4 ms·

I find it odd that there are so many desktop-ish things based on Android instead of Ubuntu. One would get a lot more software and a much more familiar experienc

by lucian1900 14y ago

I find it odd that there are so many desktop-ish things based on Android instead of Ubuntu. One would get a lot more software and a much more familiar experience with Ubuntu.

tbirdz 14y ago
You might be able to run raspbian on it, as it seems this device has the same core as the raspberry pi.
- damian2000 14y ago
  This public library installed Raspbian on it and uses it as a catalogue terminal... http://apc.io/blog/2012/11/26/white-plains-public-library-creates-opac-terminal-based-on-apc/ http://apc.io/blog/2012/11/26/white-plains-public-library-cr...
  - graue 14y ago
    Nice! Just want to point out, this seems to be referring to the original APC, which is now called APC 8750, not the Paper. (They mention getting a case for it, while the Paper is new and comes in a case.) http://apc.io/products/8750a/ http://apc.io/products/8750a/
brudgers 14y ago
Given the frequency with which Ubuntu pushes updates (every couple of days it seems) and that handling these updates requires an administrative password, I can see sound user experience concerns which Android would better address.
- PommeDeTerre 14y ago
  Does that just mean that the system that's running Android is not receiving critical updates, however?
  - yareally 14y ago
    Most likely not unless the user compiles it (or finds it on somewhere like xda-developers from someone else who compiled) and flashes it. The problem with that though is if Android updates break compatibility with any of the proprietary drivers it may come with in the future. The device could also be made by one of those shady OEMs that don't comply with releasing the kernel source under GPL. Either one of those things happening just made compiling the latest version of Android much much harder as well as certain components not working or having full functionality. Even with that though, the kernel not getting updates and continued patches makes it harder to keep things built for an end user, but I'm not sure if that is so much of an issue past the Linux 2.x to 3.0 jump with Android devices. Updates for anything Android outside of Nexus devices that Google maintains are generally far from automatic or dependable.
- regomodo 14y ago
  You can auto install updates in Ubuntu.
jiggy2011 14y ago
Unity or Gnome3 on an 800Mhz CPU will probably run like a dog. There are lighter Window Managers, but most of these don't give quite such a modern , easy and complete user experience.
- JasonFruit 14y ago
  I'm going to disagree. LXDE, as used by Peppermint OS (an Ubuntu derivative), is as simple and complete a user experience as I've found — surprisingly modern, as well. I never expected LXDE to get this good, frankly.
ZeroGravitas 14y ago
I assumed it was mostly due to using components like GPUs that have binary blobs for Android but nothing for standard linux kernels. This was the main reason given for why Firefox OS and Ubuntu Phone would (optionally) run on top of an Android kernel.
eliben 14y ago
Allow me to disagree. While I myself use Ubuntu as my main desktop PC, I can totally see how Android makes more sense for a lot of customers. Don't forget who this is aimed for. Alas, Ubuntu is still mostly for folks above some level of computer proficiency. Android, on the other hand, is probably one of the most "familiar" experiences for people using smartphones, and the (huge) amount of applications is easily accessible through the Play store with lots of reviews and hence high quality. You just don't get that for Ubuntu.
josteink 14y ago
> I find it odd that there are so many desktop-ish things based on Android instead of Ubuntu. That may be a reasonable thing to ponder until you try to run Ubuntu on a device which formerly ran Android. I thought the same as you and installed Ubuntu on my Asus Transformer TF101. While the original Transformer sports reasonably dated specifications, it's provides a very neat, fast and responsive Android-experience. I expected Ubuntu to offer the same, but with a wider-selection of (non touch-optimized) software. I was thoroughly disappointed. Just opening the Terminal Emulator took 5-10 seconds. Trying to open Firefox or any web-browser was a joke. What most people fails to realize (I guess because Android has adopted the Java-is-slow-meme, either it wants to or not) is that Android is heavily optimized because it has to be responsive on ultra-light hardware. Given its feature-set, it's a very fast OS compared to most other out there. Ubuntu on the other hand, is heavy enough to sometimes make my Core i7 wish it had more CPU-cycles. Putting Ubuntu on underpowered machines is something I wouldn't recommend to anyone.
- graue 14y ago
  Was this using Unity? I found Unity unusably slow on my old netbook — 5 seconds to open Terminal wasn't too far off the mark. But Xfce was so snappy it made that thing useful again. I'm not disagreeing with your general point, but I wonder if a lighter DE would make a big difference. (Unless you were already using Xfce, and got the results you describe... that would be bad news.)
- Joeri 14y ago
  As a contrast, i'm running ubuntu 12.04 with unity on an old atom netbook, and it runs perfectly fine. It does need about a gig of ram to run comfortably with a few apps open, so i suspect people having a bad experience are running into issues with the amount of ram in their system. Android obviously handles low memory situations better. Ubuntu can't match its ability to free up the ram used by inactive apps.

I find it odd that there are so many desktop-ish things based on Android instead of Ubuntu. One would get a lot more software and a much more familiar experience with Ubuntu.

tbirdz 14y ago

You might be able to run raspbian on it, as it seems this device has the same core as the raspberry pi.

damian2000 14y ago
This public library installed Raspbian on it and uses it as a catalogue terminal... http://apc.io/blog/2012/11/26/white-plains-public-library-creates-opac-terminal-based-on-apc/ http://apc.io/blog/2012/11/26/white-plains-public-library-cr...
- graue 14y ago
  Nice! Just want to point out, this seems to be referring to the original APC, which is now called APC 8750, not the Paper. (They mention getting a case for it, while the Paper is new and comes in a case.) http://apc.io/products/8750a/ http://apc.io/products/8750a/

brudgers 14y ago

Given the frequency with which Ubuntu pushes updates (every couple of days it seems) and that handling these updates requires an administrative password, I can see sound user experience concerns which Android would better address.

PommeDeTerre 14y ago
Does that just mean that the system that's running Android is not receiving critical updates, however?
- yareally 14y ago
  Most likely not unless the user compiles it (or finds it on somewhere like xda-developers from someone else who compiled) and flashes it. The problem with that though is if Android updates break compatibility with any of the proprietary drivers it may come with in the future. The device could also be made by one of those shady OEMs that don't comply with releasing the kernel source under GPL. Either one of those things happening just made compiling the latest version of Android much much harder as well as certain components not working or having full functionality. Even with that though, the kernel not getting updates and continued patches makes it harder to keep things built for an end user, but I'm not sure if that is so much of an issue past the Linux 2.x to 3.0 jump with Android devices. Updates for anything Android outside of Nexus devices that Google maintains are generally far from automatic or dependable.
regomodo 14y ago
You can auto install updates in Ubuntu.

jiggy2011 14y ago

Unity or Gnome3 on an 800Mhz CPU will probably run like a dog. There are lighter Window Managers, but most of these don't give quite such a modern , easy and complete user experience.

JasonFruit 14y ago
I'm going to disagree. LXDE, as used by Peppermint OS (an Ubuntu derivative), is as simple and complete a user experience as I've found — surprisingly modern, as well. I never expected LXDE to get this good, frankly.

ZeroGravitas 14y ago

I assumed it was mostly due to using components like GPUs that have binary blobs for Android but nothing for standard linux kernels. This was the main reason given for why Firefox OS and Ubuntu Phone would (optionally) run on top of an Android kernel.

eliben 14y ago

Allow me to disagree. While I myself use Ubuntu as my main desktop PC, I can totally see how Android makes more sense for a lot of customers. Don't forget who this is aimed for. Alas, Ubuntu is still mostly for folks above some level of computer proficiency. Android, on the other hand, is probably one of the most "familiar" experiences for people using smartphones, and the (huge) amount of applications is easily accessible through the Play store with lots of reviews and hence high quality. You just don't get that for Ubuntu.

josteink 14y ago

> I find it odd that there are so many desktop-ish things based on Android instead of Ubuntu. That may be a reasonable thing to ponder until you try to run Ubuntu on a device which formerly ran Android. I thought the same as you and installed Ubuntu on my Asus Transformer TF101. While the original Transformer sports reasonably dated specifications, it's provides a very neat, fast and responsive Android-experience. I expected Ubuntu to offer the same, but with a wider-selection of (non touch-optimized) software. I was thoroughly disappointed. Just opening the Terminal Emulator took 5-10 seconds. Trying to open Firefox or any web-browser was a joke. What most people fails to realize (I guess because Android has adopted the Java-is-slow-meme, either it wants to or not) is that Android is heavily optimized because it has to be responsive on ultra-light hardware. Given its feature-set, it's a very fast OS compared to most other out there. Ubuntu on the other hand, is heavy enough to sometimes make my Core i7 wish it had more CPU-cycles. Putting Ubuntu on underpowered machines is something I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

graue 14y ago
Was this using Unity? I found Unity unusably slow on my old netbook — 5 seconds to open Terminal wasn't too far off the mark. But Xfce was so snappy it made that thing useful again. I'm not disagreeing with your general point, but I wonder if a lighter DE would make a big difference. (Unless you were already using Xfce, and got the results you describe... that would be bad news.)
Joeri 14y ago
As a contrast, i'm running ubuntu 12.04 with unity on an old atom netbook, and it runs perfectly fine. It does need about a gig of ram to run comfortably with a few apps open, so i suspect people having a bad experience are running into issues with the amount of ram in their system. Android obviously handles low memory situations better. Ubuntu can't match its ability to free up the ram used by inactive apps.