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Ubuntu for Android

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Re: Ubuntu for Android

#171

Post by unimpressive »

wavephorm wrote: post #154
unimpressive wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 s…

You can use whatever keyboard you like, whatever input device you like, but there is no inherent reason why your computer has to be an ATX desktop form factor and anchored to the wall. If you could accomplish everything you currently do on your computer right now, with your phone and plugging your phone into a base station, then there would literally be no reason to have a desktop at all. We are only about 1-2 years…

Well. I'd say it's more like five years away from any sort of mainstream acceptance. Not that I'm some anti-hipster, but I don't think it will become mainstream right away BECAUSE:

1) People without smart phones exist. I'm one of them.

2) Nobody is going to be satisfied with phone hardware to control both their phone and their sit-down setup. At least not for a few more generations of Moore's law, and Moore's laws current method for increasing power, stacking cores, is a battery vampire. People who want their phones to actually run for a non-trivial length of time will end up under-utilizing their hardware while on the go. (Hardware that they still payed money for.)

3) So lets say we still have the sit-down setup in the form of the base station. This brings up it's own set of questions:

[A] Where is data stored? What if someone steals your phone? What if you don't have one?

[B] Where does the computing power come from, is this just a shell for the phone or does it have some power on board?

Now we can wrangle over these questions for a while, but I'm quite confident the answers are "The base has an internal HD" and "The base has computer parts inside." at which point I have to ask; how is this that different from what we have now?

I mean, sure my desktop is a little heavier to move than a "base" might be. But unless this base is going to be like the old 90's laptop bases (Huge flat thing with peripherals that plugs into a smaller top.) I can't really see myself moving it. If it has a full fledged keyboard, monitor, and mouse, I can't see myself moving it. If it doesn't, then it's a laptop. With all the problems laptops entail. (Which can only be fixed by "desktopifying" it.)

Of course, marketing conquers all. That is what everyones always going after right, true marketing? Or was that true love? I think it was the marketing...

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#172

Post by nodemaker »

Lewisham wrote: post #138
nodemaker wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The device 'Time Machine' by Apple does exactly that.

No it doesn't, it backsup your Macs over wifi, and that's all it does. It won't access web services, which is they key point I was trying to make. The Time Capsule, and all home backup devices I can name, make the soon-to-be-outdated assumption that your data exists on a hard drive you own.

Well more elaborately your mac can access all web services and download all data which can then be wirelessly backed up by the time machine.

For example my Dropbox folder is automatically synced on my mac which is then automatically backed up by the time machine.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#173

Post by antonyh »

javajosh wrote: post #84
sskates wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Desktop PCs will always outperform portable devices" That doesn't mean portable devices won't replace them. Laptops began to replace desktops a few years ago, the same way PCs replaced mainframes.

That's right: once a certain threshhold of compute performance is reached, the excess is only useful for specialists and gamers.

The other element is that mobile devices are optimised for power consumption / battery life and also for heat output. Desktop devices generally have neither of these concerns, unless they strive to be 'green' or fanless products.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#174

Post by lnanek »

I admit, this would get me to bite the bullet if integrated with one of the existing laptop dock solutions for Android phones such as the Motorola Atrix 4G Lapdock or the ASUS Transformer Prime. Ubuntu is enough for me to do everything I need a computer for, except for some rare book keeping that has to be done over a VPN only supported on Windows/Mac. Instead of bringing my phone and laptop on all trips I'd just have my phone and laptop dock. The laptop docks seem much lighter and having the same stored data and same wireless data connection without tethering would be handy.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#175

Post by freehunter »

orbitingpluto wrote: post #98
freehunter wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a chroot on my Touchpad to run Ubuntu with LXDE. It's... workable, but no where near "desktop" quality. The lack of a mouse kills it, and LXDE isn't really touch optimized. It's really nice to have around when there are apps you need to use that are run better (or easier) from a GUI, and the dual core 1.5Ghz processor with 1GB of RAM is sufficient to keep it running without hiccup (until I load Eclipse). With s…

Have you tried eclim for 'mobile' development? http://eclim.org/ Having a decent soft/hard keyboard is highly recommended. I played with this after having to push out an update connecting with VNC through an SSH tunnel to use Eclipse using the n810. It took ten times as long as it should have to fix two lines of code and build.

That's interesting, hadn't seen it before. I do use Vim on my laptop, but the HP webOS keyboard has some funky modifier keys. I'm not sure if it would work properly. Oh well that's the beauty of free software, I'll download and give it a shot.

Thanks!

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#176

Post by diminish »

lhnn wrote: post #88

Shut up and take my money. This is what I've been dreaming of since I got my smartphone. Why should I even have a netbook for general purpose computing? I want to go anywhere with my MID (mobile internet device).

feel the same. i am using an ubuntu laptop for a long time, and my 2 android phones tablets running ubuntu is like a mobility dream... i am excited.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#177

Post by necrecious »

polshaw wrote: post #136
glhaynes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why this would be the future. I'm going to want to carry a "phone" for sure. Most people who've ever had a smartphone expect to have one the rest of their life. I'm also going to want (at least) a machine with a keyboard and bigger display than my phone. Why in the future would I want to tie one to the other? I wouldn't want that today — my computer works just fine without having to do some weird sync/plu…

Why? To have all your computing stuff with you all the time. That is not just your documents, but your programs and settings. And to only maintain one system. They way i see it, the only rival to this vision is the cloud, and there are a lot of issues there[1] Battery isn't going to be a problem either. With today's solutions you could just plug in one cable which connects to the monitor and charges the phone. Tomorr…

Can you clarify the phrasing of your cloud issues? Do you mean there is no solution for trust/privacy issues, or do you mean there is no solution for licensing?

As for paying, this is a non-issue, you are going to pay either way.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#178

Post by Joeri »

unimpressive wrote: post #171
wavephorm wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use whatever keyboard you like, whatever input device you like, but there is no inherent reason why your computer has to be an ATX desktop form factor and anchored to the wall. If you could accomplish everything you currently do on your computer right now, with your phone and plugging your phone into a base station, then there would literally be no reason to have a desktop at all. We are only about 1-2 years…

Well. I'd say it's more like five years away from any sort of mainstream acceptance. Not that I'm some anti-hipster, but I don't think it will become mainstream right away BECAUSE: 1) People without smart phones exist. I'm one of them. 2) Nobody is going to be satisfied with phone hardware to control both their phone and their sit-down setup. At least not for a few more generations of Moore's law, and Moore's laws cu…

If you're working with a keyboard and mouse, and looking at a big screen, and you have a rich multi-tasking environment that does what you need it to do, does it matter if it's running on a smartphone that's connected via bluetooth to a keyboard/mouse and via DLNA to a screen? Why the need to have a big box containing your CPU, if a little one will do?

Desktop PC's will always find a niche, but they're already a niche today. Laptops by far outsell desktops, and smartphones+tablets by far outsell laptops. Right now you have to be a geek to buy a desktop, because regular people don't buy those anymore. I don't know anyone "normal" who bought a desktop in the last two years. The idea to buy anything other than a laptop simply doesn't arise. This happened in 5 years. Why couldn't a smartphone-centric transition happen in 5 years as well?

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#179

Post by [deleted] »

polshaw wrote: post #136
glhaynes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why this would be the future. I'm going to want to carry a "phone" for sure. Most people who've ever had a smartphone expect to have one the rest of their life. I'm also going to want (at least) a machine with a keyboard and bigger display than my phone. Why in the future would I want to tie one to the other? I wouldn't want that today — my computer works just fine without having to do some weird sync/plu…

Why? To have all your computing stuff with you all the time. That is not just your documents, but your programs and settings. And to only maintain one system. They way i see it, the only rival to this vision is the cloud, and there are a lot of issues there[1] Battery isn't going to be a problem either. With today's solutions you could just plug in one cable which connects to the monitor and charges the phone. Tomorr…

[deleted]

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#180

Post by polshaw »

necrecious wrote: post #177
polshaw wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? To have all your computing stuff with you all the time. That is not just your documents, but your programs and settings. And to only maintain one system. They way i see it, the only rival to this vision is the cloud, and there are a lot of issues there[1] Battery isn't going to be a problem either. With today's solutions you could just plug in one cable which connects to the monitor and charges the phone. Tomorr…

Can you clarify the phrasing of your cloud issues? Do you mean there is no solution for trust/privacy issues, or do you mean there is no solution for licensing? As for paying, this is a non-issue, you are going to pay either way.

There is no one i trust with my data more than me, and large projects have a poor history with trust/privacy.

When I talk about licencing i'm talking about the future: where you could use the cloud to access full fat programs like photoshop (after getting over any technical issues with remote installs). AFAIK there aren't provisions in current licences for such things.

Even if you have to spend for (more) local storage/backup, it is very likely to be much cheaper, and i would have a strong preference for the buy-once (and own) rather than rent monthly model.

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