Hey Guys,
So I just wanted to start a thread to discuss the Ubuntu Touch/Phone OS.
Personaly I think it "could" be amazing if paired with the right hardware. I'd still like to get my hands a on a beta (not an aplha build) before I make up my mind about it.
What about excites / annoys you?
What hardware do you think it needs to be sucessful?
I look forward to the discussion :D
Yours truly,
GameofDrones!
If you want a test, any nexus device can run it.
I think it has great potential.
I think it has lots of potential as well. I like the idea of using my phone as my computer with the so called "convergence" they are doing. Definetly a move in the right way compared to microsoft and their metro UI. What do you think about that?
please correct me if I am wrong, but at the moment with the alpha build the os cant really do much can it? I.e I can't put my own music / vids on it, make calls etc?
You're right, it is very limited at the moment, and has been for about a year. They havent really released anything but the first preview.
I love the odea of switching between a full linux desktop to a portable version on a phone. The UI loks really intuitive and easy to navigate. I enjoy the idea of having different pages for different things, and have even set my android phone to act the same before.
It seems a little strange to me that havent release anything past the initial build for us to test out and catch bugs for them.
I think my only concern with it is "Apps". will the platform attract developers that currently make apps for ios and android? By the looks of things cononical is really pushing for this and is helping with the sdk but im just concerned that it wont gain momentum because of the lack of "Facebook/Twitter/flavour of the week" apps.
Well their new phone will be able to dualboot linux/android. and since android is built from linux, the apps should be easy to convert.
But if the apps are coded for android (which also uses a java intermediate layer as well as other if I'm not mistake), wont they have problems with api's and the like? Just thinking out loud here.
Well hopefully, the ubuntu phone will be able to run both. Haha. If not, the fanbase will be weaker than android, but not as weak as WP8.
I hope so. Should we feel sorry for WP8? haha
Not in the slightest. Haha. I do like the crispness of the UI sometimes. I tend to customize my phones homescreen a lot.
What kind of things do you customise your home screen with? Just asking becuase I use an Iphone and you can't really customise it much (don't hate me but i just dont like google).
I don't think the hardware that is available right now offers a good enough full distro experience. There have been apps in the android appstore for years that are able to run full linux distros of choice on a smartphone in a chroot. The Ubuntu solution is not convincingly different to be honest, either they make an OS, or they make a chroot app. It's not an OS, because it still needs Android and Dalvik... so what exactly is so new or exciting about it?
When the next generation of devices comes out, with ten times more processing power, and a real linux OS can be installed and used effectively, that's when things will become interesting.
You can customise iPhone if its jailbroken. Winterboard is very nice for that.
But on android you can just download differnt launchers. Espier launcher turns it into the iPhone UI. Launcher 8 turns it into WP8 UI. Its very customisable.
I'm not sure that its about a full distro experience, especialy when your talking about mobile devices. By the sounds of things you're talking about the ubuntu edge, which is just hardware capable of running both Ubuntu OS AND Android. the Ubuntu Touch OS doesn't run on android or anything else, its the same as on the desktop just with an optimised UI and phone specific features, there are no "middle men". Thats whats new and exciting, the fact that its not a toned down version of another OS (like iOS is towned down Mac OS, or android is a mush of stuff into the same thing).
This is a real Linux OS, And by the looks, it is effective. Theirfore intersting.
Lol, no it's not, Ubuntu touch is based upon Cyanogenmod, an Android clone, it's not a "real linux OS", it's a linux kernel, with a Dalvik on top of it, and then an Android clone with an Ubuntu-themed UI. It has nothing to do with Ubuntu Core, which is a "real linux distro".
Please don't make any false assumptions, if you start the Ubuntu Edge into "desktop mode", you see full Ubuntu ARM on your screen, but it still runs in a chroot, there is nothing new about that, Debian ARM, Arch ARM, BackTrack ARM and Fedora ARM have been running in a chroot on Android for almost three years now. There is absolutely nothing innovative about the Ubuntu Edge or Ubuntu Touch, and the only real original thing about it is the Ubuntu themed UI.
And don't take my word for it, take Canonical's word for it:
The independent open source project CyanogenMod which is based on Android and tries to improve and extend the existing Android Basis has been taken by the developers as a kind of underlaying basis for Ubuntu Touch. The kernel and a few low level drivers for network, video, audio and some other hardware features are taken, all the higher level parts have been taken out. On top of this the whole Ubuntu is started in an chroot environment.
Source: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/FAQ
Please don't spread info about Ubuntu Touch or Edge that is simply not true. I understand the Canonical marketing makes it exciting and all for people that are not familiar with the technology, but please read beyond the advertisement headlines and flashy sponsored youtube videos. The fact is that a 150 USD spring 2014 model huawei phone will probably run Ubuntu just as well by the time the ubuntu edge comes out, maybe even better.
Oh and for those that want Ubuntu on their android phone, it's completely free and you can get it right now, in fact, it's been available for more than two years now in exactly the same way the Ubuntu Edge in Desktop mode will have it:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.galoula.LinuxInstall&hl=en
and there are plenty of other apps that do the same, but I've chosen that one because the description by the dev that has made that app available is very true:
* Need root * only 50MiB to download * down to 180MiB disk space used * no need to partition * no need to remove Android *
PLEASE USE DEBIAN INSTED OF UBUNTU !!! (Support only for Debian, Ubuntu only for real advanced users).
Hey. Learn to edit posts.
Oh and one more thing, there is actually a device that's already been shipped to devs (not in Mai 2014 and still running linux in a chroot!), that is capable of running a full linux distro ON THE METAL with a tablet optimised version of the KDE Plasma DE. That tablet does run a carefully optimised ARM distro with an optimised kernel for maximum performance, that the open source community has been working on over the last two years. Oh, but that's right, Canonical has opted out of the open source development, so they have deprived themselves of the technological evolution, so they have to take money from the people based on a marketing stunt to maybe sell them 3 year old technology in Mai 2014? Please, give me a break, I've tried to keep calm about this farce, but to be honest, I'm hugely disgusted by it all. Any fucking Shenzen noname manufacturer with 3 interns working on firmwares and linux commits in the broom closet down the hall, do a better job at delivering innovative technology, and they fucking sell the hardware for 25 USD a pop and it fucking works without problems and is compatible with anything. So what bloody part of Ubuntu Touch or the Ubuntu Edge was interesting again? It wouldn't even have been interesting three years ago for free, why would it be even remotely interesting in fucking Mai 2014 for 830 USD?
And now I'll shut up and go play with Fedora rawhide to calm down... Jeez!
Oh boy, the power of marketing....