Slashdot Mirror
Canonical Developing Ubuntu OS For Tablets
snydeq writes "Canonical is preparing a version of the Ubuntu OS for tablet computers as the company looks to extend its presence in the mobile space, InfoWorld reports. The OS will be a lightweight version of Linux with a simplified, touch-friendly user interface, and tablets with the Ubuntu OS could become available late in winter 2011. The focus will be on developing an OS with a simplified user interface that provides quick access to the most-used applications. Development efforts will also focus on adding on-screen keyboard features and compatibility for multitouch drivers."
No, it won't be a "lightweight version of Linux".
It will be a lightweight version of Ubuntu.
Unless they are going to roll their own kernel fork, that is.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Are you claiming that apple invented the tablet computer?
They put it on the map, regardless of how long it's been there.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
he didn't say X11 graphics wouldn't be fast
he said they'd still suck, like they always have
The problem with Linux on consumer devices like that is this: Unless you make it like an embedded device, no updates and no plugging in anything non approved, then it will only work until the next update, because Linux from the kernel up is like the shifting sands and things that work today may not work tomorrow. I was talking on here just the other week with someone that bought one of the Dell Ubuntu netbooks. He gets it home, he updates it...can you guess what happened? No Sound and no wireless after the update!
Linux has great security, Linux has really nice looking UIs, what it needs now is some serious stability. It needs a stable driver ABI, it needs a way that retailers like me can actually sell your product without having to disable security just to make it usable. I ran Ubuntu on 4 machines, 3 desktops and a laptop, hoping against hope that they would get it right on the next release, but by 9.04 I simply gave up. Not once, not ever, did I get that damned OS to update without something breaking. wireless, sound, video, my printer, it got to the point I looked at the update notification as a "break your OS NOW!" button.
Canonical can put out 31 flavors of Ubuntu, hell even have a different one for every day of the week, but as long as you need a CS degree to fix the damned thing every time an update is released most OEMs are gonna avoid it like the plague. Just look at how quick netbooks, which were supposed to usher in Linux on the desktop, were switched over to XP. Hell even Canonical admitted Ubuntu netbooks had higher returns which of course hurts any retailers bottom line.
As a retailer I'd like to sell your OS, I really would. But until I can take a bog standard AMD or Intel PC, install Ubuntu, run the updates, and have 100% of the hardware that worked before work after I run the update, then I just can't allow it in my shop. The time wasted trawling forums looking for "fixes" will cost me more than simply putting Windows Home on it. Sorry.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.