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Canonical Puts Ubuntu On Android Smartphones
nk497 writes "Canonical has revealed Ubuntu running on a smartphone — but the open source developer hasn't squashed the full desktop onto a tiny screen. Instead, the Ubuntu for Android system runs both OSes side by side, picking which to surface depending on the form factor. When a device — in the demo, it was a Motorola Atrix — is being used as a smartphone, it uses Android. When it's docked into a laptop or desktop setup, the full version of Ubuntu is used. Files, apps and other functionality such as voice calls and texting are shared between the two — for example, if a text message is sent to the phone when it's docked, the SMS pops up in Ubuntu, while calls can be received or made from the desktop." ZDnet has pictures; ExtremeTech has a story, too, including some words from Canonical CEO Jane Silber.
Hipsters already ruined the Mac which is why shit like this happens. They aren't welcome on Linux either. Ubuntu lost all credibility when they forced their lol unity interface on us now all real Linux users such as Slashdot readers have told Ubuntu to fuck off. If you use Ubuntu after 10.04 (the last non unity LTS) then you are disgrace to humanity. I'd rather use a Blackberry or even a WiNokia than a Ubuntu phone.
Because with this and the killing of kubuntu its as I said and canonical is slowly bleeding to death? i'll get hate for saying this but truth is truth and the FOSS model simply doesn't work on the desktop. On servers companies buy support contracts, on embedded companies pay developers to customize it but on the desktop if you don't get MSFT's economies of scale (Windows 1.0 was $99, Win 7 HP is $89) you simply can't come up with the millions, and it WILL require millions to get an OS with 99% of the money being spent on server usage like Linux up to snuff for desktops, so the companies die. See Mandriva as just the latest line of a long line of examples, along with Xandros, Linspire, gOS, etc.
To make money on a desktop you not only have to have OEMs that are willing to sell your product (Canonical doesn't as Dell is most likely losing money on every sale of Ubuntu) but everyone has gotten spoiled to "clicky clicky plug and play everything just works" so you have to do slick and seamless BETTER than MSFT and Apple which simply isn't possible with free labor. its what i call the "busted shitter problem" in that there is a TON of work that is lousy, thankless, long, boring work that HAS TO be done, all the docs and QA and bug fixing, I mean how many bugs are listed in the Ubuntu bug tracker that are over 2 years old? How many "Update foo broke my drivers" posts do you see in Ubuntu forums with every release? if anything the FOSS model is worse because the developers are all coming from server backgrounds and have a "Meh just use CLI" attitude that uses CLI as a crutch and that simply won't fly on the desktop where you have to be BETTER than the other guy, not just cheaper. this attitude works on servers because Apple doesn't even care about that market and MSFT has assraping pricing for server OSes so admins will put up with a lot of shit to save tens of thousands of dollars. When an OEM copy of Win 7 HP is only $50 to the big boys it really don't take too many service calls from consumers before Windows is the cheaper alternative, not when HP makes on average $8 a sale on the low end.
So you mark my words in less than 5 years, I'd say less than 3, Canonical will join that long line of companies that tried to make a go with a FOSS desktop and found it simply unworkable. that isn't to say the FOSS model is bad, just that it simply doesn't work in all cases and this is one. What we need is a new license that will allow someone like canonical to concentrate on all the "buster shitter" work while still making enough profits to keep the lights on, maybe a "free to look at the code but if you distribute you have to pay" clause? because as a retailer believe me I WANT there to be choices, I WANT to see real competition but when I try to upgrade a system and the drivers break and I click a help file and get a "to be done" placeholder? Well my time costs and just like the OEMs it really don't take long before that copy of Win 7 HP is the cheaper deal, about 2 hours in my case.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Canonical had a goal of "fixing bug #1 - Windows majority market share" back in 2004. Here we are, 2012, and creaky old XP has 20x the market share.
Last year Shuttleworth set a goal of 200 million Ubuntu users by 2015. Since then, he's thrown all the Kubuntu users under the bus, same as he did to the Gnome users.
This latest announcement is old news - others have been running Debian on the same hardware combo since last summer. But seriously, turning a smartphone into a netbook? And one that can't even run Android apps when in "netbook mode"?????!!!!???? No OEM is going to bother with this. Netbooks are dead. And with the higher-res screens coming to tablets, Unity will be sub-optimal. Just like the idea of having to type stuff to run a program (their stupid "Heads-Up Display") is a step backwards for users.
That's okay - Mint was happy to take most of those disaffected Ubuntu users, along with their mindshare, and Fedora, Arch, and a few other distros are also seeing significant upticks. Choice is good, right?
Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.