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Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

engadget.com

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Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#181

Post by rdtsc »

webjprgm wrote: post #147
FrojoS wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So what's the difference between having cloud-based accounts and documents that sync between phone, tablet, and desktop? No internet required.

"The network is the computer." Who uses a computer without the internet? I suppose the same thing is possible using local wifi synching, like how Dropbox shares content over a LAN when it can vs. downloading it from the cloud.

> "The network is the computer."

With the network this bad (cost and performance wise) in US (due to legal and monopolistic reasons, not necessarily technical), that makes a pretty shitty computer. So I would rather have a computer that can be divorced from the network if need be.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#182

Post by rdtsc »

joe_the_user wrote: post #123
macspoofing wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Phones are light communication devices for sending brief messages, checking social statuses or updating them ... ... in 2005. Phones are powerful computing devices, and they are big business.

The phone could have a supercomputer inside it. It's common use-case would like be according to the quote. A small screen and limited keyboard take its toll regardless of computing power. The big business part is true but tablets also are big and could make some sense as an Ubuntu platform.

Both screen and keyboard are nothing but external accessories. You computer case from 1998 didn't come with an integrated keyboard and display, those were separate. This if (funny enough) a similar situation. You get your phone and then buy a larger case for it that has a flexible OLED display and a bluetooth keyboard. Don't need the large screen and keyboard? Fine just leave those home and take only the phone with you.

Tablets are cool but they can't conveniently become phones, but phones can become tablets/desktop/TVs/ebook reader with appropriate accessories.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#183

Post by muyuu »

mladenkovacevic wrote: post #68

This announcement baffles me a little bit. An Ubuntu Phone? Why did they choose to announce a phone OS and not a tablet? Phones are light communication devices for sending brief messages, checking social statuses or updating them. Ubuntu is a full featured OS used in creating and consuming long-form content. If they are hoping to engage with existing OEMs I think they would've had a much better time of it with compan…

Just a web browser capable of showing most popular web sites is quite a demanding application.

Messengers capable of VoIP and/or real time video are computationally demanding.

And these two alone are in high demand. My 512MiB phone is a bit overstretched already just by running the basic phone infrastructure (messaging, calls) + LINE + Whatsapp + browser. I must manually manage background apps and memory daily. Hopefully with 2GiB and better OS memory multitasking and memory management this will be a lesser problem.

Phones are more or less where desktop computers were in the 2000s OS-wise.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#184

Post by Zigurd »

justincormack wrote: post #20
recoiledsnake wrote: post #19

Edit: Here's the keynote video. Skip to about 6:35 sec for the new bits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpWHJDLsqTU Direct link to 6:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpWHJDLsqTU&feature=play... First thoughts: 2014 is a long way away and a whole year is an eternity in mobile space. It kind of looks like Unity in portrait mode but without the dock. What does it bring new to developers that isn't there in Android? F…

I think having anti-fork rules on the Android kernel would violate the GPL, so that couldn't happen...

The "anti fork" agreements Google has with OEMs are not public, but some terms of these agreements were made public in a lawsuit involving Skyhook: http://www.theverge.com/2011/05/12/google-android-skyhook-la...

What it boils down to is that Google has a final approval over any Google-logo Android device. For phone OEMs, this looks like absolute and arbitrary control by Google, but, in reality, it's a three-way negotiation between the OEM, Google, and, in the US, the carrier controlling the channel for the product, with any one of them able to sink a product before it reaches the market.

Google has never seen fit to make licensing terms for Google's ecosystem apps (Maps, Play, etc.) transparent. That's a pretty sharp contrast with Android as an open source project, and even with the way Windows Mobile (not Windows Phone) was licensed.

So Android is open, on the one (AOSP) hand, and un-transparently proprietary on the other hand. That leaves an obvious market opening for a truly open OS. But, so far, Tizen, Open WebOS, or any other possible contenders have been insufficient and/or under-developed. Maybe Canonical will get it right.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#185

Post by muyuu »

drcube wrote: post #72
mickle00 wrote: post #4

"...there are no immediate plans for actual Ubuntu phones, and no carriers have been signed up yet -- although we're told that the OS will run on any new phone built for Android, should the manufacturer see merit in installing Ubuntu instead." It will be interesting to see if/when a manufacturer picks this up, to hit the mainstream market.

Why the hell do I need manufacturer blessing?? I own the phone. Give me a ROM, Canonical.

"We're told the Galaxy Nexus-compatible build will be available for download within the next few weeks"

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#186

Post by vy8vWJlco »

marshray wrote: post #140
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those specs don't speak to performance. Your 5 year old computer could easily run Windows 8 without a problem and the Nexus 4 can't.

Serious question: What is the use of "running Windows 8" per se? Traditionally, computing platforms are for applications and operating systems are a means to that end. What class of applications (from 5 years ago) would have inherent performance issues with Nexus4-class hardware (assuming a real external display and hard drive were added)? Also, it occurs to me that Surface RT is largely Windows 8 and Office running…

An operating system IS an application, not a just a means to an end. If you prefer Linux or Windows, that is the application. (Everything else is a microwave, not a computer.)

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#187

Post by zaidrahman »

Regardless of what the aftermath of Ubuntu on mobile may have, without any prejudice of it being over an eternal year away: the iOS interface for multi tasking is tame. It needs an overhaul.

For post-pc devices to go mainstream, they should display how easy it is to multitask on them. This use case scenario is extremely important on the iPhone. Android, Windows Phone, WebOS, and now Ubuntu Mobile — all have better multi tasking interfaces.

However, the counter argument is that an OS completely build out of blind gestures serves as completely not obvious. This is a problem for first case use scenarios. That being said, power users can rejoice alike.

P.S. If the Ubuntu Mobile continues to lag, we should just forget about it before it becomes the next WebOS. This is just getting embarrassing.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#188

Post by Shorel »

lttlrck wrote: post #165
r3m6 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mark S. mentions it in the Engadget interview: "If I dock this, I can get the full Ubuntu desktop".

So is it going to have two WMs and two versions of every desktop app? One touch optimized and one for the desktop? It doesn't sound all that wonderful. Desktop/mobile crossover might be better served with cloud-sync.

No. I think it will have a native GUI toolkit that can adapt to both with some hints by the developer.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#190

Post by tubbo »

mladenkovacevic wrote: post #68

This announcement baffles me a little bit. An Ubuntu Phone? Why did they choose to announce a phone OS and not a tablet? Phones are light communication devices for sending brief messages, checking social statuses or updating them. Ubuntu is a full featured OS used in creating and consuming long-form content. If they are hoping to engage with existing OEMs I think they would've had a much better time of it with compan…

Phones are more important than tablets. You get people to use Ubuntu Phones, and suddenly they'll be using Ubuntu laptops. Some people keep buying Apple products just to be more compatible with their shiny new iPhones...
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