Ubuntu on tablets

Heres why this is awesome:<p><pre><code> - The name Unity finally makes perfect sense - Phone can expand into a tablet can expand into a desktop - larger form factor can run smaller form factor apps - app switcher is slick - Canonical finally learned how to use all the bull shit motivational words that apple uses to inspire people - OS level tie ins to social services - Still open source </code></pre> I'm excited to use it, and I'm excited to help. Personally I think this could be a big win for user rights and an awesome mobile OS.

They learnt everything from others by launching late, but added most of the good design patterns. Great work all together. Worth mentioning, Ubuntu is emerging as perfect web platform with tight integration with web-services.<p>"And now web applications are first class citizens too, wow. I was waiting for this to happen fast."<p>At this stage they need:<p>1. More Partners.<p>They must have strong tie-ups with OEM partners, who can make in-expensive devices, otherwise its not going anywhere. Get those chinese manufacturers.<p>2. Please NO device fragmentation and open strict standards among OEM's.<p>3. Nokia backing up this project?<p>Isn't this the best time for Nokia to make Ubuntu powered devices? I think so.<p>Under the current circumstances, Ubuntu and Nokia can make a good win-win fit. Nokia maybe can now come back strongly, instead of believing in a closed ecosystem like windows, which is not going anywhere.<p>3. Get Funded.<p>4. Apps. Quality and tested apps.<p>Can this happen with Open Source methodologies? Debatable. :)<p>All together this is great progress in a short span. Incredible team-work, lets not forget this comes from <i>Open Source World</i>. Love this, Made my day.

I am a bit tired of how much Ubuntu gets promoted compared to other Linux based solutions.<p>Here is a video of KDE's Plasma Active running on a Nexus 7: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7isMAmwW0" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7isMAmwW0</a><p>It is a real use video, there aren't any fancy photos, there isn't any CG in the video in contrast with Canonical's page.<p>Plasma Active is being actively developed for about 2 years now and KDE 4 was developed from the ground up to be able to adapt to various form factors.<p>Since most Linux applications run on many different architectures, with such an approach you can keep your low power ARM based tablet and run all your desktop software -albeit a bit or more slower.

I still don't understand the tablet form factor. I concluded that it's not for me some time ago, but am waiting for the general population to come around to one glaring flaw: you have to hold it. For me, it doesn't matter how light a tablet is. A five pound laptop will always <i>feel</i> lighter since it will effectively weigh nothing because it's always on some kind of platform during use, either my lap or a flat desk/table surface. The tablet holds your hands and/or your legs hostage as you need to get into that special tablet-viewing position to prop the thing up on your thighs. I don't mean to come across as a cranky person who bemoans tablet use, I just feel the process is cumbersome not being able to have your hands free and wonder if people really think this is the form factor to usher in the "post-pc" era, whatever that is.

As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm now using Cinnamon as a desktop environment. I really, really wanted Unity to work, but I've had continued performance problems which make it ultimately unusable for me. I understand Ubuntu's need to turn a profit, but I really wish they'd focus on making Unity stable and performant before chasing down these other opportunities...<p>Disclaimer: I run three monitors, so I'm probably different from the average Unity user.

Yet another announcement by Canonical that isn't backed by a "Buy" button. I understand that it's not exactly easy for them, but it's becoming a bit boring how they keep announcing new "products" with no way of actually purchasing them. Couldn't they have waited for a year or so for this to be ready to ship and <i>then</i> launch it? At the very least it'd be good to have "Available to buy in July, 2013" or whatever.

Ironically, it might be the walled-garden ecosystem of tablets that ultimately leads to mass end-user adoption of Linux. The desktop introduces too many complications -- there is a much larger set of use cases, and thus a larger set of situations where a Windows-convert can get confused, discouraged, or frustrated. Tablets, on the other hand, with their relatively fewer ubiquitous uses, can be fine-tuned in way that requires little-to-no end-user servicing. If Canonical can employ the Apple/Android software store model with enough flexibility that power users can still make meaningful modifications, then this could be the biggest thing to happen for end-user Linux in a long time.

This looks really promising and I think I'll give it a try, once there is something to buy...<p>The multitasking looks really good, it is an interesting way to solve this problem. If their implementation is as good as it is presented, we'll see Apple and Google copying this on their platforms.<p>It seems to me that this offers many of the benefits that I see with OS X, an interface that lets me just do what I want without a bunch of pain, but if I need more power I can drop down to the shell and really get at what I need. Additionally, if using MS Office on the device is possible in a non-shitty way, it will be amazing. They talked very little about this, so I'm skeptical, but it would be absolutely killer if this worked well. US business lives in MS office and a way to easily use it is REQUIRED before tablets can begin supplanting desktops in the enterprise.<p>The rip off of Apple's styling for the promo video is distracting and unnecessary. Come up with your own styling for this, the offering looks appealing, you've got capabilities that other competitors lack, there isn't a reason for you to copy someone else's presentation style.

Engadget is reporting that Canonical will make a Nexus 7 build available. If so, this will rival the RasPi as a play toy and sandbox.<p>GPU acceleration might be a significant hurdle on the nVidia.<p><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/19/ubuntu-for-tablets-revealed/" rel="nofollow">http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/19/ubuntu-for-tablets-reveal...</a>

I still don't get it. This emphasises on "productivity". Tablets, lacking any efficient ways of input are not productivity devices. They are great at consuming content, of course. There is a reason the iPad and the Kindle Fire rules the field.

&#62;&#62; Your Ubuntu tablet has multiple secure user accounts...<p>Thank goodness. The absence of this makes every tablet OS out there today pretty weak sauce. If I can't lock the screen, or inhibit another person in the house from opening my email, Dropbox folder, etc., let alone allow them to 'switch user', then no one else can borrow the device. An-ipad-per-child isn't terribly economical, in my book.

As a developer, having read through all of their site I can't tell if this thing actually supports native development. If it did, that would be great, my main issue with Android is the way so much of the OS is tied to Java with the NDK and such as barely supported afterthoughts.<p>Google doesn't seem to have any particularly good plan (at least not in public) for dealing with the Java anchor, even after the Oracle lawsuit, which I find very concerning as an Android developer -- like, when, if ever, are they going to support Java 1.7 or Java 1.8 features? Seems like they are content to be stuck at Java 1.6 forever. So not only are you practically stuck with Java if writing non-game "native" Android apps, but you're stuck with an old and increasingly obsolete Java.<p>The fact that I can't read past the weasel wording here though suggests to me that when Canonical says "native" they mean "QML running on top of Qt", which isn't really native at all (if I can't hook into it at the C/C++ level). I'd love to be wrong though.

This is a really great step. I previously though Ubuntu was going to ruin itself by getting into the mobile game so late but it seems like their solution might be unified enough (as a result of the time they spent watching others) to actually gain some foothold. I have a Nexus 7 and if they can allow me to dual boot somehow I will be all over this. I'd love to have a little touchscreen Ubuntu PC in my backpack. I'm still not convinced I want it on my phone but they have my attention on the other three screens.

I love their solution to run apps side by side, by using the phone version for the smaller app. Android is the only other platform that could really do it, with both widescreen tablets and apps where the same binary can run on phones and tablets.

You need balls to take on Google, Apple and Microsoft tablets, being a small business that started giving away Linux CDs. And actually doing a very decent try at it.

Wow. This is what Unity is for. I'm still on Gnome on my desktop because I'm not a Unity fan, but this is really incredible. Android better watch its back.

I must say, this looks pretty slick. Wonder how well the multitasking stuff will hold up in practice?<p>Here's hoping some clever bods will get this working on a HP Touchpad, would love to resurrect my touchpad from it's dusty grave. Can't imagine there would be much problem given that it's had no problems running Android. Bring it on!<p>Does anybody know if this will give access to bash etc? Could I develop on this with a bluetooth keyboard?<p>EDIT: full desktop with mouse and keyboard! Should have finished watching the video before commenting. I'm interested in this thin client for windows also - is this standard in the regular Ubuntu distros?

When they mentioned "sharing" I was hoping for something like Android's share which would take whatever I'm looking at and give it to another app. Instead it's just social networks. Better than Apple's lame lock-in to Twitter and Facebook but sharing between apps in Android's a killer-app.

The fact that it runs Qt is the biggest win in my opinion. Must - learn - Qt !

Looking at this (which looks very nice and impressive), the one thing which strikes me is how all the actors in this market seems to want/need a their-platform-only deployment to truly work.<p>Ubuntu on the phone, tablet, PC and TV looks nice. I'd love to try it. But for me to be able to do so, the devices I buy needs to be open enough for me to be able to <i>install that</i>.<p>If all I buy is locked down devices, you can be sure I'll never have a home where every device was bought when the next big thing(tm) was released. I'll need a way to bring the platform of my choice to all my devices.<p>Like PCs had and allowed before Apple went ahead and ruined it all.<p>Either that or better open protocols and specifications created, implemented and deployed across the line, but we can see how well <i>that</i> is going these days.

The seamless phone =&#62; tablet =&#62; desktop transition make the Ubuntu family a winner. Now to see if it picks up any enterprise traction...

Seems a little disingenuous to claim they're the first tablet to have side-by-side multitasking when the Surface lets you do just that.

Nobody mentions root access. Do I get it by default? This would be the only differentiating factor for me.<p>For example, I hate it that I cannot edit /etc/hosts on my iOS devices.

You have to give them credit for UX innovation, they don't just try to mimic iOS.

This is a winner for me if<p>1) It actually runs on hardware, it's not just a concept 2) I can attach a keyboard 3) I can run a bash shell and the unix utilities.

A recent critical post by KDE developer Aaron Seigo on Canonical claiming "same Ubuntu code will deliver a mobile, tablet, desktop or TV experiences" <a href="https://plus.google.com/107555540696571114069/posts/HSL2C21DJt7" rel="nofollow">https://plus.google.com/107555540696571114069/posts/HSL2C21D...</a>

I've used Ubuntu on the desktop since 2004 so this is an exciting development. From the video and screenshots the design is really polished and the UI/UX well-thought-out. I really want to see this succeed but have doubts. The mobile market is already crowded with competition from Apple and Android, not to mention second-tier players (Microsoft, Blackberry) gunning for a larger slice of the pie.<p>Even if Ubuntu achieves a modicum of success, their entry into the market means yet another platform that mobile developers must target (I'm not counting web apps since those can be supported equally with minimum effort across platforms). It's a wonder that Ubuntu chose to create another binary mobile development platform instead of adopting Java (leveraging the skills of existing Android devs) and calling it good enough.

&#62; Ubuntu is predicted to ship on almost 10% of the world’s new branded PCs by 2014<p>I'm interested to hear more about this.

I wonder how feasible it would be to build iOS and Android emulators for a linux tablet? Assuming people have tried for purposes of building/testing, but this seems a little different to me.<p>Being able to run all iOS <i>and</i> android apps on a single device would be pretty revolutionary.

So, I have to confess this has me sorely tempted to try on my convertible laptop. "Touch" is effectively non-existent in this space for linux.<p>Unless there are any other suggestions? (I have a lenovo x220 tablet. I like the computer. The touch aspect is just basically ignored.)

There is one completely awesome thing here - the fact that the phone itself can/will drive all form factors via docking etc... tablet, TV and computer all driven off the phone. That's incredible if it comes to fruition.

The good: You get a full linux distro on a mobile device. This is the best thing that happened to modern mobile devices since ... well ever. Modern mobile devices being smartphones and tablets.<p>The bad: Like every other "mobile OS" out there it is strongly biased toward native apps. But in this case it's at least understandable as there is an actual linux distribution under the hood. Also i have a feeling that they'll probably lack behind in the mobile department for years when compared to Android especially if they can't get some big OEM partners on board as has already been said in some comments.

I'm a heavy Ubuntu user and what I want to know is can it run all the existing Ubuntu/Linux apps?<p>Also what is the multitasking model? I can't imagine full desktop multitasking would work on a tablet. That would kill the battery.

That a quad core A15 is required to run the desktop convergence is a bit disappointing to me, although with the rate of progress in the ARM world i suppose it won't be an issue for long (ie. requiring expensive cutting edge devices with poor battery life), and no doubt lower devices will be 'hacked' to allow it being open source.<p>I really have to congratulate ubuntu on staying strong for so long on their unity vision; this is clearly the realisation of that. I hope that they manage to get some OEM support (hello Asus?), the momentum does seem to be there now IMO.

If they would just sell the damn thing and not have advertisements built into it. I have been using (a paying) Ubuntu user since v.7. It just angers me that they just wont outright charge for it.

Why stop here? Why not make the application switching fully ubiquitous between multiple devices via app "off-loading" to the cloud?<p>There's many different ways they can approach this: a hobbyist hosting an ubuntu server running whatever's necessary to facilitate this; a hosted solution -- possibly by Canonical (ala Ubuntu One or competitors); and a corporate solution (your IT staff managing Ubuntu servers and environment).<p>I feel like this might be the next step, especially with app/desktop virtualization becoming more popular.

I would really like to see Canonical take the initiative and produce versions of Ubuntu Tablet that can be flashed onto popular devices. I was kind of disappointed to see them put out another one of those "Hey, does anyone want to build hardware for us?" requests. They seem to have a business model that involves getting Ubuntu running on anything and everything, but they don't have a clear path to mass market hardware.

Once this gets released I'll likely buy a full set of phone+tablet<p>I don't currently own a tablet and my phone is some superold cell (dumbphone?) so I'll be very easy to please.<p>Worst case scenario I'll pay whatever it costs to help consumer Linux into the tornado a little quicker.<p>[I'm an Ubuntu user both at home and at work but I remain a tad sceptical about this]

Apple dug themselves into a hole with such fixation on static screen size/resolution. They can't do these multitasking innovations because of that.<p>It seems that Ubuntu has outdone even Windows 8 in that front.<p>Curious to see this running on some real hardware, because for now it's just a design and software.

There is something visionary about these South Africans, first Elon Musk and then Mark Shuttleworth.

If Steam is now out on Ubuntu 12.04, they could make it work too on these Ubuntu Tablets?

Ubuntu people, I have but one question:<p>can I open a terminal window from that tablet? a text editor? get to Firefox' developer tools?<p>Do you see where I'm going with this?<p>(That must be possible, they demo Gimp in the video. Yet, that's what I hated in tablets: I couldn't <i>use</i> them.)

When are we going to get the kind of options for window managers that we have on the desktop on our mobile devices?<p>I do want my phone to look like my computer but my computer looks very much different than Canonical's Unity.

I do wish people would stop with the phrase "post-PC era"... and I thought Canonical would be above that (consider me properly disillusioned.)<p>Can we at least start calling PCs "workstations" again, to compensate?

This might be only tangentially relevant but I never took to liking the Ubuntu's font. I would much rather Segoe UI (regular, not Lite) or even Google's Roboto over Ubuntu's font.

This just so awesome. As an Ubuntu user, I was feeling left out :)

Completely amazing in every sense. But the way he said "its the cleanest, freshest, most beautiful tablet experience around" sounded like a borrowed sentence.

In regards to everyone here talking about unity crashing:<p>xmonad+debian squeeze<p>My laptop has been up/plugged in for 72 days and I have no issues whatsoever ;) Sometimes stable is a good thing.

Please, could someone take this image and build it for the BlackBerry Playbook? because that thing is collecting dust under my bed at home.

Most people installed Ubuntu because they could do it on their PC without buying anything. Can I do the same with a semi-old tablet?

Youtube promo: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h384z7Ph0gU" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h384z7Ph0gU</a>

It looks like what Open webOS should have been.

When I can install it on my iPad I might give it a try. Till then, why should I buy another tablet to play with Ubuntu?

Ubuntu uses KDE for their mobile apps and GTK on the desktop, this is going to be a pain when porting apps.

Anybody noticed the video showed windows apps Excel running on Ubuntu Tablet? What is that?

The video is so Apple-y that it bothers me (speaking really slowly like we are retards).

I hope it runs on Asus Transformer and is usable both in tablet mode as laptop mode.

Looks pretty, but I've come to expect constant churn and regressions from Ubuntu. My desktop is significantly worse than it was 5 years ago.<p>Still I hold a sliver of hope that I'll be able to write mobile apps in Python one day. (I've heard of kivy, but worried it isn't direct enough).

Does the Feb 25th date also mean you can download the source then?

Cool, it'll look smart next to my Ubuntu TV and my Ubuntu phone.

Would love to hack my original iPad to install this.

the OS itself looks decent and promising. Now the only problem is getting this into a decent hardware and they're golden.

I use unity for the fullscreen windows / mac-like menus. In fact, I:<p>- use gnome-do instead of unity dash<p>- use docky in panel mode as my beloved taskbar<p>- keep the horrible unity sidebar well hidden on the left<p>And I am happy so far.

proud to say I worked on the design for this :) Hope the community will embrace it and help us make it better

Man this looks great my transformer prime <i>is</i> getting kinda slow let me find the download li--- oh.<p>Well nevermind then. Back to work.

Can you dual boot it to an Ipad?

It looks nice, but the name Linux, will stile scare a lot of traditional users away...

All I want is a 8-10 hour battery life tablet that I can install a development environment and plug a keyboard<p>I know Ubuntu won't be narrowing down to developers but if Ubuntu Tablets solve this I'll get in line to get the one as fast as possible

This is great, I hope it will have the same success that Ubuntu for Mobile Devices gathered, oh wait, it didn't succeed after all..

I don't even use Ubuntu for the desktop or the laptop, what motivation do I have to use it on a phone or tablet? How about making Unity less than an unholy mess before branching out into other form-factors?