
Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Tablet – Pre-order - legierski
http://www.bq.com/uk/aquaris-m10-ubuntu-edition
======
edent
Just ordered one. I had a chat to the BQ team in London recently. They're
selling CyanogenMod Android phones as well. The CEO was quite clear that
flashing a new OS wasn't going to void the warranty.

I didn't get to play with their Ubuntu tablets, but their Android ones are
well built, responsive, and have very clear screens.

This isn't going to replace your totally tricked-out MacBook - but as a
portable web-browser / word processor / coding machine, I have high hopes for
it.

~~~
mtw
So you can install and run nginx, redis, Atom.io, postgres etc. on this?

~~~
rlpb
Not in a "supported" way. If it's anything like Ubuntu on phones, it will be a
read-only filesystem with image-based updates. apt is available, but only if
you remount the system read-write (you do have root via sudo). If you do that,
then you can't use image-based updates any more, since that'll stomp over your
changes.

I'm in favour of this arrangement, since I think it's the only way to get
updates to work reliably, and I think that's essential. Android and iOS also
do it this way, for example. But don't expect a traditional Linux-based
desktop but on a tablet, since that's not what you'll get.

On the other hand, if you package up nginx, redis, Atom.io, postgres etc. via
Ubuntu's app store, then sure.

~~~
logicrook
Thank you for this informative comment (where do you learn more about the
interesting stuff?).

Isn't there a nice way to have it both ways, i.e. automate all changes in a
script, and roll it after each image update? Assuming most things that may
need to be hacked away don't see breaking changes after each update?

~~~
rlpb
Sure, you could do that. Ubuntu is Free Software, and you have root and the
source code on the phone, and presumably will have the same on the tablet. So
you can customise it at your will, including automation, if you're prepared to
put in that effort.

------
netcan
" _A tablet when you want it, a PC when you need it_ "

I'm not sure if I'm being naive, but it seems to me that for a decade, the
_laptop_ market has had a ridiculous hole. There is a market for something
which is not windows, at a sub $500-$600 price that is good. Tablet UI,
desktop, whatever. Something that can run skype, whatsapp, tinder and the
other network-effect apps that can replace their 3 year old home laptop and be
an improvement.

How is it possible that all the mobile stuff from the last decade has not
opened up real and substantial competition to Windows in that bracket.

Anyway, this looks easily worth €259 if think you may want one.

~~~
takno
Isn't this exactly what all those Chromebooks are? I mean they haven't exactly
set the world on fire, but they exist.

~~~
wazoox
The Chromebooks replaced a bunch of Ubuntu-powered machines, and they are
significantly inferior in all and every aspects, unless you're using Crouton
or Gallium. File management is abysmal, and the OS is overall pretty buggy, in
the last week I've met: impossible to clear browsing history, Chromecast
extension keeps disappearing between reboots, problems with volume or
brightness settings, Wifi woes...

Chrome OS feels really unpolished and a bit forgotten.

------
pitchroll
The linked page states it's using Ubuntu 15.04 as OS, however 15.04 is marked
as EOL-ed on
[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases) Is there
an easy OS upgrade path? I wonder why they did not go with an LTS release,
16.04 is just around the corner in April and would probably serve their
release better.

~~~
reddotX
15.04 is EOL on desktops (unity7) not on Phones/Tablets (unity8).

------
green7ea
I want to be really excited by this because this seems very cool but the
mediatek processor and the 2 GB of RAM makes this a lot less interesting.
Mediatek usually provides a closed off, low price, low performance chip which
kind of clashes with what I want from an Ubuntu device.

~~~
hmottestad
I felt the same, especially after the ubuntu phone stunt on kickstarter which
had 4GB of ram.

Maybe what we are both looking for is a tablet like the microsoft surface, but
running essentially ubuntu.

For that matter, any tablet that can compete with the microsoft surface and
run an operating system that is both great for developing and great for touch
and mobility.

Apple is only a few steps away in my opinion. If only they would open up the
iPad Pro so that developers could use if for development. It might even bring
with it a new shift in UI for developers :)

~~~
progman
They likely won't open up any iPad. It seems they will merge (replace) OSX
with iOS. I saw this coming years ago. If I were a developer using OSX I would
seriously ocnsider a switch to another unrestricted OS.

[http://www.osnews.com/story/29134/Today_s_Apple_event_spells...](http://www.osnews.com/story/29134/Today_s_Apple_event_spells_the_end_for_OS_X)

~~~
hmottestad
I really hope this doesn't happen.

I love Apple hardware, and OSX is much nicer to use as a polyglot developer
than Windows. A workmate of mine runs linux on his macbook pro, and it's
really a pain. Apple has put so many thousands of hours into getting the
trackpad working smoothly, while the linux drivers seem to have been hacked
together during a weekend and are truly awful. Things like ignoring thumb
input, scroll speed and tracking speed are terrible, just to mention a few.

------
nailer
I've seen a lot of Linux tablets, and so far they've always been a touchscreen
added to an early 2000's desktop-style interface: small touch targets,
gestures don't work in obvious places etc.

That said, it's been a while so I could be out of date: is the Linux desktop
UI and apps used by the Ubuntu tablet touch focused?

Edit: Linux as in the common usage of 'Linux kernel, glibc, X', not Android.
Which you knew.

~~~
vegabook
This is not a Linux tablet in that hacked-up sense. It's Ubuntu Phone. I've
been using this for a year now on my Aquaris E5 and while it's not _quite_ as
smooth as IOS and Android quite yet, and that's only because my hardware is a
little slow, it's definitely a full touch-oriented design from the ground up.
I actually like the design better than the grid-of-icons approach. It's more
sophisticated. And I'm not a zealot: I am highly critical of the buggy browser
and the lack of apps, especially whatsapp.

But OS design-wise, this is absolutely not some kind of desktop UI squeezed
into tablet form with a cranky layer of touch glued on top.

~~~
unusximmortalis
Can you please share (if you have the possibility to compare) how's the
battery life compared with other tablets?

~~~
vegabook
As per my post, mine is a phone, not a tablet. But it's the same OS. As far as
the phone is concerned, I get 2 days easily in normal use (lots of browsing),
and 3 days if light use. I would estimate it at 1.5-2x longer battery life
than an iphone. It's definitely impressive. But again, I can only speak for
the BQ Aquaris E5 phone.

------
GUNHED_158
I'm happy to see an Ubuntu tablet but about "A tablet when you want it, a PC
when you need it.", who wants a PC with 2 GB of RAM?

~~~
DanBC
Plenty of people only need 2 GB of ram. See all the notebooks which have tiny
SSDs (64 GB) and small amounts of ram (less than 4 GB).

That's fine for email, youtube, streaming movies, listening to music, doing a
bit of light word processing or spreadsheeting. It's great for social media
and most website use.

And these machines are very cheap.

------
therealmarv
Does anybody know if a "normal" Android BQ M10 can be converted to a fully
Ubuntu tablet? When yes, how to install Ubuntu there?

------
hauget
Anyone have experience with BQ HW? Is it any good?

For the price (300eur) I'd actually be willing to try the HD 1920 x 1200
version, IF the HW and battery life turn out to be solid.

~~~
galfarragem
I recently bought my first smartphone(!), a BQ A4.5, pure android, always
updated, with 5 years of guarantee(!) by 150€. I recommend it: good battery,
good western design and enough performance for me (low resolution with a good
screen improves performance).

~~~
ersii
Curious, what do you mean by "western design"?

Had a look at images of "BQ A4.5" \- but I can't really tell what's "western"
about it.

~~~
galfarragem
By western design I mean that it looks more like an iPhone 5 than with a
typical chinese phone. Its size is also smaller.

------
tluyben2
As per usual; I wonder what the battery life is like. That is really / still
the only thing I look for. If it's good enough I would pre-order.

~~~
tgb
Do you buy a lot of tablets or do you find most to have unacceptable battery
life? The battery on my 2013 Nexus 7 is crazy good as far as I can tell and
lasts for days of moderate use even two years into its life span. Compared to
my phone which likes to die partway through the day even without me touching
it.

~~~
jonknee
I imagine it's Linux that causes the concern. Android and iOS are very highly
optimized for mobile power management while Ubuntu is not.

~~~
tluyben2
As it says I can leave my laptop at home so then I would hope it rivals my
x220 or t100 both of which get 12-14 hours with me coding and browsing under
Ubuntu. I do not care too much about performance usually as long as it is not
annoyingly slow.

------
beshrkayali
Seriously? 2 gigs of ram! I wonder how much Unity will be hogging when running
in PC mode.

~~~
SXX
Unity 8 unlike previous version isn't based on Compiz, but Qt.

------
progman
It's exciting that Ubuntu offers phones and tablets. But what's the gain to
have a PC frontend while not having a real PC? Ubuntu should seriously
consider to offer an additional Tablet with 4 GB RAM and real Linux, at least
in a docker like vm.

Only such a device would be really interesting for Linux developers and sys
admins. 2 GB are good for basic things (surfing, emails, office) but
compilation, simulation, testing etc. would be problematic. If such things are
not possible then a notebook remains the better choice.

------
shaneqful
Time to spend the Jolla Tablet refund money I suppose :)

------
FussyZeus
All looks really interesting but only 16 GB internal memory? I mean if I could
move my user directory in it's entirety to the MicroSD I could see that
working as 16 would be way more than enough for system, but that seems hackey.
I feel like they could easily get that to 64 GB and add a few bucks to the
price tag, I would buy one of these in a hot second if they did.

------
andrewclunn
IT says it has external memory expansion. Does this mean that there's a micro
SD card slot anywhere? The only real issue I see is that (after the OS) I'd
only have about 10 gig for applications and files. If I could put an sd card
in there, no problem, otherwise it would hardly suffice as a PC.

~~~
gagege
Yep, I'd rather lug around a laptop with a 500GB SSD than have to deal with an
external usb drive, just so I could have a tablet.

~~~
w0m
States MicroSD (200gb current cap; 2tb future)

------
w0m
interesting. Think Webstorm/Intellij would run decently on this? I've been
looking for a new tablet; and have been dreading getting an Ipad...

------
bachmeier
Looks like it's ARM. I suppose that's okay for many, but if you need programs
like R, you're out of luck. I'd immediately buy one if it had an Intel or AMD
processor.

~~~
ekianjo
What are you talking about? I am using R on Slackware 14.1 on an ARM device.
It works perfectly once you compile it.

~~~
bachmeier
You can use base R but (unless something has recently changed) not all
packages are going to work. I also program in D - including interacting with R
- and that won't currently work.

~~~
ekianjo
I have compiled numerous R packages as well (dplyr, ggplot2, FactoMineR) and
they all work fine on ARM. I agree that you may face issues when it comes to
packages relying on JAVA, but otherwise never seen any other problem so far on
ARM.

~~~
ashitlerferad
Java 8 builds on all the 3 Debian ARM platforms so it probably works on Ubuntu
too.

[https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=openjdk-8&sui...](https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=openjdk-8&suite=sid)

------
rocky1138
Why would I buy this over a laptop?

~~~
handzhiev
Weight is fairly important factor for me. This beats my travel laptop.

------
0942v8653
Archive: [http://archive.is/J0Yj4](http://archive.is/J0Yj4)

------
analog31
Ask HN

Can I install something like this on my Windows 10 tablet, and could it run
jupyter/Python?

~~~
ashitlerferad
If your tablet is ARM and running Windows RT then you probably need a Windows
exploit to be able to run your own code.

[http://www.wpinternals.net/](http://www.wpinternals.net/)

If your tablet is a PC (Intel/AMD/x86 etc) then turning off UEFI Secure Boot
and booting from USB should let you run your own code.

Once you can run your own code you should be able to install Python/jupyter.

------
andersen1488
But... why?

~~~
Brakenshire
There's lot of talk of people moving away from laptops and full computers, and
just buying a tablet instead. If you only want a device for watching videos,
reading articles, online shopping, social media and email, a tablet is
probably fine.

This concept in principle allows you to have a tablet, which is relatively
cheap and can be used on the sofa and in bed, but retain the option of adding
a keyboard, and/or using desktop applications on occasion, when you might need
them. The drawback is that you lose access to Android/iOS native apps, and
also that ARM processors are slow.

I would say it's not a million miles behind Chromebooks or Android tablets
(given that Chromebooks are quite limited, and Android tablet apps don't have
a great reputation). If ARM processors take a step forward over the next year
or two, companies continue to develop for the mobile web rather than shift
towards native apps, and Linux userspace software stacks (and developers)
become more tolerant of touch, something like this could be a serious
competitor.

~~~
criddell
> If you only want a device for watching videos, reading articles, online
> shopping, social media and email, a tablet is probably fine.

Will this tablet do all that? The video part is what I'd be most worried
about. Netflix will probably be there, but what about Hulu, HBO, and other
popular services?

------
HemanHeartYou
how about that ubuntu phone

------
supremeanger
>no dedicated full sized USB port

Why is the surface the only tablet to have a dedicated full sized USB port? It
seems like one of the most important things to have in any tablet.

------
puppetmaster3
Wrong title, missing: in UK.

~~~
SparkyMcUnicorn
Everywhere: [https://store.bq.com/gl/delivery-
information/](https://store.bq.com/gl/delivery-information/)

~~~
r3bl
In a lot of countries, but not everywhere. My country (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
is not listed anywhere.

------
eckza
> The world’s first convergent tablet

Sorry guys, M$FT had you beat to market by about... what, four years?

> 16 GB internal memory

Come the fuck on, now. I don't want to deal with the atrocious read/write
speeds of MicroSD. 16 GB internal memory hasn't been impressive since sometime
around 2007.

This looks promising but it's definitely not for me. I hope someone uses it
and likes it, but I think it still has a ways to go before it's more than a
novelty.

~~~
ekianjo
Oh is there a Microsoft tablet available for 300 USD? I thought so. And
there's nothing convergent about the Surface. Without a keyboard what can you
really do with it?

~~~
wlesieutre
> Oh is there a Microsoft tablet available for 300 USD? I thought so.

If they wanted to say "The first convergent tablet for 300 USD," then maybe
they should have said that.

> And there's nothing convergent about the Surface. Without a keyboard what
> can you really do with it?

Netflix? Internet? Read emails? Write with its pretty fantastic handwriting
recognition?

What can the Aquaris M10 do without a keyboard that the Surface Pro can't? Is
it somehow "more convergent"?

------
andrey_utkin
I even don't hope it is free of closed-source drivers. Thus I won't even look
at buying it.

------
nileshtrivedi
As a consumer, I find it completely uninteresting unless it can run Android
apps. If Play Store is an impossibility, support alternative apps stores such
as F-Droid or 9apps.

~~~
gagege
I'm completely the opposite. I was always disappointed that Android can't run
normal Linux apps.

~~~
NoGravitas
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=champion.gnuro...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=champion.gnuroot)

~~~
jakub_h
I suspect that
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gnuroot.de...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gnuroot.debian)
is the newer version?

