Ubuntu phones and tablets may not be a reality yet, but Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth says Ubuntu is "close" to running on everything from smartphones to supercomputers.
"The really interesting opportunity is to unify all of these different kinds of computing," Shuttleworth said in a Q&A with Slashdot readers published today. "Let's make one OS that runs on the phone AND on your supercomputer. We're close to that now—we know Ubuntu makes a great cloud OS and a great server OS and a great desktop. So I think the next frontier is to create a seamless experience from the embedded world to the cloud. And yes, that's very much what we are focused on at Canonical."
The Linux kernel, of course, already runs on smartphones, tablets, desktops, servers, and supercomputers. While Ubuntu is the most widely used Linux desktop, it has done nothing to stop the dominance of Windows and it only runs on mobile devices in limited ways. There is Ubuntu for Android, which aims to turn Android phones into Ubuntu desktops when connected to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. And Ubuntu can be installed on the Nexus 7 tablet in an experimental fashion.
Shuttleworth's stated timing for Ubuntu on phones and tablets is still so far in the future that it's hard to have much confidence in its prospects. "We've said clearly that the phone and tablet are key stories we need to tell by 14.04 LTS," Shuttleworth said. Ubuntu 14.04 comes out in April 2014.
While major PC vendors are shipping computers with Ubuntu pre-installed, Shuttleworth noted they are "nervous to promote something new to PC buyers." That's one reason Canonical believes mobile is crucial to its success. "If we can get PC buyers familiar with Ubuntu as a phone and tablet experience, then they may be more willing buy it on the PC too," he said.
Ubuntu is touch-ready, but still a desktop OS
The Unity desktop on the latest versions of Ubuntu is designed to be touch-ready, but Shuttleworth defended its usability with mouse and keyboard. "Unity positions itself to be ready for touch-only platforms like the tablet and phone, but the desktop flavor of Unity is optimized for the desktop," he said. "That's why we have such great support for keyboard navigation and hotkeys, why we have menus and indicators that you really need a mouse and keyboard to use. Yes, we have big app icons. But so have some desktop shells for 15 years (before the NextStep Dock, even)."
"On balance, I think Ubuntu's share of users has continued to rise, based on trends in hard-to-fake sources like Wikipedia traffic logs," he continued. "Unity is by far the most widely used shell on Ubuntu, despite the depressed-hipster 'can't live with unity' meme."
One reader asked whether Ubuntu "might be losing its way amongst the more technical users" because of decisions including the inclusion of Amazon shopping results in Dash searches. The reader also said Ubuntu "forc[ed] a beta-level UI onto users for 3 versions of Ubuntu from 11.04-12.04."
Without addressing those specific points, Shuttleworth replied "We are all at risk of stagnating if we don't pursue the future, vigorously. But if you pursue the future, you have to accept that not everybody will agree with your vision."
Here are a few other questions Shuttleworth answered:
Why doesn't Ubuntu include Android emulation so people can run their vast catalog of Android apps on their laptop, tablet, or the like?
Because no OS ever succeeded by emulating another OS. Android is great, but if we want to succeed we need to bring something new and better to market.
If we said we aimed to run Android apps, then two things would happen. Every developer that potentially cared about Ubuntu would feel it was OK to just write an app for Android. And every bug that would be specific to our implementation of Android's APIs would of course be a bug for us to fix, not a bug for the app developer. So, we won't do that.
Will Ubuntu ever be a certified platform for running Oracle databases?
That's not really something I can say "yes" to ;)
We do know that there are some very large Oracle databases running on Ubuntu, and the people running them get all the support they need from Oracle. If you're a large Oracle shop, call them up and ask for support on Ubuntu. But of course, with Oracle's own Linux now in the market, Oracle is unlikely to promote another Linux until they change strategy.
Nowadays, we get asked about this very rarely—people seem to have moved to care a lot more about Hadoop and some of the newer big-data options than they do about traditional SQL. And of course Ubuntu is by far the most popular OS for large big-data deployments. Perhaps for that reason we are not pushing Oracle very hard ourselves.
What is the appropriate level of the government's role in space? (Note: Shuttleworth was one of the first space tourists.)
The national space missions should be exploratory and seeking to push back boundaries, not crowding out the basics. I think the agencies failed to recognize that they could facilitate private sector activity in areas they pioneered, so we got stuck in agency-monopolized access to low earth orbit for decades. That is changing now, and the real win will be that agencies get lower-cost lift and certification and training options that let them plan the really pioneering missions of tomorrow—Mars and the outer planets.
Regulation is good for established markets—I generally like to see governments regulate hard to achieve efficiency and level playing fields in markets. What gets broken is government actors that participate directly, as Fannie and Freddie do in real estate in the US, for example. But I'm not a libertarian (apart from a brief spell in student days)—I've seen far too much corrupt and nasty behavior by corporates that act in a very narrow set of interests.
So, when you take that trip to low-earth orbit, or parabolic firecracker ride courtesy of one of the space tourism operators, you'll be glad of a regulatory framework that aims for passenger safety. And the professional astronauts, who don't really give a hoot about personal safety beyond the obvious 'don't be an idiot with my life', will be glad for the access to deep space that they would get courtesy of a vibrant market in the 'easy' stuff.
As noted earlier, you can read the whole interview over at Slashdot.
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