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Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

engadget.com

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Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#161

Post by lttlrck »

elithrar wrote: post #120
polshaw wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What does it bring new to developers that isn't there in Android? Firefox OS's USP is web apps with native bindings Connect a display and you have full ubuntu. With today's smartphones already computationally competitive with your standard netbook, that alone is a massive value proposition to me. Add something like motorola's lapdock and there is 95% of all my computing needs met, all with a single, central data sto…

> Hopefully porting from linux will be fairly straightforward too.. just a new UI support?, giving apps that work from desktop to mobile. Not to mention that is has most of the FFOS advantage too. I wouldn't trivialise the effort required to create a touch-friendly UI, especially from an existing desktop application (with the expectations that go with it).

And what happens when a desktop monitor is connected? Will it give me the same small-screen touch-optimized app or are the apps supposed switch to desktop UI mode? The former would be disastrous, and the latter would be optimal but extremely unlikely (to put it lightly). It seems half-baked...

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#162

Post by takluyver »

wmf wrote: post #104
mtgx wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be an impossible task to do that for all phones. But the community can make ROM's for different phones like they do it for Android.

Canonical must have at least one ROM that they use for their own testing. Why won't they even release that?

Information around the web suggests that it's being tested on the Galaxy Nexus, and that the image for that will be released.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#163

Post by mongol »

mladenkovacevic wrote: post #68

This announcement baffles me a little bit. An Ubuntu Phone? Why did they choose to announce a phone OS and not a tablet? Phones are light communication devices for sending brief messages, checking social statuses or updating them. Ubuntu is a full featured OS used in creating and consuming long-form content. If they are hoping to engage with existing OEMs I think they would've had a much better time of it with compan…

A phone is the thing everyone needs. If it isn't a phone, then you need another phone.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#164

Post by primitur »

elithrar wrote: post #120
polshaw wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What does it bring new to developers that isn't there in Android? Firefox OS's USP is web apps with native bindings Connect a display and you have full ubuntu. With today's smartphones already computationally competitive with your standard netbook, that alone is a massive value proposition to me. Add something like motorola's lapdock and there is 95% of all my computing needs met, all with a single, central data sto…

> Hopefully porting from linux will be fairly straightforward too.. just a new UI support?, giving apps that work from desktop to mobile. Not to mention that is has most of the FFOS advantage too. I wouldn't trivialise the effort required to create a touch-friendly UI, especially from an existing desktop application (with the expectations that go with it).

Do you know how easy it is to port touch-friendly UI frameworks/SDK's such as MOAI (http://getmoai.com/) to Ubuntu? Damn easy.

In fact, its already done: and right now, MOAI - and similar tools, just like it (Love2D, Cocos2D, &etc.) - are already out there, running on the existing OS's, and providing multi-touch interfaces that definitely compete with existing Frameworks/SDK's. There is little that Cocoa does, for the 2D gamer/mobile developer, that MOAI cannot do, also. (Granted: native interfaces are a weakness, but then again: non-native, truly cross-platform UI's are a STRENGTH in the face of the existing market)

By making this move, Canonical has just invalidated all the proprietary bullshit the average Objective-C developer has to contend with, in order to develop an app for the mobile platform. Same with Android - both Objective-C and Android investments have just been bumped down a few tens of points, in my opinion. Why bother learning proprietary locked-in crap, when you can pick a framework that will run easily on all of the platforms, including the up and coming new Ubuntu-Mobile?

Where once we have over-specialization and a slavish devotion to technocratic dogma from an oppressive regime (Apple, and in lesser yet still significant ways, Android too), we now have a real ability to choose our tools and standardize on the ones with which we most feel comfortable.

Make no mistake, this is a genius move. Not only do we have Mobile becoming Desktop becoming the Cloud, finally, but we have it with Open Tools, that no other company has the balls to produce.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#165

Post by lttlrck »

r3m6 wrote: post #121
maratd wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Connect a display and you have full ubuntu. I didn't see this mentioned in the keynote. I was specifically looking for it and there were zero mentions?

Mark S. mentions it in the Engadget interview: "If I dock this, I can get the full Ubuntu desktop".

So is it going to have two WMs and two versions of every desktop app? One touch optimized and one for the desktop?

It doesn't sound all that wonderful.

Desktop/mobile crossover might be better served with cloud-sync.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#166

Post by primitur »

lttlrck wrote: post #161
elithrar wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hopefully porting from linux will be fairly straightforward too.. just a new UI support?, giving apps that work from desktop to mobile. Not to mention that is has most of the FFOS advantage too. I wouldn't trivialise the effort required to create a touch-friendly UI, especially from an existing desktop application (with the expectations that go with it).

And what happens when a desktop monitor is connected? Will it give me the same small-screen touch-optimized app or are the apps supposed switch to desktop UI mode? The former would be disastrous, and the latter would be optimal but extremely unlikely (to put it lightly). It seems half-baked...

There is absolutely nothing stopping us developers from sensing when it occurs and switching accordingly. This is really the point: we can choose to scale from Desktop to Mobile UI's, sanely, without having the market separation enforced upon us by those who would control the industry.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#167

Post by primitur »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #136
marshray wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a data point my newest phone (Nexus 4) is a 1.5 GHz quad-core with 2 GB of RAM and a GPU good for OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenCL 1.2. Except for hard drive size and bandwidth, it's the same or better than the dual core laptop I had 5 years ago.

Those specs don't speak to performance. Your 5 year old computer could easily run Windows 8 without a problem and the Nexus 4 can't.

The 5 year old computer can easily run Ubuntu and now Mobile phones will, also. What don't you get: this is Canonical running ahead of the pack?

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#168

Post by lttlrck »

socceroos wrote: post #145
webjprgm wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what's the difference between having cloud-based accounts and documents that sync between phone, tablet, and desktop? Then you can go to work and without even taking your phone out of your pocket (or even if you forgot it on your bed stand) you can start working with all your same stuff. I believe Apple looks at the problem this way. Rather than have one piece of hardware act as all devices, they have multiple pie…

You don't need two computers.

But this thing will need two window managers to be useful and applications optimized for touch AND mouse/keyboard. Is rather have two computers. It's not like carrying a phone is a hardship.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#169

Post by marshray »

sliverstorm wrote: post #156
marshray wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: What is the use of "running Windows 8" per se? Traditionally, computing platforms are for applications and operating systems are a means to that end. What class of applications (from 5 years ago) would have inherent performance issues with Nexus4-class hardware (assuming a real external display and hard drive were added)? Also, it occurs to me that Surface RT is largely Windows 8 and Office running…

What is the use of "running Windows 8" per se? ... operating systems are a means to [an] end That's the use. If it runs Windows 8 without complaint, you can generally do the things that running Windows 8 allows you to do.

One could open and close Notepad and Calc all day long and even do some light websurfing with IE with no problem, just to find the system bogs down trying to work with a real productivity app like an IDE, a video editor, or even a spreadsheet.

I think we've all seen a slow desktop before. Windows generally has minimum requirements well below that which you would want to have for serious productivity work. An OS has to leave some RAM and storage space for the user's apps.

Re: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones

#170

Post by marshray »

noahjk wrote: post #159
mappu wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those specs edge out the Microsoft Surface RT, which does run Windows 8.

Windows RT*, a little less demanding.

It runs desktop MS Office too. For many people/enterprises that's the gold standard yardstick for "usable PC performance".
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