I was disappointed to see Canonical push a release of Ubuntu Touch that allows users to Dual-Boot to Android. Ubuntu Users often times Dual-Boot to Windows or MacOSX on their desktop and this part of the Ubuntu story has not been an exciting one because it shows that there is a gap in utility in Ubuntu that other platforms fill.
Although I know 14.04 LTS will be a big push towards even more convergence I really think the biggest priority for Canonical and the Ubuntu Community at this point should be focusing on bridging the gap between Ubuntu and other operating systems on mobile and desktop.
Until users can do everything they need to on Ubuntu without dual-booting being part of the story Ubuntu is not going to be the daily driver we want it to be for our users, and this really applies to community flavors too. We need a much more solid app ecosystem for our users to persuade them not to dual-boot and to instead use one platform for all the things (Gaming, Photo Editing, Office, VOIP, Multimedia).
I do think Ubuntu has made some significant progress in attracting platforms like Valve’s Steam and even some new indie games but in regards to other bits of applications of users expect on their desktop and phone we are nowhere near where we need to be. I think offering dual-booting to Android was a compromise for users because Canonical does not now have the app ecosystem that users want or need.
I think Canonical has the ability to do some really solid partnership development in and get consumer apps delivered on Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Touch in 2014, but now it is evident that the progress in partnerships has been less than what is needed to be a competitive platform.
I know that Mark Shuttleworth didn’t envision Ubuntu as being a platform that had a gap wide enough that it required users to dual-boot in order to fulfill their computing needs.
