Canonical making full-fledged Ubuntu tablet push in early 2011
By Sean Hollister 
posted June 11th 2010 3:15AM
posted June 11th 2010 3:15AM
posted June 11th 2010 3:15AM
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This on an iPad will make it useful!
weeeeeee
@manifest3r
It could, but I really doubt you would know how to use Linux
@manifest3r First Dell announces new Ubuntu laptops for 2011 and now we're getting a new Ubuntu tablet? Time to save up.
Actions speak louder than words.
Show me the tablet, before making empty promises.
@pukerocket
re: "I really doubt you would know how to use Linux"
That's irrelevant. There's no requirement to learn Linux to use Ubuntu, just as there is no requirement to learn Linux to use Android. Canonical isn't out to teach people how to be Linux programmers; they're out to create a tablet UI.
Don't get me wrong... I love Linux, and especially Ubuntu and all other forms of open-source software... but this is... this is an abomination. If I was working in this design department, my response would be to immediately kill it and burn it's body.
@CaryHiroyuki Tagawa You gunna give us all a good reason, or are you just going to leave us all wondering...?
@pukerocket turn it on, log in, use apps? (referring to Ubuntu, not just linux as itself)
@CaryHiroyuki Tagawa I totally agree with you. This looks like an OS X clone only they couldn't get most of the stuff right. And don't give me the crap about being able to use your fingers. The icons on the top of the screen are tiny so if you are expected to be able to click on those then why are the other ones huge and ugly? No offence to ubuntu and the rest of the linux community but there is only so much you can do and hope for when there is virtually no commercial software for your platform (short of Matlab and a couple of others). Plus if slapping some paint on gnome was an option Google would've developed android …
@manifest3r
looky here::> http://imgur.com/HYsyC
looks like windows 7 to me... Thanks but no thanks. :)
Windows 7 was my idea
@grouver
I love my Ubuntu. This OS has experienced the most incredible rise among all Linuxes. And with the lineup of manufacturers behind this specific distribution even more developers, and relax guys, I'm sure designers too, will group together and give it a real momentum.
Maybe the so called fragmentation of Linuxes that stood itself in the way over the last years will come to an end and a clear leader will emerge for the consumer market. :-)
@Paul Elmy Ubuntu is pretty promising but you are correct on the other hand, where's the hardware!!!!
@nickcraze that was pretty much an IDIOT comment. But that makes sense since "Windows 7 was your idea"!
@licotto
I really like Windows 7, but it needs to be done again from the ground up. I think it should be redesigned for multitouch devices with smaller (10") screens, since the market is expanding in that area. That would give it some much needed eye candy, unified feel and finger-friendliness on top of its vast functionality, unlimited Apps and ease of use.
@Kangal Windows CE 7 is being designed for smaller 10" touch screens with multi-touch capabilities. Windows 7 is designed for desktops and already have unlimited Apps in their marketplace. Don't underestimate a desktop OS by confusing it with something to compete with the iPad...
@Aklex7
Yeah, that was kinda my point. The original comment was so stupid and juvenile the poster probably has problems sitting the right way round on the lavatory
@grouver
Seriously a mac os x clone? Did u know that os x is based on linux? Do your research first, its the other way around.
@The Madman
Um, I thought it you could tell... IT'S FREAKING UGLY!
I don't mean kill the operating system... kill that butt-ugly design. And to the guy who thinks it's an OSX Clone... what? Don't get me wrong, I hate anything Apple, but wow... Apple has never put out anything that ugly.
Pixel Qi + Ubuntu = less chance of vaporocity?
@c w j
All these tablet OS developers are getting it wrong. On a tablet, you don't want a sense of up and down, as in toolbars and the like. You want a radial experience. There shouldn't be a right-side-up. It beats the purpose of a tablet.
And you shouldn't copy a desktop OS and maybe re-skin it. That passed for laptops, but it will not pass for tablets.
Any developer out there? Get in touch with me, I have a few ideas. We'll make millions and go down in Wikipedia as the creators of something brilliant.
@samisax If you have good ideas you should come up with some mockups to better explain how your UI would work.
@samisax
Agreed on that. Also I don't understand why there isn't a competitive tablet available at my electronic store already. There's so many companies building them and not one is selling, except JooJoo and you don't hear much of that one.
@samisax
um, perhaps you thought he above pic represented the Ubuntu tablet OS?
at this point I'm interested in getting something real and actual that I can spend some gross nat'l debt on.
while I've no doubt Canonical has no intent for it's touch OS to be the same as it's non-touch, there's a community just waiting to deal with what it misses.
hardware, please. before I'm dust.
I've been looking for a tablet this may be the answer. if the hardware is right and the price
Hey guys I've got a great idea, let's slap a tablet interface on Linux, this will be super popular and no one's ever tried that before, right? Right...? Guys...?
@Tres There's a difference between adapting a current UI, with full desktop applications, and creating some stupid widget layer from scratch.
@The Madman
So you think that Canonical doing what Microsoft have been trying to do since circa 2003 with Windows will suddenly be much more successful with a much less popular operating system? Riiiight.
@Tres
Agreed. I have exactly the same reservations about this concept as I do of sticking Windows 7 on a tablet. Worse, I doubt that if Microsoft can't make the concept work with their resources and experience then I don't think that Canonical will fare much better.
While I fully appreciate why this approach is appealing to some people I just don't think the end result will be as good as a platform that was designed from the ground-up for a touch interface. Frankly, it seems like cutting corners in order to have something sooner.
Still, I'm happy to be proven wrong...
@Tres Considering that, generally, Linux GUIs are designed with a large amount of flexibility in mind, and that they're separating their desktop and tablet operating systems instead of trying to make one that fits both (a la Windows)... I think they stand a chance.
@The Madman
Flexibility, not user friendliness. Besides, Ubuntu isn't exactly a household name if you were gonna go for a tablet and you weren't a neckbearded Linux nerd, would you go for a Windows 7/iOS based device or something hacked together with a bunch of software you've never heard of?
It's a waste of time and effort and will go unused by all but the most fervent of Linux zealots. Speaking as an ex-zealot myself, no one outside of the OSS community cares about freedom, they just want a product that does the best job at the cheapest price and that is easy to use.
@Tres Most people wouldn't go for a Windows 7-based tablet PERIOD. There's no point when a Windows 7-based laptop costs basically the same and is less frustrating to use.
The iPad, on the other hand, is a different matter, because it uses an OS based entirely around touch (whether you like it or not, that's exactly what the iPhone's OS was and therefor it was appropriate for a tablet).
What I'm talking about isn't necessarily about having huge sales, though: what I'm referring to is their ability to make an OS that is actually usable on a tablet. That much, I think they can do, but I recognise it's not enough to get sales. Two other things are needed: an appealing reason to use Ubuntu over other operating systems and some extensive marketing to get their name out. With Ubuntu One online sync and the Ubuntu One music store built-in, cleverly designed and easy to understand and use, Canonical is making more and more right decisions to create an appealing product.
@Tres
When it comes to tablets, I don't think the fact that Ubuntu isn't a household name isn't that much of a problem because, as far as consumers are concerned, the tablet market is new and there aren't established names yet, with the exception of the Apple iPad. It looks like this market is going to be much more diverse than the desktop and each platform stands a pretty good chance of shelf space for people to look at. What they do need, however, is a product that stands up to the competition and they'll need it soon before names do get established in the minds of consumers.
@Tres
...and if not for Linux we wouldn't have any of the "most useful" devices. Sure, Apple products are fine at doing whatever limited thing they are specifically intended to do. However, if you try to go outside of that things quickly get nasty.
There's plenty of room to improve on what Apple has done despite all of the screeching from the cult.
Apple only "just works" for limited values of "just works".
Love it!
oh man would i get one of these
Finally Ubuntu on Engadget! Woo! :D
@TheNerdAL
I would love for Canonical to make hardware to boot with these.
Ubuntu Branded computers :O
@TheNerdAL
Ubuntu vs MeeGo should be interesting.
I say this cause I've been following both (Ubuntu & Moblin) OS offerings for netbooks and noticed that usually what Canonical does wrong Moblin does right, and what Moblin does wrong Ubuntu gets right.
They both have alot of potential but usually something goes wrong and its a nightmare. When will they learn to set aside their differences and unite forming a feature-packed, friendly UI and superlight OS which will inherit the name Meetu???
How about making it this year...we are only in june.....what a joke
Only 3/5 of the browser window shows the content... (; ´Д` )
@(Unverified)
The reason I absolutely refuse to use firefox.
@samisax
Try installing the littlefox theme some time, it only needs about 50 pixels if you turn off the status- and bookmark bars.
@drange
or stick to chrome and get a better experience, don't you think?
mac os X am i really the first one?!
@Formul You know, Mac OSX is nothing more that a BSD Unix kernel with custom Apple UI slapped on, so it is really not that different.
BTW there have been many experimental UI concepts and it's hard to say who has the prior art.
@Formul http://yfrog.com/mrscreenshot20100611at101p
@stoffer
No it's not, and it would be nice if people like you should stop pretending they now shit about what they're saying. OS X is as much 'just BSD with a GUI slapped on' as Windows 7 is 'just Win95 with a nicer GUI'. Yes, (parts of) the userland are BSD, but probably 80% of the OS has nothing to do with BSD at all.
@drange Yes, please, people, stop spewing this dribble. FreeBSD is in there somewhere, but it's almost-nothing to do with the design of MacOS at all. All it's there for is basically hardware support, but it stops there.
@stoffer
That's thrilling and all but only Mac OS X will actually run my applications. In a simplified way you are indeed correct, but in all practical senses your comment is pretty useless.
I will, however, say that I am not in the slightest bit interested in a tablet running Mac OS X for exactly the same reasons why I'm not interested in ones running Windows 7 or Ubuntu.
it looks like mac os x seriously haha