy it is to port touch-friendly UI frameworks/SDK's such as MOAI (http://getmoai.com/ http://getmoai.com/) to Ubuntu? Damn easy. Starting from an existing touch framework/application is not the problem. "Porting" a desktop application to a touch application is not "just" (to quote polshaw) adding a new UI. There's a world of difference between a desktop GUI--esp. in the Linux world, where many apps are remarkably different due to the ecosystem--and a touch GUI. Touch target sizing, what information to get rid of (if any?), what to add, speed (arguably more important on a mobile device), hardware acceleration (read: being gentle on battery life & improving touch responsiveness)... it goes on. The OS might have Ubuntu/Linux roots, but it doesn't automatically mean it gets a free ride to a great touch-friendly mobile app library.

AnthonyMouse 14y ago

Well, you're assuming they would need a new UI. You know what would be really nice to have on a phone if it didn't take any real effort to get it there? bash, ssh, nfs/sshfs/samba, etc. I know the typical user isn't going to care, but I could see how it would be a big win for developers, and as we all know, "developers developers developers."

wmf 14y ago
That didn't work out for Maemo. Is this time going to be different?
- AnthonyMouse 14y ago
  I don't know. But Maemo didn't also happen to be the most popular desktop Linux distribution. And it was effectively abandoned at birth by its creators, which I have a suspicion Canonical is not about to do.
- regularfry 14y ago
  Depends if it gets shackled to a completely schizophrenic manufacturer or not.
- jstanley 14y ago
  I use Maemo every day and I'd say it definitely worked out.
nathan_f77 14y ago
I love my jailbroken iPhone for this reason. Bash, SSH and SSHFS are really useful to have.

zem 14y ago

I got some basic n900 apps up and running pretty easily with vala and the maemo touch widgets. porting an existing ui might be hard, but building one around a set of touch widgets is relatively straightforward.

lttlrck 14y ago

And what happens when a desktop monitor is connected? Will it give me the same small-screen touch-optimized app or are the apps supposed switch to desktop UI mode? The former would be disastrous, and the latter would be optimal but extremely unlikely (to put it lightly). It seems half-baked...

primitur 14y ago
There is absolutely nothing stopping us developers from sensing when it occurs and switching accordingly. This is really the point: we can choose to scale from Desktop to Mobile UI's, sanely, without having the market separation enforced upon us by those who would control the industry.

primitur 14y ago

Do you know how easy it is to port touch-friendly UI frameworks/SDK's such as MOAI (http://getmoai.com/ http://getmoai.com/) to Ubuntu? Damn easy. In fact, its already done: and right now, MOAI - and similar tools, just like it (Love2D, Cocos2D, &etc.) - are already out there, running on the existing OS's, and providing multi-touch interfaces that definitely compete with existing Frameworks/SDK's. There is little that Cocoa does, for the 2D gamer/mobile developer, that MOAI cannot do, also. (Granted: native interfaces are a weakness, but then again: non-native, truly cross-platform UI's are a STRENGTH in the face of the existing market) By making this move, Canonical has just invalidated all the proprietary bullshit the average Objective-C developer has to contend with, in order to develop an app for the mobile platform. Same with Android - both Objective-C and Android investments have just been bumped down a few tens of points, in my opinion. Why bother learning proprietary locked-in crap, when you can pick a framework that will run easily on all of the platforms, including the up and coming new Ubuntu-Mobile? Where once we have over-specialization and a slavish devotion to technocratic dogma from an oppressive regime (Apple, and in lesser yet still significant ways, Android too), we now have a real ability to choose our tools and standardize on the ones with which we most feel comfortable. Make no mistake, this is a genius move. Not only do we have Mobile becoming Desktop becoming the Cloud, finally, but we have it with Open Tools, that no other company has the balls to produce.

elithrar 14y ago
> Do you know how easy it is to port touch-friendly UI frameworks/SDK's such as MOAI (http://getmoai.com/ http://getmoai.com/) to Ubuntu? Damn easy. Starting from an existing touch framework/application is not the problem. "Porting" a desktop application to a touch application is not "just" (to quote polshaw) adding a new UI. There's a world of difference between a desktop GUI--esp. in the Linux world, where many apps are remarkably different due to the ecosystem--and a touch GUI. Touch target sizing, what information to get rid of (if any?), what to add, speed (arguably more important on a mobile device), hardware acceleration (read: being gentle on battery life & improving touch responsiveness)... it goes on. The OS might have Ubuntu/Linux roots, but it doesn't automatically mean it gets a free ride to a great touch-friendly mobile app library.