Ubuntu on tablets
ubuntu.com
ubuntu.com
- The name Unity finally makes perfect sense
- Phone can expand into a tablet can expand into a desktop
- larger form factor can run smaller form factor apps
- app switcher is slick
- Canonical finally learned how to use all the bull shit
motivational words that apple uses to inspire people
- OS level tie ins to social services
- Still open source
My favorite feature is running phone apps on the side with the Windows8-like split view, great idea. I wonder how that translates to portrait.
It will be interesting how they deal with installing phone apps on the tablet. They might just allow carte blanche or might require a developer to opt in to avoid issues with phone specific apps being unusable on the tablet.
If you mean having apps work on bigger screens, it looks like side stage lets them keep phone apps at a reasonable phone size. They might require opt-in to make phone apps fullscreen - that seems reasonable. (Although it sounds like one of their goals with QML is to make it easy to write apps that grow with screen size, so they're hoping that almost all apps will be able to do it.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ3krff1JCE&feature=yout...
It's not limited to only one column, like in Ubuntu and Windows 8, it splits the apps even, so you can use them fully, and you can even expand or contract one over the other. I think that's a much better implementation.
But Ubuntu's idea for using the phone apps on the side is not too bad either, but that secondary app seems to be meant more as a "companion" app rather than another full app that you want to use in the same time, and give it equal share of the screen (especially on larger screens).
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/19/4005514/ubuntu-phones-2014...
Plus, don't forget all the deep Amazon integration, and who knows what else in the future, so they can monetize it. It might be that the whole OS will watch your behavior to target better content at you or something. I don't know how that will end up versus privacy there, so we'll see.
I hope Google implements Samsung dual-view idea in stock Android, though, as it would solve 90% of Android's "tablet app problem", as you can use two "phone apps" side by side, so scalability is not such a problem anymore as it looks like the app on a 6" or 7" device, which isn't too bad, and it also gives you the ability to use 2 apps at once, which should be better than just using one in most cases.
For all the complaints about Android, compared with iOS and Windows Phone, it's still the only one with the source-code available, it's still the only one that allows installation of software from third-party sources and it's still the only one that has Cyanogenmod.
I wonder how this will play out in the light of what KDE's Aaron Seigo has said recently [1]:
"Unity currently does not use QML at all; Ubuntu Phone is pure QML. So, no, it is not the same code, it is not the sort of seamless cross-device technology bridge that they are purporting."
[1] https://plus.google.com/107555540696571114069/posts/HSL2C21D...
"And now web applications are first class citizens too, wow. I was waiting for this to happen fast."
At this stage they need:
1. More Partners.
They must have strong tie-ups with OEM partners, who can make in-expensive devices, otherwise its not going anywhere. Get those chinese manufacturers.
2. Please NO device fragmentation and open strict standards among OEM's.
3. Nokia backing up this project?
Isn't this the best time for Nokia to make Ubuntu powered devices? I think so.
Under the current circumstances, Ubuntu and Nokia can make a good win-win fit. Nokia maybe can now come back strongly, instead of believing in a closed ecosystem like windows, which is not going anywhere.
3. Get Funded.
4. Apps. Quality and tested apps.
Can this happen with Open Source methodologies? Debatable. :)
All together this is great progress in a short span. Incredible team-work, lets not forget this comes from Open Source World. Love this, Made my day.
The carriers should be powerless when it comes to the devices they sell. They should be no more than retailers. Who has ever heard of retailers messing with the products? No one, because that's a crazy idea. Yet that's what the carriers are doing, and will probably do even more with these new operating systems desperate for market share.
3. Why should Nokia back this project up? I mean why specifically them, and not Samsung, HTC, Sony or Huawei? Also there's zero chance they will do it. They didn't back Meego, they killed Meltemi, they aren't backing Sailfish, and they will back Ubuntu? Why? Microsoft would never allow it. And we all know Nokia is just a subsidiary of Microsoft now.
4. One of my biggest problems with Linux in general looking at it from a "consumer" point of view, has always been how ugly the programs look on Linux. They are cringe worthy, and I hate the font, too. I don't know what they're doing here, but I really hope Canonical is serious about design guidelines and resources for developers, much like Apple, Google and Microsoft have done it. They need to make it dead-easy for just about any developer to create beautiful Ubuntu apps at least with the stock resources.
This should be one of their top priorities with Ubuntu, not only on mobile, but on the desktop, too. So I hope they're using resources and design guidelines that will scale well to the desktop, too. And I still think they need to rethink the Unity UI to make it more user-friendly and less frustrating.
It's even a doofy idea for car dealers to tack their own logo plaques on the back of your car. Annoying.
Now, I'm all in favor of interoperability requirements and limits on redistribution that infringes on freedom (c.f. automatic patent grants, antitivoization, etc...). But for branding? I just don't see it. If I, personally, am allowed to reskin my Ubuntu device, surely Verizon must be also, no?
That depends on whether or not they distribute it with any of Canonical's trademarks (I'm assuming they have a trademark on Ubuntu, not to mention their own name).
Trademarks are completely independent from (and compatible with) open-source - look at 10Gen, which preserves the rights to the MongoDB name while releasing a product under the GPL.
Nokia screwed up, but diverting resources to an even more miniscule market is even crazier.
Instead they should be betting on the web, completely. Ubuntu, being a traditional Linux distro, has a big library of desktop apps that can be cross-compiled in Emscripten, but instead they split their much smaller resources between several different options.
Or are you suggesting that new phone OSes ought to add proprietary non-standard browser extensions in place of a native apps API? Given the ugly history of proprietary browser features it is difficult to imagine anyone taking such a strategy seriously.
So given that, if they were going to put some eggs in another basket, why would they choose Ubuntu over Android, which has an existing application base and at least some user awareness?
It seems like we're at the same stage right now in the mobile OS world as we were in the personal computer market back in the 80s, with multiple competing platforms such as the Amiga, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, PC, Mac, etc. Each had it's advantages, and each had significant success, but there's actually only room in the market for two or three of them long term.
I agree, Android would be a better second bet. But they don't necessarily need to limit themselves to 2 - look at how many options Samsung is keeping open for example.
I worked very closely with Nokia during that time period. As closely as one could work without being directly employed (we deployed a product directly to the S60 baseline).
What happened at Nokia was the end result of years of engineering neglect. Symbian was a monster. It was poorly engineered in general, and certain subsystems (like messaging) had a reputation for simply being impossible to work with. It was just a huge mess.
The UI saga was just another symptom of that mess. That touchscreen phone referenced in the article? It existed well before the iPhone in various incarnations. They spent years trying to push that thing over the finish line, and failed. The underlying graphical subsystems gave them problems. The new form factors presented by the emergence of touchscreen slate devices proved at odds with a whole host of assumptions made throughout the (huge) Symbian/S60 codebase.
The whole thing was just a giant hot mess.
It's possible that competing internal frameworks could have worked. The ultimate problem is that they never developed one compelling UI paradigm/library that actually worked. Much less worked in a well integrated way across the whole platform.
Nokia failed at project management. They failed at engineering. They failed at leadership.
Now they're just another OEM.
I suspect they've learnt from that and now leave the software side to Microsoft, while leaving them free to focus once again on creating good hardware.
The Nokia CEO's a Microsoft loyalist so this is probably not going to happen.
I would love for this to happen (heck, my N900 and N9 show that Nokia + Linux = fantastic device) but I fear that as long as Elop is at the reins, this is an impossible dream. This is the same CEO who even went so far as to ditch Qt less than a year ago, remember.
Here is a video of KDE's Plasma Active running on a Nexus 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7isMAmwW0
It is a real use video, there aren't any fancy photos, there isn't any CG in the video in contrast with Canonical's page.
Plasma Active is being actively developed for about 2 years now and KDE 4 was developed from the ground up to be able to adapt to various form factors.
Since most Linux applications run on many different architectures, with such an approach you can keep your low power ARM based tablet and run all your desktop software -albeit a bit or more slower.
I guess you mean that it doesn't look like Android or iOS. This can be changed easily through a theme. Conveniently you can download new themes from the theme settings screen, you don't need extra software nor you have to search in random places.
On the other hand, certain programs, like its text editor which can highlight code in almost every known computer language, does regular expression searches, support vi input mode etc, can't get much eye-pleasing. But you do get something you can actually work on.
I love the touch drived interface of tablets, but I don't think there is a reason to hide that a tablet device is a computer in different form and when you need it, it can perform as thus.
Sort of like the Surface tablets...
1. Windows applications doesn't run on ARM, so you can't run your desktop software.
2. Microsoft has to differentiate its products, to assign them to different target price groups and to make them distinctive from competitive products. Same goes for Apple and Android tablet makers of course. They accomplish this by limiting what you can do with your tablet. One may not let you open 2 apps aside, another may not let you have multitasking, all in the name of branding and price-features ratio. In the end you get something you have to adjust to, instead of something that adjusts to you.
I find Ubuntu, (at least the LTS releases), to be the best supported distro for major third party applications and the easist for novices to use. I'm using it as development platform and as a VMware host for my Windows OS images. It has supports my Dell hardware better than Dell's Windows drivers. In time, I'll probably migrate to a different distro, but I don't have the cycles to spend on tweaking Linux, I just want a distro that works with what I need now.
Then Canonical announces that it will do the same (Qt based, unified PC/Netbook/Tablet experience), it shows no code, no real use video and everyone talks about it.
I guess it is kind of disheartening for the many - many free software developers involved.
Here's a hands-on video of the phone version: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/2/3828266/ubuntu-phone-os-han...
KDE commited suicide with 4.0. After that, whatever they produced was basically irrelevant, because nobody could take them seriously any more. Nobody is going to bet anything on KDE because of the fear that they could pull another "lets throw away a perfectly working 3.5 and rewrite everything from scratch" again. The same applies to Gnome also. Gnome could have avoided the fate by learning from KDE's mistakes, but they screwed up even worse, unimaginably worse.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, and so on. They are the picture-perfect example of the saying in effect. For all practical intents and purposes, KDE and Gnome are dead now.
Further more the Plasma Active team designed their own tablet and will soon announce it officially.
Ubuntu on the other hand is a Linux based distribution with their own DE.
But watch a couple clips for me:
http://youtu.be/Jx7VNP5UO2k?t=5m9s (at 5:09) http://youtu.be/5jzAAPccBaU?t=2m27s (at 2:27)
That's the future. That's when the tablet becomes extremely useful. Productive-yet-portable in a way a laptop can't be. What I think the Microsoft guys really nailed is that the tablet is ultimately just another tool. The "post-pc" era still has plenty of PC's in it; they just work alongside tablets and phones.
I mean, there is no deep conceptual difference between something like leafsnap and what is shown there.
But even looking at that, it still doesn't show why a tablet form factor (thinking >9" diagonal) is better for this things than something sized like a larger phone, or a foldable thingy like the (sadly dead) MS Courier.
Other than that, it's not so much the form factor that's different from now, it's the software. As awesome as Ubuntu Tablet is, I think all of our tablet OSes carry too many PC relics with them. The OS in those videos looks nothing like software now.
Exactly. When people cry about PC sales diminishing, I am in no way alarmed, because for some things PCs will always be required, such as CAD, programming, etc...
As for the video, I don't think that sort of future is anywhere near us, especially not as soon as 2019. When you look how far technology has come since 2007, it hasn't really come THAT long of a way. Sure, smartphones have gotten bigger and all-touch, and tablets have increased in popularity and usability, but the general usage of technology is still the same. Especially when businesses are still using 90s technology like fax machines, I don't see it happening soon.
2030, perhaps, but 2019 is too soon.
This isn't really a flaw, tablets aren't going to replace computers they are just another computer that is used differently. They are better for reading and passing around.
Products like the Surface Pro I think are overselling the form factor.
The iPad, Nexus, etc. are marketed as supplemental devices, not laptop replacements.
The general population already has a solution for this. It's rare that I see an iPad without some sort of cover that also can act as a stand. While you're sitting on the couch, this isn't as big of a problem because you can rest your arm(s) on your lap. But stand/cases are the answer people have come up with.
At this moment I'm consuming HN sitting on the couch with an iPad on my thigh and using one finger.
That could also be said to be a flaw in books, but that's an interface that had some staying power. And most people probably use a tablet, like a book, setting on a surface or propped up on something.
I do admit there needs to be some work on the ergonomics-- thinner does not mean better-- but the general 'holding it' concept works great, for me at least.
I use to go outside and work on the go on the field or lab, standing up, with a laptop you must sit down for working, non sense for me(we are bipeds, we designed for standing up a big part of the time, when we sit our bodies metabolism change, we become less active). I can talk with other people and show things on my tablet just moving my hand, or the tablet where the person is. With a laptop the computer does not move so I HAVE TO MOVE THE OTHER PERSON!
I use arms for holding my tablet in the car, in the lab, and a gorilla one for the field that I could attach to anything(a tree, any structure), and a backpack when I don't use it.
I just need one tablet which I could do real work, run UNIX programs, and add a pixel qi display for working under the sun, and I will have my dream machine.
Do you eschew clothes, eat only raw foods, sleep outside, and run to work (on bare feet) each day?
What you have obliquely hit upon is what makes tablets destined to be the center of workplace computing. You CAN hold it, like a notebook or sheaf of paper. You can walk around with. You can also lay it on a table and type on it, or use a keyboard with it for sustained typing for most office tasks.
The deskbound will be left behind when everyone else is walking around, and will suffer tribulations.
Since I'm fond of parity/ECC, I'll continue to build my own machines out of server/workstation class components with fast SCSI/SAS disks, the later until we get good enough with SSD lifespan and all that (I can remember Ted T'so, I think it was, being horrified to learn that Firefox wrote 1.8MB of data for every page it loaded...). In my experience since 1995 this class of systems don't die before I take them out of service 5+ years later, so the investment works out pretty well depending on how I account for the opportunity cost to research, procure and build them. I like building things, so there's intangible value to that as well, and it makes it easier maintain my parents' computers.
People like you used to be the whole PC market. Now you are less than 5%. I would argue that 95% of the PC market constitutes a kind of "overshoot" of success, since, until recently, there were no alternatives that could overcome the manufacturing efficiencies of PCs. 95% of the PC market is made of users who don't need PCs (meaning Computers they Personally control), and their PCs are locked-down and use trailing-edge versions of Windows.
The other segment I can think of are the really hard core PC gamers, who I don't have any sort of reading on (decided to give that up in the mid-late '80s to limit damage to my hands on up). 5% might be too low, but I'd accept it as a working estimate. E.g. my parents would today be well served by small unconfigurable boxes as long as they can speak to a regular big monitor, keyboard and mouse, and I plan to move them from Windows XP to something non-Windows like Chrome/Chromium OS in a year or three. Hmmm, I suppose there's also the big machine to satisfy a big ego market as well. Big machine as in way overpowered to run MS Office for a Pointy Haired Manager.
The rest of the "PC" market is as you note, although it's not inconsequential. But it has very low margin, is trailing edge in every way, and by now has got to be "mature", in that replacements almost certainly dwarf new installations, especially with the declines in new business formation. I'm not focused on it, don't know how it will move, but again something like the machines that could well serve my parents, e.g. based largely on tablet technology cores, could well disrupt it and take it over from Dell etc. as they are today.
Which I mention because there's got to be a reason Microsoft is investing in Dell going private, although it might not make much sense (e.g. the acquisition of Skype which I gather put the final nails in the coffin of Microsoft's mobile phone ambitions, since that make them radioactive to the carriers).
That said, I think people trying to use tablets like baby laptops are a little nuts, but to each their own. :)
Disclaimer: I run three monitors, so I'm probably different from the average Unity user.
I think this is good news for Unity on the desktop because it means they will be tweaking the hell out of it for performance. I read that it's already better in 13.04, and we can probably expect it to get better over the releases.
Other than that, I wouldn't use Ubuntu on tablets right now. I'm not enough of an early adopter to switch to this OS which is - let's face it - probably not ready for prime time and still pretty buggy. The first versions of Android sucked, I don't see why this would be an exception. Nailing it on the first try is very hard.
From what I read somewhere, Ubuntu for phones was pretty CPU intensive, which could mean it didn't have hardware acceleration. I did notice some stutters when switching between apps in their own video. So that better not be happening when they actually release the devices, or people aren't going to give it a second thought.
In Ubuntu mobile's case, the first impression will literally decide whether Ubuntu has a future in mobile or not. So they better make sure everything is absolutely flawless, instead of hurrying up to ship it. If Ubuntu for phones and tablets has the same performance issues as on desktop, then might as well call it a dead-end now.
I tried 12.04 not too long ago, and some of the same lagginess/weird quirks were still there. Now that many ubuntians are now trying to push for less testing/more releasing in Debian, it's like a skyscraper company telling their foundation builders to use sack concrete instead of whats been tested and proven to work for many years.
I think for a lot of people that don't do much on a computer, Unity/Ubuntu makes way more sense than it's iOS and Win counterpart. It's cleaner, there is less "clutter" on the screen.
Even from a tweaker/hacker perspective, when you are not working/coding and just want to relax and watch some content, Unity does the job pretty well.
I prefer their vision of the post-PC era than what Win/iOS propose. At least it's an open platform and it integrates fluidly in your activity flow.
Here's an example of the work from Feb:
- https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2013-February...
- https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-r-redu...
For me the Dash is now finally fast/almost instant as opposed to 12.10. All these improvements will be in 13.04 (and the select safe ones will be backported to 12.04 over time).
Apple is already a heavyweight in this area and Google/Samsung have a dominant second place. Viable tablet alternatives need to establish a foothold now, before there is too much lock in from the existing entrants. Every iOS or Play app that I buy will make me (as a consumer) less likely to switch platforms. This is true for me, even as an early adopter. For a normal consumer that doesn't have the free cash, nor the desire for constant change, it is a killer.
Every month that they fail to have this out the door, they lose potential customers.
[edit: just a bit of editing]
The smartphone market is almost 1 billion units per year now (or will be this year), with the potential for 3-4 billion units. The tablet market is only around a 100 million market right now, with the potential for at least 2 billion units per year.
The biggest chunk of these markets will belong to free and open source operating systems like Android and Ubuntu, so Ubuntu definite has a chance here. But most of the those markets will be lower-end devices, obviously, and Android can already work on very low-end hardware. Plus it has a much bigger momentum. If Ubuntu wants to have a significant market share of that, it needs become as "lean" as possible on low-end hardware, and make sure it makes people excited about it, so it gets a lot of buzz/marketing for free.
I mean, the GP said that cinnamon was too simple and immature, and when asked why, your response is that this design is, essentially, overly mature.
One might say that Windows 98 is "less mature" than today's OS's, and if Cinnamon has features comparable to Windows 98, one might think of it being less mature as well.
Oh, what, you want some examples of what I mean by that? Why? Can't you just accept it when I say that it's obsolete and we really should be looking for a new solution?
(I don't think you're being pedantic, just missing my point :)
I tried Gnome 3 for a few weeks, went back to a simple window manager for awhile (I had used Openbox for years), and also tried Unity and KDE4. Turns out I'm used to a certain kind of workflow based on "traditional" desktops. I prefer having resizable floating windows to maximized windows, I rely on too much desktop infrastructure to just use a window manager anymore, and KDE has extremely busy and cluttered interfaces. I've never seen anything like it, it was overwhelming.
https://plus.google.com/104354412340246703061/posts/TUCPE7JE...
Of course, I never use full desktop environments anyways; all of them are too big and resource-heavy, and their animations and cool whizzbangery always distracts me and interrupts my workflow. I only use WindowMaker now with GNUStep apps (with the exception of Firefox). It's old-school, but it works.
This is the most distraction free environment with absolutely no limitations (in the scope of my work) I have ever worked with.
Not to mention it'll run on any netbook easily, or other low spec computer.
Compiz regularly crashes, but thankfully it automatically restarts. Now I don't need to panic when the whole screen stops updating.
The "snap" window dragging feature is broken in the presence of multiple monitors; as you drag the mouse across the monitor boundary, the mouse pointer becomes momentarily disconnected from the window location, so that you are moving the window as if by a long invisible stick, not by its original grab location.
The overlay scrollbars don't interact well with Eclipse; JUnit running tests outputs file paths that Eclipse turns into hyperlinks, and the hyperlink mouseover stops the scrollbar from from being triggered when the pointer approaches the child window border. The overlay scrollbar thing doesn't seem to have been fully thought through.
Gnome-terminal is one of the slowest terminals I've ever used; it would literally slow down development by blocking on log-verbose tests. I've gone back to my old stalwart of rxvt.
I don't understand the difference between Windows key and Alt key command prompts. I've given up trying to figure out how to register my various user-directory installed applications with the taskbar thing. So I've stopped using both, and now I start all my apps from the terminal, with shell scripts to redirect output if they are chatty.
The Alt-Tab task switcher is broken just like the OS X one is, switching between its concept of applications rather than top level windows. This means alt-tabbing between Eclipse and Firefox would bring the Downloads window to the fore, leaving the actual browser hidden behind maximized Eclipse. Usability disaster. With some difficulty and playing around with preference managers that come with warning labels, I've rebound the keys to a slightly more usable window switcher.
Oh, and the fun I had when I tried to bind Ctrl+Alt+F12 to a command in Eclipse; took me back decades to switching terminals with Alt+F keys.
In short, Ubuntu Unity is horrifically bad. Linux is completely inappropriate for the desktop, unless you are so inept you only use a browser (get an ipad instead), or you are sufficiently skilled you think nothing of switching window managers. The trough in the middle is very ill served.
I see how frustrating your experience with Unity was, and it certainly echoes my own, but does it warrant such a conclusion about Linux in general? For one thing, there are alternatives to Ubuntu on the desktop. For new users who are not completely helpless with computers Linux Mint LTS with MATE is likely a better choice than Ubuntu. MATE is very Windows-like; there's a lot that can be configured through the GUI in that DE and, FWIW, I have had a good amount of success converting Windows users to it.
As for those who are "so inept [they] only use a browser", well, not all of such users can afford an iPad, especially not in those parts of the world where they have both significantly higher prices on iPads and a lower average income than the US (e.g., Eastern Europe), and even Ubuntu with Unity delivers great value to them. It's an application that's not to be taken lightly, either.
Finally, Ubuntu makes it relatively easy to switch your the desktop environment. I admit I haven't seen any usability studies nor have I seen someone try to do it but I imagine a motivated middle-level user with sudo rights should be able to follow a tutorial on YouTube [1] on how to replace Unity with Cinnamon or MATE even if something more advanced replacing Ubuntu with Linux Mint is beyond him or her.
[1] Like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxJYiPFodlg and many others.
Edit: If you have access to gcc/g++ at work but not sudo rights (which is a very crappy situation to be in indeed) you can try to compile a different WM/DE in a local directory for your use and then create an ~/.xsession file to start it.
You must have done this already but for the benefit of whoever else might struggling with overlay scrollbars I'll note that you can disable them by putting
export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0
The point is that Linux UIs are perpetually half-baked. I'm happiest interacting with Linux from Cygwin ssh. It's a fantastic command-line experience.
Even though I'm not a fan of Unity it's because I miss small thinks like being able to right click on a panel and add stuff or all the cool desktop themes which are missing in Unity.
Having said that, calling modern Linux desktops half-backed is either a clueless (and you make your case that you're not clueless) or possibly having an ulterior motives for drawing such a flawed conclusion. Modern Linux desktops are no more flawed than Windows.
Want to see a frustrating Windows UI bug? Put your start/task bar or whatever it's called at the top of the desktop. Then run Cygwin XWin and open a new X window. It will come up under the start bar/task bar. Several other programs do to. That bug has existed for like a decade from my recollection going back to at lest XP if not 2000.
Microsoft has like thousands of engineers, how hard would it be to fix that?
I think this is touching on a good point, I would much enjoy seeing one desktop environment being kept stable in terms of UI and slowly polished to perfection, instead of continuously starting from scratch and inevitably coming up with something half-baked. And this is not specific to Linux, just look at the Windows 8 mess.
Apple comes closest, at least they keep the rough lines constant, but they have the bad habit of needlessly replacing parts of the UI and losing features along the way.
Since Ubuntu on the tablet is a literal clean slate, they can at least avoid the puzzle of making existing applications fit their desktop guidelines. A lot of popular apps still don't use the app menu for instance (GUI version of Vim, Eclipse, and even that new Steam for Ubuntu).
I don't think I've had more than a week of uptime out of either laptop, and I think the median is something like 2 days. That was not the case with earlier versions of Ubuntu on the same hardware.
I like the ideas behind Unity, but the execution has been terrible. It's pretty obvious they're focused on arbitrary schedules over a solid user experience.
Running a laptop from an Ubuntu OEM (System 76) with high end CPU (I7) and SSD I can't complain about performance or compatibility issues at all (though I'm only on a dual 1080p config).
Steam also works quite OK. Though most of the time I'm in a terminal with vim, so I don't care much about most Unity features. It looks nicer than the dated GNOME 2 / 3 / KDE stuff though (personal taste).
Also, I really got used to Ubuntu One file sync and music store and indicators.
This is the whole problem, isn't it? When Google wants to make a device, they call up Asus or whomever and have it made. When Apple wants to make a device, they hire folks to do it, and those folks call the manufacturers for the parts. Why does Canonical expect the OEM to call them first on the basis of pretty mockups?
How preposterous of you! They are going to release images in 2 days. What do you expect them to do come to your house and give you a lecture on electricity. You seem to know everything about manufacturers and Canonical and their internal communication. Of course Canonical is talking to all parties. Do you want them to include you in the discussion? I like your negative attitude.
That's exactly why I don't understand why they continue to produce marketing material rather than actually getting the work done to make a product.
> Of course Canonical is talking to all parties. Do you want them to include you in the discussion?
No, but they seem to be mainly interested in including me, rather than people who might get it done. Is it so hard for a company to call another company? How many years before there was a Nexus tablet did Google tell us they were going to make one? Did their marketing ever send you the message "hey, we don't know anybody at Asus, but if you do, would you mind sending them by our booth at the next convention? Thanks!"
-- nor a "Download" button for hackers wanting to install an alpha version on their Nexus tablet.
I looked unsucessfully for a Download button on the OP, the "developer" page that it links to and http://www.ubuntu.com/download.
That's a little like saying an omelette is an egg. :) Both make heavy use of *nix and OSS components, but they also add their own proprietary ingredients. I don't see anything wrong with that, but I'd prefer that full-stack open-source wasn't limited just to technorati. You're right that the masses define their experience by the UI: both what's delivered directly to users, and indirectly via the UI tools/ecosystem/culture available to developers.
The multitasking looks really good, it is an interesting way to solve this problem. If their implementation is as good as it is presented, we'll see Apple and Google copying this on their platforms.
It seems to me that this offers many of the benefits that I see with OS X, an interface that lets me just do what I want without a bunch of pain, but if I need more power I can drop down to the shell and really get at what I need. Additionally, if using MS Office on the device is possible in a non-shitty way, it will be amazing. They talked very little about this, so I'm skeptical, but it would be absolutely killer if this worked well. US business lives in MS office and a way to easily use it is REQUIRED before tablets can begin supplanting desktops in the enterprise.
The rip off of Apple's styling for the promo video is distracting and unnecessary. Come up with your own styling for this, the offering looks appealing, you've got capabilities that other competitors lack, there isn't a reason for you to copy someone else's presentation style.
GPU acceleration might be a significant hurdle on the nVidia.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/19/ubuntu-for-tablets-reveal...
Typically these people are the ones holding the purse strings, so targeting them is a good strategy.
That said, it looks like Ubuntu lets you drop down into desktop mode with a keyboard + mouse which is something I really like about Windows 8 over Android and iOS.
Touch is inferior for text input, but superior for other types of input. I know many designers who are salivating at the prospect of being able to do their work with a stylus that's also a screen (as opposed to the Wacom way of doing it).
The digitizer-on-a-screen idea isn't new, but its affordability is definitely unprecedented. The Surface Pro (for all its faults) is a high-res IPS display with a Wacom digitizer and some pretty respectable specs for <$1K.
Thank goodness. The absence of this makes every tablet OS out there today pretty weak sauce. If I can't lock the screen, or inhibit another person in the house from opening my email, Dropbox folder, etc., let alone allow them to 'switch user', then no one else can borrow the device. An-ipad-per-child isn't terribly economical, in my book.
Android 4.2 on tablets also has multiple user accounts.
Google doesn't seem to have any particularly good plan (at least not in public) for dealing with the Java anchor, even after the Oracle lawsuit, which I find very concerning as an Android developer -- like, when, if ever, are they going to support Java 1.7 or Java 1.8 features? Seems like they are content to be stuck at Java 1.6 forever. So not only are you practically stuck with Java if writing non-game "native" Android apps, but you're stuck with an old and increasingly obsolete Java.
The fact that I can't read past the weasel wording here though suggests to me that when Canonical says "native" they mean "QML running on top of Qt", which isn't really native at all (if I can't hook into it at the C/C++ level). I'd love to be wrong though.
/ac, speaking on behalf of self, not employer
Here's hoping some clever bods will get this working on a HP Touchpad, would love to resurrect my touchpad from it's dusty grave. Can't imagine there would be much problem given that it's had no problems running Android. Bring it on!
Does anybody know if this will give access to bash etc? Could I develop on this with a bluetooth keyboard?
EDIT: full desktop with mouse and keyboard! Should have finished watching the video before commenting. I'm interested in this thin client for windows also - is this standard in the regular Ubuntu distros?
I think I'm getting close. But unfortunately, the UX is difficult to work with without a mouse and keyboard (which I am yet to hook-up).
I'm sure we'll see this on the touchpad before too long.
Ubuntu on the phone, tablet, PC and TV looks nice. I'd love to try it. But for me to be able to do so, the devices I buy needs to be open enough for me to be able to install that.
If all I buy is locked down devices, you can be sure I'll never have a home where every device was bought when the next big thing(tm) was released. I'll need a way to bring the platform of my choice to all my devices.
Like PCs had and allowed before Apple went ahead and ruined it all.
Either that or better open protocols and specifications created, implemented and deployed across the line, but we can see how well that is going these days.
I don't think that is the model they are going for, and it really doesn't suit the mass market anyway. As I understand it, they are trying to provide the best experience so that manufacturers decide to use them as the OS platform for their devices. Then you'll just go out and buy Ubuntu devices. You don't actually install and select your OS.
It feels entirely pointless (and environmentally irresponsible) to buy new hardware just to get new software.
It's all software these days so are we not embracing that yet?
For example, I hate it that I cannot edit /etc/hosts on my iOS devices.
1) It actually runs on hardware, it's not just a concept 2) I can attach a keyboard 3) I can run a bash shell and the unix utilities.
?
Even if Ubuntu achieves a modicum of success, their entry into the market means yet another platform that mobile developers must target (I'm not counting web apps since those can be supported equally with minimum effort across platforms). It's a wonder that Ubuntu chose to create another binary mobile development platform instead of adopting Java (leveraging the skills of existing Android devs) and calling it good enough.
Java otherwise is a lackluster language with VM that still has 64K bytecode segments in 21st century, owned by a particular corporation seemingly intent on driving it into the ground. There is no reason using it with a clean start.
I'm interested to hear more about this.
On an semi-unrelated note, the effect the dynamic controls in some of the mock-ups have is interesting to observe. While I liked how play controls came up when I moved my mouse cursor over the image of the tablet playing a video (http://i50.tinypic.com/5b1bms.png) it almost made me feel disappointed when I clicked on "play" and nothing happened. I wonder if as a user persuasion tool this is better or worse than a static image.
Edit: it is also strange how they show mouse over effects in a mock up of a touch interface.
[1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/02/canonical-idUSnBw1... ("Canonical estimates that...")
Being able to run all iOS and android apps on a single device would be pretty revolutionary.
Unless there are any other suggestions? (I have a lenovo x220 tablet. I like the computer. The touch aspect is just basically ignored.)
The bad: Like every other "mobile OS" out there it is strongly biased toward native apps. But in this case it's at least understandable as there is an actual linux distribution under the hood. Also i have a feeling that they'll probably lack behind in the mobile department for years when compared to Android especially if they can't get some big OEM partners on board as has already been said in some comments.
iOS has native apps. They let the Apple devices do the same stuff with a slower processor, and have longer battery life, and providing a more fluid and smoother operation.
What do you want? An OS full of JavaScript apps that burns its battery in 6 hours?
I for one, welcome Ubuntu and its upcoming native and open applications as the best thing to happen in the mobile space.
Also what is the multitasking model? I can't imagine full desktop multitasking would work on a tablet. That would kill the battery.
I don't think it mentions whether it can run those apps while being a tablet, though. It's not clear if it'll let you do that or not. (I would guess it will, or at least it will if GTK and Qt add support for whatever windowing system this uses.)
A mouse and a keyboard doesn't mean it can run anything. I can use a mouse and keyboard with Android currently and it still won't support my development environments. Heck Android doesn't even fully support its own development environment.
Kidding! I'm kidding! Put the pitchfork down!
I really have to congratulate ubuntu on staying strong for so long on their unity vision; this is clearly the realisation of that. I hope that they manage to get some OEM support (hello Asus?), the momentum does seem to be there now IMO.
There's many different ways they can approach this: a hobbyist hosting an ubuntu server running whatever's necessary to facilitate this; a hosted solution -- possibly by Canonical (ala Ubuntu One or competitors); and a corporate solution (your IT staff managing Ubuntu servers and environment).
I feel like this might be the next step, especially with app/desktop virtualization becoming more popular.
I don't currently own a tablet and my phone is some superold cell (dumbphone?) so I'll be very easy to please.
Worst case scenario I'll pay whatever it costs to help consumer Linux into the tornado a little quicker.
[I'm an Ubuntu user both at home and at work but I remain a tad sceptical about this]
It seems that Ubuntu has outdone even Windows 8 in that front.
Curious to see this running on some real hardware, because for now it's just a design and software.
can I open a terminal window from that tablet? a text editor? get to Firefox' developer tools?
Do you see where I'm going with this?
(That must be possible, they demo Gimp in the video. Yet, that's what I hated in tablets: I couldn't use them.)
I do want my phone to look like my computer but my computer looks very much different than Canonical's Unity.
Can we at least start calling PCs "workstations" again, to compensate?
xmonad+debian squeeze
My laptop has been up/plugged in for 72 days and I have no issues whatsoever ;) Sometimes stable is a good thing.
Debian supremacy.
As for porting, I think they have a consistent story - use Qt everywhere. It's clear that they're moving to Qt, and while I expect they will continue to run other peoples' GTK apps on the desktop, I doubt they'll be writing many more of their own.
Still I hold a sliver of hope that I'll be able to write mobile apps in Python one day. (I've heard of kivy, but worried it isn't direct enough).
- use gnome-do instead of unity dash
- use docky in panel mode as my beloved taskbar
- keep the horrible unity sidebar well hidden on the left
And I am happy so far.
I went back to Linux just because Unity feels refreshing and different and runs faster than Win7 in my hardware.
Well nevermind then. Back to work.
[1] http://0xdeadfa11.net/blog/2012/07/11/the-idroid-project-whe...
If you want something to just hack around on and mod stuff, I recommend getting a Nexus 7 for that and use your ipad for your normal usage. They're cheap, battery life is good (as far as Android goes, it's 7-8 hours for me normally). Ubuntu for tablets is to be supported for it and there's an unofficial webos port for it out as well. That plus the entire AOSP android source and plenty of ROMs out there to take features from.
Unlocking + rooting Nexus devices is dead simple. Basically plug into USB, run a few terminal commands and you're done. Granted it makes taking updates a bit harder (if you mod past this), but if you're rooted and unlocked, you usually do it yourself anyways versus taking a direct update.
I know Ubuntu won't be narrowing down to developers but if Ubuntu Tablets solve this I'll get in line to get the one as fast as possible
Can't you make this argument about anything?
No one is forcing you to use it but it still has potential to positively affect your tablet experience, even if it's indirectly.
- build apps or port apps to work better on it. I can also do this without having to resort to Java like Android if I want to do things the recommended and supported way. I am also guessing that running su/sudo on it will not feel like an ugly hack to do like it is on Android[1] since it should be built in.
- run scripts (you can do that on Android with the Android Scripting layer and the terminal emulator, but it still has its quirks).
- easier access to things that are harder to deal with on Android or iOS (development tools) via apt. Perhaps even something like Blender or Gimp will run decent on it.
There are lots of possibilities. Perhaps not if all you want to do is browse the web and check email. However, I consider it another way to hack around and build things.
[1] http://www.chainfire.eu/articles/125/_How-To_SU_published/
I just loved the comments and insight on here and felt I shouldn't post much unless I really felt I had something to add to the conversation. If you haven't yet, I recommend reading the FAQ area[1] about posting stories and comments. It's really good information that seems to get skipped over sometimes.
Also, welcome to HN :)