Ubuntu Smartphone Shipping In October 102
An anonymous reader writes "Smartphones running the open source Ubuntu operating system will be available to customers beginning in October 2013, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth told CIO Journal. Ubuntu will be available on a full range of devices, including desktop and tablet computers, potentially providing corporate IT executives a way to reduce the number of devices they purchase and manage, and would allow users to access all manner of corporate data through a single, pocket-sized device. 'You can share Windows apps to the phone desktop,' said Mr. Shuttleworth during a meeting in New York Tuesday."
Jon Brodkin adds, "Canonical is taking community input on what the core applications (e-mail, calendar, clock/alarm, weather, file manager, document viewer, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter) should look like. The best aspects of community proposals will hopefully make it into Ubuntu phones when they finally hit the market sometime toward the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014. Take a look at the best designs Canonical has received so far."
Re:I'm sorry, but (Score:1, Interesting)
Every single article about an iPhone, a Windows phone, or even half the ones about Android phones all include the same responses. You will always find "what we need is a real Linux phone!" in the coments, and it will always be marked +5: Insightful.
Well, here it is, a real Linux phone, and as the cynics warned, now the line is "it should be compiled off of Mint" or some variant thereof.
Re:I'm sorry, but (Score:5, Interesting)
They never intend to be a big player, as best as I can tell, merely another option for corporate phones that don't end up being play things with untrustworthy software installed.
I think another option in the market is a good idea. Google is getting a bit too big for their britches and the carriers have way too much control of what you can do with your own phone.
We don't all run Apple or Microsoft computers, so why should we run only Apple or Google phones?
Awesome... (Score:4, Interesting)
As someone who has lived and worked in iPhone and Android land since the beginnings, I'm excited to see something new. Don't get me wrong - I like my iPhone and android for what they are - but having the option of getting into the code and fixing the stupid is a great incentive for me to switch.
Re:He said what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Probably means it comes with the vnc (and/or tightvnc and/or rdesktop) client installed, whereas on my phone and tablet(s) I had to install it.
I find the idea of a "tech phone" with useful preinstalled stuff instead of crapware to be an intriguing idea. No angrybirds or facebook in rom, but gimmie a VNC / rdesktop / ssh client (preferably one that isn't harvesting logins and phoning home with them to the telco mothership). You could carry this to comic extremes like stereotypical techie background and theme instead of the blah they push to the masses.
Re:Exchange - Not buying in... (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, my employer is a 100K seat global Exchange shop, and I don't "allow" it on my phone even though its WinMob 6.5 can do it just fine (unlike newer versions), and the corp IT policy allows it on that and on iPhone and Android 2.2+. My problems are that such access requires a too--cumbersome password (not just a 4-digit PIN), and quick lock timeout, plus the fact that about 85% of the email I get is "corporate spam" I have no use for (use lots of Outlook filters to send straight to trash, but most only run from the Outlook client when my PC is running - unlike our prior Lotus Notes that would run our filters on the Domino server), and the calendar entries are ridiculously verbose to view on a small screen (esp annoying is the wordy "boilerplate" disclaimer that Daylight Saving time offsets are not reflected in the event times on the item when in fact they ARE, and to it goes...).
I opted out of letting them control MY phone (cheap bastards are expecting BYOD to save a few bucks) by not even trying to access Exchange. I just manually put put terse reminders on my calendar for the dozen or so events I really need out-of-hours reminders for (I am on the corp PC most biz hours, and a lot of off-hours, too, for global intranet support), and if I must, I can view the full email and calendar info with Outlook Web Access (OWA) with most browsers over the open Internet, even from my personal Linux PC's. Works for me.
I also have a Dell Streak 5, rooted, and on cheap T-Mobile data plan, but it is mostly just a beltable data consumption device for me. I would like to see an alternative to Android and iOS (and WinMob 6.x) that would have the PIM functionality of WinMob 6.x, but a GUI as elegant and usable as my old Handsprings and Palms (T|X was sweet - just needed a few more capabilities). Ah, the joys of resistive screen writing with a stylus or fingernail (and, no, I am NOT being sarcastic - I hate the "twitchy" capacitive screens that my blunt fingertips keep misfiring on and smearing up.)
YMMV