
Ubuntu Touch OS wins its first smartphone partner - tanglesome
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57615107-94/ubuntu-touch-os-wins-its-first-smartphone-partner/#
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winslow
"Shuttleworth founded Canonical in 2004, back in the day when Linux on the
desktop was, if not exactly a contender, at least a more widely discussed
alternative to Windows PCs than it is today."

I feel like Linux is a better contender now then it was in 2004. Or am I just
in a "developers tech savvy world" and viewing linux as a viable contender now
compared to the typical layman?

~~~
georgemcbay
It was discussed (in tech media) much more back then ("This is the year of
Linux on the desktop!" used in a non-sarcastic manner), but you're right in
that it is actually more viable today than it was then, mostly due to
Microsoft shooting itself in both feet in the interim.

It is still unlikely Linux will achieve any sort of mainstream adoption (for a
few reasons, including Ubuntu following a very Microsoft-like policy of going
all-in with touch at the expense of UX for traditional desktop users,
continued fragmentation of the various distros, etc), but at least these days
it isn't nearly as surprising to learn some of your more casually tech savvy
friends use Linux as it would have been back then.

~~~
derefr
I wouldn't be surprised if Linux achieved a majority-share in the Desktop PC
market... caused by the Desktop PC becoming completely irrelevant to
consumers. (If only developers own PCs, and the majority of developers use
Linux, then the majority of PCs will run Linux.)

~~~
hollerith
In polls here, more respondents report running OS X than report running Linux
on their desktops and laptops.

So, it is uncertain whether it will ever be the case that the majority of devs
use Linux although I guess there's a good chance of it happening if Apple ever
decides to abandon the desktop / laptop market.

~~~
catinsocks
That or if someone invests heavily enough into building a coherent linux
desktop.

There are a lot of great things about linux and some of the desktops are quite
good (gnome 3.4+, kde) but they just aren't quite there with the small
glitches and annoyances that come up just often enough to be off putting for
end users.

I think linux or another free OS needs a huge backing to make it mainstream
and we may see that with android (or something in a similar vein) in the
future but for now the desktop is left Apple and Microsoft

~~~
pekk
Sounds like something Ubuntu has been castigated for trying to do.

Don't work on open source, unless you do everything each person wants (and
these may be conflicting) then someone will decide it isn't open enough
regardless of the actual license.

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derefr
I don't understand why it has to be open at all. Why isn't there a company
building a closed/polished corporate desktop experience on top of Linux?
(Basically, doing with Linux what Apple did with BSD.) It's not like anything
in Linux has switched to GPLv3, so there's nothing stopping this from
happening.

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bobbles
I really wonder whether this is going to be a partnership with Xiaomi...

after Hugo Barra went there from Google and made this quote "“If I do my job
right, in a few years, the world will be talking about Xiaomi in the same way
that they talk about Google and Apple today.”"

It appears the company will be gearing up for a big smartphone release in
2014, which would also fit into the timelines here.

Xiaomi tends to be known for the high-performance low-price phones, but have
always had poor software letting the devices down.

~~~
drill_sarge
I think/hope it will be some of those "chinese phones" which is quite
interesting. Even the big ones of them like Huawei, make really good phones
for good prices. Thats why I did not understand the hype about this Motorola
thing for 200 bucks or something. Those china guys do this for quite a while
and are now really pushing here (europe) in the market with really quality and
competitive phones.

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shurcooL
As soon as there's a powerful mobile device that comes with a Terminal as a
first class citizen and lets me compile/run Go programs, I'm ditching my iOS
device and getting that.

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programminggeek
This would be amazing on a device like the Moto G or something similar. If
they get this in the sub $200 or sub $100 price point with reasonable
performance, it could be a real big deal.

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georgemcbay
They should be able to hit the sub-$200 price point with one of their hardware
partners, but that is hardly a differentiator these days now that the Moto G
and the Lumia 520 are already there for Android and Windows Phone.

I'm personally mildly excited for the idea of a "real" Linux phone, if it
carries out the concept of being a phone that can be used in desktop/laptop
docks (which various people have attempted without success on Android phones)
to serve as your one very portable computer. Also it needs to have a competent
nav/driving app. Basically the sole thing that keeps me on Android these days
is Google Maps, and Google has even been testing me with that since the
dreadful redesign they did with 7.x.x.

~~~
voltagex_
Don't the planned Ubuntu Touch phones (and the current Dev builds) run a
modified Cyanogen kernel and a bionic-linked userland? (i.e. Android in
Ubuntu-brown)?

As far as I'm concerned, the next Linux phone is the Jolla.

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noahl
I believe the current builds run a (standard?) kernel, with a partial Android
userland in an LXC container. I assume the point of this is to access some
services that are implemented in Android.

They were indeed running Android with Ubuntu in the container, until the
container flip a few months ago.

~~~
mdwrigh2
> I believe the current builds run a (standard?) kernel, with a partial
> Android userland in an LXC container. I assume the point of this is to
> access some services that are implemented in Android.

Most mobile devices use an Android kernel since there's far more support for
ARM SoCs, etc. with the Android kernel. Plus you can't really run an Android
userland without running an Android kernel _somewhere_ ; they're intimately
tied (see Binder).

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keithpeter
Excellent for Canonical. I look forward to the day I can walk into the local
phone shop and buy an Ubuntu Mobile.

Bit worried by the 'high end' qualification in the OA. I'd imagine
Apple/Samsung have that sewn up, and the lower end in China/Asia has the
volume. But we shall see.

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nsxwolf
Is Ubuntu Touch OS the same thing as Ubuntu for Android? It's not clear on
their site.

~~~
Danieru
They are different. Ubuntu for Android is for running a desktop Ubuntu from a
phone plugged into a monitor. Meanwhile Ubuntu Touch is the stand-alone mobile
OS.

~~~
notnowlewis
Touch is both desktop and mobile. You have a full mobile OS, but plug it into
a monitor and you have a full desktop OS.

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chipaca
Not yet, it isn't.

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notnowlewis
Sorry yeah, that's what it'll be. The latest dev previews already identify as
Trusy.

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fidotron
This could really turn into a messy war versus the crippled but strangely
compelling ChromeOS, which once croutoned becomes radically more useful.
Something that doesn't have those restrictions out of the box is going to have
a clear advantage.

The problem from a dev point of view is just what security model for apps are
they going to go with? I haven't seen any discussion about the exact details
for how they plan on managing the app packaging, separation and permissions
fun that exists on mobile today.

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kriro
Great news, I think once you get one others will follow if it's good enough.
I've been rooting for the Ubuntu Phone ever since they released that marketing
video with the docking station. That really hit a nerve for me...gogo let me
buy one in 2014 :)

This also means I'll not get a Nexus/Nexus 4 for xmas now (solely for Ubuntu
stuff, I own another smartphone) because I'll just wait a bit. I was somewhat
set on tinkering but thankfully there's other tinkering projects.

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pianoben
I can't bring myself to get too excited; with so many details unknown, this
smells strongly of the vapors.

That said... I'm still holding out for the Ubuntu One, or something like it.

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TallGuyShort
If it's Verizon, I intend to be their first smartphone customer :)

edit: mind you - I'm guessing this is a manufacturing partner, not a network /
distribution partner...

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sirkneeland
Yes, it is a manufacturing partner, since they've already announced network
partners. I do wonder which manufacturer it could be...

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amartya916
This might be far-fetched, but I wonder whether it is Lenovo. Just saying
because Lenovo's PCs and Servers have excellent Ubuntu support.

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sirkneeland
My wild card guesses would be Lenovo and Dell (which, out of nowhere, made a
pretty solid piece of hardware with the WP7 Venue Pro)

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dingaling
The Venue Pro and the contemporaneous Streak Android models were designed and
manufactured for Dell by Qisda.

They were indeed very solid pieces of kit, being aimed at the corporate
Latitude-laptop-buying market. My Streak 5 is still going strong after four
years.

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tehwalrus
I await news of the handset specs excitedly - I'm going to be upgrading
sometime next year and I hope Ubuntu will be a viable alternative.

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yaph
Alcatel seems to be open to experiment, they already have a FireFox OS phone
out and they are based in France.

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jolohaga
Can't wait for a BSD phone

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wcfields
They already exist, there's a small fruit-named company that happens to make
them.

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TkTech
Are you thinking of
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bada](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bada) ? I've
never heard of a purpose-built BSD phone other than those (although there are
plenty of unofficial ports)

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ac29
iOS is based on OS X/Darwin which is in turn based on BSD.

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Arelius
Darwin itself uses very little BSD code. It's built on Mach. OS X does however
import much of the BSD userland, but I don't even know if much of that makes
it into iOS.

I think it'd be a fair guess to say that iOS likely contains very little BSD
Unix code.

~~~
mdwrigh2
For what it's worth, Android also uses a lot of BSD userspace code (see
toolbox).

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arunoda
Waiting for it.

