Canonical unveils fondleslab-friendly Ubuntu 'experience'

Furthering its plans to broaden the reach of the Ubuntu Linux distribution from PCs and servers to mobile devices, Canonical on Tuesday unveiled its new user "experience" layer for tablets. The fondleslab-friendly UI follows on from the version of Ubuntu for smartphones, which Canonical announced last week. "Our family of …

[Anonymous Coward]

twin goats

Weevers quote: Fashion industry friends say the Ubuntu phone and tablet are the most beautiful interfaces they've seen for touch,

Ooh yes, I seem to remember an Oscar Wilde quote to the effect of 'Fashion is something so awful they have to change it every year'.

Weevers again: We're inspired by the twin goals of style and usability

At this point I realised I should be wearing my specs. But the mental image of twin goats (or perhaps even worse a Beebleborx-goat) embodying both style and usability is at risk of leaving me permanently scarred...

[fixit_f]

Re: twin goats

Given the idiotic clothes they produce and the bunch of funny, inbred looking mingers the fashion industry holds up as "ideal" (that most blokes wouldn't touch with a 20 foot pole) I'm not sure they're an ideal judge of the beauty and form factor of anything?

[Anonymous Coward]

Full marks for effort

Whether anyone is paying attention remains to be seen. Still, I like the approach, and it seems to be better engineered than the Microsoft solution.

[tonysmith]

Re: Full marks for effort

I saw a demo of the nexus 4? version and how it connected to a monitor and turned into the full OS. This is what win8 should have been like. They would have got a lot more publicity just being MS and kudos for well a engineered "One OS for all form factors" solution.

[nematoad]

Re: Full marks for effort

The phrase "Jack of all trades, master of none." springs to mind here.

Yes, it's a worthy goal trying to make a diverse range of devices look and fell the same but can it be done?

I have the feeling that by trying to get a foot in all camps they may lose out and satisfy no-one. After all looking at the daily hits on Distrowatch seems to show that people are voting with their feet and moving en-masse to Linux Mint.

So it may be that Shuttleworth and Co. have bitten off more than they can chew, but if they can pull it off then I for one will be interested in seeing the results. I'm not, however, holding my breath on this.

[Euripides Pants]

Re: Full marks for effort

Paying attention isn't the important thing. Whether anyone give two shits in a coffee pot is the important thing.

[Mage]

Stupidity

The LAST thing you want for productivity and usability is the SAME UI on different classes of devices and form factors.

Flames are not enough!

[craigj]

Re: Stupidity

Errr, nobody said it was the same UI, the article specifically mentioned 4 UIs. Next time try reading before commenting :)

"All four versions of the Ubuntu UI are be presented by the same underlying OS code, and Ubuntu can switch from one to the other depending on the size of the display and attached peripherals. "

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 8 alternate desktop!

This post is in regards to the alternate Windows 8 desktop named "Ubuntu Linux"...not to be confused with the Linux operating system. The below was posted on the "Ubuntu Linux" homepage...

"Microsoft has no problem with making your i7 desktop look like it is a mobile, and neither do we! You can enjoy all the great things like:

1. Having your PC interface as functional as a 3-button device!

2. Having your PC desktop look like ass and carry no powerful options!

3. Having your PC waste energy so it can be equivalent to a 5 volt battery!"

...Yes, I am NOT an Ubuntu fan.

[Connor]

Re: Windows 8 alternate desktop!

Ubuntu Tablet and Ubuntu Desktop are not the same thing. I use both Windows 8 as well as Ubuntu and whilst you may have a point about Windows 8, Ubuntu Desktop is slick, super fast, efficient, full of power options and looks great, and that is on my 6 year old Celeron laptop! On my i7 it is a dream to use and makes Windows 8 look slow, crash happy, outdated and unintuitive mess.

[Piro]

Re: Windows 8 alternate desktop!

Windows 8 makes Windows 8 look like an unintuitive mess..

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Windows 8 alternate desktop!

"Ubuntu Tablet and Ubuntu Desktop are not the same thing."

But for how long Connor, how long...

Someone just needs to get it done and write the book "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable OS Interfaces". By Steve Ballmer & Mark Shuttleworth. With a forward from Xerox.

[Anonymous Coward]

Love it!!!!

All the Windows haters out in force! The only snag with your utopic view of the world is that no one will actually use the Ubuntu software, whereas millions of people are buying Win8 every day.....

Or, maybe, 2013 will be 'the year of Linux on the tablet' hah hah

[Connor]

Re: Love it!!!!

That's not strictly true, millions of people are buying a computer every day, that just happens to come with Windows 8. It is getting harder and harder purchase a computer with Windows 7, let alone anything else.

So yes, millions of people are making the Hobson's choice of 'buying' Windows 8 and a relatively equal number are likely regretting it. That is not the same as it being popular, coveted or preferred.

[mmeier]

Re: Love it!!!!

My predition for end of Q1/2014:

+ Linux will have doubled it's desktop marketshare - to a whooping 2.8 percent

+ Android tablets will be "cheap china bombers" in the 100€ Woolworth store bins

+ Mac OS will be at 6 percent

+ Business tablets will be iOS or Win8 penables

+ Win8 SP1 will have added "recent documents" to the tiles and 98.2 percent of the desktop users will be happy with it

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Love it!!!!

millions of people are buying Win8 every day

Millions of people are downgrading to Windows 7 every day.

There, fixed that for you.

[Paul Hovnanian]

Yes, but ...

... does it run Linux?

[Chairo]

Sounds great! - Now we just have to wait for Canonical to develop a usable desktop OS!

Oh - wait...

[paulc]

I just want to run Ubuntu on my tablet...

not putz about with a layer on top of Android or futzing around using a dock... I want to wipe Android off a tablet and stick Ubuntu onto it full stop... the hardware should be capable of doing it... so what's stopping them?

[James Hughes 1]

Re: I just want to run Ubuntu on my tablet...

When you say them/. who do you mean? Canonical, or the tablet manufacturers themselves?

[Patrick O'Reilly]

Re: I just want to run Ubuntu on my tablet...

You will, tomorrow, when the code is released.

[mrmond]

Re: I just want to run Ubuntu on my tablet...

Google- Ubuntu - Nexus 7.

Install.

Done.

[mmeier]

The big questions:

Does Linux finally have stable drivers for WACOM and/or NTRIG induktive (stylus) digitizers that support ALL capabilities (Pressure, Tilt, Palm rejection)?

Will they work even if the next update comes around?

Can I switch off touch?

If the first two are "Yes" than this might be worth a look on Note 80x0 hardware. If not - why bother

[Robert Carnegie]

Just guessing,

I think you'll find that the touchscreen and stylus screen features appear as separate devices, although I could be mistaken. So, you can expect to be able to disable one and use the other. I agree that stylus use is more accurate - and I think touch usually switches off when you use the stylus anyway. Anyway, on a PC tablet, you can expect to be able to download and boot the CD to try it out, for no fee.

But that's just a guess.

[mmeier]

Re: Just guessing,

You are right at least for WACOM touch and pen are two components and you can actually use touch from another source. Not sure for NTrig.

I have used a Note 8010 (Note 10.1/WLAN only) for about 4 month. That unit has a Wacom stylus/touch digitizer. The unit does have "Palm recognition" and is able to switch of touch when the stylus is used 95+ percent of the time. Windows penables are about equal to slightly better. The remaining 3-5 percent "miss" is more or less problematic depending on what you do (more in drawing and handwriting-recognition, less in scratchpad mode)

On Windows based units you can switch touch of completely(1). The Note lacks that feature, there is no off switch. SNote (the notepad app) has it but only for that app (and not always working, some updates where fouling with it) but that was likely special programming not a real "off switch" for that hardware component. Ironically it HAS an off switch for the pen...

(1) And I do since pen is useful for forums / websites etc. and needed for Win7 applications anyway.

[DutchP]

I had an old tablet lying around that I never managed to properly get to work with Linux. Recently I gave it another shot with Ubuntu (12.04, if memory serves) and what do you know? It worked like I've never seen it work. So your Wacom may as well. No guarantees, YMMV, and all that, but definitely worth having another look at.

[mmeier]

Thanks. With some cheap tablets around and some used units soon to be (T730s, EP121, Q550) on the market this might be useful where Android tablets fail for a number of reasons(1). Hope the driver is stable for more than one kernel revision (A problem in the past with CSS drivers) and supports pressure at least (angle is a bonus but pressure a must)

(1) Like no XServers

[Matt 43]

Well, I for one...

...really want a version of this for my Asus Transformer, it's like a little (very high-res) netbook anyway with the keyboard docked. The thing's a bugger to unlock though...

[agricola]

Yeah, yeah, yeah Shuttleworth. Where've we heard THAT before? Oh! Now I know...

"But Canonical's Shuttleworth disagreed, telling ZDNet that although Ubuntu for devices is a work in progress, the vision for the platform is clear."

Before Shuttleworth introduced his beloved Unity interface, his puffery regarding his savior of all Linuxdom was that it was "...so simple that even your Mum could use it...".

AFTER its introduction, and it bombed big time because it was executed so poorly, Shuttleworth's circumlocution was at its worst (He probably thinks he was at his best): he never actually SAID it would be READY when introduced, and that all us boobs and nincompoops should have KNOWN that it was--here it comes:--a WORK IN PROGRESS!

"I never said all them things I said!" --Casey Stengel (stolen by Yogi Berra)

"No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar." --Abraham Lincoln

By the way, has anyone noticed that "Ubuntu For Devices"--UFD--is an anagram for "FUD"?

[mmeier]

Re: Yeah, yeah, yeah Shuttleworth. Where've we heard THAT before? Oh! Now I know...

Who needs memory these days. Just get Google Glasses(1) and Facebook will remember it for you wholesale.

(1)Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale not included