Ubuntu for Galaxy Nexus phones to arrive in February
Dev version for now, but first phones will ship in October
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Ubuntu main man Mark Shuttleworth says plans are on track to produce smartphones running a mobile variant of the Ubuntu Linux OS by October 2013, but developers should be able to start working with the platform even sooner.
A version of Ubuntu for smartphones that runs on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus handset is expected to be available for download in late February, Shuttleworth told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
Why that 16-month-old device and not something else was not immediately clear, although the fact that the Galaxy Nexus was distributed as one of Google's unlocked "pure Android" flagship phones may have something to do with it.
There are also plenty of Galaxy Nexus handsets out there. By comparison, its successor, the Nexus 4, has been plagued by supply problems since it launched in November.
In January, Jane Silber of Canonical, the company that produces Ubuntu, explained that Ubuntu for phones would use the same device drivers as Android, which would eventually allow it to run on a wide range of Android devices.
Creating a version of the OS that can be loaded onto existing devices will only be the first step, however. Shuttleworth told the WSJ that Canonical definitely plans to partner with handset makers and carriers to deliver phones with Ubuntu pre-installed, though he declined to mention any names.
He also wouldn't say where Canonical might launch Ubuntu phones, but he did confirm that the company plans to have the devices available in "two large geographic markets" in October.
Chances are, however, that neither North America nor Europe will be among them – at least, not at first. Both of those markets are already heavily saturated with smartphones, with titans Apple and Samsung dominating the field with iOS and Android devices, respectively.
The real opportunity for alternative smartphone platforms lies in providing low-cost devices for the developing world. If Canonical knows what it's doing, it will likely follow the lead of the Mozilla Foundation, which plans to launch its open source Firefox OS mobile platform in Brazil later this year.
India is another booming potential market for smartphones, as is China, though entrenched local vendors could make it difficult to gain a foothold in the People's Republic.
But wherever Canonical chooses to launch its new OS, it won't be alone. Ubuntu and Firefox OS aren't even the only open source mobile platforms due to debut this year. Samsung says it plans to introduce "more than one" device running the Linux-based Tizen OS in 2013, and a group of former Nokia engineers are working on another alternative, called Sailfish.
What separates Ubuntu for phones from either of those efforts, however, is that Ubuntu phones will be able to dock with keyboards and monitors to become desktop workstations, allowing users to carry a single device that acts as both a PC and a phone.
On Tuesday, Shuttleworth said that the devices would even be able to stream Windows applications from corporate servers – but although such a thing certainly isn't unheard-of, he gave no details as to what technology would be used to achieve it on Ubuntu phones.
No further details were forthcoming, including whether the version of Ubuntu for phones that will arrive in February will ship with accompanying developer tools, or whether it will require special tools to install.
If you're interested in finding out more about Ubuntu for phones, however, you can register on Canonical's website to receive updates as more news emerges. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Hopefully they don't dumb down the UI too much
Who cares about the UI.
What I need is an OS for which I can actually build interesting stuff. I have 3 projects which need a demo platform where you need to mess about with the low level networking and IO on the terminal device. I cannot do that on iOS or Android because the bastards do not allow me that level of access and MSFT is completely out of the question. So now I finally have a platform on which I can build the demo versions :) Hurray :)
the Ubunt phone interface is really good
if you want to see it watch the video http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/phone
Re: great for linux geeks...
Canonical were talking about business deployments (I know of a couple of businesses that issue Linux laptops or bootable Linux USB sticks for the purposes of connecting to the company network) as being what they had in mind for this.
App support? Well, it runs anything in the repositories that runs on ARM, doesn't it? You won't be trying to use Libre Office via the touchscreen, but with traditional mouse and keyboard. Curious that no Reg article mentions whether or not Android apps can run under Unbuntu- but if they can be made to run on BlackBerry's new OS, I would have thought Ubuntu could be persuaded. Thoughts?
My understanding is limited, but can't the really geeky users will just replace Unity with their preferred DE? It seems strange that as an outside, one just hears lots of noise about Linux GUIs, just as there is about Win8 Metro... anyone even moderately geeky will just install work-arounds, no?
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