17 ms·

Ubuntu on tablets

528 points by jrgifford 14y ago

Buzaga 14y ago
All I want is a 8-10 hour battery life tablet that I can install a development environment and plug a keyboard I know Ubuntu won't be narrowing down to developers but if Ubuntu Tablets solve this I'll get in line to get the one as fast as possible
taeric 14y ago
So, I have to confess this has me sorely tempted to try on my convertible laptop. "Touch" is effectively non-existent in this space for linux. Unless there are any other suggestions? (I have a lenovo x220 tablet. I like the computer. The touch aspect is just basically ignored.)
ixnu 14y ago
Engadget is reporting that Canonical will make a Nexus 7 build available. If so, this will rival the RasPi as a play toy and sandbox. GPU acceleration might be a significant hurdle on the nVidia. http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/19/ubuntu-for-tablets-revealed/ http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/19/ubuntu-for-tablets-reveal...
- fluidcruft 14y ago
  W00t! Can't wait... my N7 has been collecting dust. Writing special-purpose scientific tools that work on the linux desktop and on N7 seems a much better answer than porting to Android.
- Falling3 14y ago
  Damn, I'd really love to be able to try this out on my Galaxy Tab. I wonder if we'll see a build for those anytime soon.
tinkmasterflash 14y ago
I don't even use Ubuntu for the desktop or the laptop, what motivation do I have to use it on a phone or tablet? How about making Unity less than an unholy mess before branching out into other form-factors?
- sc0rb 14y ago
  I don't even use Apple operating systems on my phone or any other device, what motivation do I have to use it on an iphone, ipad or other apple product? Can't you make this argument about anything?
- reactor 14y ago
  You don't need to use it. Variety is beautiful.
- keyboardP 14y ago
  Look at it like this. They may have cool new features not seen on existing tablets. Your favourite company might then incorporate and, hopefully, improve upon the feature and you now have a new feature on your platform that may not have been planned before. No one is forcing you to use it but it still has potential to positively affect your tablet experience, even if it's indirectly.
- claystu 14y ago
  I'm betting you meant "that's nice, but did you have to break the Ubuntu desktop experience to build a tablet interface?"
- HunOL 14y ago
  I didn't even use Android on my desktop, what's the motivation to use it on a phone or tablet?
- marcoceppi 14y ago
  Sorry another contender is providing you with a choice. Good thing you know how to exercise it.
- yareally 14y ago
  You're commenting (and just created an account) on a site called hacker news and you cannot think of something to do with it? - build apps or port apps to work better on it. I can also do this without having to resort to Java like Android if I want to do things the recommended and supported way. I am also guessing that running su/sudo on it will not feel like an ugly hack to do like it is on Android[1] since it should be built in. - run scripts (you can do that on Android with the Android Scripting layer and the terminal emulator, but it still has its quirks). - easier access to things that are harder to deal with on Android or iOS (development tools) via apt. Perhaps even something like Blender or Gimp will run decent on it. There are lots of possibilities. Perhaps not if all you want to do is browse the web and check email. However, I consider it another way to hack around and build things. [1] http://www.chainfire.eu/articles/125/_How-To_SU_published/ http://www.chainfire.eu/articles/125/_How-To_SU_published/
bjustin 14y ago
I love their solution to run apps side by side, by using the phone version for the smaller app. Android is the only other platform that could really do it, with both widescreen tablets and apps where the same binary can run on phones and tablets.
mikemoka 14y ago
This is great, I hope it will have the same success that Ubuntu for Mobile Devices gathered, oh wait, it didn't succeed after all..
claystu 14y ago
Can you dual boot it to an Ipad?
- yareally 14y ago
  Since porting Android to iOS is pretty much dead since the iphone 3g[1], I would assume not. [1] http://0xdeadfa11.net/blog/2012/07/11/the-idroid-project-where-it-presently-stands/ http://0xdeadfa11.net/blog/2012/07/11/the-idroid-project-whe...
  - claystu 14y ago
    That's too bad. I love the Ipad hardware, but I'm just not a fan of the Apple interface. Being locked out of my own computer drives me nuts--especially whenever I try to watch something in Flash.
    - yareally 14y ago
      Yeah, that's unfortunately the big hangup that keeps me from adopting Apple (mobile) stuff past app development reasons. It's too limited really for hacking and modding. Sure, there's some groups out there that mod with jailbreaking to add features, but if you want to add an entire OS, you're just kind of out of luck. There's a small part of me that likes seeing how I can get around all that without source, but after a while, I rather stop fighting it and just use a platform for modding/hacking that makes it easier. Even custom ROMs for Android are usually a bit quirky and full of bugs if they're running on anything other than Nexus devices, due to a mismatch in driver versions and the OS version much of the time. If you want something to just hack around on and mod stuff, I recommend getting a Nexus 7 for that and use your ipad for your normal usage. They're cheap, battery life is good (as far as Android goes, it's 7-8 hours for me normally). Ubuntu for tablets is to be supported for it and there's an unofficial webos port for it out as well. That plus the entire AOSP android source and plenty of ROMs out there to take features from. Unlocking + rooting Nexus devices is dead simple. Basically plug into USB, run a few terminal commands and you're done. Granted it makes taking updates a bit harder (if you mod past this), but if you're rooted and unlocked, you usually do it yourself anyways versus taking a direct update.
kaolinite 14y ago
Yet another announcement by Canonical that isn't backed by a "Buy" button. I understand that it's not exactly easy for them, but it's becoming a bit boring how they keep announcing new "products" with no way of actually purchasing them. Couldn't they have waited for a year or so for this to be ready to ship and then launch it? At the very least it'd be good to have "Available to buy in July, 2013" or whatever.
- marcoceppi 14y ago
  They're releasing images for this and the phone in a week.
  - kaolinite 14y ago
    Then why not wait a week and announce it then?
    - cryptoz 14y ago
      There are plenty of reasons. Virtually no technology / OS vendor announces and ships on the same day. Apple gives a few weeks lead time between announcement and shipping too.
      - kaolinite 14y ago
        There's a big difference between providing the OS to download and shipping a product. I wouldn't expect to be able to buy it and have it 2 days later, but a pre-order option would be good.
    - marcoceppi 14y ago
      Sorry, they're releasing images in two days. Seriously, though! Not everything has to be instant. They're putting themselves out to gauge interest and probably lure OEM vendors to their booth at MWC.
      - fusiongyro 14y ago
nvk 14y ago
Would love to hack my original iPad to install this.
ohwp 14y ago
Youtube promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h384z7Ph0gU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h384z7Ph0gU
ivzar 14y ago
The seamless phone => tablet => desktop transition make the Ubuntu family a winner. Now to see if it picks up any enterprise traction...
rufugee 14y ago
As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm now using Cinnamon as a desktop environment. I really, really wanted Unity to work, but I've had continued performance problems which make it ultimately unusable for me. I understand Ubuntu's need to turn a profit, but I really wish they'd focus on making Unity stable and performant before chasing down these other opportunities... Disclaimer: I run three monitors, so I'm probably different from the average Unity user.
- ajasmin 14y ago
  I really hope they get the tablet interface right. Unity on the desktop has been a bumpy road. Although it's getting better, each release has its quirks. I'm having a lot of issues with their new web app integration for instance. Since Ubuntu on the tablet is a literal clean slate, they can at least avoid the puzzle of making existing applications fit their desktop guidelines. A lot of popular apps still don't use the app menu for instance (GUI version of Vim, Eclipse, and even that new Steam for Ubuntu).
- donniezazen 14y ago
  Any mobile development will help laptop and desktop users. They recently cut down 200MBs of RAM usage in Unity. All apps from phone and tablet will be portable to desktop. I sincerely hope Ubuntu pursue's it to the end.
- levesque 14y ago
  I find that Unity feels sluggish and inelegant, performance wise. There is always a slight delay when I open the dash, and I generally dislike it's behavior. However, I stay with it because I dislike the alternatives, so no point switching for me. I think this is good news for Unity on the desktop because it means they will be tweaking the hell out of it for performance. I read that it's already better in 13.04, and we can probably expect it to get better over the releases. Other than that, I wouldn't use Ubuntu on tablets right now. I'm not enough of an early adopter to switch to this OS which is - let's face it - probably not ready for prime time and still pretty buggy. The first versions of Android sucked, I don't see why this would be an exception. Nailing it on the first try is very hard.
raphinou 14y ago
I hope it runs on Asus Transformer and is usable both in tablet mode as laptop mode.
habosa 14y ago
This is a really great step. I previously though Ubuntu was going to ruin itself by getting into the mobile game so late but it seems like their solution might be unified enough (as a result of the time they spent watching others) to actually gain some foothold. I have a Nexus 7 and if they can allow me to dual boot somehow I will be all over this. I'd love to have a little touchscreen Ubuntu PC in my backpack. I'm still not convinced I want it on my phone but they have my attention on the other three screens.
- nsoun 14y ago
  One of the benefits of entering late is they're able to learn from the competitions missteps.
chx 14y ago
I still don't get it. This emphasises on "productivity". Tablets, lacking any efficient ways of input are not productivity devices. They are great at consuming content, of course. There is a reason the iPad and the Kindle Fire rules the field.
- JonnieCache 14y ago
  There are vast portions of the workforce for whom productivity does not depend on getting stuff out of ones brain and into the computer, like it does for us. For lots of people, primarily managers, productivity involves getting stuff out of the computer and into the brain. Touch interfaces are very productive for these kinds of tasks. Typically these people are the ones holding the purse strings, so targeting them is a good strategy.
  - chx 14y ago
    Really? So they don't need to produce lots of documents, presentations, spreadsheets and emails?
    - outworlder 14y ago
      No. Managers have other people do it for them.
  - sjmulder 14y ago
    Well put, I never thought about it as such. That said, it looks like Ubuntu lets you drop down into desktop mode with a keyboard + mouse which is something I really like about Windows 8 over Android and iOS.
- potatolicious 14y ago
  There is more to productivity than fast, accurate text input. Touch is inferior for text input, but superior for other types of input. I know many designers who are salivating at the prospect of being able to do their work with a stylus that's also a screen (as opposed to the Wacom way of doing it).
BaconJuice 14y ago
Please, could someone take this image and build it for the BlackBerry Playbook? because that thing is collecting dust under my bed at home.
AlexanderDhoore 14y ago
The fact that it runs Qt is the biggest win in my opinion. Must - learn - Qt !
orofino 14y ago
This looks really promising and I think I'll give it a try, once there is something to buy... The multitasking looks really good, it is an interesting way to solve this problem. If their implementation is as good as it is presented, we'll see Apple and Google copying this on their platforms. It seems to me that this offers many of the benefits that I see with OS X, an interface that lets me just do what I want without a bunch of pain, but if I need more power I can drop down to the shell and really get at what I need. Additionally, if using MS Office on the device is possible in a non-shitty way, it will be amazing. They talked very little about this, so I'm skeptical, but it would be absolutely killer if this worked well. US business lives in MS office and a way to easily use it is REQUIRED before tablets can begin supplanting desktops in the enterprise. The rip off of Apple's styling for the promo video is distracting and unnecessary. Come up with your own styling for this, the offering looks appealing, you've got capabilities that other competitors lack, there isn't a reason for you to copy someone else's presentation style.
ZeroGravitas 14y ago
When they mentioned "sharing" I was hoping for something like Android's share which would take whatever I'm looking at and give it to another app. Instead it's just social networks. Better than Apple's lame lock-in to Twitter and Facebook but sharing between apps in Android's a killer-app.
trebor 14y ago
When I can install it on my iPad I might give it a try. Till then, why should I buy another tablet to play with Ubuntu?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
firefoxman1 14y ago
Wow. This is what Unity is for. I'm still on Gnome on my desktop because I'm not a Unity fan, but this is really incredible. Android better watch its back.
- Alterlife 14y ago
  The choice of name "Unity" finally makes sense to me.
apawloski 14y ago
Ironically, it might be the walled-garden ecosystem of tablets that ultimately leads to mass end-user adoption of Linux. The desktop introduces too many complications -- there is a much larger set of use cases, and thus a larger set of situations where a Windows-convert can get confused, discouraged, or frustrated. Tablets, on the other hand, with their relatively fewer ubiquitous uses, can be fine-tuned in way that requires little-to-no end-user servicing. If Canonical can employ the Apple/Android software store model with enough flexibility that power users can still make meaningful modifications, then this could be the biggest thing to happen for end-user Linux in a long time.
- imissmyjuno 14y ago
  What about iOS and Android? One is a Unix, the other a Linux. If you mean in the "truly open-source" fashion, then it's entirely up to the UI when it comes to the masses. I've personally never liked Unity due to very inconsistent buggy UI, and enjoyed Gnome 3 much more. The more competition the merrier, though.
  - lukifer 14y ago
    > One is a Unix, the other a Linux. That's a little like saying an omelette is an egg. :) Both make heavy use of *nix and OSS components, but they also add their own proprietary ingredients. I don't see anything wrong with that, but I'd prefer that full-stack open-source wasn't limited just to technorati. You're right that the masses define their experience by the UI: both what's delivered directly to users, and indirectly via the UI tools/ecosystem/culture available to developers.
bitsoda 14y ago
I still don't understand the tablet form factor. I concluded that it's not for me some time ago, but am waiting for the general population to come around to one glaring flaw: you have to hold it. For me, it doesn't matter how light a tablet is. A five pound laptop will always feel lighter since it will effectively weigh nothing because it's always on some kind of platform during use, either my lap or a flat desk/table surface. The tablet holds your hands and/or your legs hostage as you need to get into that special tablet-viewing position to prop the thing up on your thighs. I don't mean to come across as a cranky person who bemoans tablet use, I just feel the process is cumbersome not being able to have your hands free and wonder if people really think this is the form factor to usher in the "post-pc" era, whatever that is.
- firefoxman1 14y ago
  Right now they're pretty useless, I agree. But watch a couple clips for me: http://youtu.be/Jx7VNP5UO2k?t=5m9s http://youtu.be/Jx7VNP5UO2k?t=5m9s (at 5:09) http://youtu.be/5jzAAPccBaU?t=2m27s http://youtu.be/5jzAAPccBaU?t=2m27s (at 2:27) That's the future. That's when the tablet becomes extremely useful. Productive-yet-portable in a way a laptop can't be. What I think the Microsoft guys really nailed is that the tablet is ultimately just another tool. The "post-pc" era still has plenty of PC's in it; they just work alongside tablets and phones.
  - bitsoda 14y ago
    I'll have a look at the videos once I get home. (Stuffy corporate stooge job)
  - riffraff 14y ago
    I'm not sure what is supposed to be noticed in the second video, but the first one is basically already possible with current tablets, other than the "everything is transparent". I mean, there is no deep conceptual difference between something like leafsnap and what is shown there. But even looking at that, it still doesn't show why a tablet form factor (thinking >9" diagonal) is better for this things than something sized like a larger phone, or a foldable thingy like the (sadly dead) MS Courier.
orangethirty 14y ago
If they would just sell the damn thing and not have advertisements built into it. I have been using (a paying) Ubuntu user since v.7. It just angers me that they just wont outright charge for it.
andmarios 14y ago
I am a bit tired of how much Ubuntu gets promoted compared to other Linux based solutions. Here is a video of KDE's Plasma Active running on a Nexus 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7isMAmwW0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7isMAmwW0 It is a real use video, there aren't any fancy photos, there isn't any CG in the video in contrast with Canonical's page. Plasma Active is being actively developed for about 2 years now and KDE 4 was developed from the ground up to be able to adapt to various form factors. Since most Linux applications run on many different architectures, with such an approach you can keep your low power ARM based tablet and run all your desktop software -albeit a bit or more slower.
- JosephRedfern 14y ago
  It doesn't seem anywhere near as slick as Ubuntu's offerings, though - and I think for a portable device like a tablet, that is very important.
  - andmarios 14y ago
    When it comes to notifications, easy sharing and usability features in general, it has them all and they are touch optimized. I guess you mean that it doesn't look like Android or iOS. This can be changed easily through a theme. Conveniently you can download new themes from the theme settings screen, you don't need extra software nor you have to search in random places. On the other hand, certain programs, like its text editor which can highlight code in almost every known computer language, does regular expression searches, support vi input mode etc, can't get much eye-pleasing. But you do get something you can actually work on. I love the touch drived interface of tablets, but I don't think there is a reason to hide that a tablet device is a computer in different form and when you need it, it can perform as thus.
    - fumar 14y ago
      >I don't think there is a reason to hide that a tablet device is a computer in different form and when you need it, it can perform as thus Sort of like the Surface tablets...
trumbitta2 14y ago
I use unity for the fullscreen windows / mac-like menus. In fact, I: - use gnome-do instead of unity dash - use docky in panel mode as my beloved taskbar - keep the horrible unity sidebar well hidden on the left And I am happy so far.
- freehunter 14y ago
  Yeah this thread is totally not about Ubuntu or Unity on the desktop.
  - trumbitta2 14y ago
    Yep, I replied at the wrong level. Shame on me. Also should've not replied to begin with, given that I don't really care about Ubuntu on devices other than my laptop.
pajju 14y ago
They learnt everything from others by launching late, but added most of the good design patterns. Great work all together. Worth mentioning, Ubuntu is emerging as perfect web platform with tight integration with web-services. "And now web applications are first class citizens too, wow. I was waiting for this to happen fast." At this stage they need: 1. More Partners. They must have strong tie-ups with OEM partners, who can make in-expensive devices, otherwise its not going anywhere. Get those chinese manufacturers. 2. Please NO device fragmentation and open strict standards among OEM's. 3. Nokia backing up this project? Isn't this the best time for Nokia to make Ubuntu powered devices? I think so. Under the current circumstances, Ubuntu and Nokia can make a good win-win fit. Nokia maybe can now come back strongly, instead of believing in a closed ecosystem like windows, which is not going anywhere. 3. Get Funded. 4. Apps. Quality and tested apps. Can this happen with Open Source methodologies? Debatable. :) All together this is great progress in a short span. Incredible team-work, lets not forget this comes from Open Source World. Love this, Made my day.
- wuest 14y ago
  > 3. Nokia backing up this project? I would love for this to happen (heck, my N900 and N9 show that Nokia + Linux = fantastic device) but I fear that as long as Elop is at the reins, this is an impossible dream. This is the same CEO who even went so far as to ditch Qt less than a year ago, remember.
- mtgx 14y ago
  2. The apps will remain compatible, just like on Android, but I fear they will give too much control over to carriers. From what I understand they want to give "total branding power" over a device to carriers. So we'll see how they go about that without pissing off the user. If it's subtle enough it might work. But I still hate the idea of giving even more power (again) to the carriers. The carriers should be powerless when it comes to the devices they sell. They should be no more than retailers. Who has ever heard of retailers messing with the products? No one, because that's a crazy idea. Yet that's what the carriers are doing, and will probably do even more with these new operating systems desperate for market share. 3. Why should Nokia back this project up? I mean why specifically them, and not Samsung, HTC, Sony or Huawei? Also there's zero chance they will do it. They didn't back Meego, they killed Meltemi, they aren't backing Sailfish, and they will back Ubuntu? Why? Microsoft would never allow it. And we all know Nokia is just a subsidiary of Microsoft now. 4. One of my biggest problems with Linux in general looking at it from a "consumer" point of view, has always been how ugly the programs look on Linux. They are cringe worthy, and I hate the font, too. I don't know what they're doing here, but I really hope Canonical is serious about design guidelines and resources for developers, much like Apple, Google and Microsoft have done it. They need to make it dead-easy for just about any developer to create beautiful Ubuntu apps at least with the stock resources. This should be one of their top priorities with Ubuntu, not only on mobile, but on the desktop, too. So I hope they're using resources and design guidelines that will scale well to the desktop, too. And I still think they need to rethink the Unity UI to make it more user-friendly and less frustrating.
jplmelanson 14y ago
You have to give them credit for UX innovation, they don't just try to mimic iOS.
hobbyist 14y ago
There is something visionary about these South Africans, first Elon Musk and then Mark Shuttleworth.
BenoitEssiambre 14y ago
I'm a heavy Ubuntu user and what I want to know is can it run all the existing Ubuntu/Linux apps? Also what is the multitasking model? I can't imagine full desktop multitasking would work on a tablet. That would kill the battery.
- noahl 14y ago
  Yes, it can run all of the standard desktop apps. The video talks about adding a keyboard and mouse and using it like a desktop. I don't think it mentions whether it can run those apps while being a tablet, though. It's not clear if it'll let you do that or not. (I would guess it will, or at least it will if GTK and Qt add support for whatever windowing system this uses.)
  - BenoitEssiambre 14y ago
    "The video talks about adding a keyboard and mouse and using it like a desktop" A mouse and a keyboard doesn't mean it can run anything. I can use a mouse and keyboard with Android currently and it still won't support my development environments. Heck Android doesn't even fully support its own development environment.
  - Zigurd 14y ago
    No! There are now Ubuntu Store apps (they used to be called "Disco" apps but they had to stop using that name). Ubuntu Store apps have to use a new L&F and can't use inter-process communications and have to be vetted by Canonical. Kidding! I'm kidding! Put the pitchfork down!
trotsky 14y ago
Cool, it'll look smart next to my Ubuntu TV and my Ubuntu phone.
tosseraccount 14y ago
This is a winner for me if 1) It actually runs on hardware, it's not just a concept 2) I can attach a keyboard 3) I can run a bash shell and the unix utilities.
- pekk 14y ago
  If you want an OS which runs on hardware and allows you to drive bash with a keyboard, you could get a laptop and run any flavor of Linux on it.
  - tosseraccount 14y ago
    All laptop keyboards are bad. I just can't type as fast on them and all the keys are in the wrong place and it's easy to mis-type on them. It's just not comfortable. A good keyboard is a 100% productivity boost. Why get a laptop and put a keyboard on it when I can just get a good Linux tablet and put a real keyboard on it, like a model M IBM old school keyboard and get some work done.
  - shurcooL 14y ago
    But then you lose the touch interface that lets you use it comfortably WITHOUT keyboard and mouse. Like when you're sitting on a couch or lying in bed or walking around.
- DocG 14y ago
  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7/Installation https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7/Installation +otg cable for any usb keyboard or use BT keyboard. ?
RaphiePS 14y ago
Seems a little disingenuous to claim they're the first tablet to have side-by-side multitasking when the Surface lets you do just that.
Lennu 14y ago
If Steam is now out on Ubuntu 12.04, they could make it work too on these Ubuntu Tablets?
methodin 14y ago
There is one completely awesome thing here - the fact that the phone itself can/will drive all form factors via docking etc... tablet, TV and computer all driven off the phone. That's incredible if it comes to fruition.
clebio 14y ago
>> Your Ubuntu tablet has multiple secure user accounts... Thank goodness. The absence of this makes every tablet OS out there today pretty weak sauce. If I can't lock the screen, or inhibit another person in the house from opening my email, Dropbox folder, etc., let alone allow them to 'switch user', then no one else can borrow the device. An-ipad-per-child isn't terribly economical, in my book.
- aw3c2 14y ago
  Android 4.2 has multiple user accounts.
  - clebio 14y ago
    Good to know, thanks!
- WrkInProgress 14y ago
  Windos 8/RT has multiple user accounts. Android 4.2 on tablets also has multiple user accounts.
cabbeer 14y ago
Ubuntu uses KDE for their mobile apps and GTK on the desktop, this is going to be a pain when porting apps.
- noahl 14y ago
  They use Qt for mobile apps, but I don't think they use the whole KDE environment. For instance, I really really doubt that the KDE daemons are running, and they aren't using the K* apps either. As for porting, I think they have a consistent story - use Qt everywhere. It's clear that they're moving to Qt, and while I expect they will continue to run other peoples' GTK apps on the desktop, I doubt they'll be writing many more of their own.
kriro 14y ago
Once this gets released I'll likely buy a full set of phone+tablet I don't currently own a tablet and my phone is some superold cell (dumbphone?) so I'll be very easy to please. Worst case scenario I'll pay whatever it costs to help consumer Linux into the tornado a little quicker. [I'm an Ubuntu user both at home and at work but I remain a tad sceptical about this]
dreen 14y ago
Most people installed Ubuntu because they could do it on their PC without buying anything. Can I do the same with a semi-old tablet?
aortega 14y ago
You need balls to take on Google, Apple and Microsoft tablets, being a small business that started giving away Linux CDs. And actually doing a very decent try at it.
vilgax 14y ago
A recent critical post by KDE developer Aaron Seigo on Canonical claiming "same Ubuntu code will deliver a mobile, tablet, desktop or TV experiences" https://plus.google.com/107555540696571114069/posts/HSL2C21DJt7 https://plus.google.com/107555540696571114069/posts/HSL2C21D...
- pekk 14y ago
  What is with KDE and its angry rearguard actions? Let them make better partnerships if they want their product to be promoted, it isn't necessary to spend so much time downing other people's efforts.
mikecane 14y ago
It looks like what Open webOS should have been.
cpressey 14y ago
I do wish people would stop with the phrase "post-PC era"... and I thought Canonical would be above that (consider me properly disillusioned.) Can we at least start calling PCs "workstations" again, to compensate?
RyanMcGreal 14y ago
> Ubuntu is predicted to ship on almost 10% of the world’s new branded PCs by 2014 I'm interested to hear more about this.
- networked 14y ago
  This stood out to me, too. Apparently [1] this is what their own internal estimate is. On an semi-unrelated note, the effect the dynamic controls in some of the mock-ups have is interesting to observe. While I liked how play controls came up when I moved my mouse cursor over the image of the tablet playing a video (http://i50.tinypic.com/5b1bms.png http://i50.tinypic.com/5b1bms.png) it almost made me feel disappointed when I clicked on "play" and nothing happened. I wonder if as a user persuasion tool this is better or worse than a static image. Edit: it is also strange how they show mouse over effects in a mock up of a touch interface. [1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/02/canonical-idUSnBw1R6hb6a+120+BSW20130102 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/02/canonical-idUSnBw1... ("Canonical estimates that...")
- takluyver 14y ago
  Rumours abound that in less affluent countries, a lot of computers are sold without Windows, but very quickly get illicit copies of Windows installed. I don't know how true that is. All the same, some proportion of people must start to wonder why they need to install Windows.
baby 14y ago
The video is so Apple-y that it bothers me (speaking really slowly like we are retards).
WickyNilliams 14y ago
I must say, this looks pretty slick. Wonder how well the multitasking stuff will hold up in practice? Here's hoping some clever bods will get this working on a HP Touchpad, would love to resurrect my touchpad from it's dusty grave. Can't imagine there would be much problem given that it's had no problems running Android. Bring it on! Does anybody know if this will give access to bash etc? Could I develop on this with a bluetooth keyboard? EDIT: full desktop with mouse and keyboard! Should have finished watching the video before commenting. I'm interested in this thin client for windows also - is this standard in the regular Ubuntu distros?
- WickyNilliams 14y ago
  w.r.t. the windows thin client, does this also mean it's going to mandate x86 processor?
- pedalpete 14y ago
  A few weeks ago I put Ubuntu 12.04 on my touchpad. I was hoping to run a full rails stack and actually do some dev on the device, or at least use it for testing. I think I'm getting close. But unfortunately, the UX is difficult to work with without a mouse and keyboard (which I am yet to hook-up). I'm sure we'll see this on the touchpad before too long.
newishuser 14y ago
Heres why this is awesome: - The name Unity finally makes perfect sense - Phone can expand into a tablet can expand into a desktop - larger form factor can run smaller form factor apps - app switcher is slick - Canonical finally learned how to use all the bull shit motivational words that apple uses to inspire people - OS level tie ins to social services - Still open source I'm excited to use it, and I'm excited to help. Personally I think this could be a big win for user rights and an awesome mobile OS.
- emehrkay 14y ago
  I love the transformations that the OS goes through based on device, very much like responsive web design. My favorite feature is running phone apps on the side with the Windows8-like split view, great idea. I wonder how that translates to portrait.
  - WrkInProgress 14y ago
    If they ape the Windows 8 snap view completely, it won't work in portrait. It will be interesting how they deal with installing phone apps on the tablet. They might just allow carte blanche or might require a developer to opt in to avoid issues with phone specific apps being unusable on the tablet.
    - noahl 14y ago
      What issues would they have with phone-specific apps, other than possibly lacking a microphone and cell plan? If their security model makes the developer list what sensitive APIs (like voice and location) they use, then they already have enough information to disable apps that depend on having a microphone. If you mean having apps work on bigger screens, it looks like side stage lets them keep phone apps at a reasonable phone size. They might require opt-in to make phone apps fullscreen - that seems reasonable. (Although it sounds like one of their goals with QML is to make it easy to write apps that grow with screen size, so they're hoping that almost all apps will be able to do it.)
mixmastamyk 14y ago
Looks pretty, but I've come to expect constant churn and regressions from Ubuntu. My desktop is significantly worse than it was 5 years ago. Still I hold a sliver of hope that I'll be able to write mobile apps in Python one day. (I've heard of kivy, but worried it isn't direct enough).
SCdF 14y ago
Man this looks great my transformer prime is getting kinda slow let me find the download li--- oh. Well nevermind then. Back to work.
phireph0x 14y ago
I've used Ubuntu on the desktop since 2004 so this is an exciting development. From the video and screenshots the design is really polished and the UI/UX well-thought-out. I really want to see this succeed but have doubts. The mobile market is already crowded with competition from Apple and Android, not to mention second-tier players (Microsoft, Blackberry) gunning for a larger slice of the pie. Even if Ubuntu achieves a modicum of success, their entry into the market means yet another platform that mobile developers must target (I'm not counting web apps since those can be supported equally with minimum effort across platforms). It's a wonder that Ubuntu chose to create another binary mobile development platform instead of adopting Java (leveraging the skills of existing Android devs) and calling it good enough.
- varjag 14y ago
  Without Android API the skills of existing Android developers (well, the platform-specific part) are irrelevant. Java otherwise is a lackluster language with VM that still has 64K bytecode segments in 21st century, owned by a particular corporation seemingly intent on driving it into the ground. There is no reason using it with a clean start.
lukejduncan 14y ago
Does the Feb 25th date also mean you can download the source then?
espadrine 14y ago
Ubuntu people, I have but one question: can I open a terminal window from that tablet? a text editor? get to Firefox' developer tools? Do you see where I'm going with this? (That must be possible, they demo Gimp in the video. Yet, that's what I hated in tablets: I couldn't use them.)
polshaw 14y ago
That a quad core A15 is required to run the desktop convergence is a bit disappointing to me, although with the rate of progress in the ARM world i suppose it won't be an issue for long (ie. requiring expensive cutting edge devices with poor battery life), and no doubt lower devices will be 'hacked' to allow it being open source. I really have to congratulate ubuntu on staying strong for so long on their unity vision; this is clearly the realisation of that. I hope that they manage to get some OEM support (hello Asus?), the momentum does seem to be there now IMO.
PhilipA 14y ago
It looks nice, but the name Linux, will stile scare a lot of traditional users away...
itry 14y ago
Nobody mentions root access. Do I get it by default? This would be the only differentiating factor for me. For example, I hate it that I cannot edit /etc/hosts on my iOS devices.
curiousfiddler 14y ago
This just so awesome. As an Ubuntu user, I was feeling left out :)
codygman 14y ago
In regards to everyone here talking about unity crashing: xmonad+debian squeeze My laptop has been up/plugged in for 72 days and I have no issues whatsoever ;) Sometimes stable is a good thing.
- jff 14y ago
  i3 + debian stable Debian supremacy.
sigkill 14y ago
This might be only tangentially relevant but I never took to liking the Ubuntu's font. I would much rather Segoe UI (regular, not Lite) or even Google's Roboto over Ubuntu's font.
georgemcbay 14y ago
As a developer, having read through all of their site I can't tell if this thing actually supports native development. If it did, that would be great, my main issue with Android is the way so much of the OS is tied to Java with the NDK and such as barely supported afterthoughts. Google doesn't seem to have any particularly good plan (at least not in public) for dealing with the Java anchor, even after the Oracle lawsuit, which I find very concerning as an Android developer -- like, when, if ever, are they going to support Java 1.7 or Java 1.8 features? Seems like they are content to be stuck at Java 1.6 forever. So not only are you practically stuck with Java if writing non-game "native" Android apps, but you're stuck with an old and increasingly obsolete Java. The fact that I can't read past the weasel wording here though suggests to me that when Canonical says "native" they mean "QML running on top of Qt", which isn't really native at all (if I can't hook into it at the C/C++ level). I'd love to be wrong though.
- achiang 14y ago
  App developers will be able to use C++ if they like. /ac, speaking on behalf of self, not employer
  - georgemcbay 14y ago
    That's great! You might want to press whoever is in charge of the developer-related pages to make this more clear.
    - JasonFruit 14y ago
      It's made quite clear here: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/tablet/app-ecosystem http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/tablet/app-ecosystem
josteink 14y ago
Looking at this (which looks very nice and impressive), the one thing which strikes me is how all the actors in this market seems to want/need a their-platform-only deployment to truly work. Ubuntu on the phone, tablet, PC and TV looks nice. I'd love to try it. But for me to be able to do so, the devices I buy needs to be open enough for me to be able to install that. If all I buy is locked down devices, you can be sure I'll never have a home where every device was bought when the next big thing(tm) was released. I'll need a way to bring the platform of my choice to all my devices. Like PCs had and allowed before Apple went ahead and ruined it all. Either that or better open protocols and specifications created, implemented and deployed across the line, but we can see how well that is going these days.
- pedalpete 14y ago
  If I understand you correctly, you're wondering if you'll be able to install Ubuntu on all of your devices? I don't think that is the model they are going for, and it really doesn't suit the mass market anyway. As I understand it, they are trying to provide the best experience so that manufacturers decide to use them as the OS platform for their devices. Then you'll just go out and buy Ubuntu devices. You don't actually install and select your OS.
  - josteink 14y ago
    But as a techie I know that's not really needed. It feels entirely pointless (and environmentally irresponsible) to buy new hardware just to get new software. It's all software these days so are we not embracing that yet?
capex 14y ago
Completely amazing in every sense. But the way he said "its the cleanest, freshest, most beautiful tablet experience around" sounded like a borrowed sentence.
wcchandler 14y ago
Why stop here? Why not make the application switching fully ubiquitous between multiple devices via app "off-loading" to the cloud? There's many different ways they can approach this: a hobbyist hosting an ubuntu server running whatever's necessary to facilitate this; a hosted solution -- possibly by Canonical (ala Ubuntu One or competitors); and a corporate solution (your IT staff managing Ubuntu servers and environment). I feel like this might be the next step, especially with app/desktop virtualization becoming more popular.
dharma1 14y ago
proud to say I worked on the design for this :) Hope the community will embrace it and help us make it better
- Shorel 14y ago
  Thanks! I went back to Linux just because Unity feels refreshing and different and runs faster than Win7 in my hardware.
shurcooL 14y ago
Apple dug themselves into a hole with such fixation on static screen size/resolution. They can't do these multitasking innovations because of that. It seems that Ubuntu has outdone even Windows 8 in that front. Curious to see this running on some real hardware, because for now it's just a design and software.
LilValleyBigEgo 14y ago
> Ubuntu’s unique side stage places a phone and a tablet app on the same screen at the same time for amazing tablet productivity. True multitasking comes to the tablet. Actually, that is not unique. Several Android tablets by Samsung have multiwindow functionality and so do Windows 8 (Surface) and RT. > Use all four edges of the screen to navigate between apps, settings and controls. Also Windows. > And with voice control, it’s as if you had an extra set of hands – a truly personal assistant. Also in Windows. So, pretty much, they took Windows 8's interface and copied as many features as they could into free software which they cannibalized, then slapped in some magic that makes it so that their Amazon sponsored links come up every time you search for an application and setting. Et voila, instant revenue.
tuananh 14y ago
the OS itself looks decent and promising. Now the only problem is getting this into a decent hardware and they're golden.
rattray 14y ago
I wonder how feasible it would be to build iOS and Android emulators for a linux tablet? Assuming people have tried for purposes of building/testing, but this seems a little different to me. Being able to run all iOS and android apps on a single device would be pretty revolutionary.
joycer 14y ago
When are we going to get the kind of options for window managers that we have on the desktop on our mobile devices? I do want my phone to look like my computer but my computer looks very much different than Canonical's Unity.
shellehs 14y ago
Anybody noticed the video showed windows apps Excel running on Ubuntu Tablet? What is that?
samtaylor29 14y ago
Glad to have more power back in the carriers hands, RIM should embrace this OS as it looks much better than BB10.
hereonbusiness 14y ago
The good: You get a full linux distro on a mobile device. This is the best thing that happened to modern mobile devices since ... well ever. Modern mobile devices being smartphones and tablets. The bad: Like every other "mobile OS" out there it is strongly biased toward native apps. But in this case it's at least understandable as there is an actual linux distribution under the hood. Also i have a feeling that they'll probably lack behind in the mobile department for years when compared to Android especially if they can't get some big OEM partners on board as has already been said in some comments.
- Shorel 14y ago
  Android does not have native apps. They all run in the Dalvik JVM. iOS has native apps. They let the Apple devices do the same stuff with a slower processor, and have longer battery life, and providing a more fluid and smoother operation. What do you want? An OS full of JavaScript apps that burns its battery in 6 hours? I for one, welcome Ubuntu and its upcoming native and open applications as the best thing to happen in the mobile space.
tekromancr 14y ago
I would really like to see Canonical take the initiative and produce versions of Ubuntu Tablet that can be flashed onto popular devices. I was kind of disappointed to see them put out another one of those "Hey, does anyone want to build hardware for us?" requests. They seem to have a business model that involves getting Ubuntu running on anything and everything, but they don't have a clear path to mass market hardware.
- tekromancr 14y ago
  Nevermind... https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Install?action=show&redirect=TouchInstallProcess https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Install?action=show&redire...

528 points by jrgifford 14y ago

All I want is a 8-10 hour battery life tablet that I can install a development environment and plug a keyboard I know Ubuntu won't be narrowing down to developers but if Ubuntu Tablets solve this I'll get in line to get the one as fast as possible

taeric 14y ago

So, I have to confess this has me sorely tempted to try on my convertible laptop. "Touch" is effectively non-existent in this space for linux. Unless there are any other suggestions? (I have a lenovo x220 tablet. I like the computer. The touch aspect is just basically ignored.)

ixnu 14y ago

Engadget is reporting that Canonical will make a Nexus 7 build available. If so, this will rival the RasPi as a play toy and sandbox. GPU acceleration might be a significant hurdle on the nVidia. http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/19/ubuntu-for-tablets-revealed/ http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/19/ubuntu-for-tablets-reveal...

fluidcruft 14y ago
W00t! Can't wait... my N7 has been collecting dust. Writing special-purpose scientific tools that work on the linux desktop and on N7 seems a much better answer than porting to Android.
Falling3 14y ago
Damn, I'd really love to be able to try this out on my Galaxy Tab. I wonder if we'll see a build for those anytime soon.

tinkmasterflash 14y ago

I don't even use Ubuntu for the desktop or the laptop, what motivation do I have to use it on a phone or tablet? How about making Unity less than an unholy mess before branching out into other form-factors?

sc0rb 14y ago
I don't even use Apple operating systems on my phone or any other device, what motivation do I have to use it on an iphone, ipad or other apple product? Can't you make this argument about anything?
reactor 14y ago
You don't need to use it. Variety is beautiful.
keyboardP 14y ago
Look at it like this. They may have cool new features not seen on existing tablets. Your favourite company might then incorporate and, hopefully, improve upon the feature and you now have a new feature on your platform that may not have been planned before. No one is forcing you to use it but it still has potential to positively affect your tablet experience, even if it's indirectly.
claystu 14y ago
I'm betting you meant "that's nice, but did you have to break the Ubuntu desktop experience to build a tablet interface?"
HunOL 14y ago
I didn't even use Android on my desktop, what's the motivation to use it on a phone or tablet?
marcoceppi 14y ago
Sorry another contender is providing you with a choice. Good thing you know how to exercise it.
yareally 14y ago
You're commenting (and just created an account) on a site called hacker news and you cannot think of something to do with it? - build apps or port apps to work better on it. I can also do this without having to resort to Java like Android if I want to do things the recommended and supported way. I am also guessing that running su/sudo on it will not feel like an ugly hack to do like it is on Android[1] since it should be built in. - run scripts (you can do that on Android with the Android Scripting layer and the terminal emulator, but it still has its quirks). - easier access to things that are harder to deal with on Android or iOS (development tools) via apt. Perhaps even something like Blender or Gimp will run decent on it. There are lots of possibilities. Perhaps not if all you want to do is browse the web and check email. However, I consider it another way to hack around and build things. [1] http://www.chainfire.eu/articles/125/_How-To_SU_published/ http://www.chainfire.eu/articles/125/_How-To_SU_published/

bjustin 14y ago

I love their solution to run apps side by side, by using the phone version for the smaller app. Android is the only other platform that could really do it, with both widescreen tablets and apps where the same binary can run on phones and tablets.

mikemoka 14y ago

This is great, I hope it will have the same success that Ubuntu for Mobile Devices gathered, oh wait, it didn't succeed after all..

claystu 14y ago

Can you dual boot it to an Ipad?

yareally 14y ago
Since porting Android to iOS is pretty much dead since the iphone 3g[1], I would assume not. [1] http://0xdeadfa11.net/blog/2012/07/11/the-idroid-project-where-it-presently-stands/ http://0xdeadfa11.net/blog/2012/07/11/the-idroid-project-whe...
- claystu 14y ago
  That's too bad. I love the Ipad hardware, but I'm just not a fan of the Apple interface. Being locked out of my own computer drives me nuts--especially whenever I try to watch something in Flash.
  - yareally 14y ago
    Yeah, that's unfortunately the big hangup that keeps me from adopting Apple (mobile) stuff past app development reasons. It's too limited really for hacking and modding. Sure, there's some groups out there that mod with jailbreaking to add features, but if you want to add an entire OS, you're just kind of out of luck. There's a small part of me that likes seeing how I can get around all that without source, but after a while, I rather stop fighting it and just use a platform for modding/hacking that makes it easier. Even custom ROMs for Android are usually a bit quirky and full of bugs if they're running on anything other than Nexus devices, due to a mismatch in driver versions and the OS version much of the time. If you want something to just hack around on and mod stuff, I recommend getting a Nexus 7 for that and use your ipad for your normal usage. They're cheap, battery life is good (as far as Android goes, it's 7-8 hours for me normally). Ubuntu for tablets is to be supported for it and there's an unofficial webos port for it out as well. That plus the entire AOSP android source and plenty of ROMs out there to take features from. Unlocking + rooting Nexus devices is dead simple. Basically plug into USB, run a few terminal commands and you're done. Granted it makes taking updates a bit harder (if you mod past this), but if you're rooted and unlocked, you usually do it yourself anyways versus taking a direct update.

kaolinite 14y ago

Yet another announcement by Canonical that isn't backed by a "Buy" button. I understand that it's not exactly easy for them, but it's becoming a bit boring how they keep announcing new "products" with no way of actually purchasing them. Couldn't they have waited for a year or so for this to be ready to ship and then launch it? At the very least it'd be good to have "Available to buy in July, 2013" or whatever.

marcoceppi 14y ago
They're releasing images for this and the phone in a week.
- kaolinite 14y ago
  Then why not wait a week and announce it then?
  - cryptoz 14y ago
    There are plenty of reasons. Virtually no technology / OS vendor announces and ships on the same day. Apple gives a few weeks lead time between announcement and shipping too.
    - kaolinite 14y ago
      There's a big difference between providing the OS to download and shipping a product. I wouldn't expect to be able to buy it and have it 2 days later, but a pre-order option would be good.
  - marcoceppi 14y ago
    Sorry, they're releasing images in two days. Seriously, though! Not everything has to be instant. They're putting themselves out to gauge interest and probably lure OEM vendors to their booth at MWC.
    - fusiongyro 14y ago

nvk 14y ago

Would love to hack my original iPad to install this.

ohwp 14y ago

Youtube promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h384z7Ph0gU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h384z7Ph0gU

ivzar 14y ago

The seamless phone => tablet => desktop transition make the Ubuntu family a winner. Now to see if it picks up any enterprise traction...

rufugee 14y ago

As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm now using Cinnamon as a desktop environment. I really, really wanted Unity to work, but I've had continued performance problems which make it ultimately unusable for me. I understand Ubuntu's need to turn a profit, but I really wish they'd focus on making Unity stable and performant before chasing down these other opportunities... Disclaimer: I run three monitors, so I'm probably different from the average Unity user.

ajasmin 14y ago
I really hope they get the tablet interface right. Unity on the desktop has been a bumpy road. Although it's getting better, each release has its quirks. I'm having a lot of issues with their new web app integration for instance. Since Ubuntu on the tablet is a literal clean slate, they can at least avoid the puzzle of making existing applications fit their desktop guidelines. A lot of popular apps still don't use the app menu for instance (GUI version of Vim, Eclipse, and even that new Steam for Ubuntu).
donniezazen 14y ago
Any mobile development will help laptop and desktop users. They recently cut down 200MBs of RAM usage in Unity. All apps from phone and tablet will be portable to desktop. I sincerely hope Ubuntu pursue's it to the end.
levesque 14y ago
I find that Unity feels sluggish and inelegant, performance wise. There is always a slight delay when I open the dash, and I generally dislike it's behavior. However, I stay with it because I dislike the alternatives, so no point switching for me. I think this is good news for Unity on the desktop because it means they will be tweaking the hell out of it for performance. I read that it's already better in 13.04, and we can probably expect it to get better over the releases. Other than that, I wouldn't use Ubuntu on tablets right now. I'm not enough of an early adopter to switch to this OS which is - let's face it - probably not ready for prime time and still pretty buggy. The first versions of Android sucked, I don't see why this would be an exception. Nailing it on the first try is very hard.

raphinou 14y ago

I hope it runs on Asus Transformer and is usable both in tablet mode as laptop mode.

habosa 14y ago

This is a really great step. I previously though Ubuntu was going to ruin itself by getting into the mobile game so late but it seems like their solution might be unified enough (as a result of the time they spent watching others) to actually gain some foothold. I have a Nexus 7 and if they can allow me to dual boot somehow I will be all over this. I'd love to have a little touchscreen Ubuntu PC in my backpack. I'm still not convinced I want it on my phone but they have my attention on the other three screens.

nsoun 14y ago
One of the benefits of entering late is they're able to learn from the competitions missteps.

chx 14y ago

I still don't get it. This emphasises on "productivity". Tablets, lacking any efficient ways of input are not productivity devices. They are great at consuming content, of course. There is a reason the iPad and the Kindle Fire rules the field.

JonnieCache 14y ago
There are vast portions of the workforce for whom productivity does not depend on getting stuff out of ones brain and into the computer, like it does for us. For lots of people, primarily managers, productivity involves getting stuff out of the computer and into the brain. Touch interfaces are very productive for these kinds of tasks. Typically these people are the ones holding the purse strings, so targeting them is a good strategy.
- chx 14y ago
  Really? So they don't need to produce lots of documents, presentations, spreadsheets and emails?
  - outworlder 14y ago
    No. Managers have other people do it for them.
- sjmulder 14y ago
  Well put, I never thought about it as such. That said, it looks like Ubuntu lets you drop down into desktop mode with a keyboard + mouse which is something I really like about Windows 8 over Android and iOS.
potatolicious 14y ago
There is more to productivity than fast, accurate text input. Touch is inferior for text input, but superior for other types of input. I know many designers who are salivating at the prospect of being able to do their work with a stylus that's also a screen (as opposed to the Wacom way of doing it).

BaconJuice 14y ago

Please, could someone take this image and build it for the BlackBerry Playbook? because that thing is collecting dust under my bed at home.

AlexanderDhoore 14y ago

The fact that it runs Qt is the biggest win in my opinion. Must - learn - Qt !

orofino 14y ago

This looks really promising and I think I'll give it a try, once there is something to buy... The multitasking looks really good, it is an interesting way to solve this problem. If their implementation is as good as it is presented, we'll see Apple and Google copying this on their platforms. It seems to me that this offers many of the benefits that I see with OS X, an interface that lets me just do what I want without a bunch of pain, but if I need more power I can drop down to the shell and really get at what I need. Additionally, if using MS Office on the device is possible in a non-shitty way, it will be amazing. They talked very little about this, so I'm skeptical, but it would be absolutely killer if this worked well. US business lives in MS office and a way to easily use it is REQUIRED before tablets can begin supplanting desktops in the enterprise. The rip off of Apple's styling for the promo video is distracting and unnecessary. Come up with your own styling for this, the offering looks appealing, you've got capabilities that other competitors lack, there isn't a reason for you to copy someone else's presentation style.

ZeroGravitas 14y ago

When they mentioned "sharing" I was hoping for something like Android's share which would take whatever I'm looking at and give it to another app. Instead it's just social networks. Better than Apple's lame lock-in to Twitter and Facebook but sharing between apps in Android's a killer-app.

trebor 14y ago

When I can install it on my iPad I might give it a try. Till then, why should I buy another tablet to play with Ubuntu?

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

firefoxman1 14y ago

Wow. This is what Unity is for. I'm still on Gnome on my desktop because I'm not a Unity fan, but this is really incredible. Android better watch its back.

Alterlife 14y ago
The choice of name "Unity" finally makes sense to me.

apawloski 14y ago

Ironically, it might be the walled-garden ecosystem of tablets that ultimately leads to mass end-user adoption of Linux. The desktop introduces too many complications -- there is a much larger set of use cases, and thus a larger set of situations where a Windows-convert can get confused, discouraged, or frustrated. Tablets, on the other hand, with their relatively fewer ubiquitous uses, can be fine-tuned in way that requires little-to-no end-user servicing. If Canonical can employ the Apple/Android software store model with enough flexibility that power users can still make meaningful modifications, then this could be the biggest thing to happen for end-user Linux in a long time.

imissmyjuno 14y ago
What about iOS and Android? One is a Unix, the other a Linux. If you mean in the "truly open-source" fashion, then it's entirely up to the UI when it comes to the masses. I've personally never liked Unity due to very inconsistent buggy UI, and enjoyed Gnome 3 much more. The more competition the merrier, though.
- lukifer 14y ago
  > One is a Unix, the other a Linux. That's a little like saying an omelette is an egg. :) Both make heavy use of *nix and OSS components, but they also add their own proprietary ingredients. I don't see anything wrong with that, but I'd prefer that full-stack open-source wasn't limited just to technorati. You're right that the masses define their experience by the UI: both what's delivered directly to users, and indirectly via the UI tools/ecosystem/culture available to developers.

bitsoda 14y ago

I still don't understand the tablet form factor. I concluded that it's not for me some time ago, but am waiting for the general population to come around to one glaring flaw: you have to hold it. For me, it doesn't matter how light a tablet is. A five pound laptop will always feel lighter since it will effectively weigh nothing because it's always on some kind of platform during use, either my lap or a flat desk/table surface. The tablet holds your hands and/or your legs hostage as you need to get into that special tablet-viewing position to prop the thing up on your thighs. I don't mean to come across as a cranky person who bemoans tablet use, I just feel the process is cumbersome not being able to have your hands free and wonder if people really think this is the form factor to usher in the "post-pc" era, whatever that is.

firefoxman1 14y ago
Right now they're pretty useless, I agree. But watch a couple clips for me: http://youtu.be/Jx7VNP5UO2k?t=5m9s http://youtu.be/Jx7VNP5UO2k?t=5m9s (at 5:09) http://youtu.be/5jzAAPccBaU?t=2m27s http://youtu.be/5jzAAPccBaU?t=2m27s (at 2:27) That's the future. That's when the tablet becomes extremely useful. Productive-yet-portable in a way a laptop can't be. What I think the Microsoft guys really nailed is that the tablet is ultimately just another tool. The "post-pc" era still has plenty of PC's in it; they just work alongside tablets and phones.
- bitsoda 14y ago
  I'll have a look at the videos once I get home. (Stuffy corporate stooge job)
- riffraff 14y ago
  I'm not sure what is supposed to be noticed in the second video, but the first one is basically already possible with current tablets, other than the "everything is transparent". I mean, there is no deep conceptual difference between something like leafsnap and what is shown there. But even looking at that, it still doesn't show why a tablet form factor (thinking >9" diagonal) is better for this things than something sized like a larger phone, or a foldable thingy like the (sadly dead) MS Courier.

orangethirty 14y ago

If they would just sell the damn thing and not have advertisements built into it. I have been using (a paying) Ubuntu user since v.7. It just angers me that they just wont outright charge for it.

andmarios 14y ago

I am a bit tired of how much Ubuntu gets promoted compared to other Linux based solutions. Here is a video of KDE's Plasma Active running on a Nexus 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7isMAmwW0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7isMAmwW0 It is a real use video, there aren't any fancy photos, there isn't any CG in the video in contrast with Canonical's page. Plasma Active is being actively developed for about 2 years now and KDE 4 was developed from the ground up to be able to adapt to various form factors. Since most Linux applications run on many different architectures, with such an approach you can keep your low power ARM based tablet and run all your desktop software -albeit a bit or more slower.

JosephRedfern 14y ago
It doesn't seem anywhere near as slick as Ubuntu's offerings, though - and I think for a portable device like a tablet, that is very important.
- andmarios 14y ago
  When it comes to notifications, easy sharing and usability features in general, it has them all and they are touch optimized. I guess you mean that it doesn't look like Android or iOS. This can be changed easily through a theme. Conveniently you can download new themes from the theme settings screen, you don't need extra software nor you have to search in random places. On the other hand, certain programs, like its text editor which can highlight code in almost every known computer language, does regular expression searches, support vi input mode etc, can't get much eye-pleasing. But you do get something you can actually work on. I love the touch drived interface of tablets, but I don't think there is a reason to hide that a tablet device is a computer in different form and when you need it, it can perform as thus.
  - fumar 14y ago
    >I don't think there is a reason to hide that a tablet device is a computer in different form and when you need it, it can perform as thus Sort of like the Surface tablets...

trumbitta2 14y ago

I use unity for the fullscreen windows / mac-like menus. In fact, I: - use gnome-do instead of unity dash - use docky in panel mode as my beloved taskbar - keep the horrible unity sidebar well hidden on the left And I am happy so far.

freehunter 14y ago
Yeah this thread is totally not about Ubuntu or Unity on the desktop.
- trumbitta2 14y ago
  Yep, I replied at the wrong level. Shame on me. Also should've not replied to begin with, given that I don't really care about Ubuntu on devices other than my laptop.

pajju 14y ago

They learnt everything from others by launching late, but added most of the good design patterns. Great work all together. Worth mentioning, Ubuntu is emerging as perfect web platform with tight integration with web-services. "And now web applications are first class citizens too, wow. I was waiting for this to happen fast." At this stage they need: 1. More Partners. They must have strong tie-ups with OEM partners, who can make in-expensive devices, otherwise its not going anywhere. Get those chinese manufacturers. 2. Please NO device fragmentation and open strict standards among OEM's. 3. Nokia backing up this project? Isn't this the best time for Nokia to make Ubuntu powered devices? I think so. Under the current circumstances, Ubuntu and Nokia can make a good win-win fit. Nokia maybe can now come back strongly, instead of believing in a closed ecosystem like windows, which is not going anywhere. 3. Get Funded. 4. Apps. Quality and tested apps. Can this happen with Open Source methodologies? Debatable. :) All together this is great progress in a short span. Incredible team-work, lets not forget this comes from Open Source World. Love this, Made my day.

wuest 14y ago
> 3. Nokia backing up this project? I would love for this to happen (heck, my N900 and N9 show that Nokia + Linux = fantastic device) but I fear that as long as Elop is at the reins, this is an impossible dream. This is the same CEO who even went so far as to ditch Qt less than a year ago, remember.
mtgx 14y ago
2. The apps will remain compatible, just like on Android, but I fear they will give too much control over to carriers. From what I understand they want to give "total branding power" over a device to carriers. So we'll see how they go about that without pissing off the user. If it's subtle enough it might work. But I still hate the idea of giving even more power (again) to the carriers. The carriers should be powerless when it comes to the devices they sell. They should be no more than retailers. Who has ever heard of retailers messing with the products? No one, because that's a crazy idea. Yet that's what the carriers are doing, and will probably do even more with these new operating systems desperate for market share. 3. Why should Nokia back this project up? I mean why specifically them, and not Samsung, HTC, Sony or Huawei? Also there's zero chance they will do it. They didn't back Meego, they killed Meltemi, they aren't backing Sailfish, and they will back Ubuntu? Why? Microsoft would never allow it. And we all know Nokia is just a subsidiary of Microsoft now. 4. One of my biggest problems with Linux in general looking at it from a "consumer" point of view, has always been how ugly the programs look on Linux. They are cringe worthy, and I hate the font, too. I don't know what they're doing here, but I really hope Canonical is serious about design guidelines and resources for developers, much like Apple, Google and Microsoft have done it. They need to make it dead-easy for just about any developer to create beautiful Ubuntu apps at least with the stock resources. This should be one of their top priorities with Ubuntu, not only on mobile, but on the desktop, too. So I hope they're using resources and design guidelines that will scale well to the desktop, too. And I still think they need to rethink the Unity UI to make it more user-friendly and less frustrating.

jplmelanson 14y ago

You have to give them credit for UX innovation, they don't just try to mimic iOS.

hobbyist 14y ago

There is something visionary about these South Africans, first Elon Musk and then Mark Shuttleworth.

BenoitEssiambre 14y ago

I'm a heavy Ubuntu user and what I want to know is can it run all the existing Ubuntu/Linux apps? Also what is the multitasking model? I can't imagine full desktop multitasking would work on a tablet. That would kill the battery.

noahl 14y ago
Yes, it can run all of the standard desktop apps. The video talks about adding a keyboard and mouse and using it like a desktop. I don't think it mentions whether it can run those apps while being a tablet, though. It's not clear if it'll let you do that or not. (I would guess it will, or at least it will if GTK and Qt add support for whatever windowing system this uses.)
- BenoitEssiambre 14y ago
  "The video talks about adding a keyboard and mouse and using it like a desktop" A mouse and a keyboard doesn't mean it can run anything. I can use a mouse and keyboard with Android currently and it still won't support my development environments. Heck Android doesn't even fully support its own development environment.
- Zigurd 14y ago
  No! There are now Ubuntu Store apps (they used to be called "Disco" apps but they had to stop using that name). Ubuntu Store apps have to use a new L&F and can't use inter-process communications and have to be vetted by Canonical. Kidding! I'm kidding! Put the pitchfork down!

trotsky 14y ago

Cool, it'll look smart next to my Ubuntu TV and my Ubuntu phone.

tosseraccount 14y ago

This is a winner for me if 1) It actually runs on hardware, it's not just a concept 2) I can attach a keyboard 3) I can run a bash shell and the unix utilities.

pekk 14y ago
If you want an OS which runs on hardware and allows you to drive bash with a keyboard, you could get a laptop and run any flavor of Linux on it.
- tosseraccount 14y ago
  All laptop keyboards are bad. I just can't type as fast on them and all the keys are in the wrong place and it's easy to mis-type on them. It's just not comfortable. A good keyboard is a 100% productivity boost. Why get a laptop and put a keyboard on it when I can just get a good Linux tablet and put a real keyboard on it, like a model M IBM old school keyboard and get some work done.
- shurcooL 14y ago
  But then you lose the touch interface that lets you use it comfortably WITHOUT keyboard and mouse. Like when you're sitting on a couch or lying in bed or walking around.
DocG 14y ago
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7/Installation https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7/Installation +otg cable for any usb keyboard or use BT keyboard. ?

RaphiePS 14y ago

Seems a little disingenuous to claim they're the first tablet to have side-by-side multitasking when the Surface lets you do just that.

Lennu 14y ago

If Steam is now out on Ubuntu 12.04, they could make it work too on these Ubuntu Tablets?

methodin 14y ago

There is one completely awesome thing here - the fact that the phone itself can/will drive all form factors via docking etc... tablet, TV and computer all driven off the phone. That's incredible if it comes to fruition.

clebio 14y ago

>> Your Ubuntu tablet has multiple secure user accounts... Thank goodness. The absence of this makes every tablet OS out there today pretty weak sauce. If I can't lock the screen, or inhibit another person in the house from opening my email, Dropbox folder, etc., let alone allow them to 'switch user', then no one else can borrow the device. An-ipad-per-child isn't terribly economical, in my book.

aw3c2 14y ago
Android 4.2 has multiple user accounts.
- clebio 14y ago
  Good to know, thanks!
WrkInProgress 14y ago
Windos 8/RT has multiple user accounts. Android 4.2 on tablets also has multiple user accounts.

cabbeer 14y ago

Ubuntu uses KDE for their mobile apps and GTK on the desktop, this is going to be a pain when porting apps.

noahl 14y ago
They use Qt for mobile apps, but I don't think they use the whole KDE environment. For instance, I really really doubt that the KDE daemons are running, and they aren't using the K* apps either. As for porting, I think they have a consistent story - use Qt everywhere. It's clear that they're moving to Qt, and while I expect they will continue to run other peoples' GTK apps on the desktop, I doubt they'll be writing many more of their own.

kriro 14y ago

Once this gets released I'll likely buy a full set of phone+tablet I don't currently own a tablet and my phone is some superold cell (dumbphone?) so I'll be very easy to please. Worst case scenario I'll pay whatever it costs to help consumer Linux into the tornado a little quicker. [I'm an Ubuntu user both at home and at work but I remain a tad sceptical about this]

dreen 14y ago

Most people installed Ubuntu because they could do it on their PC without buying anything. Can I do the same with a semi-old tablet?

aortega 14y ago

You need balls to take on Google, Apple and Microsoft tablets, being a small business that started giving away Linux CDs. And actually doing a very decent try at it.

vilgax 14y ago

A recent critical post by KDE developer Aaron Seigo on Canonical claiming "same Ubuntu code will deliver a mobile, tablet, desktop or TV experiences" https://plus.google.com/107555540696571114069/posts/HSL2C21DJt7 https://plus.google.com/107555540696571114069/posts/HSL2C21D...

pekk 14y ago
What is with KDE and its angry rearguard actions? Let them make better partnerships if they want their product to be promoted, it isn't necessary to spend so much time downing other people's efforts.

mikecane 14y ago

It looks like what Open webOS should have been.

cpressey 14y ago

I do wish people would stop with the phrase "post-PC era"... and I thought Canonical would be above that (consider me properly disillusioned.) Can we at least start calling PCs "workstations" again, to compensate?

RyanMcGreal 14y ago

> Ubuntu is predicted to ship on almost 10% of the world’s new branded PCs by 2014 I'm interested to hear more about this.

networked 14y ago
This stood out to me, too. Apparently [1] this is what their own internal estimate is. On an semi-unrelated note, the effect the dynamic controls in some of the mock-ups have is interesting to observe. While I liked how play controls came up when I moved my mouse cursor over the image of the tablet playing a video (http://i50.tinypic.com/5b1bms.png http://i50.tinypic.com/5b1bms.png) it almost made me feel disappointed when I clicked on "play" and nothing happened. I wonder if as a user persuasion tool this is better or worse than a static image. Edit: it is also strange how they show mouse over effects in a mock up of a touch interface. [1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/02/canonical-idUSnBw1R6hb6a+120+BSW20130102 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/02/canonical-idUSnBw1... ("Canonical estimates that...")
takluyver 14y ago
Rumours abound that in less affluent countries, a lot of computers are sold without Windows, but very quickly get illicit copies of Windows installed. I don't know how true that is. All the same, some proportion of people must start to wonder why they need to install Windows.

baby 14y ago

The video is so Apple-y that it bothers me (speaking really slowly like we are retards).

WickyNilliams 14y ago

I must say, this looks pretty slick. Wonder how well the multitasking stuff will hold up in practice? Here's hoping some clever bods will get this working on a HP Touchpad, would love to resurrect my touchpad from it's dusty grave. Can't imagine there would be much problem given that it's had no problems running Android. Bring it on! Does anybody know if this will give access to bash etc? Could I develop on this with a bluetooth keyboard? EDIT: full desktop with mouse and keyboard! Should have finished watching the video before commenting. I'm interested in this thin client for windows also - is this standard in the regular Ubuntu distros?

WickyNilliams 14y ago
w.r.t. the windows thin client, does this also mean it's going to mandate x86 processor?
pedalpete 14y ago
A few weeks ago I put Ubuntu 12.04 on my touchpad. I was hoping to run a full rails stack and actually do some dev on the device, or at least use it for testing. I think I'm getting close. But unfortunately, the UX is difficult to work with without a mouse and keyboard (which I am yet to hook-up). I'm sure we'll see this on the touchpad before too long.

newishuser 14y ago

Heres why this is awesome: - The name Unity finally makes perfect sense - Phone can expand into a tablet can expand into a desktop - larger form factor can run smaller form factor apps - app switcher is slick - Canonical finally learned how to use all the bull shit motivational words that apple uses to inspire people - OS level tie ins to social services - Still open source I'm excited to use it, and I'm excited to help. Personally I think this could be a big win for user rights and an awesome mobile OS.

emehrkay 14y ago
I love the transformations that the OS goes through based on device, very much like responsive web design. My favorite feature is running phone apps on the side with the Windows8-like split view, great idea. I wonder how that translates to portrait.
- WrkInProgress 14y ago
  If they ape the Windows 8 snap view completely, it won't work in portrait. It will be interesting how they deal with installing phone apps on the tablet. They might just allow carte blanche or might require a developer to opt in to avoid issues with phone specific apps being unusable on the tablet.
  - noahl 14y ago
    What issues would they have with phone-specific apps, other than possibly lacking a microphone and cell plan? If their security model makes the developer list what sensitive APIs (like voice and location) they use, then they already have enough information to disable apps that depend on having a microphone. If you mean having apps work on bigger screens, it looks like side stage lets them keep phone apps at a reasonable phone size. They might require opt-in to make phone apps fullscreen - that seems reasonable. (Although it sounds like one of their goals with QML is to make it easy to write apps that grow with screen size, so they're hoping that almost all apps will be able to do it.)

mixmastamyk 14y ago

Looks pretty, but I've come to expect constant churn and regressions from Ubuntu. My desktop is significantly worse than it was 5 years ago. Still I hold a sliver of hope that I'll be able to write mobile apps in Python one day. (I've heard of kivy, but worried it isn't direct enough).

SCdF 14y ago

Man this looks great my transformer prime is getting kinda slow let me find the download li--- oh. Well nevermind then. Back to work.

phireph0x 14y ago

I've used Ubuntu on the desktop since 2004 so this is an exciting development. From the video and screenshots the design is really polished and the UI/UX well-thought-out. I really want to see this succeed but have doubts. The mobile market is already crowded with competition from Apple and Android, not to mention second-tier players (Microsoft, Blackberry) gunning for a larger slice of the pie. Even if Ubuntu achieves a modicum of success, their entry into the market means yet another platform that mobile developers must target (I'm not counting web apps since those can be supported equally with minimum effort across platforms). It's a wonder that Ubuntu chose to create another binary mobile development platform instead of adopting Java (leveraging the skills of existing Android devs) and calling it good enough.

varjag 14y ago
Without Android API the skills of existing Android developers (well, the platform-specific part) are irrelevant. Java otherwise is a lackluster language with VM that still has 64K bytecode segments in 21st century, owned by a particular corporation seemingly intent on driving it into the ground. There is no reason using it with a clean start.

lukejduncan 14y ago

Does the Feb 25th date also mean you can download the source then?

espadrine 14y ago

Ubuntu people, I have but one question: can I open a terminal window from that tablet? a text editor? get to Firefox' developer tools? Do you see where I'm going with this? (That must be possible, they demo Gimp in the video. Yet, that's what I hated in tablets: I couldn't use them.)

polshaw 14y ago

That a quad core A15 is required to run the desktop convergence is a bit disappointing to me, although with the rate of progress in the ARM world i suppose it won't be an issue for long (ie. requiring expensive cutting edge devices with poor battery life), and no doubt lower devices will be 'hacked' to allow it being open source. I really have to congratulate ubuntu on staying strong for so long on their unity vision; this is clearly the realisation of that. I hope that they manage to get some OEM support (hello Asus?), the momentum does seem to be there now IMO.

PhilipA 14y ago

It looks nice, but the name Linux, will stile scare a lot of traditional users away...

itry 14y ago

Nobody mentions root access. Do I get it by default? This would be the only differentiating factor for me. For example, I hate it that I cannot edit /etc/hosts on my iOS devices.

curiousfiddler 14y ago

This just so awesome. As an Ubuntu user, I was feeling left out :)

codygman 14y ago

In regards to everyone here talking about unity crashing: xmonad+debian squeeze My laptop has been up/plugged in for 72 days and I have no issues whatsoever ;) Sometimes stable is a good thing.

jff 14y ago
i3 + debian stable Debian supremacy.

sigkill 14y ago

This might be only tangentially relevant but I never took to liking the Ubuntu's font. I would much rather Segoe UI (regular, not Lite) or even Google's Roboto over Ubuntu's font.

georgemcbay 14y ago

As a developer, having read through all of their site I can't tell if this thing actually supports native development. If it did, that would be great, my main issue with Android is the way so much of the OS is tied to Java with the NDK and such as barely supported afterthoughts. Google doesn't seem to have any particularly good plan (at least not in public) for dealing with the Java anchor, even after the Oracle lawsuit, which I find very concerning as an Android developer -- like, when, if ever, are they going to support Java 1.7 or Java 1.8 features? Seems like they are content to be stuck at Java 1.6 forever. So not only are you practically stuck with Java if writing non-game "native" Android apps, but you're stuck with an old and increasingly obsolete Java. The fact that I can't read past the weasel wording here though suggests to me that when Canonical says "native" they mean "QML running on top of Qt", which isn't really native at all (if I can't hook into it at the C/C++ level). I'd love to be wrong though.

achiang 14y ago
App developers will be able to use C++ if they like. /ac, speaking on behalf of self, not employer
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  That's great! You might want to press whoever is in charge of the developer-related pages to make this more clear.
  - JasonFruit 14y ago
    It's made quite clear here: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/tablet/app-ecosystem http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/tablet/app-ecosystem

josteink 14y ago

Looking at this (which looks very nice and impressive), the one thing which strikes me is how all the actors in this market seems to want/need a their-platform-only deployment to truly work. Ubuntu on the phone, tablet, PC and TV looks nice. I'd love to try it. But for me to be able to do so, the devices I buy needs to be open enough for me to be able to install that. If all I buy is locked down devices, you can be sure I'll never have a home where every device was bought when the next big thing(tm) was released. I'll need a way to bring the platform of my choice to all my devices. Like PCs had and allowed before Apple went ahead and ruined it all. Either that or better open protocols and specifications created, implemented and deployed across the line, but we can see how well that is going these days.

pedalpete 14y ago
If I understand you correctly, you're wondering if you'll be able to install Ubuntu on all of your devices? I don't think that is the model they are going for, and it really doesn't suit the mass market anyway. As I understand it, they are trying to provide the best experience so that manufacturers decide to use them as the OS platform for their devices. Then you'll just go out and buy Ubuntu devices. You don't actually install and select your OS.
- josteink 14y ago
  But as a techie I know that's not really needed. It feels entirely pointless (and environmentally irresponsible) to buy new hardware just to get new software. It's all software these days so are we not embracing that yet?

capex 14y ago

Completely amazing in every sense. But the way he said "its the cleanest, freshest, most beautiful tablet experience around" sounded like a borrowed sentence.

wcchandler 14y ago

Why stop here? Why not make the application switching fully ubiquitous between multiple devices via app "off-loading" to the cloud? There's many different ways they can approach this: a hobbyist hosting an ubuntu server running whatever's necessary to facilitate this; a hosted solution -- possibly by Canonical (ala Ubuntu One or competitors); and a corporate solution (your IT staff managing Ubuntu servers and environment). I feel like this might be the next step, especially with app/desktop virtualization becoming more popular.

dharma1 14y ago

proud to say I worked on the design for this :) Hope the community will embrace it and help us make it better

Shorel 14y ago
Thanks! I went back to Linux just because Unity feels refreshing and different and runs faster than Win7 in my hardware.

shurcooL 14y ago

Apple dug themselves into a hole with such fixation on static screen size/resolution. They can't do these multitasking innovations because of that. It seems that Ubuntu has outdone even Windows 8 in that front. Curious to see this running on some real hardware, because for now it's just a design and software.

LilValleyBigEgo 14y ago

> Ubuntu’s unique side stage places a phone and a tablet app on the same screen at the same time for amazing tablet productivity. True multitasking comes to the tablet. Actually, that is not unique. Several Android tablets by Samsung have multiwindow functionality and so do Windows 8 (Surface) and RT. > Use all four edges of the screen to navigate between apps, settings and controls. Also Windows. > And with voice control, it’s as if you had an extra set of hands – a truly personal assistant. Also in Windows. So, pretty much, they took Windows 8's interface and copied as many features as they could into free software which they cannibalized, then slapped in some magic that makes it so that their Amazon sponsored links come up every time you search for an application and setting. Et voila, instant revenue.

tuananh 14y ago

the OS itself looks decent and promising. Now the only problem is getting this into a decent hardware and they're golden.

rattray 14y ago

I wonder how feasible it would be to build iOS and Android emulators for a linux tablet? Assuming people have tried for purposes of building/testing, but this seems a little different to me. Being able to run all iOS and android apps on a single device would be pretty revolutionary.

joycer 14y ago

When are we going to get the kind of options for window managers that we have on the desktop on our mobile devices? I do want my phone to look like my computer but my computer looks very much different than Canonical's Unity.

shellehs 14y ago

Anybody noticed the video showed windows apps Excel running on Ubuntu Tablet? What is that?

samtaylor29 14y ago

Glad to have more power back in the carriers hands, RIM should embrace this OS as it looks much better than BB10.

hereonbusiness 14y ago

The good: You get a full linux distro on a mobile device. This is the best thing that happened to modern mobile devices since ... well ever. Modern mobile devices being smartphones and tablets. The bad: Like every other "mobile OS" out there it is strongly biased toward native apps. But in this case it's at least understandable as there is an actual linux distribution under the hood. Also i have a feeling that they'll probably lack behind in the mobile department for years when compared to Android especially if they can't get some big OEM partners on board as has already been said in some comments.

Shorel 14y ago
Android does not have native apps. They all run in the Dalvik JVM. iOS has native apps. They let the Apple devices do the same stuff with a slower processor, and have longer battery life, and providing a more fluid and smoother operation. What do you want? An OS full of JavaScript apps that burns its battery in 6 hours? I for one, welcome Ubuntu and its upcoming native and open applications as the best thing to happen in the mobile space.

tekromancr 14y ago

I would really like to see Canonical take the initiative and produce versions of Ubuntu Tablet that can be flashed onto popular devices. I was kind of disappointed to see them put out another one of those "Hey, does anyone want to build hardware for us?" requests. They seem to have a business model that involves getting Ubuntu running on anything and everything, but they don't have a clear path to mass market hardware.

tekromancr 14y ago
Nevermind... https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Install?action=show&redirect=TouchInstallProcess https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Install?action=show&redire...