Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ubuntu Edge

indiegogo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 390 posts

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#321

Post by thomasjames »

mongol wrote: post #301

Is it realistic to deliver the phone at this time frame, given the vagueness of the specs? My only crowdfunding experience (Pebble) was not pleasant in it's long delays, and they gave the impression of being closer to production than Ubuntu Edge. Also, what previous experience does Ubuntu have of hardware design and manufacturing. I also realize that they can source this, like from Taiwan as they mention, but they st…

The missing bit that stands out is the processor. They seem to have all of the peripheral hardware fairly well specified, but the power consumption and final dimensions, etc. are strongly dependent on the processor they choose.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#322

Post by rlpb »

Casc wrote: post #299

A bit late to the party on this post - I think the next shift we see in mobile will be anointing the phone as the arbiter of identity vs the current situation in which our desktop / laptop OS user loosely holds the title. I've previously expressed affinity for a future in which a device (smartphone) becomes a wallet for saving state, identity, data & applications all served by an OS that adapts based on operating env…

I think that the smartphone will eventually evolve into a (hopefully optional) implant.

Those who don't like this may choose not to carry one (by leaving it at home, for example), or have multiple ones (or multiple VMs).

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#323

Post by [deleted] »

rlpb wrote: post #311
vog wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> based on Ubuntu, not controlled by the likes of Google and Apple, and with a UI based on HTML If you don't insist on the "Ubuntu" part, FirefoxOS offers everything you want, and is available on various devices right now: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/os/

How does this hardware compare to FirefoxOS' hardware offerings?

[deleted]

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#324

Post by grey-area »

zanny wrote: post #196
grey-area wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

QML isn't XML-based. Thanks for the correction, I was thinking of xib, XAML, Activities etc. haven't used QML, though I have used Qt, a while ago now. One thing I do think HTML got right is to separate content and code, so putting my UI markup into a js-like format which potentially mixes in code is even less appealing :) Yes, you can jam everything into a HTML document somehow, but that doesn't mean it's always a pl…

Qt just released 5.1, which has prelimiary ios and Android support. By the end of the year, you will be able to write a Qt application, and use a QML ui. You can even use one single UI across all devices, where the UI dynamically adds or substracts elements depending on screen size. IE, responsive design for applications. It is pretty close to write once, run anywhere. The only downside is if your app is the first qt…

On iOS at least dynamic libraries are not allowed outside those Apple provides, so I'm not sure how that would work. I imagine they'll have to compile in the Qt runtime on iOS at least. I'll be interested to see their efforts in this space, but Qt everywhere is not particularly attractive to me, nor is working in C++ or javascript with qml.

I do wish these platforms were a little more agnostic to the technology used in their API, and had simple C bindings anyone could write glue code for to use their favourite language. Learning yet another markup language and using C++ in order to create apps doesn't really appeal. Whatever the platform insists on as glue is what we'll have to use though, as usual. Personally I'm going to look into the webapp support in Ubuntu Phone to see if it supports local web apps, and hope that I can use that glue to get at any device state that I need to access.

As to qml in the browser, I'd really rather have web apps on the desktop than start writing websites in qml, I'd be very surprised if that catches on.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#325

Post by tonyblundell »

I really like the idea of an Ubuntu phone, but the desktop thing is just weird.

I really can't see a use-case for it.

Aside from a drastic increase in the chances of dropping my entire computing resources in a toilet, or leaving them in a pub, usable desktops can be had for around £200.

And you still need a desk at home with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. At a time when people have largely ditched that idea in favour of a laptop or tablet form-factor.

The fact that it's on Indiegogo suggests they've tried to get commercial investors and failed because it's unmarketable, which is frustrating because I think a straight Ubuntu phone could really make an impact.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#326

Post by vog »

reedlaw wrote: post #319
rlpb wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this hardware compare to FirefoxOS' hardware offerings?

This hardware looks like it blows everything else out of the water. So far, Firefox OS hardware offerings have been on the low-end.

This is a bit counter-intuitive, I think, because although Ubuntu's mission is "for the people", they target high-end smartphones instead of low-end smartphones. So in relatively poor countries those Ubuntu phone won't spread that much, while FirefoxOS seems to be spreading there quite fast.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#327

Post by grey-area »

ealexhudson wrote: post #2

I upvoted this because I think it's an interesting experiment. Attempting to raise $1M+ every day for a month, though, I think is insanely ambitious. Asking people for $830 for a device that they won't get for a year is asking a lot, particularly since the specs aren't worlds away from current phones (two years time, and probably $500 would get you a device with those specs, unlocked). Worse, I just don't even get th…

They've reached around $3.2m in their first day, so they're on track, though probably donations will slow down from now on till it nears the end. The price is pretty high, and this is not a mass market device in its current form - it's an interesting strategy to target the high end. Perhaps they see Apple as floundering in years to come, and want to take that slice of the market and work down?

It's interesting that you talk about some kind of installation. Everyone with a desktop PC already has such an installation, and many people with laptops have one too - a screen and keyboard for when they're at home, and a laptop which plugs in there, or can be separated and used independently. Works for me.

So I imagine the target market here is people who use laptops with a screen at home and would be happy with even more convenience and a smaller device to carry around. This probably isn't a realistic convergence device as it is so ambitious, at present it's more dream than reality, but one day we might all work this way.

I find it more attractive to have a hard local store of my data than the alternative of trusting cloud providers with all my data and working from thin clients.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#328

Post by gnur »

achiang wrote: post #69
mromanuk wrote: post #68

"For a phone to run a full desktop OS, it must have the raw power of a PC. We’ll choose the fastest available multi-core processor, at least 4GB of RAM and a massive 128GB of storage" I would love to be wrong but I'm not buying the promise of a (real world functioning) PC on a phone. ARM based chips are 1 order of magnitude slower than a desktop x86 counterpart, currently there is no such processor to perform as desk…

My team dogfoods Ubuntu for Android every single day on the Nexus 4, and I'll say that it's performant enough to be a daily driver as a desktop replacement. Edge has 4GB of RAM planned, and will run even better than the N4.

Is this available somewhere public?

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#329

Post by PavlovsCat »

tonyblundell wrote: post #325

I really like the idea of an Ubuntu phone, but the desktop thing is just weird. I really can't see a use-case for it. Aside from a drastic increase in the chances of dropping my entire computing resources in a toilet, or leaving them in a pub, usable desktops can be had for around £200. And you still need a desk at home with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. At a time when people have largely ditched that idea in favour…

I have an use-case, but I doubt it's very widespread: I always carry my DSLR around, and wouldn't mind a few extra pounds in the bag.. so instead of a phone, I'd rather see a small brick; not even meant to be held to your face ever, but used with a headset, and with plenty of USB ports on it.

I mean sure, phones will get as fast as desktops are today, but then a bigger computer will still be faster, and I would still have to do any heavy lifting on the desktop.

I don't do video myself, but even "just" processing photos and using Renoise requires more resources than I think even this thing can offer; basically, I have songs I can't work on unless the machine is at least as fast as my current desktop. The same would apply for doing stuff with WebGL: it doesn't have to be a gamer GPU, but it can't be a phone either. For me, that at best does for consuming, but not for creating. Especially since creating becomes more fun when it's more fluid, the minimum requirements don't cut it and more is better.

Even a mouse I have to lug around, and a foldable full keyboard, sound better than a laptop keyboard to me - I can't stand touchpads, or keys with 50 functions on them to save space. I could even get used to running around with a backpack if it meant I could have a real keyboard. And of course there's always internet cafes, which I would expect to offer a working spaces where you use your own computer, if stuff like this became reality.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#330

Post by klez »

achiang wrote: post #58
xanderstrike wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my thinking. The whole time through that video I was wondering why they don't just buy a couple thousand Nexus 4s to load up with their custom build and re-sell. If they're planning to put Ubuntu on other manufacturers hardware, the official Google supported phone sounds like a pretty good place to start, and the speed at which those phones sell would be a great way to test the interest in their new platform…

Reselling someone else's developer phone from last year isn't exactly the marketing message we're going for. Edge is meant to be a premium product, not just another "me too". Unrelated: if you simply want to test drive Ubuntu for Phones, it's already been ported to 40+ platforms.

> if you simply want to test drive Ubuntu for Phones, it's already been ported to 40+ platforms

Isn't it just for OEMs? Or am I missing something?

Post reply on HN