First Look At Ubuntu Touch, the Smartphone OS 60
colinneagle writes "The first developer preview of Ubuntu Touch – aka 'Ubuntu for Phones and Tablets' – was unveiled just a few short months ago. And, just a few weeks back, it was announced that the team was shooting for having a fully functional (aka "can use it as your actual phone, on a daily basis") version by the end of May. May is now over, so Bryan Lunduke published some screenshots and analysis of the core features of the Ubuntu OS for smartphones and tablets."
don't we already have Linux for smartphones (Score:1)
Re:don't we already have Linux for smartphones (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:don't we already have Linux for smartphones (Score:5, Insightful)
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That's like saying "Don't we already have Linux for desktops? Hasn't this been done already?"
Also, God forbid there should be a little variety, choice and competition in the smartphone OS market.
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Sure, but Android seems to be the only flavour that has gained enough of a foothold.
Re:don't we already have Linux for smartphones (Score:5, Informative)
Well, if you're referring to Android, then I think the answer is yes & no. It's probably more accurate to describe it as a phone OS based around a Linux kernel, as opposed to a mobile incarnation of an open GNU/Linux (which a lot of people would simply refer to as Linux). I think it could also be accurately described as a less-open fork of Linux. The distinction is a pretty fuzzy one, though. And you're right, in that there are also things like the Maemo/Meego/Mer/Sailfish effort (as others have noted).
As I understand it, this Ubuntu effort is more purely an open GNU/Linux implementation, with added-on phone-centric bits. The cool thing about this is that if you have a high-end Ubuntu Touch phone, then you'll be able to plug it into a docking station and use it as a full-fat Linux desktop. This also means (of course) that it's more independent as a device, and doesn't rely on touching base all the time with the Google mothership, which might appeal to some users from a privacy point of view. If this does mature to the point of being very usable, I for one might be very tempted.
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Ubuntu for phones uses a fork of Linux
Most distros use their own fork of the linux kernel. There's nothing wrong with that
I wonder (Score:1, Troll)
Will Ubuntu Touch come with the NSA backdoor, or is that going to be an aftermarket upgrade?
Re:I wonder (Score:4, Insightful)
No, it won't. It's built on Open Source software, the source code is open and subject to constant peer review, any backdoors in their would be noticed.
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Not that I use (or particularly care about) Ubuntu anyway, I would assume that being the high profile company that they are in the Linux world, if they made any violations of the GPL or other licenses the software they use, someone would pick up on it fairly quickly.
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which is easily solved with a simple apt-get purge unity
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Funny)
sudo apt-get install NSA-backdoor
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You sir, have just given me a new simlink to add to my Linux systems....
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Funny)
sudo apt-get install NSA-backdoor
NSA-backdoor is already the newest version.
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
constitutional-rights
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I can with nemo or nitdroid.
Interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
My Galaxy Note II isn't incredibly powerful compared to either my one year old Ubuntu Laptop or my four year old Linux mint machine, but it's certainly more powerful than the computer I built ten years ago and would be great for simple games, word processing, web surfing and e-mails. I like the stylus for writing texts and taking notes on the phone, but a full keyboard would be even more useful when available.
I could see this being really awesome with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, LAN connection and dual full screen monitors hooked to a docking station, which could really be done with an Android, iPhone or Windows phone. MS should have done this, they might have been on to something if they had implement Metor on Windows 8 for mobile devices that would switch to regular Windows 7 style desktops when plugged into a docking station, rather than the steaming pile of crap Windows 8 turned out to be.
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Only a small handful of years ago I regularly used a single-core 1.4 GHz 32-bit processor and 2GB RAM, my phone is from 2011 and it's got 1.5 GHz and 512MB. Today's phones beat the living shit out of machines I still use. This is easily accessible.
Re: Interesting (Score:2)
> Today's phones beat the living shit out of machines I still use.
Don't be too sure. Megahertz-per-useful-act, anything from the Pentium-M (really, a Pentium III Xeon w/power mgmt) still totally spanks ARM7, even in dualcore-for-Android form (between power management & poor handling of apps not explicitly written to be SMP, a dual/quadcore Arm Cortex almost might as well be single-core). A 1.5GHz Krait running Android is roughly comparable to a 1Ghz P-III running XP in perceived performance. Yes, you
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Don't be too sure. Megahertz-per-useful-act, anything from the Pentium-M (really, a Pentium III Xeon w/power mgmt) still totally spanks ARM7,
Who cares? Dual-core is now standard and quad-core is becoming so. My point is well-supported.
x86/AMD64 cpus are *profoundly* optimized for getting good performance out of mediocre software under sub-optimal conditions
What? x86 is shit. They are profoundly crufted because of the instruction set and the complete and total lack of general purpose registers, so you need more hardware to make up for these pathetic deficiencies. This is why a chip that does the same amount of shit will always use more power if it's x86 as opposed to ARM. amd64 is much better but there are no designs yet which are competitive with ARM in the low end.
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Anybody who thinks ARM is remotely close to matching x86 performance should try this little experiment: get a 7-8 year old notebook like a Dell D600 w/1.6GHz Pentium M, install Ubuntu on it, and compare it side by side with any ARM netbook that has a CPU of comparable nominal speed, plus comparable ram and storage, and has the same release of Ubuntu installed on it. Configure both with identical desktop settings, and run the same apps (compiled for the proper architecture, of course). The 7 year old D600 wi
Re:Interesting (Score:5, Informative)
It's interesting. I'm an Ubuntu and Linux Mint user at home, but I can't really see value in having it on a phone. Although it would be nifty if I had a docking station at home and work where I could just drop my phone into it to use it as a more portable computer with a full monitor, keyboard and mouse when available, and the regular phone touch interface when on the go.
Sounds like Ubuntu For Android [ubuntu.com] I've got a regular Galaxy Nexus, so external video isn't for me, but sounds good in principal.
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I only skimmed the site and I can't seem to find any place to actually get it, but when I have some time I have an older HTC Desire Z I'd love to try this out on. I'd also have to figure out where to get the docking station, which I did look for awhile back, but couldn't find anything at a reasonable price point.
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I was asking for this last year:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3045235&threshold=1&commentsort=3&mode=nested&cid=40973791 [slashdot.org]
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It's interesting. I'm an Ubuntu and Linux Mint user at home, but I can't really see value in having it on a phone. Although it would be nifty if I had a docking station at home and work where I could just drop my phone into it to use it as a more portable computer with a full monitor, keyboard and mouse when available, and the regular phone touch interface when on the go.
Maybe not for a phone (apart from being more open), but Really Good for a tablet.
ORLY? (Score:1)
Bryan Lunduke published some screenshots and analysis of the core features of the Ubuntu OS for smartphones and tablets.
Did the submitter even read TFA? I clicked the link. No screenshots. No analysis.
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You have obviously not had enough coffee this morning.
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Just blegh. It looks unrefined and not finished. Boring, bland, plain fugly. More like an alpha version. Not the Gold RM version. No mass market appeal at all.
Well... that's precisely because it is unrefined and not finished. At the moment, they're only running enough on there for it to work as a phone. The design team are putting together theming stuff right now. It's a brillian piece of multitasking, which all companies to. While one group is working on apps, and doing rather well, the other team is holding back on any designs until it is ready.
To say there is no mass-market appeal is too early to say right now. Sure, I don't predict that there's going to b
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Android doesn't run emacs
Correction: Android doesn't run emacs *well*
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zielm.emacs&hl=en [google.com]
Surprisingly Nice (Score:1)
Attention to Detail (Score:5, Funny)
Not so much a gripe about Ubuntu Phone (since it's not a released product) as it is about TFA,
Unknow type (Score:2)
Wish I had this feature the first time I was sent a goatse pic.
I don't really trust Ubuntu anymore (Score:1)
if Debian came out with a linux version for phones I might be interested in that.
good start (Score:1)
Brian Lunduke is the best we can do??? (Score:1)
Click the video link (Score:1)