Ubuntu Phone Will Be A Big Success, Even If It Never Happens
forbes.com
forbes.com
Didn't enjoy the article. Basically wraps the actual argument in 1000 words to make it seem smarter.
I am really starting to see Ubuntu used for the desktop in various companies.
But nobody gives a shit enough to invest in their technologies. I think edge is a great idea. I will buy (once the phone is available). That is my contribution.
Privacy is a serious question for businesses, and "you can opt out" isn't a serious answer.
"We are not telling Amazon what you are searching for. Your anonymity is preserved because we handle the query on your behalf." --Mark Shuttleworth, http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1182
Canonical has made it abundantly clear that their users have no voice in the development of Ubuntu, in fact they've been quite hostile when confronted with their secretive and authoritarian development practices.
This seems undeservingly harsh. They have an opt-out system and that's "over the barrel"? If so, then if they were to hypothetically sell a users' list of most popular apps they ran or something like that, what would they be doing to the user and how would the barrel be used?
>Privacy is a serious question for businesses, and "you can opt out" isn't a serious answer. It is a serious question for everyone and you provided no explanation other than your opinion as to why "you can opt out" isn't a "serious answer"
I am from India, working on our startup - our running costs are USD 500 per month, thats what we are running on. If I was in a regular job, I would surely contribute to your campaign, but I cant afford it.
If I want to download Ubuntu Desktop, you are asking for donations, which I would love to give, but are taking payments through Paypal. You need to setup a payment gateway here in India - use the same systems we use to top up our mobile phones, so we can contribute to you, instead of going through Paypal (because I am not credit worthy, and there are govt rules too).
We might not be able to make big donations, but India has 1 billion people, and I am sure, India has quite a few Ubuntu users, and I am definitely a Happy one.
They have a contributor license agreement, which is unpleasant enough on its own, but it also allows them to take code proprietary. Note that contributors can't take Canonical's code proprietary, so this is an unequal relationship.
They don't have an instinct for free (as in freedom). eg they kept launchpad proprietary for years, landscape still is, ubuntu one server is etc. ie the vibe that comes across is that company advantage takes first priority, and freedom second. In some places this has helped - eg shipping access to proprietary drivers has meant that Ubuntu just works for more users.
While design by the public would never work, it is possible to be more inclusive such as letting anyone subscribe to mailing lists even if everyone can't post.
The Amazon issue and others in the past (eg media player affiliate) was another symptom of Canonical first, everyone else second. Canonical essentially took all the money raised, rather than acting as a clearing house and only taking a finder's fee.
The problem with current cell phones is problems with openness. Unless you have open drivers for all of it, you are the mercy of other providers and it isn't really your phone. Mark Shuttleworth in Reddit AMA "So in this first generation Edge, no, we didn't look for open hardware specifically".
Ubuntu is not Linux, and don't mistake their agenda.
Secondly, the consumer would rather software with stability and functionality rather than visible source code. The prevalence of users using binary drivers on Linux demonstrates that. Users seeking a completely FOSS experience are free to use those distros that offer that, however the overall experience will be worse than those which allow the easy installation of binary drivers.
And just because you say Ubuntu isn't GNU/Linux, by definition you are wrong as they fulfil all the requirements of a GNU/Linux distribution.
The amount of misinformation and bias in your post is actually quite intriguing.
http://lwn.net/Articles/529522/
> Secondly, the consumer would rather software with stability and functionality rather than visible source code
Err, you are agreeing with one of my points. However this is not good for consumers in the long term since they will be restricted by whatever the producers of binary blobs and closed drivers decide to do. For example if the vendor decides not to support particular architectures, or update with kernel changes then tough luck.
> And just because you say Ubuntu isn't GNU/Linux
I was responding to the OP equating Ubuntu with Linux - ie supporting the Edge is supporting Linux. If for example Canonical said they would make sure the hardware was open/free, or at the very least that any rights Canonical negotiates for binary blobs and drivers would apply equally to the whole Linux community then that would be a good start. Heck many argue that binary blobs are drivers are violations of the GPL.
> The amount of misinformation
I would love to correct factual errors. What are they?
> .. bias in your post ..
I was responding to OPs claims that supporting the Edge is supporting Linux, and implied that we all should do so. Supporting the Edge is supporting Canonical and only indirectly Linux. The reasons I gave are why I don't support Edge, and implicitly what Canonical could do to get my support. Everyone is free to make their own mind up, and hopefully I've provided some reasons from the dissenters.
Why aren't more big companies seeing this?
I agree that they don't really need this phone, rather they should try putting out a 300-400 phone, along the line of the Nexus, that carriers can offer for 0-99 dollars on contract.
You can also get a machine with Ubuntu pre-installed and supported, see system76.
They will have commodity Ubuntu Touch devices next year. They won't be powerful enough to take advantage of the convergence features Canonical wants to push, this device will. Carrier devices will also be horribly crippled by vendor bloatware to an even worse extent than Android because Canonical is literally selling the soul of its OS for potential market share.
You can already put Ubuntu Touch on a Nexus 4, and I bet next years Nexus Tier will see an Ubuntu Phone version as well. No problem there, nothing to do with this crowdfunding campaign. This is all about making a phone with extremely high end hardware and storage to act as a desktop replacement, period.
The buttonless interface is also significant: every other phone has physical and/or touch buttons below, which would be superfluous. Ubuntu phones are meant to be oriented around edge swipes as virtual "buttons", with the few actual buttons being only on the top and sides.
The project is most certainly a gamble, both for buyers and Canonical. But I think it's a worthwhile one for both parties. Note that their goal is to release a new "concept phone" once per year; they clearly want to turn mobile hardware into a core competency, even if they're bound to have a hard time keeping up with Samsung and Apple.
A physical "home" button is also useful for when a phone starts to hang/go slow. If pressing the physical button has no effect then you press the physical on/off button, if that has no effect you power cycle the phone.
If those first steps are software interrupts you cannot trust them when software starts to hang, so the only satisfactory option is to powercycle, which is less useful than being able to just get back to a home screen where the phone can better recover from whatever was causing the hanging.
I mean the phone costs upwards of $600 and they are going to make two almost identical versions of the same fucking phone. Doesn't that have anything to do with how much it costs.
I am settling with Nexus 4 primarily because I will be able to at least run Ubuntu on it and leave Android just because everything about the platform is garbage. From the development environment, to the UX, to involvement in community, to all the shady things vendors are pulling(I'm looking at you Qualcomm), and especially now it's got backdoors in it for sure.
I swear if there is one thing I want to do with the rest of my life it's start developing tech to tear down the Berlin wall of technology that these vendors have.
They have been holding back innovation since their inception. Restricting our choices because supposedly they know better.
Ubuntu on the HTC One would be very interesting!
It is already an OS project, and is happening regardless of the Ubuntu Edge fundraising initiative. Images are available for various hardware, including the Nexus 4 for example. (But it's still a very early preview, not for production use.)
> Can someone explain to me why this has to be a hardware project?
Mark Shuttleworth explains the reason for the Ubuntu Edge initiative in the video on the main fundraising page. My interpretation: the high end phone that exists in 2014 will not be as good as what technology is available, because the existing phone hardware industry is conservative in technology selection. As Ubuntu is focusing on a converged experience with phone hardware driving the desktop as well, it would be better for the hardware to be better than what the industry is expected to deliver by 2014. So Canonical are driving this initiative, which is separate from the existing Ubuntu phone plans, to additionally deliver a phone with better hardware than what will be available on the market otherwise.
Given that they are trying tmake a phone which runs Android and an OS traditionally run on a desktop there are many hardware requirements to ensure a quality consumer experience is upheld.
Because they're working with two operating systems and trying to integrate components between them it makes sense to me to, for the first foray, make it work with one piece of hardware and get it into peoples hands. The downside to this is holy shit hardware really complicates things and is expensive.