The first week of March saw Ubuntu’s Mark Shuttleworth committing to a likely release of a of a ‘working’ Ubuntu Touch phone for developers, in ‘a couple of week’. The keyword in the announcement is of course ‘a couple of weeks.’
In past couple of weeks, the idea of Ubuntu OS on smartphones as well as tablets is gaining immense interest, especially after the official announcement in the first weeks of 2013. Canonical will use a core kernel that is adapted for various platforms from desktops to smartphones and tablets and even Television.
With the Ubuntu OS aligned for retail users as well as enterprises, there is a lot of anticipation around.
For retailers, the significance lies in the flexibility it will offer: with a single device, multiple form factors can be built. Docking the smartphone into a larger glass would convert it to a tablet. Removing from the dock would mean using the smartphone again.
January 2014 Ubuntu Phones, April 2014 Ubuntu Tablets
The OS is now available on four Nexus devices already in the developer version. However, using this OS as a primary OS is not recommended for developers. Therefore, the developers are looking forward to the brevity in the ‘couple of weeks’ phrase.
With the recent daily build support, dummy data and usable applications are being included.
With over 75,000 hits in the first six hours, Ubuntu Touch is highly anticipated.
The already released devices have over 20 on-going ports received from the community already and even older devices have received plenty of support.
According to Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu Touch has several scores to settle. With the present momentum of support and encouragement, both from developers and industry, the chance to step out being a PC follower can be achieved.
Predicting that it could well be more successful than Windows 8 user experience, Ubuntu Touch has lots to offer.
For the discerning open source user community, Ubuntu Touch is almost the ‘glass ceiling’ in using their favourite OS on smart devices. Up until now, they repeatedly had to keep proprietary alternatives running. Now with Canonical’s fast paced development cycles the journey begun in 2009 towards the touch or ‘capacitive’ driven smart devices and form factors is a dream almost come true.
Nexus tablets demonstrate the technology, it now remains for the fine tuning and perfection to bring Ubuntu OS to a new generation of tablet and smartphone users!
