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Ubuntu Smartphones And Tablets In The Near Future

By On October 31, 2011 · 5 Comments
ubuntutablet 500x340 300x204 Ubuntu Smartphones And Tablets In The Near Future

Could a Ubuntu Tablet look like this?

I was pleasantly surprised to read Mark Shuttleworth’s optimistic visions for 14.04 including his belief that Ubuntu will power Tablets and Smartphones by Ubuntu’s 14.04 LTS release.

v3 Quotes Mark Shuttleworth as saying:

“We think the time is right for a free software platform, independent of a major industry force like Google, to emerge as a partner for industry, for folks who are building their own devices,” explained Shuttleworth, who said that Ubuntu “could become the de facto standard starting point for those who are building the next generation of consumer electronics around Linux”

I think a mobile version of Ubuntu geared for Tablets and Smartphones is an excellent thing and I honestly think Ubuntu could do better than other mobile platforms including some which have failed like WebOS.

If Ubuntu powers Smartphones in a few years you can bet that I will trade in whatever I have at the time and use a Ubuntu Phone or whatever trendy name they give it. Ultimately I think Canonical and the Ubuntu Community will benefit greatly by moving into the mobile phone and tablet markets.

The big question that remains is who will Canonical give exclusive rights for developing Ubuntu Smartphones and Tablets and better yet what carriers will sell them. I look forward to learning more about the keynote he gave at UDS and also any other exciting developments occurring in the Ubuntu Community.

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  • Anonymous

    Surely no-one is going to have “exclusive rights” for developing Ubuntu on Smartphones and tablets?! It’s open source!

    We are already well on our way with ARM support, provided OEM drivers end up in the kernel (all this Linaro stuff is trying to address that). What needs to happen is greater accessibility, for example touch screen support for Unity and all Linux applications… now that’s a biggy!

    I’m looking forward to 2014 where everything can be running Ubuntu, seamless.

    • http://www.benjaminkerensa.com Benjamin Kerensa

      Although I do not think there will be exclusivity I do think Canonical will have some sort of “Certified” program much like Google’s Android has certified partners who get to use the Marketplace while other devices which are not certified have to use GetJar or other alternative marketplaces.

  • haydoni

    Surely no-one is going to have “exclusive rights” for developing Ubuntu on Smartphones and tablets?! It’s open source!

    We are already well on our way with ARM support, provided OEM drivers end up in the kernel (all this Linaro stuff is trying to address that). What needs to happen is greater accessibility, for example touch screen support for Unity and all Linux applications… now that’s a biggy!

    I’m looking forward to 2014 where everything can be running Ubuntu, seamless.

    • http://benjaminkerensa.com/ Benjamin Kerensa

      Although I do not think there will be exclusivity I do think Canonical will have some sort of “Certified” program much like Google’s Android has certified partners who get to use the Marketplace while other devices which are not certified have to use GetJar or other alternative marketplaces.

  • http://kidcomputers.com/ Kid Computers

    Ubuntu is an excellent OS and I would love to see them make something thats tablet friendly.