Ubuntu Touch Beta Images Available For Testing

hypnosec writes "Canonical has announced the availability of Ubuntu Touch for anyone to download and test. The images, which are based on the 13.04 Raring Ringtail codebase, are available on isotracker. Four devices are currently supported, and there is an image for each of them: Nexus 7, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4 and Nexus 10. Instructions to install Ubuntu Touch have also been provided."

Comments

Re:http://www.linuxadvocates.com/p/support.html

[PhamNguyen]

If this really is you, you should be ashamed of yourself spamming comments like this.

Re:On a Nexus 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

Last I had a chance to play around with developing for one of these, it was still pretty far from mature. The QML-based API takes some getting used to, but people who've developed for MeeGo shouldn't have a problem with the Ubuntu SDK.

Unless your needs are very mild, you wouldn't want to use it as your primary smartphone just yet.

Re:http://www.linuxadvocates.com/p/support.html

[Anonymous Coward]

Meanwhile, they're making it harder to find work doing programming

The availability of open source creates a huge market for custom programming.
It also ensures that your skills are applicable at many companies in this huge market.

ProTip: If you find it hard to find work doing programming, then you aren't the "programmer" that you think you are.

Re:http://www.linuxadvocates.com/p/support.html

[VortexCortex]

Even the ideal situation proposed by open source advocates is ridiculous, "we'll give away the software and make money off of support."

That's not the ideal situation. The ideal situation is that we ask for money up front before we do the work of improving or making the software, THEN we do the work we've been paid to do -- Just like everyone else does, from contract software devs to mechanics, department store clerks, and paid anti-foss trolls.

Re:http://www.linuxadvocates.com/p/support.html

[VortexCortex]

Software is a legitimate product that has value in and of itself. There's no reason why software should be free, anymore so than anything else. Since nothing else free, we need to stop giving away our labor.

Software is a token of your labor. It's intangible, and in infinite supply. Market that which is scarce: Your labor. Do not market that which is in infinite supply (bits) because Selling ice to Eskimos is a laughable business strategy. The bits have no value in of themselves, nor do the copies of the software.
This is Economics 101: If ( Supply == Infinity ) Price = 0; // Regardless of cost to create.

The reason software should be free is so that you can stop wasting your labor trying to sell ice to eskimos. Instead, do as any other labor industry does, from mechanics to home-builders to FLOSS devs: Get assurances that you will be paid for your work before you do the work. Once you have done the work and been paid, a mechanic does not charge you each time you drive the car, a home builder does not charge you extra for selling your house or if you do your own improvements. Cars do not have their hoods welded shut so you're beholden to the dealer to provide fixes instead of hiring a 3rd party mechanic you trust. Once you have been paid to built the software you give it away "for free" because you have been paid already: in the same way a fast food restaurant gives you your damn meal to do with as you please after you've paid for it -- including the option to go home, figure out the recipe and make your own additional food.

If the copies of software have value then BitTorrent networks would be the richest organizations in the world. They're not. Data is not scarce. What's scarce is your ability to configure the bits. Market that. Market your labor, do not seek rent or employ artificial scarcity.

The current pay-per-copy software market is not in line with the "get paid for doing work" idea that's inherent in all other labor markets. The cost of a copy does not reflect the cost to create it, or the cost to initially configure the bits. When you look at it rationally, economically: The pay-per-copy software model is the one that makes no sense.

Re:http://www.linuxadvocates.com/p/support.html

[Mr. Slippery]

There's no reason why software should be free, anymore so than anything else. Since nothing else free, we need to stop giving away our labor.

Thank you for demonstrating your complete misunderstanding of the term "Free Software". I'd provide a link to help you, but suspect you don't care to remedy your ignorance.

Re:http://www.linuxadvocates.com/p/support.html

[Kjella]

The reason software should be free is so that you can stop wasting your labor trying to sell ice to eskimos. Instead, do as any other labor industry does, from mechanics to home-builders to FLOSS devs: Get assurances that you will be paid for your work before you do the work.

Except in the cases where you commission a work, that's not how the world works. When I go to the grocery store I haven't made any agreements to buy anything yet obviously a lot of work has been sunk into the products for sale, the same way a developer sinks his work into his product. They have taken all the risk of producing deliverables and that they are of a quality and price that'll sell, which is how consumers generally like it. Your hours may be scarce but they're not valuable to me, this is not like a taxi driver where I have immediate value of your time. I only have value of it if the end result is something that I can use, I don't want to be responsible for managing a time & material project with risks of overruns and non-delivery or a fixed bid project with change management, sign-offs and all that. I want you to offer something so I can say yay or nay.