Ubuntu Preview alpha arrives for fondleslabs and phones

As promised, Canonical has released the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview, complete with full source code and installation images for supported devices. The company warns, however, that this early, alpha-quality release is strictly for developers and enthusiasts only. "While a huge amount of Engineering and Design work has been …

[Steven Raith]

Interesting....

...to see how well the UI works, after the Unity stuff (which I've migrated to fine if I'm honest.

Got a managed wireless system to install in the next few weeks which requires Wifi Analyser on the current Android build of me Nexus 4 (which are widely available again, kids! got mime three days after ordering...) but once that is out of the way, I think I'll have a play with this.

Steven R

[Anonymous Coward]

What about the fragmentation issue?

What about the fragmentation issue - fud?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What about the fragmentation issue?

I wouldn't pay too much attention to our friend RICHTO ;)

[hplasm]

Re: What about the fragmentation issue?

Who are you calling a fud?

[Anonymous Coward]

Would love

a version for this for the Asus transformer infinity that is easy to install. Looks brilliant

[Dave 126]

Does anyone know...

How tricky it would be for flavours of Linux (and ChromeOS, for that matter) to run Android apps?

[WylieCoyoteUK]

kiosk mode

Can see a lot of applications for this, a cheap touch screen device with wifi that can be placed anywhere. just lock it down,, install software, add a card reader and you have ePOS

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: kiosk mode

ePOS

ePieceOfShit?

[Richard Lloyd]

Multi boot please

I personally think that Tablet Ubuntu needs a mult-boot setup as standard (not some third party hacky instructions that I've seen for the Nexus 7 + desktop Ubuntu). Until then, it'll be a real pain for anyone who wants to keep using Android whilst tinkering with Tablet Ubuntu.

This problem was solved way back on the HP TouichPad - add a recovery image, moboot and Cyanagenmod 9 and you can merrily boot between Android and webOS.

[Bruno Girin]

Installed it last night

I flashed a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 7 last night with the preview. Phone and SMS work out of the box using a 3 PAYG SIM. Wifi works too. In terms of apps, the web browser, photo gallery, notes, contacts apps all work fine. All this means that it is very usable as a basic phone or for casual web browsing at home.

The porting guide got released today: http://developer.ubuntu.com/2013/02/taking-ubuntu-touch-to-new-levels/ so I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing the preview on other devices sooner or later.