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Ubuntu Phone will include a Terminal application

wiki.ubuntu.com

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Re: Ubuntu Phone will include a Terminal application

#71

Just thinking out loud here. You know where a market for disruption exists? The millions of iOS devices that are now being relegated to the trash bin of tech. Very soon everything from iPhone 3GS and back will be obsolete. You will not be able to update apps or OS. I have a nice pile of iPod Touch units that I can't develop for and will not move past their last update (was it iOS 4.2-something?). You don't have to bu…

Android you can, with bulk surplus Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus phones because the binaries for the proprietary hardware have been released, albeit with very restrictive conditions on what you can do with those binaries, so distribution is out of the question unless you're selling for bitcoins.

iOS nothing has been released so you have to reverse engineer everything.

Re: Ubuntu Phone will include a Terminal application

#72
post #12

As soon as Ubuntu Phone becomes stable enough for daily use, I will switch from Android to it. Coupled with a powerful processor and plenty of spare solid-state memory, Ubuntu Phone will allow me to walk around and travel with my entire desktop environment in my pocket -- including round-the-clock access to everything available in official and third-party Ubuntu repositories. (Have you ever needed access to an editor…

Won't many of the projects in the Ubuntu repositories be unavailable because of architectural reasons, i.e. ARM phones versus x86/64 desktops?

>Won't many of the projects in the Ubuntu repositories be unavailable because of architectural reasons, i.e. ARM phones versus x86/64 desktops?

Almost the entirety of Linux userland software is very portable because the server space needs it to run on x86/sparc/power/itanic/whatever. There are exceptions but they tend to be rare and temporary, because hardware vendors don't want customers switching to x86 just because foo app doesn't run on their architecture, and for open source apps the hardware vendors can fix it themselves.

Meanwhile Linux is about the only sensible thing you can currently install on the vast expanse of old PowerPC Macs that can't run current versions of MacOS but can run current versions of Ubuntu or Debian, so any that get recycled into a personal server or a DVR box or whatever will have users pointing out any problems and requesting they be fixed.

And for the most part portability is portability: If you find x86 assembly somewhere and replace it with portable C and an ifdef to use the asm only on x86, or fix an endian issue, you haven't just fixed it for PowerPC or SPARC, you've fixed it for everyone.

This, incidentally, is why having a single architecture is so unhealthy: It promotes everyone forgetting about portability entirely, which prevents new, better architectures from taking hold merely because it's so much more work to port the existing installed base of software.

Re: Ubuntu Phone will include a Terminal application

#74
post #63
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it, though? https://play.google.com/store/search?q=terminal&c=apps

Those aren't native to the operating system though.

Define native. I'm sure at least some of them use the NDK. Do you mean bundled with the OS?

Re: Ubuntu Phone will include a Terminal application

#75
post #12

As soon as Ubuntu Phone becomes stable enough for daily use, I will switch from Android to it. Coupled with a powerful processor and plenty of spare solid-state memory, Ubuntu Phone will allow me to walk around and travel with my entire desktop environment in my pocket -- including round-the-clock access to everything available in official and third-party Ubuntu repositories. (Have you ever needed access to an editor…

> Have you ever needed access to an editor, language, database backend, etc. when you happen to be without a laptop? No problem, Ubuntu Phone will allow you to install and run all these things on your phone.

I used to perform most of these tasks on Nokia phone (yes, right!) - N900. Too bad, it didn't pick up on the market.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N900

Re: Ubuntu Phone will include a Terminal application

#76
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which keyboard would you recommend, I have a Galaxy Nexus, and use to for emergency ssh sessions when I dont have access the computer.

Hacker Keyboard. It will let you send keystrokes via the keyboard instead of needing connectbot. unless you meant an actual bluetooth keyboard, then its just a matter of foldable vs fixed and what you like more. My dad uses this: http://www.quill.com/android-keyboards/cbs/283296.html?cm_mm... for his nexus 7. Works out pretty well.

If you can carry that, you can carry a light notebook =/

Re: Ubuntu Phone will include a Terminal application

#77
post #12

As soon as Ubuntu Phone becomes stable enough for daily use, I will switch from Android to it. Coupled with a powerful processor and plenty of spare solid-state memory, Ubuntu Phone will allow me to walk around and travel with my entire desktop environment in my pocket -- including round-the-clock access to everything available in official and third-party Ubuntu repositories. (Have you ever needed access to an editor…

> Have you ever needed access to an editor, language, database backend, etc. when you happen to be without a laptop? No problem, Ubuntu Phone will allow you to install and run all these things on your phone. I used to perform most of these tasks on Nokia phone (yes, right!) - N900. Too bad, it didn't pick up on the market. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N900

I just wanted to say the same thing.

Re: Ubuntu Phone will include a Terminal application

#78
post #12

As soon as Ubuntu Phone becomes stable enough for daily use, I will switch from Android to it. Coupled with a powerful processor and plenty of spare solid-state memory, Ubuntu Phone will allow me to walk around and travel with my entire desktop environment in my pocket -- including round-the-clock access to everything available in official and third-party Ubuntu repositories. (Have you ever needed access to an editor…

Won't many of the projects in the Ubuntu repositories be unavailable because of architectural reasons, i.e. ARM phones versus x86/64 desktops?

Much of the software in Ubuntu is available on ARM today. If you have an Ubuntu ARM device (say, you are running the desktop on a Panda board), you can launch Ubuntu Software Centre and see for yourself.

For a less pretty view (and one that will only make much sense if you already understand how the Ubuntu archives are organized (poorly)), check out http://ports.ubuntu.com/

Re: Ubuntu Phone will include a Terminal application

#79
I just want to point out that the link is for user submitted design suggestions and is not necessarily official Canonical plan of record for what will ship.

http://www.jonobacon.org/2013/01/23/community-driven-ubuntu-...

It's a subtle distinction I wanted to point out.

Not speaking on behalf of Canonical, just in my own capacity.

Re: Ubuntu Phone will include a Terminal application

#80
post #66
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds somewhat too optimistic? Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd think the majority of people using their laptop for the tasks you talk about would prefer a real keyboard and some usable screen estate over a small screen and slow typing anyday. Might get the job done, but fun is otherwise and it's definitely not the right tool for the desktop job.

I'm pretty sure the parent is being sarcastic. It's wonderfully subtle, though: most people always overdo sarcasm out of fear that it'll go over the heads of most people, which just reduces it to crass snark. This perfectly dances the line.

I sure hope that post isn't sarcastic, because it's a perfectly valid reason to want Ubuntu.

I'd feel a little unwelcome if Hacker News was reduced to make sarcastic posts poking fun at people who want interesting tech on their smartphones.

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