[ubuntu] The Ubuntu Smartphone

[tmcd35]

Or a ploy to get you to update your phone to a new model because they'll claim it has new features which your old one would've had if they'd bothered to keep it up to date.

 

Almost certainly the case. I know Apple have been artificially limiting their OS's backwards compatibility for years for this very reason. Can't blame them really. If I can run the latest and greatest on my current system with no ill effect, why would I want to spend $$$'s on new hardware?

[CyberNerd]

The majority of Android devices are low-end / cheap-and-nasty phones running Gingerbread which is hardly worth getting excited about.

 

The majority of Nokia phones are cheap and nasty symbian devices.

 

The effect MS has had on Nokia is quite apparent.

[localzuk]

The majority of Nokia phones are cheap and nasty symbian devices.

 

The effect MS has had on Nokia is quite apparent.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16669[/ATTACH]

 

Yet Elop still has a job... I wonder if he's a plant by Apple or Samsung? lol

[Quackers]

It makes me sad seeing Nokia fail so much, but i jumped ship from being 100% Nokia since 1998 to Samsung Galaxy SII in 2011, and unless they dump Windows Mobile i do not intend on going back, i even went to iphone yesterday.

 

They needed/need to do Samsungs stratagy, have the same phone more or less 1 with Android 1 with Windows Mobile and let the market decide.

[tmcd35]

I remember Nokia and Symbian with some fondness and it is sad what happened to them. The sad truth is they saw Apple coming and were already in development of their own alternative, Meego. But internal politics meant they decided to stick with Symbian far longer than they should have, Apple came along and the rest is history. Here's a link to a story about a late Meego being set up for failure in favour of Symbian and WP7.

 

Nokia

 

I think they alienated themselves against Andoid quiet early on and shelved Meego due to internal Symbian politics. This as pretty much left them with no where to go but Microsoft, which is, er, no where!

Edited January 14, 2013 by tmcd35

[jinnantonnixx]

^^^ That reminds me, I meant to post this:

The story of Nokia MeeGo

[jinnantonnixx]

Nice article about Ubuntu phone's interface.

 

The Inside Story Of Ubuntu's Gesture-Centric Smartphone | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

[Arthur]

Six days to go!

 

Ubuntu Phone developer preview will arrive on February 21st « Ars Technica

 

Whether you're a Ubuntu fan or you're just not happy with any of the current mobile operating systems, this is good news for you: Canonical has announced that it will be releasing the first public preview for its Ubuntu Phone operating system on February 21. The software, intended both for developers and adventurous end-users, will be made available as images for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus handset as well as LG's Nexus 4. Source code will also be released for those who would like to port the operating system to other phones.

 

This fulfils the company's promise to release the preview in late February, and is the first step toward getting actual phones in stores—something that Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth wants to do by October of this year. While Canonical's press release is careful to point out that this software is intended primarily for development use on "spare handsets" (as opposed to your primary smartphone), it should give us a good idea of how the software will stack up to current offerings.

[featured_spectre]

How nice, they're releasing it on my birthday!

[Arthur]

Happy birthday @nephilim!

 

Only a few hours to go until tablet time.

[featured_spectre]

2 days to go

[aerospacemango]

Home | Ubuntu

 

And there you have it!

 

And, YES, I have given them my email address, so they can let me know when it's released!

[jinnantonnixx]

Since it is pure Ubuntu, the tablet can be managed via Landscape, giving enterprises complete control over the users, apps, updated and access using the same tool they

use for Ubuntu servers and desktops today.

Working with Landscape | Ubuntu

 

Interesting.

[CyberNerd]

Working with Landscape | Ubuntu

 

Interesting.

 

or puppet for freetards: https://puppetlabs.com/

[mats]

Ubuntu lost me as a user on the desktop with 11.04. For anything Linux I'm back with Debian on the server side and Mint on the desktop. All I can see coming from this is another OS sending my usage data to online retailers and ad agencies. I'll pass....

 

Exactly how I feel, all minty thanks to unity & the amazon deal.

[jinnantonnixx]

Exactly how I feel, all minty thanks to unity & the amazon deal.

 

Unity certainly seems to have polarised users. I use Unity as my desktop of choice on 12.04 LTS. I've tried alternatives, from the simple Open/Flux boxes, E17, through to KDE 4, trying out various distos from Puppy, Crunchbang to the truly excellent Sabayon. Unity hits the sweet spot for me, it's simple, unobtrusive and it doesn't get in the way. I'm not a purist at all, Ubuntu with Unity just works for me.

 

The Amazon tie-in, though, now that's a different matter. I'm uneasy about this. I understand that Mark Shuttleworth has put a huge amount of his personal fortune into Ubuntu, and Canonical is the business arm that offers commercial support much the same as Redhat. I have looked, but I've can't find out if it makes any money. If it doesn't, I can't see a working business model.

Edited February 21, 2013 by jinnantonnixx

[Arthur]

Since it is pure Ubuntu, the tablet can be managed via Landscape, giving enterprises complete control over the users, apps, updated and access using the same tool they use for Ubuntu servers and desktops today.

Scrolling through 1,000+ user accounts on the welcome screen would take ages!

 

 

Edited February 24, 2013 by Arthur

[featured_spectre]

Yeh not impressed with the final polished version with the phone ROM. Will keep it on an SD card for now, but will see how things go.

[localzuk]

Yeh not impressed with the final polished version with the phone ROM. Will keep it on an SD card for now, but will see how things go.

 

Such a thing doesn't exist. There is no "polished" version. There is a majorly pre-release development image though. It isn't intended for people who aren't going to be sitting and developing on it.

[Arthur]

Yeh not impressed with the final polished version with the phone ROM.

What made you think this was the final version? Every article I have read about the 'Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview' mentions who it is intended for and that it is nowhere near finished.

 

For smartphones you need to wait until Ubuntu 13.10 is released, and for tablets, 14.04.

 

...there's really not much going on for regular smartphone users in the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview, and you certainly can't get much "real work" done with it ... which is pretty much what Canonical told us to expect. So why would anyone – even an Ubuntu enthusiast – want to download it, especially when you have to wipe a perfectly good phone or tablet to do so?

 

Naturally, the primary audience for the Preview is developers who want to build apps for it. But even then, the Ubuntu SDK is still in alpha, and the initial release only supports building apps for phones, not tablets. (Source)

 

Ubuntu for tablets is rather limited right now, and the preview that will be made available this week is really aimed solely at enthusiasts and developers. You'll be able to flash a ROM to various Nexus devices, but Canonical isn't providing a dual-boot method so you'll have to flash back to Android once you're done playing around. This operating system shows a lot of promise, and the general performance and available features seem solid for such an early stage. Canonical has a year left until it plans to bring this to market — the company is aiming to get hardware into the hands of users in Q1 2014. (Source)

 

Also, the month after Ubuntu 14.04 is released, Google will most likely be announcing Android 6.0 for their Nexus devices which will no doubt take some inspiration from Ubuntu for phones and tablets.

[Arthur]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZFcnxQlvZY&hd=1

[ConradJones]

Ubuntu lost me as a user on the desktop with 11.04. For anything Linux I'm back with Debian on the server side and Mint on the desktop. All I can see coming from this is another OS sending my usage data to online retailers and ad agencies. I'll pass....

 

same here except suse on the server side

[Arthur]

All I can see coming from this is another OS sending my usage data to online retailers and ad agencies.

Isn't one of the advantages of open source software that you can remove the bits you don't like? It's trivial to remove the Amazon shopping lens in 13.04...

 

If you want to keep everything else working, but don't want Amazon result, just open the Ubuntu Software Center, search for ‘shopping lens’ to find it, then hit the ‘remove’ button to uninstall it permanently. (Source)

 

Why do people complain about the shopping lens in Ubuntu when thousands of websites use similar methods to generate revenue via Amazon affiliate links? Mr Shuttleworth has to pay the bills some how. Also, you don't see many people complaining about the tracking Google does in Android.

[Rawns]

Only just noticed this thread. Looks very interesting, did a quick scan on their site and they seem to have loads of info about it, but no way to download. I assume it's still in development/closed beta?

[Arthur]

they seem to have loads of info about it, but no way to download.

You'll have to wait until April 2014 to download the final version, although smartphones running the OS should be available before then.

Edited June 12, 2013 by Arthur