I'm so happy Canonical is pushing this innovation. As soon as I heard about their initial attempt in mobile OS on a Atrix, I knew this is where computing had to be going.
That phone's design looks so slick too!
Ubuntu Edge
241–250 of 390 posts
Re: Ubuntu Edge
#242Does anyone really still want a phone you can plug into a monitor? This would have been a dream product back before broadband and wifi became ubiquitous, and before extra PCs became so cheap. Nowadays, it seems like a much better design is to have multiple devices with different form factors that can access shared data via a cloud. (unless this product is meant as an NSA-proof system, but I don't see that it makes a…
Oh, absolutely. I want to carry my data around with me, and access it via whatever the best interface at the moment is -- when I'm driving, when I'm walking around, when I'm at my desk. This phone isn't for me, but I can definitely see the appeal.
Re: Ubuntu Edge
#243The $32 million fundraising goal might seem overly ambitious, but it's actually more realistic than it appears at first glance, because at $600+ per unit the campaign needs only around 50,000 buyers worldwide to be successful -- or a bit over 2% of Ubuntu's enthusiastic user base, which was estimated to be greater than 20 million in 2011.[1] PS. I just ordered one, as I LOVE the idea of an unlocked phone designed and…
One of the things that's interesting about the phone industry is that in general there's no equivalent of the special tech-focused PC platforms. So Ubuntu Edge is a way to unlock both a new software platform (Ubuntu phone) but also to bring forward a set of hardware technologies that won't be in the mainstream for a while. It's a really high target caused by how expensive these platforms are to manufacture. But if we…
Thanks for doing this campaign! It takes courage to post a goal like that.
I'd much rather give you $600 than pay AT&T and others for the "privilege" of an unlocked phone. I'm happy to have gotten my pledge in and look forward to many exciting updates :)
Re: Ubuntu Edge
#244I want this. I already pay an Ubuntu premium for System76 computers. Anyone who has the Dell dev edition does the same. But, Canonical, can you please extend the $600 price point for at least a month? This sudden 24 hour sale is too much of an impulse buy.
No kidding. It's always so tempting to jump in on these sort of "founder" things early, but $600 is not small change...
I bought it. If nothing this is the kind of innovation which makes me excited for computing and I want to support that.
Best case the phone will arrive just in time to replace my Nexus4. Common case I get a refund. Worst case the thing is a dud, either poor build quality or under-performance.
From a high level Canonical has taken the right decisions to avoid the worst case. Being a high end device there is plenty of margin for a good case. The System on Chip is off the shelf so perforamnce only depends on the software. If Ubuntu is too heavy for mobiles then I can revert to android. The high fund threashhold means the phone will have the volume for factory production.
Before my Nexus 4 I had a N900. The N900 was the closest thing yet to a linux computer in your pocket. I loved it, you could tell engineers developed the N900 as a phone for engineers by engineers. This Ubuntu Edge looks like a true spiritual successor.
Re: Ubuntu Edge
#245To start with, I was skeptical. 32mil? But, I watched the video, and realised that Ubuntu are trying to achieve what I've always dreamed of and asked for: an enthusiasts phone at the cutting edge.
I've backed it. I hope that this is the future of mass produced electronics.
Re: Ubuntu Edge
#246I admire this effort. However what we need is a fully free phone (Hardware schematics, source code). I am really disturbed about all that network connection, GPS yet so little transparency.
Have you ever seen a movie, where the rogue agent does not take out and destroy the phone, like it is a devil work :P
Any knowledge on hardware schematics, source code, license issues?
Re: Ubuntu Edge
#247Well that's fucking awesome.
But uhh...doesn't Canonical already have money? :P
Re: Ubuntu Edge
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Are there really no off-the-shelf platforms for this? From what I gather, it seems the entire purpose of this 'edge' project is a hardware one, not a software one. They're trying to gather the 'latest and greatest' hardware and make a phone out of it, which would by definition, not be found in an existing handset. I'm sure they'll try to push for their mobile os regardless of whether this fails or not, as it seems…
It will be interesting to find out how many real hardware people have had input on this. As an example, the battery is going to be "silicon-anode" - I didn't even know that was a thing, and Google only turns up weeks/months old articles on how researchers are trying to make them out of rice. Yet they're going to stick it in a phone. If each hardware choice has been made like that, there's a huge risk with the project…
There appears to be a company working on silicon-anode batteries: http://www.nexeon.co.uk/about/an-introduction-to-nexeon/
They claim to have a prototype factory producing 500 phones worth of battery material per day. Not the scale Samsung needs but enough for a one off phone run.
Re: Ubuntu Edge
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think your speculation is quite wrong. Linux users are typically the highest payers for games, on average.
On every[0] Humble Bundle so far, the highest average donations come from Linux users. On some, they've even donated the same amount or more in total dollars compared to OS X users - ie, Linux users have been more profitable even though they have a much smaller market share. In short, Linux users are very profitable (per-user). [0] I can't confirm that it's 100%, but it's been every Humble Bundle I've participated in…
My gut feeling is that someone running Linux as their desktop OS has had to opt in; this means that the pool of potential desktop Linux game purchasers is more likely to be made up of people who are motivated by Linux itself; and that these people are thus more likely to be people who are invested in the success of Linux as an environment.
I'm not au courant with Linux in any of its various forms, so my assumptions above could be wildly wrong, of course.
Re: Ubuntu Edge
#250> at least 4GB of RAM
This seems... odd, or the 'at least' bit does. The first 64bit ARM chips are due late next year, and will be very much server-targeted.