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 Channel Futures

Best Practices


Could Ubuntu Power Your Phone?

  • Written by Christopher Tozzi
  • November 14, 2012

Ubuntu on smartphones remains a totally theoretical proposition. But that hasn’t stopped Canonical from releasing a video showcasing all the cool things that Ubuntu could do if it did run on phones. Is the company getting ahead of itself, or is this a sign that Ubuntu might finally be poised to make the jump to the mobile world?

The quirky, animated video sings the praises of Ubuntu for smartphones in a quick, two-minute clip:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/iv1Z7bf4jXY[/youtube]

As the narrator points out, running Ubuntu on your phone would theoretically allow you to do lots of cool things that aren’t possible with most existing smartphones. Chief among them is powering an entire desktop PC setup — minus the actual PC — with your phone by connecting it to a monitor and other peripheral devices.

The video also suggests that as an operating system designed for general purpose computing, Ubuntu is better positioned than Android or iOS to meet the needs of people who who want to use their phones to get real work done, not just send texts or make calls — although Ubuntu will be able to do that too, we’re promised.

Fantasy and Reality

This is all great stuff. The only problem is that it’s totally fictional.

Ubuntu doesn’t currently work on any phone. The closest it comes is the Nexus 7 tablet, the device on which Canonical very recently managed to get Ubuntu up and running. Making Ubuntu compatible with generic smartphones would require loads more work. It’s an achievement that remains beyond the horizon for the time being.

And even if Ubuntu could be installed on phones, the Linux world currently lacks the applications for making it useful. Ubuntu might be able to place calls and send texts in an animated cartoon, but in real life, even if the hardware support were there, a lot of application and interface development would still be required to make Ubuntu phones usable for most people.

This isn’t to say that Ubuntu will never run on phones, or to deny the seriousness of Canonical’s expressed intention to make it do so. But I wonder whether the company might be setting itself up to disappoint users by drawing attention to a concept that, by all available indications, remains very distant from becoming reality.

If that’s the case, though, the damage will probably be minimal. The video currently has only a few hundred views, and its circulation will likely be limited to the geeks who seek it out because they’re already excited about Ubuntu. This may be exactly what Canonical intends as it seeks to fuel enthusiasm for an Ubuntu phone until it actually releases one.

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Best Practices Mobility Open Source

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18 comments

  1. Avatar Paul November 14, 2012 @ 2:31 pm
    Reply

    Chris, fictional or not, I hope this ad fires people up to put pressure on OEMs. The demand might just speed things up.

    High time for the Comp-Phone to replace smart phones.

  2. Avatar Nick November 14, 2012 @ 4:33 pm
    Reply

    I think the writer missed the point.

    This was an ad (sort of) for Ubuntu For Android, which is an application for Android Phones that allows the user of such a smartphone to run a full Ubuntu desktop when their phone is attached to a monitor, and simply be a simple Android phone the rest of the time.

    Check out Ubuntu’s website, it should be clearer.
    Nowhere is it made a reference to Ubuntu powering the entire phone.

  3. Avatar Johnandmarsha November 15, 2012 @ 1:52 am
    Reply

    From an article in the La Times:

    “…Android now accounts for 72.4% of the market for smartphone operating systems, up from 52.5% in the period a year earlier. A big chunk of that gain was attributed to Samsung, which sold 55 million smartphones. The bulk of Samsung’s smartphones run on Android…”.

    Oh, yeah, man. This market is just ripe for breaking in to.

    Another too late idea from AstroKiddy.

    How about this to get everybody’s attention?–
    an Ubuntu-powered wristwatch. Juast as flakey as all of Cano’s other attention getting dogs.
    And just where IS that ubuntu TV?

  4. Avatar Steven Pemberton November 15, 2012 @ 6:07 pm
    Reply

    Showing it in action:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pZUCKt0RKc

    Therefore not “a totally theoretical proposition.”

  5. Avatar jonny rocket November 15, 2012 @ 7:38 pm
    Reply

    dude, if they made an ubuntu powered phone or tablet i would buy one tommorrow!

  6. Avatar Lox November 16, 2012 @ 6:19 am
    Reply

    “Fantasy and Reality” lol that guy doesn’t even know what he is talking about. Apparently he didn’t even saw it in action, funny.

  7. Avatar daboochmeister November 16, 2012 @ 2:31 pm
    Reply

    Totally theoretical – if you ignore how people have been actually doing it on actual (rooted) Android phones for almost a year now.

    You keep using that word “theoretical” … I don’t think it means what you think it means.

    The ad is pitched at OEMs – because even though it’s working, practically, non-theoretically, until an OEM incorporates it, then the ability of the average consumer to purchase is IS in fact theoretical.

    p.s. i think I sense that you don’t understand the architecture involved VARGuy – same kernel, Android and Ubuntu userland both running, coordinated access to certain key resources – because they both rely on Linux, this was not a long putt for Canonical to make work.

  8. Avatar Ravi November 16, 2012 @ 3:32 pm
    Reply

    In Linux world I hate if somebody put blogs like this.
    These people should be call leg-pullers. If canonical or someone is trying to do something good for linux we should be promoting that.
    Its because of ubuntu/Google peoples are using Linux on desktop and laptop. otherwise Linux could been heading to its death and propitiatory venders could be continue manipulating PC users.
    I have tested ubuntu for Android and it is working good even though it is little slow but there is scope for improvement.

  9. Avatar johnandmarsha November 16, 2012 @ 4:06 pm
    Reply

    “If canonical or someone is trying to do something good for linux we should be promoting that”

    If ‘canonical’ was doing something good for ‘linux’, you’ll be the first to know.

    “Its because of ubuntu/Google peoples are using Linux on desktop and laptop. otherwise Linux could been heading to its death”.

    What a load of crap. no wonder dumbuntu fanatics/cult members are ignored. captain kirk is driving uUbuntu to it’s death. And dont call it ubuntu LINUX.
    And RedHat will be just tickled to death to know just who to thank for there success.

  10. Avatar syncdram November 16, 2012 @ 4:25 pm
    Reply

    Sorry, Will always stay with Android. There has been nothing i’ve seen or heard from shuttleworth that my Android smart phone is already doing. Wishing shuttles all the best…..LOL

  11. Avatar YellowApple November 17, 2012 @ 5:28 pm
    Reply

    What I’m hoping for is a non-official integration path – I.e. for CyanogenMod users. Perhaps a multipurpose installer that can handle multiple distros?

    Regardless, this is awesome, and having such a feature will certainly influence my next phone purchase.

  12. Avatar The VAR Guy November 20, 2012 @ 9:15 pm
    Reply

    The VAR Guy’s two cents (or more):

    1. Canonical does not have strong enough OEM relationships to succeed on smart phones.
    2. Smart phone makers will not abandon Android, nor will they want to run Android and Ubuntu side by side.
    3. It’s hard to see what Ubuntu’s “killer app” would be on a smart phone…
    -TVG

  13. Avatar YellowApple November 20, 2012 @ 9:44 pm
    Reply

    @TVG:

    1) True, Canonical’s got a bit of catching up to do with other vendors, but the point is that they’re pushing for a product that – as of today (20 November 2012) has not been implemented.

    2) Canonical’s not calling for handset makers to abandon Android. At all. And who says they wouldn’t want to run the two operating systems side-by-side? If anything, this is *massively* appealing to handset makers, since their devices can be sold to more markets.

    3) The “killer app” would be Ubuntu itself, along with the thousands of free-and-open-source software packages that – with Ubuntu – are simply a click away. Packages like OpenOffice, Chromium (and Chrome), Firefox, GIMP – the whole shebang.

    tl;dr: Ubuntu for Android is not *replacing* Android on phones. It’s making Android-powered phones *better*.

  14. Avatar Steven Pemberton November 20, 2012 @ 9:55 pm
    Reply

    @YellowApple, how can you say it hasn’t been implemented, when I’ve posted two videos of it in action?

  15. Avatar YellowApple November 20, 2012 @ 10:22 pm
    Reply

    @Steven: By “not been implemented”, I mean that nobody else has really done it before in a form that I – an end user – can touch and use. There’s the recent KDE Plasma Active project, but that’s just about it, and it’s even less viable right now because it isn’t made with Android integration in mind.

    My apologies for the miswording; I cringed at that after I had posted it (and of course there’s no edit button for me to rephrase…).

  16. Avatar Amr November 21, 2012 @ 1:49 pm
    Reply

    It seems that the writer has no clue of what Canonical/Ubuntu is trying to do. The writer repeatedly said “Ubuntu phone”, well it is not, it is “Ubuntu for Android”. Ubuntu and Android are supposed to work side by side on the phone. Android is for the mobile experience and Ubuntu is for the desktop experience when the phone is docked to a monitor and a keyboard. Ubuntu does not have to develop mobile apps because simply Android already has.

  17. Avatar johnandmarsha November 22, 2012 @ 3:41 am
    Reply

    “It seems that the writer has no clue of what Canonical/Ubuntu is trying to do.”

    WRONG! Canonical/Ubuntu has no idea of what IT is trying to do. And this is all thanks to the Space Shuttle, who has no idea what HE should be doing.

    Another load of crap from The Cult, wherein (1) we are all told that the writer is WRONG, when the writer clearly is passing along–accurately–the material provided by Canonical and its PR machine; (2) we are all told what Canonical is REALLY trying to do and say, as opposed to what is ACTUALLY PRESENTED and said; and (3) most laughable of all, what the marketing and technical objectives are, and why.
    One can always spot–with dead accuracy–a cult response like this, because it sounds for all the world like it came right from the mouth of Captain Kirk.

    By the way, this is not the first report on this particular piece of PR vaporware out of Canonical; just the most charitable.

    Thank you for your tremendous insight, your clarifications of what the writer really should have inferred and said, and the information as to the inner workings of Canonical. We are all REALLY much more informed about Shuttleworth, Canonical, and Ubuntu. Really.

    And thanks to you and the astronaut for all the entertainment.
    Canonical has now surpassed Microsoft in terms of entertainment value.

  18. Avatar YellowApple November 26, 2012 @ 1:46 am
    Reply

    I’d rather be an astronaut than yet another Ballmer-worshiping suit.

    Seriously now. What Canonical’s proposing is not only feasible, but revolutionary. And sure, there’s yet to be a commercial product with this feature, but that’s the beauty of open-source: it’s not a question of *if* this will happen, but *when*. And given the progress already made, that “when” ain’t far.

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