
Ubuntu for tablets - bpierre
http://www.ubuntu.com/tablet
======
squeaky-clean
I don't understand their branding. I'd love to buy "The Ubuntu Tablet", I
don't really want to buy a "BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition". It doesn't sound
like I'm getting something from Canonical, but instead some alternate edition
of a device by a company I don't know of. Especially since this is the only
model being launched, why not offer a definitive edition?

It's like if Google had called the "Google Nexus 6" the "Huawei Nexus 6P
Android Edition"

~~~
morsch
The M10 is an existing device sold with Android. You _are_ getting an
alternate edition of a device by a company you haven't heard of. (Confusingly
the full device name is either M10 HD or M10 Full HD, with 800p or 1080p
displays, respectively; the Ubuntu one seems to be the Full HD model.)

The Nexus 6P is not available in another edition. But Google did, in fact,
sell other devices much like you describe, though they were called "Play
Edition" (running a non-customised stock Google Android).

~~~
squeaky-clean
> The M10 is an existing device sold with Android.

Ah, when I googled it, the first page only had results related to the Ubuntu
announcement, so I wasn't aware. That confirms my suspicions though.

I know it may not be entirely rational, but because of that, it feels like I'm
buying into a fragmented device line. Like when buying an Android phone or
Windows computer, you have to research brands and be careful you don't get a
device that some crappy OEM filled with crapware or bugs/incompatibilities in
the hardware. Like BQ will have more overall control over the device
experience than Ubuntu.

>But Google did, in fact, sell other devices much like you describe, though
they were called "Play Edition" (running a non-customised stock Google
Android).

Yep, and I personally hated that convention, it's the OEM and Google admitting
"Our device is actually much better, when you remove our custom
modifications". It also didn't do very well (but that may have just been
because of the prices of Play Edition devices).

------
brightball
I would buy an Ubuntu tablet in a heartbeat. I've been on a Mac for years now
and I keep pondering the switch to Ubuntu but I'm having a really hard time
justifying the investment in actually switching because these Mac's keep on
chugging along.

The MS Surface is really appealing to me on form factor, but I won't switch to
anything that doesn't have a Unix/Linux base. I really like the new iPad from
a form factor standpoint...but I won't buy an iPad specifically because I'm
not going to be coding on iOS.

An Ubuntu tablet would entirely fill my need.

~~~
gnarbarian
Keep in mind that an Ubuntu tablet is likely going to run the arm version of
Ubuntu which has far fewer packages and PPA repositories available than the
amd64 branch.

Why not install it on your Mac and dual boot?

~~~
matzipan
Surely you can cross compile or even compile on the target (albeit really
really slowly).

~~~
gnarbarian
For most packages this is a viable option for a more experienced user. But for
someone just starting out it would unnecessarily complicate things and limit
what they can do. For newbies it's important to remove as many potential
stumbling blocks to make things as simple as possible.

Unfortunately there always seems to be one or two binary packages without any
source available that I end up needing.

------
exratione
I recently build myself an ebook reader from a Nexus 7 using Ubuntu Touch:

[https://www.exratione.com/2015/10/turning-a-nexus-7-fhd-
tabl...](https://www.exratione.com/2015/10/turning-a-nexus-7-fhd-tablet-into-
an-ebook-reader-with-ubuntu-touch/)

Dealing with other tablets and Touch is pretty hit and miss - you might be
able to get it to work, but more likely not unless you're pretty experienced
in low-level hacking in OS and devices.

Certainly that hardware doesn't have enough memory to keep Beru happy all the
time, which is a pain, but I'm prepared to put up with the minor inconvenience
in exchange for not having an reader that reports everything I do back to
central.

If an official Ubuntu tablet can be disconnected from their report-everything-
to-central mechanisms to the same degree that Ubuntu on the desktop can, then
an official tablet may be worth the additional cost just to use as a reader.

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
Seems like taking a Nexus 7 and gutting its OS simply to make a privacy-
conscious eReader is a waste of a perfectly good tablet. Wouldn't it be easier
and probably cheaper just to get a "dumb" e-reader (i.e. some kind of Kobo)?

~~~
exratione
Well, it still does all the other Ubuntu things, and it is a cheap tablet. My
survey of the ereader space didn't turn up anything I liked, or that seemed to
come without strings. It is very possible that I missed an obvious and better.

------
gh02t
Oh, this is kind of interesting. I mostly use my desktop workstation, with my
Dell tablet serving as my portable thin client over ssh. I use Termux (
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.termux&hl=...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.termux&hl=en)
) to get my essential command line fix and it really is a wonderful example of
a quality Android app for people like us, but I'd still kill to have a real
desktop Linux on my tablet. How I pine for the option to sometimes drop into a
good old i3 session on my tablet...

Has anybody used the Android version of this tablet? It looks decent but it's
hard to say and my Spanish is too rusty to read most of the pages that talk
about it.

~~~
swah
I'd kill for a superb physical keyboard with that dream tablet :)

~~~
mst
The Thinkpad Tablet 2 with the bluetooth keyboard w/trackpoint that's designed
for it and cygwin installed has been serving me well for a while now. Anything
involving local I/O is pretty horrible, but as "get me an X11 setup I can ssh
to the systems I'm working on" rig it's been lovely.

------
MBCook
What's the battery life? That's a HUGE issue on mobile devices and it's
something that you really have to optimize for. I'm surprised it isn't
mentioned on the page (or, suspicious it's not good and was omitted on
purpose).

Running generic Linux (as opposed to something highly customized like Android)
makes me worry the battery life won't be that great.

~~~
Jaepa
Its a 7280mAh, which is ok. About the same as the old Samsung 10in tablets.

As for usage. Yeah I have no clue. BQ's Ubuntu Phone apparently gets around 2
days worth of use for most users, so who knows.

~~~
MBCook
That makes sense, but if you can run 'real' linux apps instead of just
'tablet' apps you could be in for some hurt.

------
ntakasaki
What's the price on this, does anyone know?

Also, typed Ctrl-F "linux" on that page and didn't find a single mention,
which is interesting from a branding perspective.

Edit: Can this run, say LibreOffice or Gimp or any other Linux program?

~~~
oliwarner
Canonical has been pushing that for a while. Even the main Desktop page
doesn't mention Linux.

I guess the rationale is that for the consumer market, it's just another word
that confuses [even scares]. Therefore it's safer to omit.

~~~
geon
Everyone who cares already know.

------
Animats
Can you put this version of Ubuntu on existing tablets, or does it have to be
an Extra Special Not Shipping Yet Ubuntu Edition Tablet?

Would someone in Shentzen please put this on generic $39 tablets and sell them
on Alibaba? Thanks.

~~~
bryanlarsen
According to theverge[1], "Canonical’s engineers tell me that given the
technical capabilities of Ubuntu’s users, they’ll soon find ways to get the OS
on other devices."

1:
[http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/4/10914004/canonical-m10-ubun...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/4/10914004/canonical-m10-ubuntu-
tablet-convergence)

------
criddell
Will an Ubuntu tablet ever be able to match an iPad as far as power
consumption goes? I'm a fan of both Ubuntu and Fedora but both do pretty
poorly on my laptop with respect to battery life compared to Windows (and
Windows battery life is pretty bad compared to a comparable Macbook in my
experience).

~~~
abrowne
I've not tried it personally, but I've read good things regarding Ubuntu's
battery life on phones compared with Android. My understanding is that a lot
of it is down to background apps being paused, like in iOS. I think the tablet
mode would do the same, while the desktop mode won't, but in that cause you
could probably plug in.

------
skykooler
When you connect a mouse and keyboard, is it running "full" Ubuntu or the
sandboxed mobile version? (i.e. is it like an iPad compared to a Mac or like a
Windows tablet compared to a PC?)

~~~
umlaut
I ran their developer version on an old Nexus 7 for a while, and it was more
like the latter (Windows analogue). There is still a full terminal experience
available even on the phone as I understand it, just a lot more proprietary
software.

------
mark_l_watson
Great idea, let's see how well it is executed.

I signed up for email notification. I am a huge fan of iPad (I have a mini 4
and a Pro). This looks to be about a $250 product so the price is nice as well
as being able to do software development on it with a keyboard. I do a ton of
work on my iPad Pro (writing, research, SSH to servers) as well as reading and
watching movies. A Linux tablet could be even more general purpose depending
on how well it is executed.

~~~
slgeorge
It will be a more general purpose computing device. The point of convergence
is that you can use it in either mode, 'consuming' as a tablet, or 'creating'
with a keyboard.

But, _be reasonable_ with your expectations. It's not an iPad and won't have
that polish. For a start there aren't _that many_ apps in the FOSS environment
that are touch aware. Canonical has made a set, and provides a good
development environment so that applications can be made touch aware. But,
we're looking at Linux ala 2000, not ala 2015.

------
ChuckMcM
Sigh, I would love to try Ubuntu on my x86 based Lenovo tablet. But this is
not that. This is tablet maker X trying to get unit volumes up by adding
another OS choice other than Windows 10 (so I presume they only have ARM
tablets)

------
espadrine
The real news is that they are planning to release one with the following
specs:
[http://www.ubuntu.com/tablet/devices](http://www.ubuntu.com/tablet/devices).

However, without a system to maintain it upright, and with those specs, the
following marketing image, while very enticing, is a bit misleading.

[https://assets.ubuntu.com/v1/1273c568-tablet-overview-
conver...](https://assets.ubuntu.com/v1/1273c568-tablet-overview-
convergence.jpg?w=984)

~~~
pachydermic
Can't they just have a stand on the back like the surface does?

Doesn't really give you a "laptop" experience, but at least you can still set
up shop on a table.

Anyways, it sounds cool. To me, the specs seem pretty conservative so
hopefully it's a low cost device. Something cool to hack on.

~~~
espadrine
The Surface's hardware in general would be a great fit, as it is also very
reasonably spec'ed for a laptop. Unfortunately, Linux lacks drivers for the
touchscreen, camera, buttons and the typecover connection.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/3xhmu7/just_i...](https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/3xhmu7/just_installed_chakra_linux_on_surface_pro_4_i7/)

~~~
gbl08ma
Depending on the model, Linux drivers do exist, even if they aren't all in
mainline kernels yet. Just a week ago I booted [1] on my Surface Pro 3 from a
pendisk (didn't even need to disable secure boot) and pretty much everything
just worked, including the pen, touchscreen, type cover and sound. Note that
Linux Mint is much closer to Ubuntu than Chakra, which is based on Arch Linux.

The only thing that didn't work so well was sleep (only slept the first time);
that's sometimes the case even with "normal" PCs, I'm sure that can be sorted
out given enough effort.

The situation is not so good with the Surface Pro 4... a matter of time, I
guess. I've been reading even Microsoft is yet to get Windows working
perfectly on it, so...

[1]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/3w8du2/outoft...](https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/3w8du2/outofthebox_support_for_linux_mint_173_cinnamon/)

------
ocdtrekkie
The big killer here is the lack of availability. I'd love to try an Ubuntu
tablet, but this only for Europe. Given my issues with Android, I'd love to
try an Ubuntu phone as well, but the only ones they sell, aren't available on
my carrier or even in my country.

Heck, I wanted a Lumia 950... and Microsoft has decided not to support my
carrier, even though the phone's hardware does.

A large part of why nobody has broken the Google/Apple duopoly seems to be
that nobody can get another option in my hands.

~~~
slgeorge
Your right, but the routes to market for hardware devices are quite limited.

It's slightly easier to get tablets into market, but the major OEM's are very
conservative.

For Phones the issue is that people buy hardware from their network provider -
there are very few other routes to market. First, the network operators
primarily focus on 'general' consumer users so they are conservative about the
options they choose. Second their scale means that unless they believe they
can sell _millions_ of units there's nothing in it for them. Finally, the rest
of the market for mobiles is completely locked down - there are only a few
alternative routes to market. All the software vendors (ie Mozilla and
Canonical) have been trying to work with alternative (primarily online)
providers.

The raft of issues is massive and far beyond the essential problem of creating
software that's good enough!

------
matzipan
Unity 8 is the reason why I bought a touch screen laptop 2 years ago, but it's
just not production ready... Sported elementary OS from the SSD for a while,
and o boy was it fast... I gave up on it and I've been using Windows 10 just
because it works really well with the touch screen, but it's slow and annoying
for any meaningful development work. Hopefully, Unity 8 is gonna be released
soon.

------
lucaspiller
Amazon.es has an Android version of the tablet with similar specs for €195:

[http://www.amazon.es/Aquaris-M10-MediaTek-
MT8163B-Lollipop/d...](http://www.amazon.es/Aquaris-M10-MediaTek-
MT8163B-Lollipop/dp/B017LXZ9FY)

The Ubuntu version has a faster CPU and better camera.

------
xbryanx
This is so awesome.

But the BQ Aquaris M10 still has a low resolution, compared to what most
tablet users have come to expect. I deeply wish there were open source small
(~10" diag.) high PPI touch displays outside of iOS or Android devices.

~~~
zanny
I found it hilarious they did not even mention this on the page. My first
question was the screen size and I had to google the hardwares name to find
it.

------
fuzzythinker
"using the micro HDMI port to connect to an external monitor"

If it can be made to be used as passthrough to be an external monitor, I'm
sold.

------
nashashmi
I see the processor to be MT8163A. Is this an ARM chip or Intel? If ARM, does
that mean only apps compiled for ARM can run on this?

~~~
adrusi
Yeah, it's ARM-based. Fortunately this isn't a big deal when the idea is to
use a mix of new application created specificaly for this platform and
existing open source applications, nearly all of which compile on and have
been packaged for ARM.

------
throwawayaway
I'm not buying one unless it sends all my interactions to amazon

[http://www.pcworld.com/article/2840401/ubuntus-
unity-8-deskt...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/2840401/ubuntus-
unity-8-desktop-removes-the-amazon-search-spyware.html)

