Ubuntu on Android soon?

ShaolinDreams · 3 Jan 2013 at 01:19

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLtcj7FdIYA

Engadget brief overview.

SKILL · 3 Jan 2013 at 08:48

DeathStorm said:
I was fairly impressed with what they've shown so far, as much as I like my Note 2 I still miss the cohesive design of Windows phone and this looks better in that regard than Android. It also deals with my biggest concern for Android handsets and that's long term support, I can't see myself needing any hardware upgrades for 2+ years but I don't fancy being stuck on an outdated version of Android just because Samsung wants to sell a new model.

Saying that, it's early days yet and they clearly need to improve the performance if it's sluggish on a Nexus 4 and of course we don't have any of the fine details but I'm optimistic.

Ultimately if the plan is to get constant updates for Android then Nexus devices are the way to go, but I'm not sure whether this will completely fix the issue, silicon vendors will still be awkward and provide drivers as proprietary binaries rather than source, so if an API changes at either the kernel or middleware level you're dependant on them updating the drivers, which they don't have a great record in doing.

Saying that Samsung do seem to be giving ~2 years of support now, I've got the SGS2 which started on GB, now got official ICS and JB is on the way soon, that'll be 2 years old at the end of April so just before KLB is released, which it may or may not get.

It also sounded from the Engadget video like Canonical are relying on the community and/or manufacturers to port the code, not sure I see that working overly well for anything other than niche devices.

Performance wise, I've used the vendor/linaro Ubuntu ports on a few boards now at work, and all of them have been sluggish and often missing features like hardware video decode, maybe this will improve with better support from Canonical as these devices can clearly run even a heavy system like Android generally better than the Ubuntu ports.

DeathStorm said:
Meh, I thought Jolla looked very amateurish but gestures are nothing new, the video immediately reminded me of Windows 8 (W8 left swipe brings up running apps, a full swipe switches to the last app while on Ubuntu it's a left swipe for app short cuts and a right swipe for the last running app and a swipe from the bottom is the equivalent of a right click in windows or bringing up a menu). Gestures when done right become second nature.

I agree about Jolla, although I did quite like the 'ambiance' bit, and yes W8 does use the gestures as well, also things like WebOS and the BB Playbook all did bits of it, I think specifically it was the swipe to go back bit that reminded me of Jolla more than gestures in general.

Rusty! · 3 Jan 2013 at 09:53

Finally got round to watching the vid, and I really like the look of this. Even if it's not successful, perhaps it will generate some innovation.

Judgeneo · 3 Jan 2013 at 13:58

Would love this on my transformer

englishpremier · 3 Jan 2013 at 17:40

I remember reading about it last year. Which was one of the reasons I went for a multi-core phone.

The Galaxy nexus images will be released soon. I really hope a few devs on the case and get it running on a Galaxy S3

Rusty! · 21 Feb 2013 at 09:45

englishpremier · 21 Feb 2013 at 09:49

Can't be long now until we get a Galaxy S3 port

randal · 21 Feb 2013 at 10:03

Cannot wait to hear some user reviews of this, I have high hopes for this replacing my iPhone/iOS device.

Tweaker · 21 Feb 2013 at 10:41

I have a spare galaxy nexus, as soon as they come available, will give it a go and post my thoughts.

randal · 21 Feb 2013 at 10:47

Awesome, look forward to it.

Cosimo · 21 Feb 2013 at 11:09

I posted this a few days ago:

http://phandroid.com/2013/02/19/ubuntu-touch-for-nexus-tablets/

http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/tablet

The Touch Developer Preview of Ubuntu will be published today:

http://developer.ubuntu.com/

Tweaker · 21 Feb 2013 at 17:24

Installing now

englishpremier · 21 Feb 2013 at 17:37

Tweaker said:
Installing now

Jealous

Digital · 21 Feb 2013 at 17:56

Hmm, I can't seem to get mine to work.

It says unsupported device. It's a Nexus 7 32GB...?!?

Have I missed something...

MouseMat2004 · 21 Feb 2013 at 23:02

Go here if you want TWRP or CWM flashable images, Just backup first and you can go back within minutes.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DerekRoss/posts/4wb3g76C8eW

Cosimo · 22 Feb 2013 at 08:04

Digital said:
Hmm, I can't seem to get mine to work.

It says unsupported device. It's a Nexus 7 32GB...?!?

Have I missed something...

Are you following this?

Supported devices

The images we are making available today support the following devices:
◦Galaxy Nexus
◦Nexus 4
◦Nexus 7
◦Nexus 10

http://developer.ubuntu.com/2013/02/releasing-the-ubuntu-touch-developer-preview-and-sdk-alpha/

Tweaker · 22 Feb 2013 at 10:43

Up and running since last night, first impressions are mixed. Most of the functionality that has been talked about isn't finished yet, so no mail, facebook, twitter, notifications and much more.

Most of the stuff included is for a demo purpose, with the included apps mostly webapps. That would be fine if they hadn't locked the user agent to iPhone meaning you get lots of messages asking about installing iOS apps. The native apps are not really there, music player is a demo, sharing is a demo.

The lag is there, though not as bad as people have made out. The web browser is where they could have really done something special, similar to what BB10 has, but Ubuntu has a very average browser. The support for some of the more advanced HTML5 features are missing, so they are going to have to really improve it to prop up the platform until app are there.

The overall UI is quite nice, the gestures are simple enough to get, though it reminds me a lot of Meego. There isn't exactly a consistent experience though, with a mix of back buttons shown, hidden or not there. The pull down notification part is very cool, it reminds me somewhat of the Android 4.2 pull down with all the extra options. To be able to flick between lots of settings and messages quickly is one of the best features so far.

Overall, this first release is a what they said it would be, a developer release for those wanting to produce apps. If you have a spare phone and want to see if your webapp is good enough, or are thinking of developing your own app, give it a try, otherwise, wait.

Digital · 24 Feb 2013 at 17:57

Cosimo said:
Are you following this?

http://developer.ubuntu.com/2013/02/releasing-the-ubuntu-touch-developer-preview-and-sdk-alpha/

I was, turns out 'Tilapia' isn't yet supported.

Pawnless Endgame · 24 Feb 2013 at 20:41

Will this mean that phones will be able to run WINE on top of Ubuntu and thus EXE files? I'm intrigued. That aside, you will also effectively have your very own graphics tablet device for GIMP, even better that it's on-screen graphics tablet!

dbmzk1 · 24 Feb 2013 at 21:43

The UI might look good in a video, but watching it being used in practice it looks terrible.