Ubuntu Mobile Announced

Placid writes "The BBC has up an article detailing the 'Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded' project which was announced by Matt Zimmerman, Ubuntu's CTO, on the Ubuntu developers mailing list. Zimmerman stated that 'These devices place new demands on open-source software and require innovative graphical interfaces, improved power management and better responsiveness.' According to the article, Intel will have their finger in the pie too, as they've recently announced a prototype device running Ubuntu. Part of the project's goal is to maximise the power saving abilities of a planned low-energy chip codenamed Silverthorn. The chip will be just one-seventh the size of normal chips, and consume only 10% of the power of existing processor. What does this mean for projects such as OpenMoko? Healthy competition, or the beginning of the end?"

Comments

Momentum

[FredDC]

It seems like Ubuntu is gaining alot of momentum in different areas right now. I hope they can make all/alot/some of the objectives they set for themselves real.
 
Especially the fact that larger hardware/software companies are willing to work together with them (the Dell deal, now Intel with this chip) looks like a big step in the right direction! What's good for one distro is good for every distro as far as I'm concerned. If Ubuntu becomes more mainstream perhaps we'll finally be able to get some good drivers for our hardware and such!

Re:Momentum

[Hercynium]

Well, while Canonical's approach *seems* to be working, I personally am skeptical of the long-term maintainability of all these projects. Granted, they've got money right now and they might as well spend it developing and advancing Linux... but can they make their efforts profitable?

RedHat has managed to pull this off... but they had to take their previously more diverse product offerings and pare them down to just serve the applications/server market - since everything else was simply not profitable.

What will become of the non-profitable Ubuntu projects after the money runs out?

I want Ubuntu to succeed in a big way - I'm an admitted Debian fanatic, and despite the flame-wars over Ubuntu's 'encroachment' (for lack of a better word) I believe Ubuntu can be the vehicle to get Debian-based systems as widely accepted as RHEL. Mark Shuttleworth has, so far, put his money where his mouth is... and it looks like other people's money is beginning to pay attention (does that make any sense??)

OK, I'm just putting this out there as food for thought - I haven't thought it as fully through as I would like... any ideas?

Re:Momentum

[howlingmadhowie]

i think linux has the advantage of being open source. this means that ubuntu can take the product advances red hat has made and then add their own. people are starting to hear about ubuntu, it's as if "the industry" has got together en masse and decided that it's time for linux to move onto the desktop and has singled-out ubuntu as the distro to push. it would not surprise me to hear of linux-versions of products from adobe et al. being released in the next year. as well as this, mark shuttleworth must be laughing at the people who ridiculed him for pumping so much money into canonical and ubuntu. now that the deal with dell has been announced, the future looks pretty rosey for his company.

my optimism comes from many things. i would say the most positive sign is that dell has chosen canonical to provide support for ubuntu and is working with canonical to make sure the hardware works out of the box. that a chip manufacturer like intel is working with the linux kernel team together is nothing unusual, but having them talk to a distribution is as far as i know unprecidented. it would imply that intel has very well-defined plans for this chip and may well be releasing a device with it in the future running mubuntu (TM howlingmadhowie 2007).

also of note is the article on the bbc website. "the increasingly popular Linux operating system Ubuntu" is just the start. they actually manage to explain what foss software is, rather than just stressing the "free as in beer" aspect. all in all, a piece which shows an understanding of foss and ubuntu, and that from auntie beeb.

OH NOES THE END!!!11!1

[drinkypoo]

What does this mean for projects such as OpenMoko? Healthy competition, or the beginning of the end?

Unless it is based on anticompetitive practice, competition is always healthy.

If the other projects deserve to survive, because they add substantial value, then they will continue to exist. Otherwise not.

I have to say, I'd really appreciate a version of Ubuntu that would run on my iPaq. I installed Familiar but it wasn't all that exciting (it did, however, work. I don't want to take anything away from those guys.)

Re:Only 10% of power?

[viewtouch]

I was able to do something useful with the crusoe chip, running this portable wireless X terminal. http://www.viewtouch.com/mobile.html The problems were that Hitachi sold these in small quantities at three times the price it sold them in larger quantities and that Hitachi stopped manufacturing these without any notice.

These devices can and do work. What's needed are hardware designers and manufacturers who are absolutely convinced that mobile devices are NOT going away, that they need to be able to be as useful as versatile terminals not just when they're being used for phone calls but also when users are interacting with software apps. ThinLinx is one such company.

Why would this be bad for OpenMoko?

[phonics]

OpenMoko is primarily a HW platform + kernel bits, AFAIK. Wouldn't this... help them?? I mean, I would LOVE an OpenMoko phone with Ubuntu. I don't see the poster's logic.

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo1973

"The Neo1973 is the first phone designed to run OpenMoko. It is manufactured by FIC who instigated the OpenMoko project."

Project run by HW company, I can't imagine them being sad there is more embedded linux SW dev happening, especially by a major distro as opposed to another HW company.