Ubuntu For Tablets Announced 148
Posted
by
timothy
from the it-does-look-sweet dept.
from the it-does-look-sweet dept.
hypnosec writes "Keeping its promise from yesterday Ubuntu has announced an operating system for tablets dubbed 'Ubuntu for Tablets' that it says will work on tablets of any size. Advertised to work on both entry level tablets as well as high-end tablets with enterprise specifications, the operating system offers multitasking, safer sharing, instant launch of applications through the menu bar on the left, effortless switching between applications among other features." The tablet version of the OS will also be presented at Mobile World Congress later this month. Also featured at SlashCloud.
Ehhh (Score:2, Insightful)
And still no OEM partners like with the Ubuntu TV that we were going to be able to buy by the end of last year. This is going fail and fail hard. Maybe Canonical will then just go away and stop trying to push spyware on people.
How is this different then nomal ubuntu (Score:3, Funny)
Considering it's CLEARLY not for desktops anymore.
Nokia Tablet (Score:2)
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Not holding my breath, considering that Nokia had a real linux smartphone and failed to market/properly develop it, all before the deadly embrace with MS (Ok it might not be deadly but most microsoft partners ended up screwed at one point, yes?).
Re:Nokia Tablet (Score:5, Informative)
...real linux smartphone
Two, in fact (three if you count the n950)...not to mention their predecessors which were Internet *tablets*.
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I think that's what I was saying...but they had not one internet tablet, but a few...iirc 770, n800, n810, then the n900 which took a sim card so was a phone.
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there was no 'n770' - it was just '770', but do tell more about the one you're talking about :)
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I don't see any mention of a Nokia tablet. He mentions MeeGo tablets, but, iinm, those aren't Nokia ones - the N9 (and N950) were the only MeeGo branded devices "made available" my Nokia. Everything prior to that was Maemo. The MeeGo running on the tablets was the effort of Intel (though, I suppose there was some Nokia effort included from the attempt to merge Maemo and MeeGo).
Was it some other tablet reference you mean?
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Osso, indeed :) I'd forgotten that (before my time there)...I did have a baseball cap, but lost it during a visit to Sachsenhausen :(
Interesting about the 'big' tablet...never saw or heard anything of it.
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Nokia is forced (by retarded agreement) to buy more M$ licenses that they are currently able to use. Why would they use another os when they are already sitting on unused M$ ones (and M$ will do marketing for them).
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Nokia had back to 2005 [wikipedia.org] a good Linux tablet already, and kept releasing improved versions of it till 2009 [wikipedia.org]. Then went into suicidal mode.
The next one releasing a native linux tablet with WebOS was HP with the Touchpad, and then they got crazy too.
Probably the best strategy for tablet manufacturers regarding Linux is to release them under some base, useful enough OS (i.e. Android) and let all drivers/boot/etc open enough to enable users to install on them the Linux flavor they want if need something better,
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Ubuntu tablet edition, openWebOS, Nemo (formerly-known-as Meego Handset Ux), Plasma Active are all Qt-on-Linux solutions. So since the basic libraries are common, installing a 'flavor
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Should be that way, but could be specific things even at the very bottom that could be different too, i.e. if something on the upper layer depends on certain kernel compile options, or not sure if the rest will support android device drivers directly as seem that Ubuntu will support (and if those are something more/different than usual linux device drivers/modules).
And not forget that will be a lot of desktop environment specific programs, installing 2 will mean that you will be able to select from your in
They forgot one small tid bit... (Score:2)
Advertised to work on both entry level tablets as well as high-end tablets with enterprise specifications, the operating system offers multitasking, safer sharing, instant launch of applications through the menu bar on the left, effortless switching between applications among other features."
I would modify the above piece to read...
Advertised to work on both entry level tablets as well as high-end tablets with enterprise specifications, the operating system offers multitasking, safer sharing, instant launch of applications through the menu bar on the left, effortless switching between applications among other features just like Linux does. "
And we all know how Linux is [generally] doing, right?
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Linux is doing freaking fantastic - it's under the bonnet in every Android phone and tablet, every Smart TV, many set top boxes, virtually every domestic piece of network gear, the majority of web servers, a large number of application servers, etc, etc, etc.
It's not doing so well on the desktop, but the desktop, as we are constantly reminded, is becoming a niche item.
A user environment that manages to offer a coherent - but not stupidly consistent [1] - experience on the three big devices - phone, tablet,
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Planet Earth, circa the first stable release in April 2014.
This week is only a preview launch, followed by a 13.10 general release with many of the kinks worked out and 14.04 being rock solid, including mature reverse-engineered FOSS drivers for adreno and mali. (with TI and Nvidia producing vendor supported drivers for OMAP 5 and Tegra 4 respectively)
By which time Apple will have had 2 hardware refreshes of the iPad.
FWIW, the Nexus 10 already ships with such specs at $US399. Expect that to be commonplace i
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Sorry I didn't mean to imply that Canonical was going to take over driver development, merely that things might (conveniently for Canonical) fall into place in terms of your timeframes, appreciating that you both do this unpaid in your spare time (and kudos for doing this!) Though it would be a nice gesture on Shuttleworth's part were he to fund such things essential for hardware support, rather than piggybacking on the efforts of volunteers.
Do either of you have a paypal or similar? Were I to purchase comp
Video (Score:2)
In the video on their website, Mark Shuttleworth bears a striking resemblance to Steve Jobs.
I thought that was pretty amazing.
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Well, I guess there is a a little bit of resemblance.
Now that I think about it he looks like someone sawed Steve's and Linus's heads in halves and attached Linus's top half on top of Steve's bottom half.
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I didn't think so, though it did occur to me to make the comparison, so perhaps there's something there.
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I noticed he waves his hands about too much - a pet peeve of mine :)
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FINALLY!! the year of Linux (Score:1)
Available as user-installe distributions? (Score:3)
I've got a Nook Color tablet, in part because its boot loader is not locked. I can pop in a microSD card with an arbitrary OS (that supports the hardware) on it, and no DRM or cryptography or "secure boot" stuff is there to prevent it from just loading up.
Today, I use this with a stack of microSD cards with different versions of CyanogenMod installed, to be able to rapidly test code on completely different versions of Android.
Anyone know if I'll ever (or soon) be able to boot up Ubuntu on this device the same way? (If so, I'm in, but I'm not buying new hardware just for this OS.)
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Never mind -- the minimum specs are so far beyond what the Nook Color offers that device driver support and the like would be a moot question.
How many tablets meet the minimum specs and don't have locked bootloaders in firmware?
how does this play with existing Android accounts? (Score:2)
The Canonical website wasn't very clear on this, so can someone comment: given that I have an Android tablet w/ a stack of GooglePlay apps, what happens if I install UbuntuTablet on my hardware? Can I log into GooglePlay & get my apps and credentials (what's paid for and so on) back?
I suppose I really should be asking what will happen if I try to put Ubuntu on my actual tablet-- Onda, A10 based :-( .
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I think squiggleslash's comment that Google is unlikely to support it is true; they don't support cyanogenmod, nor do they support any of their apps running on any modded versions of Android. Doesn't mean they're preventing it from happening, just means they're not officially backing it.
At this stage, it's probably not worth it for either Amazon or Google to work with Canonical on this type of support.
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I guess the "sensible" thing to do, then, is put UbuntuTablet on an SD card, boot from there, and see how GooglePlay and AmazonStore work out.
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Keep in mind that Ubuntu and Android are completely and intentionally unrelated OSes. It's like wanting all of your purchased Windows apps to run on OS X (and vice versa), or your Google Play apps on iOS devices. Some technical possibilities exist to do this, but those are hacks or workarounds.
I'm not saying that Android apps on Ubuntu shouldn't ever be possible, I just think it's silly to assume they *should* work just because this flavor of Ubuntu runs on tablets that were originally intended for Android.
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Google has played nice with CyanogenMod but they don't officially support it, and moreover they consider CyanogenMod a version of Android (because it is, it's AOSP plus some bits that don't affect compatability, not bits of AOSP in something else.) Google has been fairly hostile towards operating systems that have compatability layers but that aren't, essentially, Android systems.
They're right, in fact, to take on this policy. Google runs the Play Store not just for the benefit of users, but also develop
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The same thing will happen as when you install Ubuntu Desktop on a machine with Windows 7- your Windows programmes will disappear. They are different operating systems- Android apps will almost certainly not run on it, and even if they did it would be very unlikely that you'd be able to simply install Google Play and go. As on a desktop, dual booting may be an option.
It is possible to run Linux (I've seen it done with Debian, but the principal should be universal) on Android in a chroot, using VNC to displa
Android app compatability? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Without this, I can't see much adoption. Who wants to buy a tablet if it has no apps? Linux has plenty, sure, but are they optimized for a tablet interface? Given that it's already a linux kernel, wouldn't it be possible to add the dalvik VM and run android apps? So far as I undrestand, this was the case with the previous Nexus 7 iteration of Ubuntu. Why was this changed? If they release this for Nexus 7, i'll probably run it off a USB stick if possible, but I won't flash it over android unless there is some compatibility there. Simply put, I've purchased Android apps, and I don't want to lose those.
Debian had a boatload of apps available via apt-get before Ubuntu existed. It will run all of them. And all the apps that were added to the Ubuntu ecosystem since then should also run.
Being that all the "legacy" apps are open source, they should be relatively easily ported across architectures, as opposed to Win8 which won't run legacy code on ARM.
Ubuntu is far better poised than you give them credit for
Re:Android app compatability? (Score:4, Insightful)
Tablet apps require their own UIs. I don't think the availability of ordinary desktop GNOME apps can really be considered part of the pile when evaluating software support for a tablet running Ubuntu.
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The ability to run Windows apps is a selling feature for Win8 tablets, and not a small one.
Ubuntu could run Windows apps in Wine on ARM, where Win8 does not.
And, it can run every single app they inherited from Debian.
I disagree with your assessment.
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Yes, it is a feature, and very useful when you have a keyboard and mouse available.
However, these are still not Windows 8 tablet apps. If they were, they'd work when there is no keyboard or mouse available.
That's, apparently, because you don't know the difference between a tablet and a laptop.
Re:Android app compatability? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Android app compatibility is available for Linux in several forms: You can install an Android distro in a virtualization container, Canonical's "Ubuntu for Android," Open Mobile's ACL (disclosure, I used to be CTO there), and others.
My view of the best way to do this (and not surprising that this is how Open Mobile does it) is that Android can be integrated into "foreign" desktop environments as if it were a Java SE-like runtime environment.
As for how I would want to use Ubuntu on a tablet, I would put it o
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Simply put, I've purchased Android apps, and I don't want to lose those.
I have several Android devices all linked to the same google account. I'm able to access apps I've purchased interchangeably on all of them. I have
1) a Droid 2 Razr Maxx HD (that I LOVE),
2) a Samsung Stratosphere that I was happy to replace,
3) an Acer Iconia 7" tablet.
With the exception that the Stratosphere won't play the 3D games, I'm able to share my stuff between them.
I love Linux, I want Linux, but this isnt Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
This is as Linux as Android is. Hell Android is probably more Linux this this.
I just dont understand why these mobile OS's keep wanting to force developers into a specific language. Android push's Java hard (ewe) sure you can use the NDK but from my perspective its not as straight forward as youd think. iOS push's Objective-C. and now Ubuntu mobile OS is pushing QML/Javascript/HTML5.
Sure you can make a webpage that does basic calculations or simple animations. But real raw data crunching within JS? seriously ? thats such a joke its not even funny. If all I wanted was a notepad, calender app, and a webbrowser then Id just continue using Android.
Show me a FFT JS implementation thats anywhere near as fast as C/C++. I write only in C/C++ and have zero interest in JS or Java, zero. Im not going to waste my time learning a new language that just anoy me.
Id love to see how JS interacts with low level stuff like gpio's, serial, usb etc. Oh there's a lib for that? what if there isnt... then what? wait out? thats not the point of open source, your supposed to be able todo whatever you want.
Linux imo is popular with developers because we can write whatever we want in whatever language we choose. Linux isnt supposed to force you into anything, why do all these linux mobile OS's feel the need todo so.
UDL
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The developer info on the Ubuntu website says that you can use C/C++ for apps that need performance and QML/JS/HTML5 for lightweight, website wrapper type stuff.
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This is as Linux as Android is. Hell Android is probably more Linux this this.
What do you mean 'Linux'? When you say that it seems you're referring to the userland and platform specific tools, the stuff in a Linux distro that isn't Linux?
I just dont understand why these mobile OS's keep wanting to force developers into a specific language.
They generally provide APIs for the language native to the platform, if you wanted to write in a different language you could always write your own bindings for that language, an example of this is PyWin32 that provides Python bindings for Win32, or OpenTK that provides .Net bindings for OpenGL functions, or JOGL that allows you to use OpenGL in Java
Maybe it is (Score:2)
The problem here is that reviewers don't understand it, just like they didn't understand Maemo/Meego.
If we are lucky, you have a full-blown Ubuntu/Debian below the surface, meaning you can do everything with it you can also do with a Debian box. Now _that_ would be a big advantage over the rest. You'd just make it boot into some sane user interface and do everything you want to do.
It would be a real Linux then.
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I agree with your Android assessment, and even your JavaScript assessment for anything of a descent size complexity or efficiency demand, but I don't agree with your Ubuntu QML/Javascript/HTML5 assessment. QML is the 'new' (going on three maybe four years), GUI s
A lost cause (Score:2)
I think this is great! (Score:4, Interesting)
As it happens, I'm writin this on an HP 2760p. A traditional tablet pc. It's currently running Ubuntu 12.10 and everything works reasonably well.
The reality is that we are in the midst of a very significant shift in computing, from desktop PCs to tablets and phones. Laptop and desktop sales are down, tablet sales are skyrocketing. Canonical is the only company focusing on Linux desktop computing. Unity is good and is getting better quickly. I honestly believe that they have the best approach to scaling the UI. Canonical is essentially pushing responsie design for the Linux desktop.
What other Linux distribution do you see pushing the end-user computing envelop? These guys are moving forward and should be celebrated and supported for doing so.
I look forward to Ubuntu for Tablets on my 2760p. Count me in!
Re:oh canonical (Score:5, Insightful)
Canonical is no longer a linux company, it's a company that uses linux.
Being that Linux can never really be "owned" by any one company, isn't that a given?
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Actually, no we don't know what you mean. You're attempting to draw some distinction where there is none.
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one that just picks it up as a module and does not necessarily contribute
FTFY
So, they're a Distro? Wow... [sarcasm]That's news to me[/sarcasm]
Last time I checked Distro's weren't required to be active members of the Kernel development community. The point of a Distro is *exactly* to pick up the Kernel like it's a module and throw some stuff on top of it. Some of them, though not all of them, have a few developers actively contributing back to the Kernel. Though this isn't exactly out of the kindness of their hearts... Usually it's because they want to use something that's
Re:oh canonical (Score:4, Insightful)
No, I don't think we do. What exactly *is* a 'linux company'? Is Redhat a linux company? What about Oracle? Intel?
I think perhaps the distinction is, for example, Microsoft is a company that uses linux. They have to in order to test and develop Hyper-V, since its advertised to work with Linux. They use it.
A linux company is a company that makes money off of selling a distribution or application or services for Linux, making active changes back into the community. By that standard, all the companies I listed above, *including Ubuntu*, are 'linux companies'.
You don't have to like Ubuntu, but you can't deny they've done some really great things for the community. Nothing they do is 'closed source', and you can like or hate their development and future planning methods (I think you have an issue with Unity, thats where most of the Ubuntu haters come from), but they are open and friendly to the community.
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Urgh... are we ever going to have an edit feature?
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Sadly, no, we're not.
That is all.
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That about sum it up? Really, that's about all I got from your post. Reminds me of people who talk about "true americans."
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Elitist about my operating system? Couldn't be more wrong, running Win8 at home and win7 + ubuntu at work and I'm actually quite excited about the ubuntu phone.
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Canonical is no longer a linux company, it's a company that uses linux.
Nah, they are a company that uses Linux users.
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Forgive my ignorance, I'm continental - is a wigger a person who wears wigs? I don't think he does, though.
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To put it as nicely as I can: A "wigger" is a fair-skinned fan of hip-hop culture.
I think this clip from The Wire [youtube.com] accurately illustrates that particular social phenomenon.
Re:Who cares ? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't want either iOS or Android, but I might get a tablet with KDE Plasma Active.
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I don't want either iOS or Android, but I might get a tablet with KDE Plasma Active.
Well most likely you'll get a tablet with Android which you'll have to wipe and then install KDE Plasma Active on, that's fine for you - and probably most of the readers of this site - but I see that as the major stumbling block when it comes to mainstream adoption.
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I don't want either iOS or Android, but I might get a tablet with KDE Plasma Active.
There already is KDE running on Nexus 7 http://youtu.be/Bb7isMAmwW0 [youtu.be]
Re:Who cares ? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a Kindle Fire around here somewhere that runs aftermarket android roms. I see no reason why I should turn my nose up at a linux distro, if it works well. That part, of course, remains to be seen.
Re:Who cares ? (Score:5, Interesting)
My tablet-ish thing is an Asus transformer, and while I'm happy enough with Cyanogenmod, I have it set up to run linux in user space because sometimes I want it to be just a bit more of a real computer.
If Ubuntu for tablet could give me a reasonable front end and still let me write code (we're not talking serious compiling here, just hacking together a bit of python here and there, mostly) and give me cleaner access to system underpinnings, I'd be happy to switch. Well, okay, and reasonable functionality in other ways - power management, etc. I've yet to meet an Android distro that really lets me do what I'd like.
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Agreed. I *just* tried out Ubuntu on my Nexus 7, and I promptly went back to cyanogen 10.1; it was very cool to be able to run basically full blown Ubuntu (and it's relatively speedy), but it's definitely not tablet-optimized, and there are too many little annoyances for me to want to keep it at the moment.
In its current iteration, Ubuntu on tablets seems geared more towards those who prefer using some sort of physical keyboard with their tablet. In that case, I can already see the usefulness. For those who
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Will Ubuntu dual-boot with Android on the Transformer (I have a TF101). Or will its user-space coexists with Androids on a shared kernel? Endless questions about interoperability ensue.
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What I've been doing recently is running it in user space, and yeah, that's great.
Is it possible to run it directly while preserving screen use, power management, and so on? It's been a while since I looked, but I seem to recall it being more than a little dodgy.
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Re:Who cares ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Only a year or so ago, you could have said "If the Tablet won't run iOS then no one will ever buy it. It's an dead investment."
Today we have plenty of Android tablets gaining a footprint. Microsoft aren't going to let go of the market segment easily either, even after their late start and poor initial showing. I'm not sure why you think an Ubuntu tablet is doomed to failure.
What's going to be important is showing it can do things the others can't or won't. Some of the multi-tasking on their video looks impressive and may offer that differentiation.
Re:Who cares ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who cares ? (Score:4, Insightful)
iOS has existed since 2007. The iPad has been in existence for less than 3 years as a freestanding product. Don't fool yourself. However entrenched you think one operating system or manufacturer may be in this sector, all it takes is a little bit of rot and a solid kick to turn the entire thing onto its head.
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iOS (and app stores in general) is perfect example of vendor lock-in.
That's the case with all platforms, Windows, OSX, desktop Linux distros, Android, etc... It would be great if app developers decided that if you purchase their app on one platform you got access to it on all platforms where it was available, obviously it's less financially viable for the developers and certainly less attractive to platform vendors but it would be nice ;)
Re:Who cares ? (Score:4, Interesting)
I think that the tablet space is the same as the home computing space in the 80's. You had your C64s, your Amigas, Ataris, Apples, IBMs, Acorns and various other vendors machines. People's choices were not made about the OS, but if the machine met their needs by having the right games, the correct applications, compatibility with work, friends and family etc. People also expected that if they bought a different vendors machine, that they would have a different experience.
If I am half right, then there is room for other vendors to come in with products and be quite successful. . Of course, we didn't have the litigation and patent trolling so bad back then (although I do admit it exsisted)
Re:Who cares ? (Score:5, Interesting)
In the demo of Ubuntu for phones, a Samsung S3 is running Android and Ubuntu *at the same time*.
I don't know whether Android is hosting Ubuntu, or Ubuntu is hosting Android, or some third piece of software is hosting both. But the end result is that you plug your phone into an HDMI monitor, operate an Ubuntu desktop on the monitor using a bluetooth keyboard/mouse, and use Android on the handset at the same time. The Ubuntu stuff had hooks into Android so there were desktop apps that interacted with your Android contacts etc.
Fairly neat. I got the impression that it wasn't all as open-source as I'd like it to be -- ain't that the Android way?
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Kernel and userland are android. The skin is from ubuntu.
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Not true, to a given definition of "userland". The Android kernel is installed, as is the full Android userland (UI, Dalvik, Google Play, you name it). When you plug it into a docking station, the Android userland goes away and the Ubuntu userland (Unity, GTK+, Nautilus, etc.) appear. The kernel is the only shared resource.
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So two userlands are installed in parallel. They don't "go away" and "appear". Its just a matter of fiddling with PATH and loader paths.
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Very true; I was putting it whimsically for comic effect.
The point is that, excluding the kernel (which is the Android kernel, as opposed to the mainstream Linux kernel), Ubuntu On Android is proper, full Ubuntu- not just a Unity-themed Android skin.
Re:dad, what is linux ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone uses Linux. You're using it right now. Even Microsoft uses Linux extensively.
The simple fact of the matter is that Linux became *the* mainstream OS a decade ago, and you never even noticed.
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Yes, and all the DSL routers, a bunch of the DSLAMs, probably not the core routers so much (they're more likely to be Cisco, or Juniper - but Juniper uses FreeBSD), any wifi bridges. Maybe someone is reading this on a modernish digital TV rather than a monitor - oh look, Linux, right there in the TV!
Year of Linux on the desktop? Don't make me laugh. It's been the *decade* of Linux in devices though.
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I don't know about you, but I don't think I know a single person who isn't running Linux a at this point. Sure a lot of them also run other OSes, but they all run Linux.
You're right, but certainly RMS's vision has failed thus far, the idea was control of the system and freedom for the user, but in virtually all the places we use GNU/Linux we, as users, don't have that control or freedom - though on some smartphones we do have total control and freedom.
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I don't know about you, but I don't think I know a single person who isn't running Linux a at this point. Sure a lot of them also run other OSes, but they all run Linux.
Sure, but the RMS vision for GNU/Linux has largely failed, almost all the places - excluding some smartphones of course - that people use GNU/Linux they have no more freedom than if they used Windows or OSX, they don't have the freedoms or the control of the system that RMS professes is necessary. The place it really grants those freedoms is and control is on the desktop, which is where comparatively very few people actually use it.
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Re:I no longer care. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. The tablet has no keyboard.
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Commenting to undo wrong mod by mistake. Agreed, this is a sticking point for many of us.
Phillip.
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Yeah it's hilarious that they define "entry-level" as a Cortex A-15 and 2GB of RAM. Their OS must be pretty bloated and slow to need all that.
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