Ubuntu website teases us with Wednesday announcement

[McLovin]

There's been tons of debate over the past year and a half on Microsoft's embrace of a touchscreen interface for Windows 8. Now, a well known Linux-based OS is strongly hinting it may be offering a touchscreen UI in a future version.

The Ubuntu website current has a countdown clock on its main page that will reach zero at 1 pm Eastern time on Wednesday. The countdown clock has the tagline of "So close, you can almost touch it", which has led to speculation that an announcement concerning a Ubuntu version made for touchscreen PCs will be made tomorrow.

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[WinAndLinuxTutorials]

Very interested in this. I hope I will be able to run it on my tablet. I read that it will probably be only used on Nexus devices, I hope it turns out to be wrong.

 

[Ink]

6 hours remaining, will check tonight to see it!

 

[Plexx]

Ubuntu for Touch Screen based hardware has been on some sort of Beta for awhile.

There are also Apps available on the Ubuntu Apps Directory for Touch Screen such as: xinput_calibrator which is to calibrate touch screen for example.

Looks like they will go for the final release by the looks of it.

 

[Ink]

Ubuntu on phones at CES, 8–11 January 2013.

http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/phone

 

[McLovin]

Might actually be better than Android and Apple. Who knows.

 

[Ink]

Potentially. It's run on the same drivers as Android, but no Java.

 

[McLovin]

Potentially. It's run on the same drivers as Android, but no Java.

Well the no Java part can be a great thing. When they do I might get one.

 

[Imran]

Ubuntu for phones announced, arrives in early 2014

Canonical has unveiled the mobile version of their Linux-based Ubuntu operating system. Ubuntu for phones uses the same basic kernel and drivers as Android but has a brand new UI and navigation.

For starters, Ubuntu makes heavy use of gestures for navigating around. Each of the four corners of the screen can be used to perform a gesture. A short swipe from the left shows your favorite apps, a long swipe takes you to all your apps. A swipe from the right takes you to your last used app. Swipe from the bottom shows you the menu controls for the app you're in and a swipe down from the top shows you your notifications and messages.

Ubuntu places heavy emphasis on HTML5 web apps and gives them high priority, wherein they can show you notifications just like native apps. If you want an even better experience, you can also use the native apps written specifically for Ubuntu. Although it is based on the Android kernel, Ubuntu does not use the Dalvik Virtual Machine that Android does so apps are incompatible between the two. On the plus side, the lack of virtual machine and ability to run apps natively means the performance is likely going to be even better compared to Android.

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[Vextor]

RE: Ubuntu for phones announced, arrives in early 2014

This seems like a excellent idea, I would love to try it out.

 

[McLovin]

RE: Ubuntu for phones announced, arrives in early 2014

This seems like a excellent idea, I would love to try it out.

Wouldn't we all? Something new comes to the market, all techies need to get their hands on it first.

 

[Gnosis]

Not so good for the few of us using Linux on our PC's, as it will make Linux a new target for malware authors after a couple of years of Ubuntu use on smart phones.

All in all I bet it will be a good thing, esp. for smart phone users that don't want MAC or Android.