Canonical backtracks on pulling 32-bit support from Ubuntu Linux

Last week, Ubuntu announced it would end support for 32-bit applications, starting with its next release. But the decision was not well-received, especially by the gaming community, and Valve announced plans to drop support for Ubuntu in Steam. In re...

Steam will stop supporting Ubuntu Linux over 32-bit compatibility

If you're a Linux gamer who prefers Ubuntu, you might want to look for another distribution in the near future. Valve is dropping official support for Ubuntu in Steam as of the operating system's upcoming 19.10 release, which will cut 32-bit x86 com...

Ubuntu Linux is available in the Windows Store

Here's a statement that would have been unimaginable in previous years: Ubuntu has arrived in the Windows Store. As promised back in May, you can now download a flavor of the popular Linux distribution to run inside Windows 10. It won't compare to...

Add Peripherals to the Ubuntu Tablet to Replace a PC

BQ Aquaris M10 - Ubuntu Tablet

Computers, with their bulky hardware, are so yesterday! What’s the point of using them if you can achieve similar results by plugging peripherals into a tablet? Canonical, who have just launched the world’s first tablet running Ubuntu, means to shine new light on our computing devices.

Having failed to crowdfund the Ubuntu Edge smartphone in 2013, Canonical didn’t give up on the subject and announced that it would unveil several smartphones running a mobile version of its OS at MWC 2014. Now they’ve decided to take things even further, and they teamed up with Spanish mobile manufacturer Bq to launch Aquaris M10, a tablet that can be easily hooked up to a monitor, and then paired to a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, in order to successfully replace a PC.

It looks like Microsoft is not the only one who’s trying to run the same operating system and ultimately, the same core code on both the mobile and desktop platforms. Canonical’s BQ Aquaris M10 tablet has a user interface that’s clearly different from the smartphone version. Once you connect the tablet to a monitor, the UI changes yet again, and turns into the familiar one of Ubuntu OS for desktop.

In terms of hardware, the Ubuntu tablet is not exactly mind-blowing, as it comes with either an HD or full HD 10.1-inch display, a quad-core CPU running at 1.5Ghz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage that can be furthermore expanded via a microSD card.

Canonical made it pretty clear that it doesn’t want to compete with Android and iOS, but just to provide an alternative, and while Google and Apple’s devices can only have their screens mirrored to monitors, the Bq M10 actually adjusts its UI when plugged into a large display.

“It’s not something that we fight against, we’re not trying to compete at that service level,” explained Canonical CEO Jane Silber in an interview with The Next Web. “It’s one of our advantages and differentiators in talking to OEMs and operators, they been essentially locked out of services and the customer relationship by Google. The value [in that] ecosystem is all accruing to Google.

We’re specializing in a platform, in an open platform, with frameworks for [providing] third-party services or OEM and operator services, and that’s a strategic intent from us. We’re not competing with a music service, or with a video service.”

As people buy more devices, developers are encouraged to make more apps and to optimize the existing ones, so sales will definitely have a major impact on the future of the Ubuntu tablet.

“One of the other reasons that we look at return rate is that some of our competitors, the other folks who have tried to establish a new phone platform, have really suffered in that regard,” added Silber. “This year coming up we will ship new devices, where the hardware allows it, they will be convergence devices, particularly on phones – we need a video out capability, and not all phones have that.”

Silber also added that there will be new Ubuntu phones coming out this year from Canonical’s partners, and I bet that we’ll get to see at least a couple of them at the Mobile World Congress, a trade show taking place in Barcelona at the end of the month.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Ubuntu phones unveiled at MWC 2014, or the Ubuntu Touch for Nexus devices.

[via The Next Web]

Canonical to Showcase the First Ubuntu Phone at MWC

Ubuntu Smartphone

The software development company best known for its Debian-based Linux operating system Ubuntu respected the promise it made last year, and announced that it would launch the first Ubuntu phone at the Mobile World Congress, next week.

Canonical failed to raise the funds for its ambitious Ubuntu Edge on Indiegogo last year, but that didn’t stop the British company from pursuing its dreams. They promised that they would make Ubuntu phones in 2014, and next week we’re going to see the first results. Smartphones running Ubuntu Touch will be made by Meizu, a pretty popular Chinese smartphone manufacturer, as well as by BQ, Spain’s second largest manufacturer of unlocked smartphones.

Images of a Meizu smartphone running what was believed to be Ubuntu Touch were leaked a few weeks ago, and the fact that Canonical now confirmed that the Chinese manufacturer will be making one of the Ubuntu phones stresses the authenticity of the leaks. Unlike Mozilla and its Firefox OS, Canonical wants to have a different approach with Ubuntu Touch smartphones. Firefox OS devices are low-end, thus far, but Canonical wants to take on Android devices directly, so it announced that the Ubuntu phones will be mid-range and high-end devices capable of satisfying the needs of the ones looking for performance.

Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Canonical, stated in an interview with CNet that “While we’re happy to work with household names, we want to be involved with partners for whom we can be a significant part of their story, rather than being appended to the more complicated story of other brands.”

Meizu only makes one line of smartphones, MX3 being the most recent and probably the most popular. BQ, on the other hand, makes Android smartphones, tablets and even e-book readers, but Canonical emphasized how important it is that the Spanish manufacturer has experience in making dual-SIM phones, suggesting that the Ubuntu ones may come with such a feature.

The way I see it, the only problem Canonical might have is the app ecosystem. There are plenty of apps for the desktop version of Ubuntu, but convincing the developers to port them to mobile devices may not be very simple. What I’m saying is that I’m afraid that the Ubuntu phones will suffer the same fate as the ones running Windows Phone.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Ubuntu Touch coming to Nexus devices and Canonical’s promise of making Ubuntu phones in 2014.

Should Digital Health Startups Prioritize Eyeballs or Revenue?


The good news, I guess, is that the well-worn “eyeballs versus revenue” debate – a dialog that has beset the tech world for years – has at long last reached digital health, suggesting that now there...