
Ubuntu Edge is dead, long live Ubuntu phones - uladzislau
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/08/ubuntu-edge-is-dead-long-live-ubuntu-phones/
======
pqs
There is something I can't understand. They couldn't produce a really
necessary Ubuntu laptop and they think they will be able to create a phone
that doubles as netbook. They are deluded.

I'll soon have to buy a new laptop. I really would like to buy an "Ubuntu Air"
laptop, if it existed. But it doesn't. Those that wan't to buy an Ubuntu
laptop (or any other linux laptop) must study all the components of the
computer they are going to buy and check for driver compatibility, plus some
prayers, because you never know if it is really going to work well. This is
really painful, and I'm not taking into account the usual regressions when
upgrading.

At the end, I will probably buy a Mac. I have a baby and I don't have time to
spend configuring wireless card drivers for days. But I'd love to have a high
quality linux laptop.

~~~
izacus
_sigh_

Not this FUD again. Ubuntu will work well on pretty much any single-graphics
Ultrabook currently on the market.

Can we leave the wifi problems complaints in previous decade where they
belong?

~~~
AlexanderDhoore
Yeah, this is not FUD. I have a thinkpad edge running Ubuntu (and I tried a
few other distros). Both the Broadcom wifi and the AMD graphics are very
wonky. Broadcom worked, but a kernel upgrade broke it. AMD driver works, kind
of, but not when I plug in an external screen.

I had it fail on me during a presentation I was giving. Next time I'll use my
macbook, just to be safe. Obviously I don't blame Ubuntu. I blame myself for
not buying a laptop with Ubuntu support.

Next time I'll buy System 76.

~~~
rlpb
A general rule for good Linux support (not just Ubuntu) is to avoid Broadcom
wifi. Get Intel wifi, and Intel graphics. Or, as you say, something that is
Ubuntu certified.

------
bayesianhorse
I really didn't and don't understand what Ubuntu was trying to achieve with
the Edge campaign. The project sounds great and I would have bought one, but
there was no chance in hell they were pulling this crowdfunding campaign off.
That they got 12 Million is already a big achievement and surprise.

~~~
crdoconnor
I'm pretty sure it was a way of kicking risk averse asian handset
manufacturers into action. Setting the bar at $32 million meant that they
could demonstrate interest without actually dealing with the headache of
making the phone themselves.

------
teejaygreen
"Since the campaign didn't meet its funding requirement, refunds will be
processed to backers within five business days, Canonical said."

Do you think Indiegogo made interest on that 12 million dollars over the past
month? If so, how much?

~~~
coob
I thought it was just an authorisation on the card, I didn't think they took
the actual money?

~~~
duskwuff
Authorizations have a limited lifespan, and it's quite a bit shorter than
crowdfunding sites would need.

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itg
What a terrible headline, it's only the Ubuntu Edge they wont' be making,
Ubuntu phones are still coming out. Right from the article - "But this doesn't
mean Ubuntu phones themselves are dead. The smartphone interface for the
Ubuntu operating system is still being developed, and carriers around the
world have signed on as potential launch partners."

~~~
hga
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_king_is_dead,_long_live_the...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_king_is_dead,_long_live_the_king)!

~~~
mistercow
I think sometimes people don't realize that the two instances of "king" in the
saying refer to different people. They therefore assume that "long live the
king" is an idiom for "RIP the king" or similar. The Lion King probably didn't
help matters with [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctJ9jZ-
_fFc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctJ9jZ-_fFc)

~~~
megablast
Taken that way, it is very strange for people to wish a long life to the king
who just died.

~~~
mistercow
People are used to idioms they don't understand though. They're much like
words in that we learn their meaning from context, and the etymological
content is more of a subconscious mnemonic than something we explicitly pay
attention to. Sort of like being surprised when you first notice that
"disintegrate" is "dis- integrate".

This is particularly common with idioms because they often to get truncated
over time so that their meaning is harder to extract from the content. If
you've never heard "the pot calling the kettle black", but you've heard "pot:
meet kettle", you'll likely get the meaning from context, and you'll have no
idea what the connection is between hypocrisy, pots, and kettles.

------
ChrisNorstrom
If the phones had more realistic specs, meaning they got the price down to
$500 or so, and ran the campaign for 60 days instead of 30 they probably would
have succeeded.

The phones they were competing with had 1gb and 2gb of RAM, yet the Ubuntu
Edge was given 4gb. Really? What happened to launching a modest product, and
after gaining traction improving it?

PLUS they should have warned people and starting advertising that their
indiegogo campaign was going to launch 2 months before it actually did. That
way they'd have a huge list of people ready to pre-order and ad campaigns set
up by the community just in time for the campaign launch.

~~~
Yaggo
It's easy to boost with specs when the competing products can be bought right
now while your product exists only on a drawing board.

------
chmike
The phone was too expensive and the risk too high that at the time it is
delivered it would be outdated.

Here in France we have a company configuring and selling wiko smartphones
(made in china) which are very cheap for their capacity.

Offering Ubuntu on such cheap phones could be a better way to get adopted by
the Ubuntu community that doesn't have the money to buy Apple or windows
computer. People would be much more forgiving for some software flaws or
glitches.

~~~
rahoulb
Ubuntu Edge isn't a straight-forward phone OS though - it was intended to be a
desktop/laptop replacement in a phone-sized package (run the Phone UI when
disconnected, run a "desktop" UI when connected to an external
monitor/keyboard/mouse). So a cheap piece of hardware would not be sufficient.

------
yuhong
Personally, I wish for an ARM notebook market coming out of the Chromebook,
with different configurations for Chrome OS and Ubuntu etc.

~~~
akr
This. I really would like a small netbook type ARM device which runs a normal
Linux distribution and doesn't cheap out on battery capacity. The Samsung ARM
Chromebook comes near but it could have a better display, casing and keyboard
(ideally with a trackpoint).

~~~
peatmoss
My ideal machine looks a lot like this as well. I'm surprised someone hasn't
built something in between the Pixel and the Samsung, and partnered with
Canonical.

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EGreg
"Long live" meant to refer to the next king, i.e. the king that is now king
when this is uttered.

So is the phrase abused?

~~~
jlgreco
Eh, it was clear to me what the headline meant.

