Ubuntu for Android • Hacker News Board

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#141

Post by gbog » Wed, Feb 22, 2012, 12:47 AM UTC

bambax wrote: post #42

bguthrie wrote: post #17

This, or something like it, is the future: the computing device is portable, and adapts itself to the forms of input available. There's no reason why your display should have to be permanently attached to the device that drives it, and increasingly, it won't be. I don't know what the implications are for Ubuntu or Android. But genuine support for a first-class computing experience is one of the few things that would…

> This, or something like it, is the future: the computing device is portable, and adapts itself to the forms of input available Maybe it is, but it's not the future I'd like best. I would like to have a desktop in the cloud, and data in the cloud, and nothing in my pocket; nothing to lose or break or have to make sure it still has juice. When I get somewhere to work (a client's, a café, a friend's, etc.), I log in t…

Almost every answer emphasizes security, but what about convenience? Where is your dumb terminal when you climb in the Alps and wish too take a short at Mount Blank? In a taxi will you have to log in a machine before checking your friend'a address? Where is your dumb terminal in the washroom (probably the place where smartphones are most used)?

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#142

Post by gbog » Wed, Feb 22, 2012, 12:50 AM UTC

mrb wrote: post #43

You could push the ease-of-use even further with wireless HDMI, A2DP, and Bluetooth HIDs. Imagine: sit at a desk, without your phone even leaving your pocket. The wireless HDMI monitor, Bluetooth keyboard, and Bluetooth A2DP speakers automatically pair up with your phone. You just start using the device, eg. show a video to your friends, or start working. Stand up and leave. The phone unpairs itself from the monitor/…

Yes, the dock is not even needed.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#143

Post by wavephorm » Wed, Feb 22, 2012, 1:11 AM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #60

wavephorm wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kinda the same as saying Mini-Computers will always outperform Desktop PC's. The general trend of hardware is that it gets smaller, faster, and more efficient simultaneously. It is highly likely within 10 years you'll be walking around with a smartphone more than 10 times as powerful than the fastest 16-core desktop PC you can buy today, and possibly desktop PC's won't even be sold by then because there won't…

If that's a bet, I'll take it. You'll still be able to buy desktop computers in 10 years. They might not be common, cheap or easy to find, but you'll be able to buy them. IBM still makes lots of money selling mainframes, and HP still makes and sells OpenVMS minicomputers.

You really think desktop computers in an ATX case, with a full ATX-motherboard, and 5" hard drives are going to be around in 10 years? Seriously? They're becoming rare even today.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#144

Post by yread » Wed, Feb 22, 2012, 1:29 AM UTC

recoiledsnake wrote: post #94

yread wrote: post #32

So what do you do when the phone rings and you're doing something uninterruptible on the PC?

Take the call via a bluetooth headset?

So instead of a notebook and phone you're going to have a phone, notebook, keyboard, mouse, headset and a screen. Also in case you've an external DVD drive that is burning a disc and somebody calls you, you'll throw it out and start again?

I'm getting old

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#145

Post by modev » Wed, Feb 22, 2012, 1:42 AM UTC

I'll love to test this out as soon as possible. Getting my Android phone to try it out. ;)

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#146

Post by chj » Wed, Feb 22, 2012, 1:54 AM UTC

Ubuntu is the future of open computing. Look what apple does to their OS X and what Microsoft is going to do with their windows.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#147

Post by glhaynes » Wed, Feb 22, 2012, 2:17 AM UTC

lmm wrote: post #132

glhaynes wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do from time to time. Even they can be transferred over today's WiFi in a matter of seconds. My point is that keeping local devices in sync for all but a very few uses is already today easily solvable. So I wonder why we'd want to move to an architecture where our computers are reliant on our phones... there seem to be some significant tradeoffs to that model and it's not clear to me what real gains there would be.

>keeping local devices in sync for all but a very few uses is already today easily solvable. No, it really isn't. Manual file transfer is... doable, but still more problematic than it should be. But there is absolutely nothing that will seamlessly keep my phone in sync with my tablet when I don't have network access (i.e. I take a photo on my phone and it's on my tablet, without me doing anything). If you have a solu…

It's not solved, it's easily solvable. :)

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#148

Post by LnxPrgr3 » Wed, Feb 22, 2012, 2:18 AM UTC

Did I just come out of a 40-day coma? What month is this?

"Android was designed for touch only, and has its hands full winning the tablet wars."

Be careful. I think Steve Jobs might've patented the reality distortion field.

"The Ubuntu desktop sets the standard for ease of use." Compared to what?

"And imagine TVs that become home PCs when you dock your phone: perfect for the emerging market where LTE will be the normal way for new users to connect to the Internet."

Great. My home connection's going to come with a 4GB monthly cap now too?

In a lot of ways this is actually a neat idea, and I could see something close to this catching on. I see a few problems though:

* As fast as my laptop is, I still sometimes wish it had a faster CPU, a better GPU, and more RAM. Modern phones are still around an order of magnitude slower and have a fraction of the RAM. They're not exactly desktop replacements.

* 64GB is an impressive amount of storage for a cell phone. It's pretty weak for a laptop.

* "The Cloud" is an order of magnitude or two slower than my local disk, and my local disk doesn't have a monthly data transfer limit.

* Normal people have no clue what Ubuntu is, and they're not exactly adopting it in droves, even without having to buy new hardware to support it.

So… neat idea, but I don't see this getting off the ground. If it does, though, I see a lot more idle sword fighting in my future.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#149

Post by shimon_e » Wed, Feb 22, 2012, 2:51 AM UTC

cpeterso wrote: post #47

bguthrie wrote: post #17

This, or something like it, is the future: the computing device is portable, and adapts itself to the forms of input available. There's no reason why your display should have to be permanently attached to the device that drives it, and increasingly, it won't be. I don't know what the implications are for Ubuntu or Android. But genuine support for a first-class computing experience is one of the few things that would…

Desktop PCs will always outperform portable devices. I think future docking stations will include both a big display and a big processor. When you dock your phone, your phone's apps will be running on the dock's fast processor while accessing your personal data off the phone. When you undock your phone, your running apps will seamlessly migrate to the phone's processor(s). This will be extremely asymmetric multiproce…

The way things are going desktops are getting TOO powerful.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#150

Post by unimpressive » Wed, Feb 22, 2012, 3:02 AM UTC

wavephorm wrote: post #143

bryanlarsen wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's a bet, I'll take it. You'll still be able to buy desktop computers in 10 years. They might not be common, cheap or easy to find, but you'll be able to buy them. IBM still makes lots of money selling mainframes, and HP still makes and sells OpenVMS minicomputers.

You really think desktop computers in an ATX case, with a full ATX-motherboard, and 5" hard drives are going to be around in 10 years? Seriously? They're becoming rare even today.

After reading that I looked down at the desktop I'm writing this from.

I laughed.

Desktops are by no means "rare". Cell phones have just become ubiquitous, theres a difference. (Laptops too for that matter.)

One of my problems with current generation laptops and netbooks (Besides costing almost twice as much for the same performance.) is that despite being "mobile" computers I end up having to set it down on a flat surface every time I want to use it. Walking around and using your laptop at the same time? Not going to happen. (Unless you buy one of those chest-strap things I saw in the first splinter cell...) The OLPC solved this pretty elegantly with the handle on the back, which is made just perfectly so that you can actually hold the computer with one hand and operate it with the other. (This mainly works because the OLPC is more netbook than laptop.)

And then you get two more problems I have with the laptop form factor: Trackpad vs Mouse, "Keyboard" vs Keyboard.

Trackpads, even when you have a responsive one, are awful. They're like touch screens, but not as cool. If you have anything on your hands, it gets on the trackpad when you use it. Trackpads are too slow if they're set at a speed where your mouse can actually point, and uncontrollable if the speed is turned up.

The "Keyboard"s that comes with most laptops barely qualify for the word. Traditional desktop keyboards can have keys with a height greater than five millimeters. (I'm exaggerating obviously, but laptop keyboards are very flat.) and I much prefer this to keyboards that feel like I'm tapping on a piece of plastic cardboard. I'd almost rather forgo the keyboard entirely and just push down on the little gelatinous circles underneath directly. And don't get me started on replacing one of those keys if they break. (Which they often do.)

And no, touch screens aren't the answer. On laptop screens, touchscreen == dirty display. I already have a rant here about touch screens on mobile devices. On displays bigger than a laptop, you better not have been planning to sit more than an arm's length away from your monitor. Oh right, the future doesn't have big screens in it.

Desktops might not even be common in a decade, but they'll be there. If for nothing else because theres people like me who still like to sit down to a (awesome) computer setup.