Related
Hope I'm not being sacrilegeous, but is it possible? I've always admired the platform, but the lack of apps always held me back from trying it.
Any possibility we could get WebOS running on the G tab?
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk
Because if number of available apps is the problem, WebOS is clearly the answer.
Thanks for the laugh.
spamhead said:
Because if number of available apps is the problem, WebOS is clearly the answer.
Thanks for the laugh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the lack of apps is whats kept him from trying Web OS (ie: buying a web os device) however hes interested in trying out the platform if he could get it running on his gtab.
but you clearly didn't pick that up and made an ass of yourself.
You're right (on both counts).
Not the first or last time I make an ass of myself on the internet.
I doubt it, but it would be awesome. WebOS is a stunningly beautiful OS. I love the way it looks, feels, and works. To me, it's up there with android in the multitasking department and surpasses it in design (though honeycomb is getting close). I had a pre for about 6 months and sometimes miss some of the things it did. That being said, as of june 2010, it was buggy as all get out and the app store was severly lacking.
I second the request for someone to look into this though, as it would be a lot of fun to play with.
spamhead said:
You're right (on both counts).
Not the first or last time I make an ass of myself on the internet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, at least you owned up to it
I bought a Palm Pre the day it was released, I thought WebOS was pretty damn awesome, but they released it on hardware of the worst quality (my Pre oreo'd like a mofo, and the touchscreen stopped working 9 months in). That and the fact that they didn't license it out like Android pretty much doomed it from the start.
Nice to see HP giving it a go, and #2 tablet world is wide open at the moment, but I wouldn't choose it over Android. Would be fun to play with though.
CPU is probably the big obstacle - anyone know what WebOS is compiled for? I actually know very little about the device.
If, for example, the hardware was ARM based then it's in the realm of possibility.
EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webos. hmmm, ARM-based and Linux based. Interesting.....
roebeet said:
CPU is probably the big obstacle - anyone know what WebOS is compiled for? I actually know very little about the device.
If, for example, the hardware was ARM based then it's in the realm of possibility.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
original pre was an omap processor, not sure if that is arm or not. I think texas instruments was the manufacturer
Btw I thought of this after reading about all the work done on the HTC HD2 and and HD7 running both Windows x.x and Android concurrently. Android Central recently had an article about WebOS 3.0 where they said it is starting to look mighty impressive.
I've always enjoyed Android and how customizable it is, but have enjoyed the UI from WebOS (one of my cousin owned a Pre).
Btw I enjoy using all platforms, I've been on Windows, OS X, and Ubunut for desktops and laptops, and for Smartphones I've used WM 6 (and prior), Blackberry, iOS, and Android. I tend to go with the one that suits my needs/wants best. Now that tablets are starting to be on the rise, I haven't set in stone which one I prefer yet. I picked up a Gtab from Woot knowing that there is a strong community of modders in addition to some solid internal hardware and specs.
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk
I know nothing about the programming side, but if we could get the ball rolling on this, I'm ready and willing to use my time and hardware for testing.
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk
Web os is now open source.
Anyone interested
Ubunut!
jraskal said:
..., and Ubunut ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL! Is this the name for an Ubuntu fanatic?
content removed
not completely, its still ARM architecture, so there are limitations, but windows 8 is a given, metro would run like a champion on the TP.
also, more expectedly, we will see more ports of other tablet OS/UI's. personally id love a pucinni port of sense. but others may prefer touchwiz or a better miui release
and as many users, i ofter call the TP my HD2 of tablets, the leatherman of technology!
I should've added the "some other OS" option. I've come to like Android a little bit, only I often get lost in it's long wave of menus.
Personally, I would like to see that Galaxy Note software on the TouchPad, but that's considered Google Android isn't it?
I like the idea of being able to change to whatever OS I want at any time.
DreamOWD said:
I should've added the "some other OS" option.
Personally, I would like to see that Galaxy Note software on the TouchPad, but that's considered Google Android isn't it?
I like the idea of being able to change to whatever OS I want at any time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the note is just a variation on the touchwiz UI, but it would pretty damn sweet on the tp
im actually trying to get a galaxy note as well, but if it doesnt come with AWS, im pooched, so the UI would be neat to mess about with on the TP
Windows 8 would be sweet.
Joli OS is going to be released as open-source soon, so that would be kinda cool.
Triple Boot,
WebOS, ICS and Win8.
dajogejr said:
Triple Boot,
WebOS, ICS and Win8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+ 1
I use Android 70% webOS 30%.
Android provides pretty hard core games, lots of customizability.
WebOS is nice for that effortless elegant experience. And the fact that you can do 50 things at 1 time.
you should've put up a multiple choice poll!!!!
Arch
to short.......................
AHAHAHHAHA ios, that funny
ios was not designed for tablets. But I would be VERY interested in Microsoft Surface for tablets.
Meego's pretty attractive, but I don't know anything about it.
All these tablets have multitouch. Yet I have not yet seen it implemented into the UI, such as moving around windows with two fingers.
Hell I would n00buntu with gnome3
Sent from my HP Touchpad using xda premium
doug piston said:
Arch
to short.......................
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Already have a chroot working I believe.
DreamOWD said:
ios was not designed for tablets. But I would be VERY interested in Microsoft Surface for tablets.
Meego's pretty attractive, but I don't know anything about it.
All these tablets have multitouch. Yet I have not yet seen it implemented into the UI, such as moving around windows with two fingers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iOS seems to be working fine on tablets.....so says the millions of them sold.
Nburnes said:
Already have a chroot working I believe.
iOS seems to be working fine on tablets.....so says the millions of them sold.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course! With many schools, businesses, news stations, and military buying them up like crazy. Many U.S. schools adding iPads, trimming textbooks.
Which makes sense, it's is pretty simple. You go into one app, come out.
I want more of a hard core tablet.
Nburnes said:
Already have a chroot working I believe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This relevant to my interests. Good work.
doug piston said:
This relevant to my interests. Good work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, not me man. I wish I was that smart.
http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1567
https://github.com/crimsonredmk/ArchLinuxARM-Chroot-TouchPad
Seems alot of people are putting their eggs in Windows 8..
If you want a wholesome experience, an OS with large market share and few limitations would probably be the best. Which is why I think Android is the best OS for the end user on mobile platforms.
In theory however, Linux is far from the best OS, frankly all *nix are an archaic design, but but for embedded devices it kind of works I guess.
DreamOWD said:
I should've added the "some other OS" option. I've come to like Android a little bit, only I often get lost in it's long wave of menus.
Personally, I would like to see that Galaxy Note software on the TouchPad, but that's considered Google Android isn't it?
I like the idea of being able to change to whatever OS I want at any time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's just a skinned version of Android. A poor one at that. With a few key apps you can go above and beyond what Samsung is offering
Sent from my HP Touchpad using Tapatalk
Hellooo~!
I'm a tad new to the world of Android Development, but have plenty of programming history. I'm going to be starting a project to get Arch Linux running on my Photon 4G, and am contemplating making this public. My end goal is to get it working on the Photon, with a working on-screen keyboard, decent battery life, and lapdock/HDMI/peripheral support.
If you're a bit skeptical, know that there is a distribution of Arch Linux that supports ARMv5-v7 processors.
So before I begin my journey, I want to know:
Is anyone interested in this?
Sounds interesting. It appears you may be doing something different than the typical chroot method? As an Archlinux desktop user, a phone version would be cool.
Best of luck with your project. If you need testers, I would be willing to try to help.
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
jahildebra said:
Hellooo~!
I'm a tad new to the world of Android Development, but have plenty of programming history. I'm going to be starting a project to get Arch Linux running on my Photon 4G, and am contemplating making this public. My end goal is to get it working on the Photon, with a working on-screen keyboard, decent battery life, and lapdock/HDMI/peripheral support.
If you're a bit skeptical, know that there is a distribution of Arch Linux that supports ARMv5-v7 processors.
So before I begin my journey, I want to know:
Is anyone interested in this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mighty ambitious! Im definitely interested in this. Arch is one of my favorite distributions. I'm concerned about the usability of it though. What desktop environment would you aim to use? Are there any that I'm unaware of that that are geared toward mobile phones?
jbaumert said:
Sounds interesting. It appears you may be doing something different than the typical chroot method? As an Archlinux desktop user, a phone version would be cool.
Best of luck with your project. If you need testers, I would be willing to try to help.
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to see you're interested!
As far as getting Arch on the phone, I want to the phone to boot straight into the Arch environment without the Android system in the background. This may not be possible due to the phones bootloader, but if anything I'll have an extremely minimal version of Android acting as a crutch for Arch, helping it to boot up and perform other operations. The system should be 90% Arch Linux.
Please don't take this the wrong way but as long as it has nothing to do with the current chroot/VNC method I'm all for it. The chroot method lacks access to the phone's hardware so things like audio, USB host don't work.
If chroot/VNC is what you are trying to avoid then you may want to look at Gentop2 and kholk's original Gentop project. This should give you an idea as to how they achieved framebuffer and hardware access. If you want to provide support for Tegra2 Moto's you'll need to keep the install below 755MB for Atrix support unless a webtop2sd type method will be used.
Another thing you may want to consider is that the upcoming ICS update and AOSP lack the needed framebuffer/HW access. You may need to hack and kang a far bit to get ICS and AOSP support.
Acvice said:
Mighty ambitious! Im definitely interested in this. Arch is one of my favorite distributions. I'm concerned about the usability of it though. What desktop environment would you aim to use? Are there any that I'm unaware of that that are geared toward mobile phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahah, I was just thinking about that myself. As per my knowledge, there are ZERO DE's geared towards phones. We could come pretty close to the mobile-phone experience using a tablet/netbook-oriented DE, similar to Unity. Unity is capable of running on Arch, but I don't know if it's ARM compatible, or how smoothly it would run on a small processor like the Tegra 2. If anything I could just configure an Xmonad environment that runs entirely off of mouse/touch gestures.
jahildebra said:
Hahah, I was just thinking about that myself. As per my knowledge, there are ZERO DE's geared towards phones. We could come pretty close to the mobile-phone experience using a tablet/netbook-oriented DE, similar to Unity. Unity is capable of running on Arch, but I don't know if it's ARM compatible, or how smoothly it would run on a small processor like the Tegra 2. If anything I could just configure an Xmonad environment that runs entirely off of mouse/touch gestures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unity can run on ARM and is pretty but fairly resource heavy. Canonical has Ubuntu 12 running on an Atrix2 but have no intention of releasing source at this time. I would suggest staying with a lightweight "Unity like" enviro. This will free up resources for other things.
Might I suggest OpenBox? Extremely lightweight and easily configurable to suit the needs of a small screen. Desktops and windows are easily manageable from a single bottom bar, all application categories pop up in a menu when taping on any part of the 'desktop', all with gradients and transparency as needed so to still be slick looking. My mental imagine of the setup would be similar to that of Webos and easily achievable and user friendly. A particular distribution that i've been using for a while whom has really made the flexibility of Openbox shine is Crunchbang. The dude who runs the distro has developed many little GUI utilities that are made to configure Openboxs' script-based setup. So if you decided to use it, a lot of work is already done so to speak. Check it out and see if you get any inspiration!
Acvice said:
Might I suggest OpenBox? Extremely lightweight and easily configurable to suit the needs of a small screen. Desktops and windows are easily manageable from a single bottom bar, all application categories pop up in a menu when taping on any part of the 'desktop', all with gradients and transparency as needed so to still be slick looking. My mental imagine of the setup would be similar to that of Webos and easily achievable and user friendly. A particular distribution that i've been using for a while whom has really made the flexibility of Openbox shine is Crunchbang. The dude who runs the distro has developed many little GUI utilities that are made to configure Openboxs' script-based setup. So if you decided to use it, a lot of work is already done so to speak. Check it out and see if you get any inspiration!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion! I've never used OpenBox before, but I've heard its customizability is similar to Xmonad's.
I'll check it out!
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
What's your intended target user base? Will it Linux n00b, average linux user or linux power user?
Lokifish Marz said:
What's your intended target user base? Will it Linux n00b, average linux user or linux power user?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mainly average/power users. Arch Linux is definitely not for the weak hearted.
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
Lokifish Marz said:
What's your intended target user base? Will it Linux n00b, average linux user or linux power user?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, generally speaking, Arch is most certainly not for Linux noobs
::edit::
Haha, totally didnt see there was a page 2. Jahildebra already said it.
The reason I asked is that I agree that Arch "out of the box" is more "power user" than say Ubuntu Desktop but not much more so than most server distros. It would really depend on what extras are put in. Arch running Gnome with all the bells and whistles could be very n00b friendly if set up with them in mind. Then again my perspective may be a little off as I still remember Mandrake coming on floppies with only a command line installer.
Lokifish Marz said:
The reason I asked is that I agree that Arch "out of the box" is more "power user" than say Ubuntu Desktop but not much more so than most server distros. It would really depend on what extras are put in. Arch running Gnome with all the bells and whistles could be very n00b friendly if set up with them in mind. Then again my perspective may be a little off as I still remember Mandrake coming on floppies with only a command line installer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah I get what you're sayin. As long as you hook people up with multimedia codecs, a good package manager, and some necessary apps i think even noobs would be happy. And I havnt heard anyone mention Mandrake in many years since Mandriva. I popped into the linux scene around Ubuntus dapper drake release. Ever since Ive ran debian.
Well, it seems like there's interest aplenty.
I'll be starting the project as soon as possible.
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
More interest will arrive when some solid progress is made im sure. I do have a question though.. Im a little unsure of how you plan to get sms, mms, data and such working on this. Or maybe i missed the point entirely. Is it not meant to be a fully functional replacement of android?
Acvice said:
More interest will arrive when some solid progress is made im sure. I do have a question though.. Im a little unsure of how you plan to get sms, mms, data and such working on this. Or maybe i missed the point entirely. Is it not meant to be a fully functional replacement of android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That will be one of the biggest challenges, alongside getting Arch to boot initially and having the phone be usable even without a physical keyboard. I plan to at least have 3G working, but I don't quite know how that will play out. None of the devices Arch Linux ARM has a release for have a 3G radio in the first place, so we have no examples to follow, and we'll have to figure this out on our own.
Sent from my MB855 using xda app-developers app
What utility does Ubuntu and other desktop distro's use to accept usb tethering from any android phone? I'm guessing netcfg (it's all I know in that department) is the norm, if so there may be a way to point it at the radio internally and then play around with settings for data and possibly calls. Webtop may still be running acual Android but it still has configuration files just like everything else in linux. We should be able to figure this out over time.
Interested? Not as such... More like curious.
I'm new to Linux and have never really been able to gain a foothold. I'm still kicking myself for building a gaming PC and thus tying myself to Windows. With Steam announcing support for Linux... If Bethesda joins them and support for the Fallout games and Skyrim comes to Linux... bye bye Windows. But for now Ubuntu 12.04 doesn't like my computer. And Arch isn't Ubuntu, but I'm willing to learn.
Would this support the phone parts? I understand that Arch has ARM builds, and they support a Tegra 2 device very similar to the Photon/Electrify, but that device doesn't have a CDMA radio in it, and possibly other components. Does it have Bluetooth? In any case, you'd need drivers for the hardware specifically in the Photon/Electrify, and Motorola hasn't been very forthcoming with community support.
As for keyboards, anyone in America at least can get a physical keyboard for $16. Newegg has a mini keyboard like an iMac's for $15 shipped, and Amazon has a USB OTG cable for under a buck. The two won't work for me on my phone under a couple CM10 ROMs, though. I read for drives it's a matter of power, but a keyboard shouldn't draw any (surely the 100mA the phone puts out over the micro USB should be enough for the caps/num/scroll lock LEDs). But the software on the phone has to support a keyboard that way; I don't know that Android knows to expect input that way.
So what OS do all you awesome dev's use for doing your magic.
RoryHe said:
So what OS do all you awesome dev's use for doing your magic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ive been using ubuntu 12.04.1 . yesterday i tried to go to 12.10 beta 2 but it doesnt want to work
Not a Dev like you see making fancy roms or whatever, but for the little excursions i go on, i use MacOS X
Osx
Via my Google Galaxy S3 running AOKP goodness
They use OS X or Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 12.04.1. Click the link in my sig if you want to learn how to set up a build environment in Ubuntu without modifying your Windows installation.
Sent from my HTC Rezound using Tapatalk 2
Using the enemy's os to build android...... Idk if that's a slap in the face to Apple or a slap in the face to android lol.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2
From what I know it stands for the mean frame of the android
Sent from my Dark JellyBellyG1 using xda app-developers app
Evocm7 said:
Using the enemy's os to build android...... Idk if that's a slap in the face to Apple or a slap in the face to android lol.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OS-X in an offhanded way is based off of UNIX which is what Linux is based off of so they are more similar than people think. Think of it as a closed source Linux.
kzoodroid said:
OS-X in an offhanded way is based off of UNIX which is what Linux is based off of so they are more similar than people think. Think of it as a closed source Linux.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I'd call it particularly offhanded. It's based on a straight port of BSD called Darwin, which is open source under the a proprietary license that is similar to the GPL, with some additional allowances for linking to non-free software. I don't recall them ever trying to hide that. Granted, recent versions of Darwin are less than usable without all the close source OS X stuff, but there is a community trying to fix that. I'm not sure how far they'll really get, but it's neat to see.
http://www.puredarwin.org/
shrike1978 said:
I don't think I'd call it particularly offhanded. It's based on a straight port of BSD called Darwin, which is open source under the a proprietary license that is similar to the GPL, with some additional allowances for linking to non-free software. I don't recall them ever trying to hide that. Granted, recent versions of Darwin are less than usable without all the close source OS X stuff, but there is a community trying to fix that. I'm not sure how far they'll really get, but it's neat to see.
http://www.puredarwin.org/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, OS X is UNIX with a fancy graphical overlay
personally i use ubuntu 12.04, but when sneaking in some stuff at work ill use win xp (can work on sense roms and such)
and on occasion will do some stuff in OSX on wifes laptop
shrike1978 said:
I don't think I'd call it particularly offhanded. It's based on a straight port of BSD called Darwin, which is open source under the a proprietary license that is similar to the GPL, with some additional allowances for linking to non-free software. I don't recall them ever trying to hide that. Granted, recent versions of Darwin are less than usable without all the close source OS X stuff, but there is a community trying to fix that. I'm not sure how far they'll really get, but it's neat to see.
http://www.puredarwin.org/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I considered it offhanded as Apple bought NeXT in 1996 which had an OS called NeXTSTEP (OPENSTEP and the OpenStep API) based off BSD. (NeXT was Steve Jobs company he formed after Apple let him go). The OPENSTEP foundation is the basis of OS-X and iOS. The funny thing is Jobs did all this in the late 80's early 90's while not even a part of Apple, he was basically fired, then 20 years later his work was what ended up saving Apple.
kzoodroid said:
I considered it offhanded as Apple bought NeXT in 1996 which had an OS called NeXTSTEP (OPENSTEP and the OpenStep API) based off BSD. (NeXT was Steve Jobs company he formed after Apple let him go). The OPENSTEP foundation is the basis of OS-X and iOS. The funny thing is Jobs did all this in the late 80's early 90's while not even a part of Apple, he was basically fired, then 20 years later his work was what ended up saving Apple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea. Darwin was basically their relicensing of NeXTSTEP/OpenSTEP to the Apple Open Source License. I played with NeXTcube in college, a couple of years after Apple bought out NeXT and shut it down. They were neat systems. I wish they'd stuck around longer.
Finally Ubuntu for the tablets is here. That's Right!!! This Thursday for the nexus7 and 10. Here goes the official video http://youtu.be/h384z7Ph0gU
hit the thanks... been a while
Almost here ,.....
Sent from my HTC Droid Dna Venom Rom using Tapatalk 2
horatiob said:
Finally Ubuntu for the tablets is here. That's Right!!! This Thursday for the nexus7 and 10. Here goes the official video http://youtu.be/h384z7Ph0gU
hit the thanks... been a while
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
I think I'm going to wait a little bit, conceptually it seems great but I would initially like to "dual-boot" if that is in any way possible - does it actually install a grub like pre-loader where I could choose to boot to my SentinalROM instead? How about Google Play store integration, any news on that? The biggest hurdle for myself would be losing access to all my Play Store games/books.
Astriaal said:
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
I think I'm going to wait a little bit, conceptually it seems great but I would initially like to "dual-boot" if that is in any way possible - does it actually install a grub like pre-loader where I could choose to boot to my SentinalROM instead? How about Google Play store integration, any news on that? The biggest hurdle for myself would be losing access to all my Play Store games/books.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh absolutely. I plan on downloading it as soon as it goes live.
Sent from my GT-N7100
Astriaal said:
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep
Astriaal said:
Just the developer preview right now it looks like, I thought it was the full release for some reason. Anyone planning to jump in head first just for fun?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to give it a try on my Nexus 7.. That's my entertainment/screw around with my own builds tablet.. I'm really not privvy to testing "development previews" of an alternate OS on a $500 tablet.. I'll at minimum wait a bit to feel it out on the Nexus 7 first and hear back from those who did try it on the Nexus 10.
Can this be dual booted?
I already backed up my tablet's data on pc. Ready to install it on both nexus 7 and 10!
tawfiqmp said:
Can this be dual booted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't read detail on it yet, but I did see a note indicating that it can be set up with dual boot -- needs a custom recovery, but it appeared pretty straightforward when I glanced at the description. Dual boot would certainly make me more receptive to giving it a try.
I'm not much of a developer but I'm all over this. Been waiting for over a year for this.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Dual boot is mandatory for me to do this
SayWhat10 said:
Dual boot is mandatory for me to do this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed. dual boot or no go!
if there is ubuntu for android where you have access to your android apps. Why cant we do that with our nexus 10?
I dont care for dualbooting if I can have access to android apps from within ubuntu.
horatiob said:
if there is ubuntu for android where you have access to your android apps. Why cant we do that with our nexus 10?
I dont care for dualbooting if I can have access to android apps from within ubuntu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know you do not have access to your android applications you simply have ubuntu.
Sent from a SGS3 GT-i9305
Loving this. You know they're turning this loose for the imaginative dev/hacker community to get great ideas for a full release on their own devices. It will benefit all in the long run. Google better embrace this as the future, I hope.
Sent from my LT28at using XDA Premium HD app
fredphoesh said:
As far as I know you do not have access to your android applications you simply have ubuntu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well that sounds like............it sucks. smh
i mean all these people happy to that ubuntu is about here, that they would give up all their android apps? really????????????????
Recon Freak said:
Loving this. You know they're turning this loose for the imaginative dev/hacker community to get great ideas for a full release on their own devices. It will benefit all in the long run. Google better embrace this as the future, I hope.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's great seeing this kind of development, but I'm not yet clear that it's something that would help Google or necessarily benefit the majority of the user community...at least not in the near term. Google's been working hard at gaining market acceptance for Android, and a significant component of this will likely be, increasingly, the availability of Android as an internally consistent ecosystem that spans phone and tablets. Ubuntu is pushing the same idea, i.e., a single ecosystem that encompasses phones, tablets and PC's -- and that's great. But unless there's interoperability between OS's, it may be a while before the consumer market is ready to embrace yet another mobile OS in a big way, as appealing as Ubuntu may be.
My Android phone (Galaxy Nexus) and tablets (N10 and N7) work so well together these days that I really wouldn't want to replace any of them with a device running an OS and aps that didn't "connect" with my other devices as well and seamlessly as they all work together now. I'm also not about to replace all 3 devices right away, and start fresh finding apps that mimic the functionality of the 100+ Android apps that I have installed.
Android and Ubuntu are both based on Linux at the lowest levels, so they can take advantage of common hardware drivers. But at the app level, they're based on different languages and runtime systems - so far. At the moment, Android apps can't run on Ubuntu in any kind of native mode and vice versa. While Google is working to gain broad acceptance of Android, what incentive would they have to throw another OS in the mix at this stage of the game?
jonstrong said:
Android and Ubuntu are both based on Linux at the lowest levels, so they can take advantage of common hardware drivers. But at the app level, they're based on different languages and runtime systems - so far. At the moment, Android apps can't run on Ubuntu in any kind of native mode and vice versa. While Google is working to gain broad acceptance of Android, what incentive would they have to throw another OS in the mix at this stage of the game?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I meant to quote and managed to thank you - While they are based on different levels I do recall hearing that there would be a dalvik vm built into ubuntu to allow for android applications to run inside the system as well - as long as you have the apk and such. Similar to BlueStacks for W8 and Windows desktop.
omac_ranger said:
Well I meant to quote and managed to thank you - While they are based on different levels I do recall hearing that there would be a dalvik vm built into ubuntu to allow for android applications to run inside the system as well - as long as you have the apk and such. Similar to BlueStacks for W8 and Windows desktop.
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Thanks for the thanks, however inadvertent
As far as I've read, Canonical doesn't plan on creating a Dalvik JVM for Ubuntu any time soon. The statement from them suggested that they recognize that native compiled apps (the dev ecosystem on Ubuntu is primarily HTML5, QML, C++) will run faster and more efficiently than code running within a JVM -- this was part of the comment when asked if they were planning to incorporate a Dalvik emulator in Ubuntu. There's nothing to prevent someone from developing one, but making this work properly will also require cooperation between the Dalvik implementation and the security framework in Ubuntu -- certainly possible, but I'm guessing it could be a year before anything comprehensive along those lines is likely to make it to market.
There's also another question nagging at me: how will Google evolve Android over the next couple of years? With an increasing number of apps rolling out for Android, it's conceivable that multiple windows (such as Samsung already offers) may become a regular feature, apps will become increasingly powerful -- and the distinction, at least for many people and many applications -- between PC and Android device -- will become vanishingly small for many purposes. If that happens, my guess is that this would further reduce any incentive for Google to somehow tie Ubuntu in with Android.
Of course I could be 100% wrong, and this just be the kind of thinking that happens after a 12 hour day without enough coffee... I personally love the evolution of hardware and software, and look forward to seeing how this all pans out. Fun to speculate in the meantime.
jonstrong said:
Thanks for the thanks, however inadvertent
As far as I've read, Canonical doesn't plan on creating a Dalvik JVM for Ubuntu any time soon. The statement from them suggested that they recognize that native compiled apps (the dev ecosystem on Ubuntu is primarily HTML5, QML, C++) will run faster and more efficiently than code running within a JVM -- this was part of the comment when asked if they were planning to incorporate a Dalvik emulator in Ubuntu. There's nothing to prevent someone from developing one, but making this work properly will also require cooperation between the Dalvik implementation and the security framework in Ubuntu -- certainly possible, but I'm guessing it could be a year before anything comprehensive along those lines is likely to make it to market.
There's also another question nagging at me: how will Google evolve Android over the next couple of years? With an increasing number of apps rolling out for Android, it's conceivable that multiple windows (such as Samsung already offers) may become a regular feature, apps will become increasingly powerful -- and the distinction, at least for many people and many applications -- between PC and Android device -- will become vanishingly small for many purposes. If that happens, my guess is that this would further reduce any incentive for Google to somehow tie Ubuntu in with Android.
Of course I could be 100% wrong, and this just be the kind of thinking that happens after a 12 hour day without enough coffee... I personally love the evolution of hardware and software, and look forward to seeing how this all pans out. Fun to speculate in the meantime.
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Why does Ubuntu have to do anything with Google?
The developer preview is being made for Nexus devices but that's only because they are readily available and open to hacking.
I don't think Canonical realistically thinks Ubuntu will be the lead platform for Phones and Tablets but that's okay. They're currently trying to fill a niche with their tablet OS which is the enterprise market. This is one place where Android hasn't made a ton of inroads and it happens to be where Canonical makes their money(albeit still not profitable).