Canonical giving Ubuntu the gift of Android apps

Well, here's a wild new spin on the Android for netbooks debate: Canonical, commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, is creating an Android execution environment that would allow Android apps to run on Ubuntu and other desktop-style Linux distros, which seems like the best of both worlds for netbooks in most cases. Canonical already has a working prototype of the execution environment, and plans on making the necessary changes to the kernel in its next version of Ubuntu to give Android all the juice it needs at the core level and will open source the project soon. Things are still early, and there's a lot of work to do before this is going to really make the highly specialized Java-based Android apps actually usable on regular Linux -- they're currently working on granting Android access to the Ubuntu file system, for instance -- but we love where this is headed.

[Thanks, Michael Y.; Image courtesy of Scott James Remnant]

[Look_Around_You @ May 26th 2009 3:31PM]

Now this is very exciting!

[David @ May 26th 2009 8:55PM]

Exciting, indeed. I am a huge fan of Ubuntu, having ran it on my PC for half a year, and the server edition for years. Ubuntu is certainly a suitable alternative to Windows or OSX, for anyone looking.

[JehxOne @ May 26th 2009 11:38PM]

IKNO OPENSOURCE FOR EVERYONE

[Doh! @ May 26th 2009 3:37PM]

U-Buntcake

[SeeScottRock @ May 26th 2009 3:48PM]

i wish i could vote plus more than once... people at work stared after that laugh. :-)

[Mark @ May 26th 2009 3:42PM]

Wow.

[copeland.albert.j @ May 26th 2009 3:45PM]

Now there's another reason to re-install Ubuntu..

[otdrummer @ May 26th 2009 3:46PM]

or to try and find grub again after windows seven ate it . .

[Andir3.0 @ May 26th 2009 10:13PM]

Microsoft definitely does it share of grub eating.

[superhobo @ May 27th 2009 8:03AM]

Grub sucks.

[Kyle @ May 26th 2009 3:47PM]

That's awesome. Now all we need is WINE perfected..and linux will rule the world.

[Greg @ May 26th 2009 4:40PM]

I find it funny that one of the most important aspects of Linux is emulating windows... :/

[Bash @ May 26th 2009 4:44PM]

Wine Is Not an Emulator

[Andir3.0 @ May 26th 2009 10:22PM]

@greg, it's not about running windows apps per say. It's about letting people use whatever applications they want in whatever operating system they want. I totally switched to Debian and Ubuntu in all my PCs just over 2 years ago. I keep a machine with Windows XP on it in case I need to fire up a game, but it's become a console and I can't remember the last time I started it up. I keep Windows in a VM on my laptop so I can remote into work, but other than that, Windows free living. My PS3 cures my gaming itch, Debian on my laptop does all I need for internet browsing and Office. Ubuntu on my Media PC does great at playing music, movies, Hulu, and whatever I throw at it.

Some will say WINE is a bad idea because programmers will still program poorly because they can (Win32, etc.)... some will say it's a good idea to get people to step in the door to Linux... I think it's a little of each.

[tamoghno @ May 26th 2009 3:48PM]

Andrubointu !
The humanoid with humanity !

Btw , this could be awesome if executed properly.

[john @ May 26th 2009 7:02PM]

Instead of some convoluted name, they should just call it Replicant (a different type of Android...).

[Puggs @ May 26th 2009 3:57PM]

Make Ubuntu a little more user friendly (for the regualr PC user) would be better.

[MattNL @ May 26th 2009 4:13PM]

Last time I checked, Ubuntu was more user friendly then Windows...

[Wwhat @ May 26th 2009 4:23PM]

Only if you don't try to change anything on it.

[MattNL @ May 26th 2009 4:33PM]

Changes that "regular" users would make (such as installing and removing programs etc), are easier to make on ubuntu then windows in my opinion. And for almost any regular setting, there is an app that can help you with it. Its when a poweruser want something special, things get a little tricky. For my girlfriend who just wants to check her email and IM a bit, I think it's actually more user friendly.

[Clyde Berry @ May 26th 2009 4:59PM]

@MattNL: Completely agreee. My gf claims she doesn't like using Ubuntu, but when all you're doing is checking Facebook or your email it's exactly the same as using Firefox in Windows.

[Mark @ May 26th 2009 5:08PM]

Until they click the install updates button and it hoses their system and makes it just bring up a black screen when they try to log in(has happened to me several times. Luckily I know my way around enough that I managed to fix it)

[trevor @ May 26th 2009 5:23PM]

call me an idiot but i still can't figure out what the hell to do with tarballs

[urandom @ May 26th 2009 6:23PM]

@trevor: you double click them and choose where to extract. what's so hard about that?

[Andir3.0 @ May 26th 2009 10:24PM]

Just like a zip file.

[Eddie W @ May 26th 2009 3:57PM]

I could see this being really nice for touch screen computers if it interfaces with the desktop nicely. Kind of kills most of the reasons to port Android over to netbooks, since you'd have the best of both worlds.

[ET @ May 27th 2009 10:04AM]

if it is java based, it should work on any platform, not just linux.

[Zombie Ned Flanders @ May 26th 2009 4:03PM]

Good stuff.
This makes more sense than companies slapping Android on netbooks just because they can.
Android is simply not a desktop OS. Sure, it might one day become one... but why wait when there's a perfectly fine (actually, fantastic) Linux OS available in Ubuntu.

[TRLK @ May 26th 2009 4:34PM]

Instead of waiting for WINE to work, try emailing yahoo for a linux version

[recharged95 @ May 26th 2009 7:37PM]

"but why wait when there's a perfectly fine (actually, fantastic) Linux OS available in Ubuntu."

Cause Android works in a extremely low footprint (smaller than DSL, and around 128MB) with an intuitive interface, and efficient on battery, and lots of features, and actually runs good power management, and has not bloat-ware, and has a sandbox, and....

Other distros can just compile the dalvik VM at the kernel level and then it's available on every linux distro. Nice experiment, but Android is more compelling on netbooks than any of the current Linux distros. Of course, Linux is common on both which is the right choice.

[VS Dude @ May 26th 2009 4:09PM]

Make all Windows apps run easily in Ubuntu and I'll install it as my default OS - and likely get a few other households to do the same! Wine is fine - but it still can't run the latest Yahoo IM client (with web cam and audio support).

[Dov @ May 26th 2009 4:19PM]

I have similar problems if it could just run a few programs like ms office (oa is a formatting nightmare) in wine I would be able to switch completely

[Chudilo @ May 26th 2009 4:29PM]

Pidgin (used to be known as GAIM is fully compatible with Yahoo messenger)
If you want video you can use SKYPE (Works as well as it does on Windows, with video).
I personally think Yahoo should make a Linux version of their client at least if they want to compete with Skype and Google.

[Eddie W @ May 26th 2009 4:30PM]

MS Office should run fine under wine. I switch back and forth easily between it and OO, though to be honest I prefer to do the writing in OO and then make sure that the formating comes out right with Word.

[Eddie W @ May 26th 2009 4:44PM]

@VS Dude - The point of Linux is not to provide a platform for running Windows applications. Wine is kind of a nice bonus, but I doubt that it will ever reach the point where it can truly replace running apps natively in Windows, for technical reasons (and because MS won't release its source code... think about how crazy it is that Wine is reverse engineered without a single piece of Windows code. It's quite a feat).

Linux will work best with native Linux apps, so I find as many alternate open source apps as I can before heading to wine, as well as letting companies know that I'd really appreciate it if they could release a Linux version. The more people who make the switch the easier it will be to advocate for native apps. I think that we'll see more and more of this, especially with platforms like Android coming down the pike.

Most of the time, when it comes to things like Yahoo not supporting Linux then I just don't use it (even in the cases where the app does run in Wine). Obviously, there's times when it's kind of a dealbreaker for your OS, in which case I'd encourage someone to stay with Windows.

[Jeff Lewis @ May 26th 2009 4:55PM]

@Eddie W - *Your* point of Linux isn't provide a platform on which to run Windows apps, but the *consumer's* goal is to run Windows' apps. You can argue with them until you're blue in the face that they shouldn't want that - but that's not how markets work, amigo. You don't win by having a great product no one wants.

Educating people that there are 'great alternatives' is pointless because you're ignoring the fact that there's inertia and a real cost in terms of time and money to switch from something that works to something that *might* work.

Ergo, either you have to come up with some new killer app that people really want, but can't get without switching to Linux (and no - in case you've missed it - 'reliability' and 'security' aren't it), or make the new app as painless and seamless as possible while making the cost of transition as low as possible (and no - that's not 'how much does the package cost' - Mac users understand this).

[iofthestorm @ May 26th 2009 7:50PM]

Kopete has voice and video support, although I don't like how the client itself is designed compared to Pidgin.

[Chudilo @ May 26th 2009 4:12PM]

I've heard rumors of "goobuntu" for over a year.
But this is very exciting.
The screenlets project has not seen much action for too long.

[Wwhat @ May 26th 2009 4:26PM]

I don't get why people are excited about this at all, would be more interesting to run ubuntu on android phones, then you have a leap forward instead of back.
Mind you I'm not into android (or cellphones in general) so I didn't delve too much into android.

[LVL UP @ May 26th 2009 4:47PM]

@otdrummer why don't you try installing Ubuntu with WUBI?

[Clyde Berry @ May 26th 2009 4:50PM]

Wow. I buy a G1 three months ago and take the plunge to Ubuntu a month ago and suddenly all I see is Android and Open source.

This is a pretty sweet idea. There's a couple of nice apps that could be really worthwhile for a netbook and would push even more development on the Android side.

[Bluntfarce @ May 26th 2009 5:16PM]

Users win when cross platform development work happens!

[paul @ May 26th 2009 5:36PM]

Erm, I don't get it. All you should need is the Dalvik JVM right? What else is there? SQLite?

[loopyoyo @ May 26th 2009 5:36PM]

ubandroid sounds better

[Toby @ May 26th 2009 5:47PM]

This is potentially major for Ubuntu in many areas. If Android has the success and growth that is predicted by many analysts the amount of top quality commercial apps available through this enviro will certainly bolster the appeal of Ubuntu netbooks—no disrespect to open source apps as they are very, very good in many respects, I’m just thinking about accessibility and how Android apps will become instantly recognisable over time as the OS takes a larger market share.

[MrF @ May 26th 2009 7:19PM]

I think this is the single greatest idea Canonical's made in a while (aside from making a MID and Netbook remix of Ubuntu). The idea of using Android with Ubuntu will increase the appeal of Linux overall, not to mention allow for further development of open source and Android beyond what they already have. Oh, and of course it's great for Ubuntu too.
I can't wait to see it!

[john @ May 26th 2009 7:06PM]

Hopefully they'll be able to work out a way for this project to have access to the marketplace ... since open source Android doesn't currently have that.

[megaultraextreme @ May 26th 2009 9:52PM]

It would be great to have seamless integration between ubuntu and an android mobile device. I don't own an android device [G1 is not appealing and it's pretty much the only option out there right now] but I do use ubuntu "full-time". Maybe I'll go for broke and build the/a FLOW haha

[http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/21/flow-is-like-the-ikea-bookshelf-of-android-phones]

[cpmerrigan @ May 26th 2009 10:51PM]

Very intriguing to see Google enabling Ubuntu to get traction in netbook space, ahead of full Android move to netbooks. I've been talking about how netbooks will be the wedge that opens the door to a bunch of non-Microsoft, non-Intel possibilities. http://merrigan.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/netbooks-could-change-everything/

[HereAndNow @ May 26th 2009 10:26PM]

I use Ubuntu as my primary OS and it would be great to be able to install & play with/use Android apps.

Hopefully, this is only the beginning. Android, Moblin & Ubuntu each have something unique to offer on netbooks & it would be nice to see their strengths blended, to create a really killer netbook experience.