Ubuntu Joins the Mobile Race

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gehenna

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#113031 3-Jan-2013 09:24

Looks like it won't be too much work to convert existing Android apps to this platform. So they're not strictly starting from scratch like Android and WinMo did a few years ago. It's a great looking OS...I'll be watching this keenly.

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#739607 3-Jan-2013 09:59

Thanks for posting that, Very interesting indeed and looks very nice

gehenna

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#739608 3-Jan-2013 10:04

Yep that's what I think. I really like their take on how to access your content, making each side of the screen active for a different function and then hiding what's not necessary to maximise the display area.

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#739609 3-Jan-2013 10:06

It's awesome and I want one

freitasm

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#739610 3-Jan-2013 10:06

Ubuntu, Android, Firefox. Do we really need more *nix based mobile OS than we already have?

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gehenna

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#739612 3-Jan-2013 10:10

We do if they're innovating beyond the current norms. If they're just duplicating then I'm not interested, but Ubuntu appear to be doing some pretty unique things that aren't on the roadmap for other OS's. Plus the fact that you can just load this up on existing (but probably minimum spec required) Android hardware makes this an attractive OS for sure!

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#739640 3-Jan-2013 11:12

was expecting more from ubuntu tbh.

theyre talking about the same system on the desktop and phone, saying no one else is doing that, but windows phone and windows 8 are pretty similar in the gui now.

i was expecting to be able to plug in a screen to the phone and have a full computer (like ubuntu for android).

looks kinda just like another android phone. nothing that great there, same square rounded icons for apps.

my ideal phone was the padfone, cool concept but couldnt take off. i expect someone to make a windows 8 tablet the size of a phone so you have a full win 8 pc/tablet as your phone which lets you plug into a monitor or laptop dock.

edit: also does anyone think that "personal" circle with "7 tweets" etc looks silly? i rather have a pic of my kids or something and icons show texts, emails, missed calls, etc like windows phone

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gehenna

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#739647 3-Jan-2013 11:24

reven: saying no one else is doing that, but windows phone and windows 8 are pretty similar in the gui now.

Yeah I noticed that as well. Windows Phone/Windows 8/Surface are all pretty much the same UI

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#739691 3-Jan-2013 12:37

Well, Canonical can just have my money. No doubt this will evolve into what Ubuntu for Android was and be a fully blown desktop, but it'll take some mighty hardware if it's going to run games and such. My biggest hope is that it syncs seamlessly with my current Ubuntu rig, the UbuntuOne Android software is terribly inefficient and doesn't carry across anything useful like contacts and social media interactions.

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#739722 3-Jan-2013 13:17

@6-13mins onwards: Take my money

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jbard

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#739752 3-Jan-2013 14:29

It is worth taking a look at the hands on video with engadget. It does look like a pretty slick OS to me.
They also say that if you dock the phone you will get the full Ubuntu OS which is a huge plus :)

Video link here: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/02/ubuntu-for-smartphones/

The two big questions for me are:
1. How easy is it to port android apps?
2. How will the handle OS updates/versions as I think android has got this pretty wrong.

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#739755 3-Jan-2013 14:46

The two big questions for me are:
1. How easy is it to port android apps?
2. How will the handle OS updates/versions as I think android has got this pretty wrong.

1) It uses different languages so some apps will not work at all (Java) but some would be only small conversions to rename hardware packages.

2) Well they're trying to merge the OS so it'll more than likely be package updates. Every part of the OS will be a "package" and would update in a manner similar to how individual apps update on Android.

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#739758 3-Jan-2013 14:52

freitasm: Ubuntu, Android, Firefox. Do we really need more *nix based mobile OS than we already have?

Agree, just like all the *nix desktop OS distros that we don't need.

reven

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#739759 3-Jan-2013 14:53

jbard: They also say that if you dock the phone you will get the full Ubuntu OS which is a huge plus :)

thats a huge plus, wasnt really clear in the youtube presentation, but stated in the Engadget interview.

so then yes this is something to seriously consider and may get my money :) assuming theres a padfone or similar hardware developed

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#739767 3-Jan-2013 15:18

CruciasNZ:
2) Well they're trying to merge the OS so it'll more than likely be package updates. Every part of the OS will be a "package" and would update in a manner similar to how individual apps update on Android.

Have they said they will retain the debian packaging system? There are a lot of ubuntu developers working on debian and vica versa and if we look at what debian are doing in the ARM/Embeded space, we can't assume that each part can be upgraded as a package. Yes, you can install debian armhf with full package management if you want, but on emdebian.org they talk about Emdebian Grip, Emdebian Crush and Emdebian Baked.

http://www.emdebian.org/emdebian/flavours.html

In Emdebian Grip you have most of the functionality of a full debian, but with Emdebian Crush there are far fewer packages and no perl (for example) and by the time you get to Emdebian Baked, you lose most of the maintainer scripts and dpkg and apt packages are likely to be purged.

Regarding the Ubuntu mobile OS, it looks nice, but of course there are a lot of ideas from other places... search reminds me of webOS and swipe from the side reminds me of the Nokia N9 with Meego. Plus with QML apps we might see a lot of Symbian and Meego apps ported to Ubuntu.

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#739783 3-Jan-2013 15:51

I can just see them getting sued for some random patent violation and being crushed by Apple, and I don't see Google exactly coming in to 'help' them out.

Having said that, it does look really nice and I hope to try it. hopefully some bright folk will work out how to get this onto current Android based phones.

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