Canonical reveals Ubuntu for Android

"The other problem is that while Canonical is pushing the build to hardware manufacturers and mobile carriers, it has no plans to release it to the general public for independent development."<p>It seems to crazy to me that Canonical is going to lock down this software and not let people try to install on their own devices for their own purposes.<p>While I couldn't be more excited by the idea of this project, that article made me very concerned about the future of Canonical and where they are going as a company.

Canonical has done many questionable things recently, but innovation like this is why they are going to succeed commercially.

A request for future posts from extremetech.com (and essentially all other "news" services like this).<p><i>Please</i> look for a 'Print' view, which displays the content on 1 page and in a much better format:<p><a href="http://www.extremetech.com/computing/119031-canonical-reveals-ubuntu-for-android?print" rel="nofollow">http://www.extremetech.com/computing/119031-canonical-reveal...</a>

This started off sounding really cool, and then on page 2 they reveal pretty much nobody's going to have access to it.

If the phone could access remote computing resources then this would be awesome. (I could show you stuff I've written years ago saying you should "dock" a phone, wirelessly, to keyboard and monitor and have it also connect to external CPUs and GPUs. I'm sure other people have had the same idea.)<p>I'm just really skeptical that a smartphone has enough computing power for me to want to use it as my desktop. That's why Apple has gone the route of iCloud; you have your content already synched to your desktop but you keep the interfaces and hardware separate. This is a move that won't be viable until hardware catches up. Or it will be like the original MacBookAir: underpowered but good for certain mobile business users.

There does exist an APK on the market for some devices that seems to contain an Ubuntu like userspace. It seems handy for phones with HDMI out or docking stations. It requires things to be rebuilt for Arm, but many things seem to be available.

<i>"Canonical has unveiled that its goal is to narrow down the amount of devices that you carry to just one that will provide the same functionality of all three items mentioned above."</i><p>This isn't a software problem. Moreover, this isn't a solvable hardware problem -- For something to replace a laptop, it had better have a physical keyboard to type comfortably on.<p>For it to fill the role of a tablet, it had better be light, easy to use with one hand, and with a big enough screen to consume content on.<p>For it to fill the role of a phone, it had better be small enough to fit into my pocket and easy to hold up to my head.<p>These requirements are not compatible.

This is a very neat idea. I highly doubt that Google will accept it over ChromeOS. In my opinion this will get Ubuntu to get crazy popularity if they manage to make it as an app for non-rooted devices.

Anyone else feel like Canonical is fragmenting themselves into oblivion?

Direct link to Canonical's announcement: <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android" rel="nofollow">http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android</a><p>HN discussion: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3617238" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3617238</a>

What about input devices? Via bluetooth? Or am I missing something that is in the dockstation?

Wouldn't it be cool to use a projected laser keyboard and virtual trackpad for input?

Weirdly enough, wrote about something like this, back in 2008 : <a href="http://www.vijayanand.name/2008/10/the-future-of-living-how-3g-could-help/" rel="nofollow">http://www.vijayanand.name/2008/10/the-future-of-living-how-...</a><p>It was still a very Nokia Centric world, back then.

Wonderful, so Desktop Linux, on a phone. Because Desktop Linux, on a desktop PC worked so flawlessly, and Ubuntu was so user-friendly that they needed to replicate that awesome experience to mobile devices. (sarcasm intended)<p>I would be much, more interested in a raw, low-level Linux platform, upon which others can build a fresh new touchscreen-oriented UI, minus all the KDE/Gnome cruft. I really don't want my phone looking like a clone of Windows 3.1.

Slightly unrelated but why is there a dock in the images:<p><a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android" rel="nofollow">http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android</a><p>It's 2012 you guys, I think we can do away with cables now.

I think Canonical are going to die if they keep on the crack pipe as much as recently. This is a fine example of it. Customers and users are dropping like flies already. I don't know anyone now who hasn't bailed on then and gone with mint, Debian or centos.