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Ubuntu Touch For Phones Hits RTM, First Phones Coming This Year
An anonymous reader writes: In early 2013, Canonical showed the world Ubuntu Touch, a version of Ubuntu developed specifically for smartphones. Now, the mobile operating system has finally reached "release to manufacturing" status. (Here's the release announcement.) The first phone running Ubuntu Touch, the Meizu MX4, will start shipping in December. "Details are scarce on its hardware, but a leak from iGeek suggests the Pro variant may have a Samsung Exynos 5430 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 2560x1536 resolution screen. ... This more powerful hardware is good news if true, and it bodes well for Ubuntu's vision of computing convergence." Softpedia has a preview of the RTM version of the OS. They say performance has improved significantly, even on old phones, and that the UI has been polished into a much better state.
Instead of being boastful to fight with Windows platform especially with WP8, Ubuntu Touch should better fight with Android and even iOS first!
Will Ubuntu Touch for Phones include spyware, like the shopping lens that they ship with the desktop version of Ubuntu?
I just don't get why Mozilla even bothers with Firefox OS any longer. Now that Ubuntu Touch is available, there's even less need for Firefox OS.
Firefox OS is totally crippled compared to Android, iOS, and now even Ubuntu Touch. All of these other mobile OSes support the same kind of HTML5/JS/CSS "apps" (I'm very hesitant to use this term, since they're basically just web pages) that Firefox OS supports, but unlink Firefox OS these other systems also support real native apps. The native apps ALWAYS give a much, much better experience than the half-baked HTML5/JS/CSS hacks.
Some Mozillians will probably reply to this and start on with their typical idealistic rants about how Firefox OS is more "open" or some nonsense like that. It really isn't any more open. Mozilla controls it and Mozilla calls the shots. After being driven away from the Firefox desktop browser due to the many bad changes that the community vocally said were totally unwanted, yet that Mozilla forced on us anyway, I know that Mozilla won't listen to us any more than Google, Apple or Canonical will.
Ubuntu Touch is the final nail in Firefox OS' coffin, as far as I'm concerned. Ubuntu Touch gives us a viable alternative to Android and iOS. But unlike Firefox OS, it isn't uselessly limited for ideological reasons.
Mozilla, it's time for you to do the only sensible thing: end the Firefox OS project. It is useless, it is unwanted, and it only serves to siphon away resources that could be put toward better uses (like restoring the Firefox browser to its 3.5 UI).
No doubt the GUI will be optimised for a machine with a keyboard & mouse.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I guess I'd buy it for $50, but they probably think they can con Fossies out of $1000 as if it was an iPhone or something.
Let me just point out that for FF OS, the "web pages" ARE native apps. The FF runtime is already running, so you don't have to wait for a web context to start (like on Android with a "web page"), so it's much faster.
I think the model behind FF OS is sound. However, the apps that exist for now are TOTAL complete crap. Absolutely the worst.
Plus, any open-source fan would much rather have a phone which allows native-code execution than just a JS runtime. Plus you can probably run different browsers on Ubuntu (at least in theory).
The stupidest thing is that nobody even really uses tablets. Sure, people buy them, but they they just don't use them! Tablets are a novelty. Everyone who gets one, either for themselves or as a gift, thinks a tablet will be cool and useful. Then they try to use these tablets and find out that they're totally useless. And so the tablet sits there on a table or in a drawer, totally unused. All of these companies and organizations are wasting so much time and effort developing software for devices that people aren't actually using! It would be hilarious, if it weren't for the fact that their desktop products, which people actually do use seriously for hours every day, are being trashed in the process!
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
What shopping lens? I can't find it in Xfce's menu.
Firstly, there's no such thing as a Final Fantasy OS.
Then what's this I keep hearing about Cloud computing?
Back when Canonical was trying to push Ubuntu for Android, the idea was that you'd get the normal Android GUI while mobile. But when you plug in an HDMI monitor and pair a Bluetooth keyboard, you'd get an X11 desktop. In theory you wouldn't even need a mouse if you're satisfied with using the device's screen as a trackpad.
Phone manufacturers have been putting off installing 4GB RAM for some time, knowing full well that it opens the door for fully-fledged operating systems to run, thereby voiding all the effort that has thus far gone into making the cut-down OSs that we have to put up with today.
If you follow all the links (I know, this is slashdot, who reads the summary, never mind the links from the articles to their sources). the Meizu MX4 will be shipping with Android 4.4 (Kitkat). The whole "RTM" hype from Canonical is just that - hype, same as the "Ubuntu TV", the "Ubuntu EDGE Smartphone", the "Ubuntu Cloud", whatever. This phone will come stock with Android. The vendors will be stocking the Android version, because that's what's going to sell. The carriers sure as heck don't want to be stuck customizing and servicing an odd-ball OS. And the customers ... it comes with Android, so except for a few zealots, it's going to be sold with Android.
Hence why the "Ubuntu" version will only be sold over the web - which is the kiss of death in terms of reaching new users. When you have a choice between buying the phone you're seeing in the store, holding in your hand, and others already have, or waiting to get something that nobody else has used (and plunking down more than an iPhone 6+ on top of that), guess what people are going to do?
So what if you will be able to eventually order the same phone with Ubuntu as an option? At that price point, nobody's going to be the guinea pig.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Ubuntu for Android (http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/ubuntu-for-android) was a hybrid Ubuntu/Android OS that promised to allow you to use Android as the phone OS, then plug your phone into HDMI and a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard and have a full Ubuntu experience running alongside. It was announced with a lot of splash and got a lot of people excited. The ability to use a phone as a desktop computer on the road was very enticing. But it never materialized, and the source code was never opened (even though it is supposedly "open source", where the heck are you supposed to get the source, or download a build? I can't find one anywhere).
Ubuntu says the reason it never launched is because they need a partner with whom to launch since it needs modifications to Android... er, has Ubuntu ever heard of CyanogenMod?
It would be more useful to go the opposite way - keep Ubuntu the same, just add QWERTY keyboard to the phone. Otherwise we have to pay for our own phone manufacturing - Neo900.
Considering that I don't see what you're talking to- if someone's mostly consuming content with a little bit of production, a Tablet's actually rather useful- so long as you're not buying a cheap-assed one. And how would you know what you're claiming? Omnipotent? Or is that just blowing it out your ass much?
Spare us the bullshit. It's somewhere between where you're claiming things are and where the pundits are claiming things- and that's the reality of it.
Why would I lug a damn laptop around if I just plan on surfing the Internet on a trip? I wouldn't. And I don't if I don't need my dev beast (and it IS one). The tablet goes. But then, I didn't buy a piece of shit, then either. $400+ on a tablet brings things to the table that aren't there with the craputers. If you're expecting a desktop out of a tablet, you're going to be gravely disappointed for at least another 2-4 years there. If you set your expectations honestly and buy accordingly...it's not useless.
Unlike your post...
First, let me start off by saying I use to be very "pro-ubuntu". It was a great distro, and one of the few you can just throw the CD in and reboot into a usable system fairly quickly.
Then they seem to flounder around and lack direction so i moved to MINT. Of the 6 desktop PC's in my house, at one point 5 of them ran Ubuntu. Now three are MINT, two remain ubuntu and one is still on windows.
Ubuntu seems to be suffering a bit of the classic "floundering around" you often see in the opensource world. Instead of having a number of people working on a great distro, we have hundreds of "fractured" distro's (many based on Debian, some based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian).
Anyhow, look at some of the past products from the past ideas from Canonical...
Ubuntu TV, Looked promising...
Ubuntu ONE - I liked how you could "sync" the installed apps on one system and use it as a template to build other "similiar" machines...
Now they want to "fracture" it to create a "phone" version?
Much rather have a gentoo phone
Didn't we all hate Microsoft for pursuing the convergence roadmap? (Desktop -> Tablet -> Phone)
Dear Mr $hill,
the difference between Ubuntu and (say) Redhat Linux is much lesser than the difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8. Or between Word 2003 and Word 2009.
You are just emitting Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt in an attempt to instill second thoughts into people who have never used any Linux system, but woukd consider it.
As a matter of fact, most Linux distros are almost interchangeable because key end-user software (firefox, gimp, openoffice, bittorrent etc) is the same everywhere. Plus it comes for more than 10 years now with fully developed "app store" functions, something which Win 7 still cannot do.
And you dont need a virus scanner because the vendors are too lazy to implement proper security.
So, fuck you, little propagandist.
Linux is really in trouble because the "walled gardens" already provide all the apps, and ALL THE DRIVERS which an ordinary user ever needs. Compare that to the Windows Freedom(TM), where you have to collect drivers from some shady Chinese download servers which take the Freedom to be down 30% of time. And Freedom brings you a collection of update service (one for each installed program), while the tyrants of Linux mandate a single updater. And these dictators deny you all the Fun Of Viruses, which you can only get from the Redmond Experience(TM).
So if you carry a Raspberry Pi, what device would you use while riding the bus? A single device that becomes a desktop-like computer when docked to a keyboard and monitor and a mobile device while a passenger in a vehicle has the advantage over a Raspberry Pi that the user isn't shut out for the duration of a transit ride to or from work or wherever.
I have it running on my Nexus 5, and it has come a long way. Just two or three builds ago (241 I think?), scrolling was slow and choppy, swiping between screens was laggy, and touch sensitivity was way too low. Text was hard for me to read (due to font hinting) and "apps" felt like they took forever to open. But the RTM release turned all of that around. It's actually a pleasure to use, and not only do I use it as my DD, I actually removed my CM backup. I'm not saying it's the best OS ever (there's still plenty of bugs to work out), but it works FOR ME and I like it.