Ubuntu May Beat Windows 10 To Phone-PC Convergence After All

An anonymous reader writes with news that Mark Shuttleworth plans to have a Ubuntu smartphone that can be used as a PC out sometime this year. "Despite the recent announcement that Windows 10 phones will be able to be used as PCs when connected to an external monitor, Ubuntu—the first operating system to toy with the idea—hasn't conceded the smartphone-PC convergence race to Microsoft just yet. 'While I enjoy the race, I also like to win,' Ubuntu Foundation founder Mark Shuttleworth said during a Ubuntu Online Summit keynote, before announcing that Canonical will partner with a hardware manufacturer to release a Ubuntu Phone with smartphone-PC convergence features this year.

Comments

Is this really going to be the first?

[BarbaraHudson]

Didn't Motorola do pretty much the same thing with the Atrix back in 2011?

Re:Is this really going to be the first?

[kesuki]

short answer: yes.
Cite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webtop

Why do companies keep thinking people *want* this?

[Jax Omen]

I don't want "convergence" between my devices. Why would anyone?

My phone is used for wildly different tasks than my laptop, which is used for mostly different tasks from my desktop. Any form of convergence is going to hurt at least one of the workflows involved.

I want my phone software to be as lightweight/minimalistic as possible so my phone's battery can last, for example. A desktop doesn't have to care about that at all.

Just make the best phone software, or PC software, you can, don't half-ass both.

Re:Why do companies keep thinking people *want* th

[ArcadeMan]

But wouldn't it make devices 50% lighter, 50% smaller and twice as portable if they're half-assed?

Re:Why do companies keep thinking people *want* th

[Hognoxious]

Put handlebars on a 747. Then if you can ride a bike you're a pilot!

Re:Why do companies keep thinking people *want* th

[Ravaldy]

What if you could just dock your smart device and it's now a workstation? To some extend the docking station could act as a feature/performance extension of a smaller device. It wouldn't ruin the flow and would allow you to carry your same configuration/environment everywhere. I know some will counter with "Why not use the cloud?" but the fact is that the cloud doesn't give you the nice smooth response of client side access and you never know if you will have a decent internet access where you go.

Keep in mind that I'm aware our smart devices are not there yet but 10 years from now it will be a lot closer. The future of having one device do it all is in view. Any company that refuses to get on board with this will possibly miss the boat the same way MS did with the smart phones.

Re:Why do companies keep thinking people *want* th

[bananaquackmoo]

That's nice. I want to be able to carry all of my files with me everywhere. I want the same development environment everywhere and to only configure it once. I want those configuration changes to follow me everywhere. I want to be able to answer the phone on my desktop. I want to have my call and messaging history accessible no matter what device I'm using. I don't want to buy 4 computers (phone, laptop, tablet, desktop) I want to buy 1. Displays, touchscreens, and peripherals should be dummy passthrough devices. I want all of this to be instant (which means no cloud storage until we can make that much much faster). You might not want convergence, but I would kill for it.

just a monitor, keyboard, wired-network and power

[bugs2squash]

Could it not also get more RAM and CPU when docked ?

Re:Why do companies keep thinking people *want* th

[RoknrolZombie]

This, plus voice control. Bonus points for transcription. Super extra bonus points to do it all without invading my privacy.

Re:Why do companies keep thinking people *want* th

[spacepimp]

Untrue. Watch the very first iPhone keynote. The endless claims about it running full OSX are presented in full force.

Re:Why do companies keep thinking people *want* th

[gfxguy]

Maybe not phones, but tablets are already doing this, and I don't think phones are that far behind. I think it'll be less than 10 years. I'm actually looking right now to replace my "portable workstation" with a dockable tablet. Some of my programming includes GUIs, so remote development hasn't really been all that feasible. If the phone can dock to something with large screen, keyboard, and mouse, and if it's still works great as a smartphone, then why not?

Re:Why do companies keep thinking people *want* th

[TheGratefulNet]

well, it would certainly make finding a seat on the bus easier.

Can't wait

[PopeRatzo]

Does this mean I'll be able to run gedit on my Ubuntu phone? I can hardly contain my excitement.