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Ubuntu on tablets

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Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#131

Post by noahl »

cabbeer wrote: post #85

Ubuntu uses KDE for their mobile apps and GTK on the desktop, this is going to be a pain when porting apps.

They use Qt for mobile apps, but I don't think they use the whole KDE environment. For instance, I really really doubt that the KDE daemons are running, and they aren't using the K* apps either.

As for porting, I think they have a consistent story - use Qt everywhere. It's clear that they're moving to Qt, and while I expect they will continue to run other peoples' GTK apps on the desktop, I doubt they'll be writing many more of their own.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#132

Post by enjo »

davidweir wrote: post #105
azakai wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would make sense for Nokia to not put all its eggs in one basket. Windows is not doing well on mobile devices, so Nokia investing in other options would be the safe thing to do.

In a sense, not putting their eggs in one basket was their downfall: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/10/nokia_ui_saga/

That's not about putting their eggs into separate baskets, it's about Nokia's shortcomings in terms of both management and engineering.

I worked very closely with Nokia during that time period. As closely as one could work without being directly employed (we deployed a product directly to the S60 baseline).

What happened at Nokia was the end result of years of engineering neglect. Symbian was a monster. It was poorly engineered in general, and certain subsystems (like messaging) had a reputation for simply being impossible to work with. It was just a huge mess.

The UI saga was just another symptom of that mess. That touchscreen phone referenced in the article? It existed well before the iPhone in various incarnations. They spent years trying to push that thing over the finish line, and failed. The underlying graphical subsystems gave them problems. The new form factors presented by the emergence of touchscreen slate devices proved at odds with a whole host of assumptions made throughout the (huge) Symbian/S60 codebase.

The whole thing was just a giant hot mess.

It's possible that competing internal frameworks could have worked. The ultimate problem is that they never developed one compelling UI paradigm/library that actually worked. Much less worked in a well integrated way across the whole platform.

Nokia failed at project management. They failed at engineering. They failed at leadership.

Now they're just another OEM.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#133

Post by ajasmin »

rufugee wrote: post #21

As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm now using Cinnamon as a desktop environment. I really, really wanted Unity to work, but I've had continued performance problems which make it ultimately unusable for me. I understand Ubuntu's need to turn a profit, but I really wish they'd focus on making Unity stable and performant before chasing down these other opportunities... Disclaimer: I run three monitors, so I'm probab…

I really hope they get the tablet interface right. Unity on the desktop has been a bumpy road. Although it's getting better, each release has its quirks. I'm having a lot of issues with their new web app integration for instance.

Since Ubuntu on the tablet is a literal clean slate, they can at least avoid the puzzle of making existing applications fit their desktop guidelines. A lot of popular apps still don't use the app menu for instance (GUI version of Vim, Eclipse, and even that new Steam for Ubuntu).

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#134

Post by wuest »

pajju wrote: post #53

They learnt everything from others by launching late, but added most of the good design patterns. Great work all together. Worth mentioning, Ubuntu is emerging as perfect web platform with tight integration with web-services. "And now web applications are first class citizens too, wow. I was waiting for this to happen fast." At this stage they need: 1. More Partners. They must have strong tie-ups with OEM partners, w…

> 3. Nokia backing up this project?

I would love for this to happen (heck, my N900 and N9 show that Nokia + Linux = fantastic device) but I fear that as long as Elop is at the reins, this is an impossible dream. This is the same CEO who even went so far as to ditch Qt less than a year ago, remember.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#135

Post by wpietri »

rufugee wrote: post #21

As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm now using Cinnamon as a desktop environment. I really, really wanted Unity to work, but I've had continued performance problems which make it ultimately unusable for me. I understand Ubuntu's need to turn a profit, but I really wish they'd focus on making Unity stable and performant before chasing down these other opportunities... Disclaimer: I run three monitors, so I'm probab…

I'm still using Unity on two of my laptops. (They're both Thinkpads, which are very popular for Linux users.) Unity definitely still has performance and stability problems, as well as significant UI glitches.

I don't think I've had more than a week of uptime out of either laptop, and I think the median is something like 2 days. That was not the case with earlier versions of Ubuntu on the same hardware.

I like the ideas behind Unity, but the execution has been terrible. It's pretty obvious they're focused on arbitrary schedules over a solid user experience.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#137

Post by jasonkostempski »

bitsoda wrote: post #42

I still don't understand the tablet form factor. I concluded that it's not for me some time ago, but am waiting for the general population to come around to one glaring flaw: you have to hold it. For me, it doesn't matter how light a tablet is. A five pound laptop will always feel lighter since it will effectively weigh nothing because it's always on some kind of platform during use, either my lap or a flat desk/tabl…

They solved that problem with stands, I think on the same day they thought up tablets.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#138

Post by WickyNilliams »

I must say, this looks pretty slick. Wonder how well the multitasking stuff will hold up in practice?

Here's hoping some clever bods will get this working on a HP Touchpad, would love to resurrect my touchpad from it's dusty grave. Can't imagine there would be much problem given that it's had no problems running Android. Bring it on!

Does anybody know if this will give access to bash etc? Could I develop on this with a bluetooth keyboard?

EDIT: full desktop with mouse and keyboard! Should have finished watching the video before commenting. I'm interested in this thin client for windows also - is this standard in the regular Ubuntu distros?

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#139

Post by newishuser »

Heres why this is awesome:

  - The name Unity finally makes perfect sense
  - Phone can expand into a tablet can expand into a desktop
  - larger form factor can run smaller form factor apps
  - app switcher is slick
  - Canonical finally learned how to use all the bull shit 
    motivational words that apple uses to inspire people
  - OS level tie ins to social services
  - Still open source
I'm excited to use it, and I'm excited to help. Personally I think this could be a big win for user rights and an awesome mobile OS.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#140

Post by skriticos2 »

rufugee wrote: post #21

As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm now using Cinnamon as a desktop environment. I really, really wanted Unity to work, but I've had continued performance problems which make it ultimately unusable for me. I understand Ubuntu's need to turn a profit, but I really wish they'd focus on making Unity stable and performant before chasing down these other opportunities... Disclaimer: I run three monitors, so I'm probab…

I have nothing against Unity. Sure, it had it's issues when it started, but the LTS version is quite solid.

Running a laptop from an Ubuntu OEM (System 76) with high end CPU (I7) and SSD I can't complain about performance or compatibility issues at all (though I'm only on a dual 1080p config).

Steam also works quite OK. Though most of the time I'm in a terminal with vim, so I don't care much about most Unity features. It looks nicer than the dated GNOME 2 / 3 / KDE stuff though (personal taste).

Also, I really got used to Ubuntu One file sync and music store and indicators.

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