Ubuntu hits HTC's Touch Pro2, is any Windows Mobile handset safe? (video)

If there's one thing we're pretty sure Windows Phone 7 Series will be worse at than its Windows Mobile precursor it's in the running of various and sundry other operating systems. We've seen Android running on seemingly every WinMo handset ever created and more recently Ubuntu has been receiving the mobile treatment. Last month it was on an Xperia X1, now an HTC Touch Pro2 is getting a taste. A modder who goes by the handle sebbo90 is the one responsible for this, running basically the same technique as used earlier on the X1. It looks quite easy: just download a 200MB zip, extract it to your phone, then run an exe within. A few moments later you'll be in open source heaven, and, from what we can tell looking at the video below, it works remarkably well. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to hit up eBay to find a used handset and get hacking.

[Queshun Posted Mar 9th 2010 10:11AM]

Useless!!

[b0rndead Posted Mar 9th 2010 10:19AM]

Why dont they use the netbookremixgui? or even jolicloud, which schould work a lot better on small screens ...

[L3 Chiffr3 Posted Mar 9th 2010 10:29AM]

Nice One!

[Very Powerfull Codfish Posted Mar 9th 2010 10:39AM]

I don't really see the use of this, but sure, it IS fun just BECAUSE you can do it :)

[suncho Posted Mar 9th 2010 10:52AM]

Is any Windows Mobile handset safe?

No.

Sent from my iPhone.

[butch08902 Posted Mar 9th 2010 10:55AM]

not suprised. its only like 4gb. anything its better then winmo

[JaredTheGeek Posted Mar 9th 2010 11:00AM]

But people complain about the WinMo menu and this is ok?

[Pookiewood Posted Mar 9th 2010 11:36AM]

@(Unverified) This is just one of those things where you do it once and then check it off your list of things to do. :)

[MaTdg Posted Mar 9th 2010 12:37PM]

@(Unverified) Difference is that this is a desktop OS and was never intended to run on a mobile phone. It's also not oficially supported by HTC or canonical, just a bunch of smart guys who hacked the OS to run on this device for... fun or proof of concept.

[jussipussi Posted Mar 9th 2010 11:03AM]

Great accomplishment! This is the real deal! Fully open Linux platform on smartphone! Makes Nokia N900 Maemo (that has some closed source proprietary stuff) obsolete.

[Waltah Posted Mar 9th 2010 11:16AM]

@jussipussi
It is very cool indeed. I'd be willing to bet the you could accomplish pretty much anything faster on the Nokia though as it's much more finger friendly. It's just the beginning though, so it should be interesting to see what else they come up with for this.

[iCello Posted Mar 9th 2010 11:12AM]

anmost makes me want one.
I'm considering after I've got my next primary smartphone trying to save up for another on with great hardware and bad software...
Now winmo fanboys don't jump on me, winmo has it's strengths definitely, it's just not right for me.
I love the keyboard on this thing, and the screen +processor of the HD2 , or the browser of the N900, but I probably won't be able to afford one of those just to mess around with.

[theclerk74 Posted Mar 9th 2010 11:16AM]

http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/faq

Just in case Brandon wants to learn how to pronounce Ubuntu.

SO this method should work on pretty much any Windows phone... Pretty cool. I'll try it just to see if wifi works.

[unknownsolo Posted Mar 9th 2010 11:20AM]

What? no compiz and desktop cube? useless...

LOL, no i kid...this is awesome!!

[mp3 Posted Mar 9th 2010 11:42AM]

DO WANT.

[drakkus Posted Mar 9th 2010 12:11PM]

Makes me wonder why the companies hand out that sorta stuff directly to us?

[Brain4u Posted Mar 9th 2010 12:41PM]

Youu--Buntu! :D! All we need is a pico projector on WinMo Device :D

[bureX Posted Mar 9th 2010 12:42PM]

Ubuntu for ARM is probably running the show, and it's surprisingly responsive!

[chellebelle Posted Mar 9th 2010 1:30PM]

I have the most terrible desire to smack the video guy, but whatever. I love the concept that this proves, I just wish there was a mobile version I could use on a daily basis and still keep my phone functionality. I use my Tilt2 (the AT&T version) constantly for class, and just for life in general, and it would be great to be able to use an OS that I already love on a phone I love.

[AdamWill Posted Mar 9th 2010 1:47PM]

If by 'works remarkably well' you mean 'it's fundamentally pointless', sure.

It's fairly trivial to do; haret can boot any old Linux images you like, the Rhodium runs a well-known ARM CPU, and Ubuntu and Debian and Fedora all have ARM ports. It's not that hard to plug tab A into slot B. I was thinking about booting Fedora the other day, but really, what's the point? There's no sane reason to run a desktop OS on a phone.

It's a lot more use to spend time refining the ports of *actual phone operating systems*; there's a good Android port to Rhodium which is currently missing a few things (sound outside of actual phone calls, GPS and Bluetooth are the biggies); the devs would love help with that. It'd be nice to have a Mer port - http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer . But booting a desktop Linux? Really, what's the point, aside from getting on Engadget? It can't even take calls, and the power management would be horrible.

[num0 Posted Mar 9th 2010 8:27PM]

@AdamWill
> refining the ports of *actual phone operating systems*
That's what we call added value... try contacting Red Hat or FSF, former will code in GPL manner for $$$, the other one may let you have your own page in fsf.org.

[AdamWill Posted Mar 9th 2010 8:41PM]

@num0 I work for Red Hat, as it happens. We don't have any immediate plans to go into the cellphone operating system business. Er, as far as I'm aware, anyway. =)

[JesusFreak Posted Mar 9th 2010 2:37PM]

Hopefully Fuze and touch pro will be the next one up there. I started a thread in the Fuze/Touch Pro forum which I think sebbo90 referenced when he said phhusson's build, so I feel kind of special. :) Hopefully between this and the x1 build I can get mine working

[ArtInvent Posted Mar 9th 2010 4:11PM]

This is cool but what about web browsing? Any OS needs to be hooked up to the net somehow, at least through WiFi.

For that matter, I would much rather buy an Android handset and have the option of running that or Ubuntu. (Sorry, not much into WinMo.) Wonder if they have ported this to something like Droid or Nexus 1?

I love Ubuntu but it would be nice just to have an Ubuntu phone available. Dell? Listening?

[msnba3 Posted Mar 9th 2010 4:48PM]

I love the fact of ubuntu on the Touch pro 2 but its pretty useless without the phone functionality. pretty sweet though.

[jpbaril Posted Mar 9th 2010 7:03PM]

I think it's the future of the desktop.

Personnal computers (desktop, laptop) will be useless.
You will have a handset that will be *your* computer.
On the road: the normal smartphone gui and apps.
At home: you will launch an app (a virtual machine) that will be a full os which will output graphics wirelessly (e.g. widi) to a display (dedicated display, tv, projector, holographic?) (not on the handset screen) and that you will control with wireless (e.g. bluetooth) keyboard and mouse.

[techtroll Posted Mar 10th 2010 12:22AM]

Sweeet!! I want to be able to open a shell and login to a remote machine! My co-workers will sheit their pants!

[aeth Posted Mar 11th 2010 12:36AM]

It's better on the TP2 since it has larger screen. Easier to press buttons