Ubuntu on tablets • Hacker News Board

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#201

Post by georgemcbay » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 9:34 PM UTC

As a developer, having read through all of their site I can't tell if this thing actually supports native development. If it did, that would be great, my main issue with Android is the way so much of the OS is tied to Java with the NDK and such as barely supported afterthoughts.

Google doesn't seem to have any particularly good plan (at least not in public) for dealing with the Java anchor, even after the Oracle lawsuit, which I find very concerning as an Android developer -- like, when, if ever, are they going to support Java 1.7 or Java 1.8 features? Seems like they are content to be stuck at Java 1.6 forever. So not only are you practically stuck with Java if writing non-game "native" Android apps, but you're stuck with an old and increasingly obsolete Java.

The fact that I can't read past the weasel wording here though suggests to me that when Canonical says "native" they mean "QML running on top of Qt", which isn't really native at all (if I can't hook into it at the C/C++ level). I'd love to be wrong though.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#202

Post by josteink » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 9:46 PM UTC

Looking at this (which looks very nice and impressive), the one thing which strikes me is how all the actors in this market seems to want/need a their-platform-only deployment to truly work.

Ubuntu on the phone, tablet, PC and TV looks nice. I'd love to try it. But for me to be able to do so, the devices I buy needs to be open enough for me to be able to install that.

If all I buy is locked down devices, you can be sure I'll never have a home where every device was bought when the next big thing(tm) was released. I'll need a way to bring the platform of my choice to all my devices.

Like PCs had and allowed before Apple went ahead and ruined it all.

Either that or better open protocols and specifications created, implemented and deployed across the line, but we can see how well that is going these days.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#203

Post by trumbitta2 » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 9:52 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #92

trumbitta2 wrote: post #52

I use unity for the fullscreen windows / mac-like menus. In fact, I: - use gnome-do instead of unity dash - use docky in panel mode as my beloved taskbar - keep the horrible unity sidebar well hidden on the left And I am happy so far.

Yeah this thread is totally not about Ubuntu or Unity on the desktop.

Yep, I replied at the wrong level. Shame on me. Also should've not replied to begin with, given that I don't really care about Ubuntu on devices other than my laptop.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#204

Post by codygman » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 9:55 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #48

levesque wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that Unity feels sluggish and inelegant, performance wise. There is always a slight delay when I open the dash, and I generally dislike it's behavior. However, I stay with it because I dislike the alternatives, so no point switching for me. I think this is good news for Unity on the desktop because it means they will be tweaking the hell out of it for performance. I read that it's already better in 13.04, and…

I really hope Canonical doesn't intend to release a quad core Cortex A15 Ubuntu tablet with even the slightest lag or stuttering. I'd rather they delay it for months until they fix that, instead of releasing it like that. People are not going to take that for tablets anymore, and not with today's hardware. From what I read somewhere, Ubuntu for phones was pretty CPU intensive, which could mean it didn't have hardware…

Sadly this sounds more like the Debian way than the Ubuntu way. I jumped ship on Ubuntu around 9.04 when it felt like they just started tacking on features without major quality control that led to degradation of Ubuntu.

I tried 12.04 not too long ago, and some of the same lagginess/weird quirks were still there. Now that many ubuntians are now trying to push for less testing/more releasing in Debian, it's like a skyscraper company telling their foundation builders to use sack concrete instead of whats been tested and proven to work for many years.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#205

Post by codygman » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 9:59 PM UTC

kunai wrote: post #109

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've tried Unity on 13.04; Canonical's make a lot of tweaks to the environment and it's much faster and the apps in the dock launch instantly on click. Of course, I never use full desktop environments anyways; all of them are too big and resource-heavy, and their animations and cool whizzbangery always distracts me and interrupts my workflow. I only use WindowMaker now with GNUStep apps (with the exception of Firefox…

I was using fluxbox, but then I had a stint with dwm (http://dwm.suckless.org/). I got interested in haskell and finally settled on xmonad (http://xmonad.org/) with dmenu which seems to be insanely stable.

This is the most distraction free environment with absolutely no limitations (in the scope of my work) I have ever worked with.

Not to mention it'll run on any netbook easily, or other low spec computer.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#206

Post by takluyver » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 10:01 PM UTC

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #127

> Ubuntu is predicted to ship on almost 10% of the world’s new branded PCs by 2014 I'm interested to hear more about this.

Rumours abound that in less affluent countries, a lot of computers are sold without Windows, but very quickly get illicit copies of Windows installed. I don't know how true that is. All the same, some proportion of people must start to wonder why they need to install Windows.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#207

Post by pedalpete » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 10:05 PM UTC

WickyNilliams wrote: post #138

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 few weeks ago I put Ubuntu 12.04 on my touchpad. I was hoping to run a full rails stack and actually do some dev on the device, or at least use it for testing.

I think I'm getting close. But unfortunately, the UX is difficult to work with without a mouse and keyboard (which I am yet to hook-up).

I'm sure we'll see this on the touchpad before too long.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#208

Post by wmf » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 10:05 PM UTC

pekk wrote: post #153

potatolicious wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is more to productivity than fast, accurate text input. Touch is inferior for text input, but superior for other types of input. I know many designers who are salivating at the prospect of being able to do their work with a stylus that's also a screen (as opposed to the Wacom way of doing it).

Wacom's stuff has been the gold standard for ages. A portable Wacom with the display behind the drawing area would be perfect.

That was called Microsoft Tablet PC...

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#209

Post by naner » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 10:11 PM UTC

pekk wrote: post #149

naner wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one glaring flaw: you have to hold it This isn't really a flaw, tablets aren't going to replace computers they are just another computer that is used differently. They are better for reading and passing around. Products like the Surface Pro I think are overselling the form factor.

I'm not sure why Microsoft deserves special criticism here. Why isn't iPad overselling the form factor?

I apologize for not being clear. It is my understanding that the Surface Pro is marketed as a tablet that is also a laptop replacement. I am arguing that current tablets cannot satisfactorily replicate the functionality of laptops.

The iPad, Nexus, etc. are marketed as supplemental devices, not laptop replacements.

Re: Ubuntu on tablets

#210

Post by pedalpete » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 10:16 PM UTC

josteink wrote: post #202

Looking at this (which looks very nice and impressive), the one thing which strikes me is how all the actors in this market seems to want/need a their-platform-only deployment to truly work. Ubuntu on the phone, tablet, PC and TV looks nice. I'd love to try it. But for me to be able to do so, the devices I buy needs to be open enough for me to be able to install that . If all I buy is locked down devices, you can be…

If I understand you correctly, you're wondering if you'll be able to install Ubuntu on all of your devices?

I don't think that is the model they are going for, and it really doesn't suit the mass market anyway. As I understand it, they are trying to provide the best experience so that manufacturers decide to use them as the OS platform for their devices. Then you'll just go out and buy Ubuntu devices. You don't actually install and select your OS.