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Ubuntu Heads To Smartphones, and Tablets

Posted by samzenpus on from the have-another-option dept.

First time accepted submitter GuerillaRadio writes "Mark Shuttleworth is to announce that Canonical will be taking Ubuntu Linux to smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Orlando, FL starting today. Shuttleworth said, 'This is a natural expansion of our idea as Ubuntu as Linux for human beings. As people have moved from desktop to new form factors for computing, it's important for us to reach out to our community on these platforms. So, we'll embrace the challenge of how to use Ubuntu on smartphones, tablets and smart-screens.'"

6 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. This is clearly what he was always planning... by JustNiz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...since Unity has made Ubuntu completely suck on anything with a mouse and keyboard.

    1. Re:This is clearly what he was always planning... by HopefulIntern · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I am trying to understand what people miss from KDE, Gnome 2 or other DEs that Unity doesn't have

      Familiarity.

  2. Re:The Difference by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly there. That's the big difference. They're competing mainly with Apple/Google, and I think they can take them on.

    You might be right, but Apple has proved to be as unscrupulous as Microsoft. Expect all the ridiculous patents (e.g looks like a tablet) that they have used against Android to be used against Ubuntu.

  3. Re:Unity's table look and feel by MrHanky · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I thought it was just a half-assed imitation of OS X with the dock moved over to the left side and inconsistent application menus. Unlike Gnome3, it doesn't seem like something that would work on a tablet (nor anywhere else). I'd like a Gnome3 version of the Asus Eeee Pad Transformer.

  4. Re:The Difference by Kjella · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly there. That's the big difference. They're competing mainly with Apple/Google, and I think they can take them on.

    No, only:
    - A long history of locked down devices
    - A lot of custom hardware on each phone/tablet
    - No tradition for dual boot
    - Covered by a ton of silly software patents

    Just look at how many problems Linux has had, and still to some degree has, with basic functionality even on fairly standard desktop gear. Like sound, network, wifi, suspend/resume, bluetooth, power management and so on. Now try this in the phone/tablet world where a lot of the hardware is used exactly once in one generation and there's lots of magic values and toggles. I predict the YotLT is even further away than the YotLD.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  5. know your market by t2t10 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ubuntu's traditional market niche is the technical and professional market, people who used to use UNIX workstations. Unfortunately, with 11.10 and the upcoming move away from X11, Ubuntu is hell-bent on leaving that market: Unity is already nearly useless for power users (it doesn't work well at all on large or multi-screen setups), tools like Synaptic are becoming non-standard, etc.

    Unfortunately, Ubuntu doesn't have a chance in the tablet and smartphone market either. That market is already well service by Android and iOS. Ubuntu has virtually no mobile developers. And if it manages against all odds to even get a small market share, Ubuntu will face the kind of patent feeding frenzy that Android is being subjected to.

    Too bad Shuttleworth couldn't leave good enough alone. He's going to kill Ubuntu and seriously hurt Linux as a whole.