Ubuntu coming to Android smartphones

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 01/03/2013 04:37 PM | source: | 16 comment(s)

It's very interesting to see wwhat Open Source software does with mobiles these days. Canonical released a developer preview Ubuntu for Android, a new shell for Android smartphones that turns the phone into a "webtop" when plugged into a PC. Ubuntu on Android devices looks and feels like normal Android when operating in a mobile context.

But when plugged into a Ubuntu machine (PC) they become a "webtop" a second-desktop of sorts; mirroring the Unit user-interface (Unity UI) of the parent Ubuntu install.

While this may sound like a mirror gimmick, the neat part for enthusiasts is that you'll get full (or likely close to full in release devices) control of the file system, allowing you to shuffle files onto and off of the devices more freely.

Further, all the desktop switch occurs natively inside a modified version of the Android kernel, so unlike other experimental efforts to put emulated Linux distros inside virtual machines on Android courtesy of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), there should be little if any performance penalty.

The official release of Ubuntu for Android is slated for early 2014.

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rta
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#4492600 Posted on: 01/03/2013 04:50 PM

bring. it. on.

bobdude
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Joined: 2006-02-23

#4492616 Posted on: 01/03/2013 05:13 PM

oh this is going to be fun :nerd:

Year
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#4492752 Posted on: 01/03/2013 08:50 PM

my main OS has been Ubuntu/Linux Mint for the past 4 years, i use Windows only to play games, i'm never going back to Windows as main OS, Linux does all i need and more whether it's web, music, movies, , work, only thing missing is proper gaming, looking forward to the day i can play real games from big developers on Linux and by the looks of it this could happend in the near future and that's great news.

as for Ubuntu on Android, definitely curious.

deltatux
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#4492756 Posted on: 01/03/2013 08:55 PM

I don't see how Canonical is going to attract mainstream consumers, especially the ones who have amassed a rather large library of paid apps. Unless they can run Android apps on it, I doubt they can attract them except for the more technically inclined user or ones who freeload anyways (by only downloading free apps).

Personally, I can't fully transition without sacrificing my library as I do have paid items on my Google Account, plus, I have no issues with Android. However, I do want to try Ubuntu on phones.

deltatux

EspHack
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#4492781 Posted on: 01/03/2013 09:52 PM

agree^

unless they can run android apps on it, i cant see any reason to use it instead of android

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