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Ubuntu Tablet OS To Take On Android, iOS
snydeq writes "Canonical CEO Jane Silber discusses the Ubuntu maker's ambitions in the mobile market, saying there is plenty of room for a new player in tablets, TVs, and maybe even smartphones. 'There is a real demand for an alternative platform. We believe Ubuntu has all the characteristics that are needed to become that platform,' Silber says, adding that she expects to see Ubuntu on tablets later this year. 'And we think we can do that effectively because of characteristics of Ubuntu as a platform, industry dynamics, and an increased wariness around the walled gardens of Apple and to some extent Google and even Amazon, as they are increasingly in this game as well.' Silber cites openness, open governance, collaboration, and a strong developer ecosystem as key for Ubuntu as a tablet platform, when compared with Android and iOS."
Since tablets are considered a fundamentally different device than a desktop/laptop, I feel this is where Linux could shine. Ubuntu always seemed to be in the best position to capitalize on it as well. I am anxious to see what they come up with because I would almost definitely ditch my iPad for an Ubuntu tablet. I should note that no machine in my regular use runs Ubuntu or any other form of Linux as it could not replace what I need my desktops and laptops to do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Hasn't competition in the Linux community always been the case, between the various distros ?
My two bits
Clive DaSilva Email: clive.dasilva@gmail.com Ubuntu 18.10 Kernel 4.18
This is so meta I can't take it. Is everything not-iOS defined as "fragmentation"?
Network guy here - I've got a WebOS tablet, and 2 recent Android smartphones, none of which are usable for work due to reliance on crap apps in the software store. If Ubuntu becomes available, it will be all Ubuntu - give me NetworkManager for VPN, and a terminal window with actual ssh and telnet, and I'm happy. Oh and I can run bash and python scripts from my phone? I WANT I WANT I WANT
Anyone who has seen Unity saw this coming. Its not very fluent for most peoples desktop usage, but would be great on a tablet or smart phone.
Unless you believe competition is good for the consumer. If so, then this is exactly what is needed.
This is so meta I can't take it. Is everything not-iOS defined as "fragmentation"?
Yes. Apple are spending a lot of money feeding this line to their paid media lackies, repeated by gullible zealots. Apple are terrified of competition, and like MS before them, and IBM before them, will do everything they can to block it.
I see it as a very positive development. Ubuntu is just a sugar coated Debian. Most of vanilla Debian is still there, from command line utilities, configuration files and GUI toolkits (GTK+, Qt). If the Ubuntu tablet preserves this, it would be light years ahead Android in terms of bringing the "Free Sotware" ecosystem to a mobile device.
Check out my cross-platform apps
Then buy one now.
Install Ubuntu on a Fujitsu stylistic and get something that has far more power than any of these toys.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
This is exactly what's needed, you jar brained fuck up.
LOL!
See Barbara! That is an ad hominem attack. But it's at least targeted at someone who can defend themselves, and it's based on evidence. Regardless, he is correct in that it is exactly what is needed, and the jar brained fuck up comment is at least slightly relevant.
Competing against itself is what the Linux community does best.
Have you ever written an app for Android?
I have, that platform utterly SUCKS to program for.
"or you could write your own" is the same as, "or you can build your own car from scratch"...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
While you are right that Unity (and GNOME3 for that matter) probably make sense on tablets, don't expect to buy one anytime soon. Did ya hear any OEM deals being announced? Hint, if they weren't at CES hyping hardware deals you shouldn't expect any to ship in the next six months to a year. And that is the problem, nobody will ship Ubuntu on a tablet because nobody wants it. Nobody wants it because nobody has ever seen it on a tablet, nobody even knows it exists. And with signed boot being the new hotness there won't even be much aftermarket loading except onto the skeeviest Chinese imports.
But aftermarket loads don't matter anyway, look at Linux. Twenty years on and we are still an asterisk. End users don't load operating systems, they use whatever the factory preloads. And Google and Microsoft will be competing to offer OEMs bennies to pick their offering, what is Canonical planning on offering? It's Free? And so is Android and for all intents and purposes so will Windows 8 be free after the CoOp marketing kickbacks and such, or at least close enough to free that the ability to price the final product higher will make up for it.
Democrat delenda est
Variety and choice, trial and error, natural selection... these all lead to robust software.
The walled garden, god complex, "In know what's best for you" software gives everyone mediocrity (apart from a few fanatics who "just love" it).
Give people lots of choices and everyone will compete to offer the best... and "the best" may be different for different people.
If you don't like one system, you can easily choose another.
This is a good thing.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
It is not wise to say that Ubuntu could really work on tablets just basing that to Unity.
As UBUNTU is not Unity. It is GNOME 2.x series. And GNOME would not work with tablets. As it is not designed for tablets and you can not so on modify it to work with tablets.
Why did Tablet PC's fail on tablet markets until Apple brought iPad?
Because Microsoft tried to push a WIMP interface with Windows applications to tablet.
A WIMP stands for Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointer (if you didn't know). And GNOME (at least 2.x) needs pointer and is about Windows and drop-down menus.
That Ubuntu now comes by default a Unity, does not make Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointer go away. Unity is just a launcher and a shell.
KDE SC would work on tablets, as it is designed to be customizable and it is possible to make so user does not see windows, drop-down menus and does not need a pointer. (Icons, menus, toolbars... everything is possible to hide or make so big that they come usable with fingers).
And KDE has done great job with the Plasma. As they have different shell for different devices.
Plasma-desktop
Plasma-netbook
Plasma-mobile
Plasma-active
Plasma-Mediacenter
And thats it.... All KDE applications allows customization well to be possible fit on those device classes.
Canonical has not done anything than Unity and it does not fit to anywhere well.
Apple understood the problem, they have XNU operating system (Open Source btw) and lots of closed source sub-systems like Core animations and so on. And then they made a totally new shell for smartphone and tablet with totally new application design rules. They went and throw away the WIMP and toke just IM. Icons and menus (not drop-down).
And now Microsoft is trying to do the same, but totally wrong way. As they get second glass idea for GUI (Metro) and what was designed for smartphone (does not work so well when starting to add more functions and applications... the Zune interface does not work and Metro start screen is hard to understand) and they slaps it to desktop computers and tablets....
Desktop computers can not support Metro either. And tablets.... It is as well second glass GUI for it.
And Microsoft has pushed the "Ribbon" interface for its applications, what it copied from Lotus document writer...
And it does not work well on tablets either.... Apple and Open Handset Alliance has understanded this and made new GUI's for tablets what fits for them.
Everyone else than Microsoft and Canonical knows what to do. That every GUI needs to be designed per device class and you can not push single GUI to all of them.
And it is funny, that Canonical what is the Linux communitys Microsoft, does same thing as MS does.... Are they collaborating someway?
Linux has gained traction in any market not dominated by a single vendor that had a greater than 90% share of the entire market even before Linux got started.
You mention MacOS in passing.
Apple couldn't unseat MS-DOS with a product that implements just about every "well meaning" suggestion ever hurled at Linux.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
And then it should be called as Tubuntu with T for Tablet?
Canonical should go and pull all othes, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu and Ubuntu and make a single Ubuntu DVD with a installer what gives a user a choice to choose what to use.
On LiveCD user could logout and back in to try other desktops.
Just like how Mandrake made it.... boot, choose and login... logout and try next one. Install what you wanted...
I wouldn't say that.
Has Canonical burned an epic amount of karma with Unity? Absolutely. But now we see the strategy of Canonical and why the (at the time) weird decisions were being made - for moving into the mobile & embedded market.
1) The nasty split with the Gnome community over Gnome3. Due to the Gnome community designing for the desktop and ignoring Canonical's input for the most part. Canonical decides to develop Unity so it can control the development path.
2) Wayland - X has way too much overhead and features for low-power mobile devices. Wayland keeps it nice and light.
3) Close/minimize/maximize debacle - pure usabilty idea. It was thrown out there to play with the code and how far people will accept change.
4) Ubuntu One - iTunes/Amazon fighter.
Being as they are one of (if not the) largest GPL distros on the planet, they know they have a massive built in base they can use for beta testing ideas, Q&A and bug fixing (since the code is all out in the open). That's huge. Add in the rock solid dependability of Linux and they have a winner.
I call it 'The Aristocrats'
> Yes, and it's been a major factor in Linux never gaining any meaningful traction outside the server market.
Not at all. The major factor is that zero OEMs have offered it as a real choice. The Dell N series doesn't count, almost every time the Windows version sold for the same or less. Never once did a real major OEM offer up a PC preloaded with Linux at a price advantage over Windows. The few times small fry tried it they managed to sell a few but they almost always went so cheep that most Linux folk were not going to buy the junk they were preloading onto.
Nobody even sold a dual boot, even as an option. That wouldn't have even cost them anything. Had Dell offered Canonical a deal where Canonical would provide a preload image and a utility to quickly convert the Linux partition into additional space for Windows or to just collapse it into C: if the customer decided they didn't want it, who doesn't think Canonical wouldn't have jumped at the opportunity to put product in front of a few million potential new users? But Microsoft would have had kittens, Balmer would have thrown a chair, etc.
Remember when Be offered their OS for free and got zero takers? That is the problem, the same one we have had for decades now, the MIcrosoft Monopoly on preloads.
Only us hard core types will load an OS, any OS. Everyone else uses what comes preloaded and that is Windows.
Democrat delenda est
It has, yeah, but that's also why Linux is just a rounding error in desktop OS use. Outside of a handful of geeks, nobody wants to have to figure out which distro to use, what the hell it even means to pick KDE or Gnome or XFCE or Enlightenment or which one they should want, what's the difference between yum and apt, and so on. People want this: plug it in, and it works. That's all. They don't want to pick between 57 different distros, 7 different package managers, and so on.
Unfortunately, geeks appear totally blind to how the real world works.
Actually, Ubuntu screws around quite a bit with configuration files. I find this particularly annoying, it seems that nothing is where it used to be, or works as it used to work.
Very annoying.
More to the point, it's variety and choice on the things that don't matter much for compatibility, and a standards on the things that do matter for compatibility. If I write software for my own machine, with not a lot of extra work I can make it compile and run just fine on any Linux distro and probably BSD as well.
So variety and choice about which desktop widgets you're going to use, but no (non-bug) variations regarding what an fcntl(2) call will do. That's a very effective combination.
I am officially gone from
X has way too much overhead and features for low-power mobile devices.
I always find this argument funny, considering I first used X on a 32MHz CPU with 32MB of RAM.
I would agree that it's not ideal for a tablet that's mostly used for full-screen apps and media consumption, but 'overhead and features' are not the reason.
Actually, I *love* my HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus; both 7" form factor tablets.
In fact, nothing has changed the way I live more since my first personal computer. Albeit, I use them almost totally as ebook readers, music players, occasional browsing and the rare sudoku game.
I carry a tablet with me everywhere these days. 7 inch tablets fit nicely in my pants pocket, the battery lasts 8+ hours of *active* use. What's not to like?
Slashdot Valentines Beta Massacre: iT WORKED! The boycotts killed Beta!!
I have to go with Bill Gates on this one. I am willing to pay for a better Desktop Environment (Windows or OS X) for non work applications.
Whenever I have to reboot from Linux to Windows to run Word or play a game that doesn't run in Wine, I remember what a horrible, clunky kludge the Windows interface was.
Network effects count for a lot too. I wouldn't inflict a Linux desktop on my family. My dad is a programmer and my mom only uses a browser. But, no one that either of them talk to use Linux. Figuring out how to do stuff requires googling because no one they know (besides me) would have any ideas. Hardware compatibility becomes a concern instead of an after-thought. Most software that mimics what they (well, mostly my father) would use is much less polished than what he would find on Windows.
Also, the reason why the Windows version of any offering will be as cheap or cheaper than the Linux is because OEM Windows comes preloaded with a lot of crap that companies pay the OEM to include. Linux doesn't have this, thus it actually costs more to load Linux than it does Windows, even including the Windows license.
Doing what you want != doing it dirt simple. Congratulations, you own your own "damn" cellphone, so you can run any ARM instruction you want.
Oh, what, running the bare hardware is actually useless to you? You're actually dependent on a loose confederation of a thousand programmers working in their free time around the world, who never guarantee anything will ever work, in order to turn your hardware into something useful to you?
You should get over the whole "it's my hardware" thing. Computer hardware by itself is useless and inert, particularly when 99.999% of the time you're just running someone else's instructions. Is someone really in a position to claim that when they run Linux (or Windows, or OS X) "you" are running what "you" want? Isn't that claiming a lot of other people's work for yourself?
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
And this is why the GNU/Linux distinction is important, even if we (understandably) can't be assed to say it most of the time. Without the GNU tools it's hardly "Linux" at all.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I hate Unity but I love Gnome-shell. (No seriously) Tapping the top left corner to see the overview of apps per desktop, with my videos still playing while I choose which application to bring to the foreground with all its 3D acceleration glory. That's going to rock on a tablet. Then apt-get install whatever I want. Squeeeee!!! I want it. When Ubuntu with Gnome-shell hits an ARM based tablet or a Medfield Atom tablet, that's when I'm jumping in.
Burn FAT not OIL
I have Ubuntu running as a touch-optimized LXDE environment on my touchpad. It runs in a card, no dual-booting necessary. Not sure if it meets all your needs, but instructions can be found here:
http://forums.webosnation.com/hp-touchpad/293028-new-touchpad-heres-your-get-started-guide.html/
Scroll down to the "Advanced Stuff, there be dragons ahead" for instructions to get you started. There's an easier way and a harder way to do it, but the harder way will result in a more configurable, easier to startup system.
I hate Unity but I love Gnome-shell. (No seriously)
Tapping the top left corner to see the overview of apps per desktop, with my videos still playing while I choose which application to bring to the foreground with all its 3D acceleration glory.
That's going to rock on a tablet.
Then apt-get install whatever I want. Squeeeee!!! I want it.
When Ubuntu with Gnome-shell hits an ARM based tablet or a Medfield Atom tablet, that's when I'm jumping in.
OK, now we've sold FIVE of those suckers! On a roll!
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
It's not our fault the real world doesn't work right!
This should be Slashdot's real tagline. Not 'news for nerds'.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
As far as most users are concerned, there is only one version of Windows; the one that came on the computer they bought. Buy a new computer, with a new version of Windows? Oh well, just use the new one. The vast majority of home computer buyers (and many many business buyers) don't ever deviate from the OS that comes in the box, even to simply roll back the OS to the one they were familiar with before.
Rule of Slashdot #0: You and people like you are not representative of the larger population. - A.C.
Perhaps more to the point: with Linux, fragmentation is a feature. Not always a very useful one, but a feature nonetheless.
Rule of Slashdot #0: You and people like you are not representative of the larger population. - A.C.
Remember the last hype from those guys? "Canonical sent along a note announcing that its Ubuntu Linux OS (10.10) is now available pre-loaded on three ASUS Eee PC models including the 1001PXD, the 1011PX and the 1015PX. More models packing Ubuntu will be made available throughout the year.", back in June 2011. Didn't happen. Still hasn't happened. Canonical has no credibility.
InfoWorld: Will you compete with Google Android, Apple iOS [4], and others?
Silber: Yes. And we think we can do that effectively because of characteristics of Ubuntu as a platform, industry dynamics, and an increased wariness around the walled gardens of Apple and to some extent Google and even Amazon, as they are increasingly in this game as well. There is a demand for a platform that has characteristics that Ubuntu meets. The characteristics in my mind that are important are openness, and by openness I don't just mean open source code, I mean the governance structure, the ability to collaborate, the ability for there to be multiple devices from multiple vendors.
There is? Last time I checked, the things people care about most are getting nice phones at a good price that they can play Angry Birds on and snap pictures with to upload to their Facebook/Twitter accounts.
This is the first quote that frustrates me from this snippet: I mean the governance structure, the ability to collaborate, the ability for there to be multiple devices from multiple vendors.. Do they not realise that this is exactly the status quo? Collaboration and governance are HUGE objectives for all of the major players in this game. Apple has iCloud, Microsoft has Windows Live and Office 365. Android has Google account synchronisation, control and access deeply ingrained into its fundamentals. All of these are free. Ubuntu's offering costs money. Umm...
This is the second most frustrating quote: we think we can do that effectively because of characteristics of Ubuntu as a platform. Let's not forget that this is the platform that's changed their stance on the minimise/close button three times in between, what, the last three releases?
There has to be a strong developer ecosystem, and we've spent a lot of effort and time in the last couple years building up that developer ecosystem. Building up our software center, building tools to be able to connect the dots between developers and users so that a developer can write an app and submit it through a website and get it into the hands of users very quickly. A free app or a commercially paid app.
Like Android's NDK with Eclipse integration or Apple's iPhone/iOS SDK with XCode or Windows Phone's leveraging of .NET with Visual Studio? Still wondering what they're bringing to the table at this point.
There's a certain level of quality and features that is needed in order to be a viable platform in this category, and Ubuntu has that, whereas some of the projects that have come and gone in the last couple years have never really cracked that. We've seen Moblin [5] come and go from Intel, Maemo [6], MeeGo [7]. Tizen [8] is the latest incarnation -- we'll see if they ever produce anything.
No, those projects never cracked the marketing required to reach the big time. Nokia could have really flaunted Maemo/MeeGo but chose to ride the sidelines while Apple and Android made themselves known everywhere. MeeGo, as far as I undersatand it, was actually a pretty reliable mobile OS and had a lot of potential.
This "advantage" is weak at best. In fact, I'm hard pressed to rely on this since I can't trust Ubuntu (or any Linux distribution) enough to install it for my non-technical peers and clients. While it certainly offers the nicest GNU/Linux UX experience available, there are some things still left to be desired on the hardware side.
The other problem I have with this is that Unity, compared to Android or iOS, does not really offer any real usability advantages over those other platforms. As far as I see it, it offers an OS-X like icon dock (that doesn't work nearly as nicely) and a focus on searching for things. It's a good starting point, but it's hard to see where they are going with it and how
Here are some reasons why:
* You don't have to think about drivers and hardware conflicts. Once you get a tablet working with Ubuntu, it just works.
* If a tablet costs $100 or $200, no one is going to want to pay for an OS.
* People don't have expectations about what should work on their tablets. They aren't going to be all, "But what about Excel on my Tablet!"
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
Ubuntu used to be a great distro for education, academia, and general desktop use. It now is chasing futile dreams of dominating the tablet market.
Futile because almost no Linux developer writes tablet software, and it seems doubtful that a lot of them will start in the future.
There is a real demand for an alternative platform... we think we can do that effectively because of characteristics of Ubuntu as a platform, industry dynamics, and an increased wariness around the walled gardens of Apple and to some extent Google and even Amazon, as they are increasingly in this game as well. [emphasis mine]
Oh please. I have a fondness for Linux as much as the next average Slashdotter but if the last 15 years of "X will be the year of Linux on the desktop!" has shown us, the world at large does not care about privacy, security, data robustness, or the consequences walled gardens. You buy something, you use it, and hope all goes well. If you lose your data for any reason, you rebuild.
People are already used to the possibility of losing real-life items to theft, loss, or damage, so if a picture collection or list of contacts disappears because a company went under or changed their TOS or didn't have good backups, people deal with it an move on. Is there a better way? With data, yes, there usually is. Do people care that much? No. (People have moved away from DRM a tiny bit, but that has more to do with Apple's and Amazon's music services being naturally popular than the Microsoft's "PlaysForSure" debacle.)
I'm guessing that 2012 in tablets will look a lot like 2011 did, with the one difference being the Kindle Fire. The price and prominence of that device will move a lot of units, but I'm predicting that on December 31, 2012, the market will be 60-70% iPad, 20-25% Kindle, and 10-15% everyone else combined. (Though I'm not sure how to count Windows 8 if it starts shipping on a large number of touch-based tablets that are 95% similar to the current crop of Windows-based, stylus-using tablets. I'm mainly thinking of a "tablet" as "a touch-based device that doesn't ship with a keyboard, and functions 100% as designed without one.")
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
"don't expect to buy one anytime soon."
You mean dont expect to buy a PRE MADE READY TO GO one anytime soon.
I built my 5th one last week and have another on the way.
starter Cost to build? $99.00 shipped for a used Stylistic ST5011d off of ebay with better specs than the ipad 1. Ubuntu installs nicely with small tweaks. Make it screaming fast by dropping in a 32 or 64 gig SSD drive instead of a spinning drive.
Total cost with new SSD, upgrade ram to 2 gig, and a new battery? $329.95 Oh and it kicks the crud out of any android tablet... Except most linux apps are NOT written for tablet use. so there are almost ZERO apps that have a smooth operation.
But it's a Ubuntu tablet, in my hands right now. and you can have one too!
You can have one now if you have the education to spend 3 hours putting one together.
Wait, it kicks the crud out of any Android tablet except there isn't a single app with smooth operation? So, find a used one on eBay, wait for it to arrive, then spend some time sticking in new ram, a new battery and a new hard drive, then install Ubuntu, and then notice that there are no optimized apps, and all existing apps run poorly? And that's just from your comments, and you seem to like the things!
I have an ASUS Transformer with keyboard dock and I think it's great. I really do. It's my netbook as necessary and a tablet which is particularly good for tabling events.
My problem with the Transformer is that it runs Android. I would prefer Android over iOS any day, but Google continues to develop Android as a single-person data collection device (requiring me to be constantly signed into a variety of services) instead of a multi-user platform where *I* get to choose who sees what.
If/when Ubuntu gets prepped for tablet distribution and I can install it on my Transformer, I will do it the very night it's available. Google has just over-stepped its bounds for me to give it the benefit of the doubt with my data any more.
> Offering Linux costs OEMs money because MS gives the OEMs cash incentives for preloading Windows.
No. Go look at Microsoft's balance sheet. The only divisions making significant coin are the OS and Office lines and almost nobody buys those products at retail. So logic dictates the lion's share of their revenue is being extracted in OEM contracts. Which it is. The way it works is they charge such insane prices for WIndows that an OEM is totally uncompetitive. Then IF and only IF that OEM plays ball they will refund enough in co-op marketing credits for them to survive. But it has been true for some years that the Windows license is often the most expensive component in a lower end PC and is is now moving up to the midrange. It is so bad that for netbooks they have to offer Starter Edition to prevent the netbook makers from going back to Linux[1]. At those price points the normal Microsoft Tax just isn't an option.
And Intel plays exactly the same game btw. You should hear the Intel splash at the end of PC adverts as "We are being paid not to do business with AMD." The difference is that Windows is so pervasive they don't even bother insisting on a sound or logo because they prefer to maintain the image that there aren't even any competitors.
Now it is true that OEMs collect money for the crapware that gets loaded atop Windows and that does offset some of the license fees to Microsoft and that revenue isn't yet available on a Linux preload. But I really doubt the trialware/crapware truly equals the cost of a Windows license.
[1] They initially went with Linux because Vista wouldn't run on the first netbooks and XP wasn't being offered anymore except as an option with a Vista Business Edition license. Microsoft quickly realized the problem and made XP available at a special cut rate to netbook makers; at which time Linux instantly vanished and has not been seen since in the netbook space. Plus the original netbook was a small, inexpensive and netcentric device. Which customers loved but OEMs hated because of the small margins. Moving to larger, more expensive small WIndows laptops and calling them netbooks was far more profitable, even with the license fees. Observe how the 9" netbook went extinct at about the same time as the shift to Windows.
Democrat delenda est
That sounds so worth it to get a few dozen sales.
TODO: Something witty here...
And even that wasn't the low end. In the "beginning" we used X comfortably on 8MB Sun3s. A 4MB Sun3 was a bit cramped, with the OS (SunOS) and a few applications it would start swapping (i.e. drive whole programs to disk) to the point that you felt the pain. With 8MB it was quite usable however. The CPUs where what, 15-16 MHz?
Stefan Axelsson