To a jaded hack at a trade show, quirky oddities are like air to a drowning man, and Ubuntu for Android is certainly off the wall. Best known as a Linux alternative to desktop Windows and MacOS, Ubuntu is being re-packaged for the smart phone era by software company Canonical.
The early version I was shown at Mobile World Congress runs on a high-spec Motorola Android phone with USB and HDMI. The Android side of things worked as normal, but as soon as you plug the phone into a dock, the monitor it's connected to displays a version of Ubuntu. It's reminiscent of the Motorola Atrix, which in laptop mode used its own Linux-based OS called 'Webtop', but couldn't do much more than run Firefox.
Here you can run all kinds of programs, type using a keyboard and move the pointer using a mouse. If you have Office installed on the right kind of server, you can even run Word, PowerPoint and so on. It basically behaves like an Ubuntu laptop, but it's all running on the phone.
Files are shared between the two OSes, so contacts and pictures that exist on the Android side can be accessed on the Ubuntu side. It's intended for businesses rather than consumers, and Canonical is at the stage where it's trying to flog the software to phone manufacturers. But it is a cool demo of the technology, and could point to the sort of thing we'll all have in offices one day.
Watch the video to see it in action and let us know in the box below if you're impressed, or over on our Facebook page.
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Paul777 5 March, 2012 17:14
Exciting tech, as phones get more powerful Ubuntu for Android will get even better.
Hope Google will give this the push it truly deserves. Right now parallel booting of Android + Ubuntu on a phone is unique & Google & Canonical should really showcase this. Very innovative & useful indeed!
anonymous 8 March, 2012 10:36
How ironic that in an article exploring alternative OSes like Android and Ubuntu that the author falls back to the corporate think that is MS Office instead of thinking that we might all get a little smarter and look to Libre Office foot out word processing and spread sheeting needs.
anonymous 29 March, 2012 15:47
Despite the OS source being open, they are not allowing users to package it for themselves to install on their own open phone. They even have a target market: business. I don't understand why Google would work with them either, honestly. It goes against everything Linux to not be able to install it how you want as long as you don't make money from someone else's work. I am not even sure how they used an OS based on Linus Torvalds' code under a more restrictive licensing.
It may not be illegal, but I think it is pretty disgusting to take code that was developed for free by a community, change it up a bit, while still using the 'Linux branding' and distribute it bundled with someone Google's product for monetary gain. Hope they don't make a deal with dell also.
Guess some people are compelled to give back to a community that gave to them, and some aren't. I am not in support of Canonical anymore. I think that is my biggest lament of this whole thing. They were my favorite Debian based distro.
anonymous 3 May, 2012 14:27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wzc0uMXGFBY
anonymous 5 June, 2012 04:40
Just search and install a chinese software “???” for android.Big surprise.
anonymous 5 November, 2012 10:16
I think Moto's webtop is a very good prototype of it...
But, sadly looks like Moto have terminated the research on it.
anonymous 6 January, 2013 14:40
i cant wait!
anonymous 6 January, 2013 16:53
i want to test ubuntu
anonymous 6 January, 2013 16:56
ubuntu so wonderful. i want to get it ,i want to test it on my pad .thanks so much.
anonymous 16 January, 2013 12:37
ubuntu will end up 4th place eating up major windows and BB user and surely its a threat for android
http://tekpeek.tumblr.com/post/40413389573/all-about-ubuntu-mobile-os-and-its-ui