Ubuntu Smartphone Shipping In October

An anonymous reader writes "Smartphones running the open source Ubuntu operating system will be available to customers beginning in October 2013, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth told CIO Journal. Ubuntu will be available on a full range of devices, including desktop and tablet computers, potentially providing corporate IT executives a way to reduce the number of devices they purchase and manage, and would allow users to access all manner of corporate data through a single, pocket-sized device. 'You can share Windows apps to the phone desktop,' said Mr. Shuttleworth during a meeting in New York Tuesday." Jon Brodkin adds, "Canonical is taking community input on what the core applications (e-mail, calendar, clock/alarm, weather, file manager, document viewer, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter) should look like. The best aspects of community proposals will hopefully make it into Ubuntu phones when they finally hit the market sometime toward the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014. Take a look at the best designs Canonical has received so far."

Comments

I'm sorry, but

[EliSowash]

I just can't get excited about this. Ubuntu on PCs isn't the holy grail of desktop computing, and between Droid and iPhone, I'm not sure what new-shiney Ubuntu brings to the smartphone table. Does that make me a bad person?

Re:I'm sorry, but

[icebike]

They never intend to be a big player, as best as I can tell, merely another option for corporate phones that don't end up being play things with untrustworthy software installed.

I think another option in the market is a good idea. Google is getting a bit too big for their britches and the carriers have way too much control of what you can do with your own phone.

We don't all run Apple or Microsoft computers, so why should we run only Apple or Google phones?

Re:I'm sorry, but

[Teun]

As long as they allow us to run KDE they'll remain successful.

Re:I'm sorry, but

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I'm not sure what new-shiney Ubuntu brings to the smartphone table

The ability to use a single codebase, in any language, to run on your desktop AND on your phone?

Re:I'm sorry, but

[DarwinSurvivor]

As someone with an n900, Android is not nearly as open as many people think.

Re:I'm sorry, but

[L4t3r4lu5]

As someone running an AOSP ROM, I disagree. Your carrier's ROM may be crippled and shit, and they may be cagey about the drivers, but Android is open.

Exchange

[DogDude]

It's a non-starter without seamless Exchange access. That's the #1 function of my phone. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Re:Exchange

[DogDude]

seamless:
Perfectly consistent: a seamless plot in the novel.

Exchange: The most widely used email/scheduling/office management server software on the planet: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/en-us/default.aspx

access: verb (used with object):
To make contact with or gain access to; be able to reach, approach, enter, etc.: ie: Bank customers can access their checking accounts instantly through the new electronic system.

Re:Exchange

[TheGratefulNet]

my 50+ years of life and 30+ yrs of computing shows that PHB's use exchange and the engineers use regular old email (wanted to say sendmail, but we have gotton beyond that, right?)

Arrows on keyboard

[Janek Kozicki]

I saw there one example of a terminal session. And that reminds me - one thing that aggravates me on ipad (jailbroken) when using midnight commander in terminal is that the arrows keys are missing! I cannot event use the bash history.

We definitely want the arrow keys on keyboard when in terminal mode.

Awesome...

[Panaflex]

As someone who has lived and worked in iPhone and Android land since the beginnings, I'm excited to see something new. Don't get me wrong - I like my iPhone and android for what they are - but having the option of getting into the code and fixing the stupid is a great incentive for me to switch.

Re:He said what?

[vlm]

Probably means it comes with the vnc (and/or tightvnc and/or rdesktop) client installed, whereas on my phone and tablet(s) I had to install it.

I find the idea of a "tech phone" with useful preinstalled stuff instead of crapware to be an intriguing idea. No angrybirds or facebook in rom, but gimmie a VNC / rdesktop / ssh client (preferably one that isn't harvesting logins and phoning home with them to the telco mothership). You could carry this to comic extremes like stereotypical techie background and theme instead of the blah they push to the masses.