iPhone App Directory

Will Ubuntu come to mobile devices?

There have been a few articles about this following the Ubuntu Developer Summit. I'm not sure what it might mean for mobile devices as I've never been a Ubuntu user, but I'm guessing that it could have big implications for mobile music.

Anyone have any views on this or know more?

Clip to Evernote

1 comment:

njrabit said...

Many years ago, I bought a Sharp Zaurus SL5000 (pre-release developers edition) that ran Debian Linux (which Ubuntu is of course derived from) - it came with a QT-based UI which ran it's own QT-derived apps for it's 480x320 (or whatever it was) display. I was able to cross-compile all the command-line tools I ever needed, including Csound, and I was pretty happy.

So, Ubuntu already runs fine on mobile devices, but as papernoise says,most Linux apps expect at least a 1024x768 screen and are not designed with touch-screens in mind. I have Ubuntu running quite nicely on my HP Touchpad however.

More prectically, an Ubuntu chroot/virtualized environment on Android might be the way to go, providing some standard mouse/keyboard support rather than expecting vendors to provide their own drivers. Ubuntu still runs natively but behaves like an Android app. This is how the Ubuntu on Touchpad works.