Ubuntu Edge

[T_Yamamoto]

Anyone gonna look into buying buying this bad boy?

 

[dguy6789]

Why would they?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Meh, I will hack Ubuntu onto my S4 eventually.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I don't think I want to spend $600 on a product not launching for a year with specs that are not finalized. It sounds kinda neat, but I think I'll just wait and see on this one. And I do hope they go with a higher DPI screen. I won't be buying 720p resolution phones in 2014.

 

[gbeirn]

I bit, we'll see what happens

 

[OBLAMA2009]

ubuntu linux is sorta buggy and half baked with unity, i dont think the average person will want it on the desktop and esp. not at smartphone speeds

 

[2timer]

It'd be nice if the Edge had some sort of mass appeal, but sadly, I don't think it does.

 

[AFurryReptile]

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge

They want $32 million?!?!? LOL

I'm quite fine with my Android. This is a neat idea but I can't believe an Ubuntu phone will have any sort of mass appeal. Especially since I'd dare say Google will be the competition once they finally get Chromium and Android fully merged.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I want Ubuntu on my tablet real bad. Its my next project.

 

[Mopetar]

I don't think I want to spend $600 on a product not launching for a year with specs that are not finalized. It sounds kinda neat, but I think I'll just wait and see on this one. And I do hope they go with a higher DPI screen. I won't be buying 720p resolution phones in 2014.

They did touch on that they'd rather get a screen with better colors, etc. than simply stuffing in more pixels.

They've kind of hinted at the specs (at least 4 GB RAM, a quad core processor, and 128 GB of storage.) to some degree so I think we have a fairly good idea of what it will end up looking like.

The only reason not to get it is the software which is the biggest question. I imagine that they'll support putting Android on it and that there will probably be a strong developer community to support it, but it might take some time for all of that to get going.

 

[gbeirn]

It's not really a 'mass appeal' type device, it's more of a let's just do this because we can type thing. An enthusiast phone, if you will. I think the rarity of it alone should net me my $600 back if I decide I don't like it.

 

[Ravynmagi]

They did touch on that they'd rather get a screen with better colors, etc. than simply stuffing in more pixels.

They've kind of hinted at the specs (at least 4 GB RAM, a quad core processor, and 128 GB of storage.) to some degree so I think we have a fairly good idea of what it will end up looking like.

The only reason not to get it is the software which is the biggest question. I imagine that they'll support putting Android on it and that there will probably be a strong developer community to support it, but it might take some time for all of that to get going.

I agree, good looking colors and general screen quality are important. I cry a little looking at the display on my Nexus 4 and it has nothing to do with DPI. Still, for an $830 phone, the choice shouldn't be DPI OR quality.

 

[Crono]

Definitely interested. I've been following the news and I'm working on creating a website/blog to cover Linux-based phones (mostly Ubuntu right now).

I think they are taking the right approach with regards to creating a unified platform that works on both mobile and desktop, but I doubt the first iteration will get it exactly right. Microsoft has a common kernel and UI design approach for desktop and mobile, but they are still at least a year or a few years away from a single OS running on everything. Apple is even further away, and Android needs more features and better better multitasking baked into AOSP before it becomes a good option for desktop/laptop use.

Phones and tablets (and further out: scrolls) are the future, but professionals and power users still need desktops and laptops for at least a decade. You can just get more "horsepower" for content creation like video editing, 3D modeling, or for high-end gaming in a larger chassis than you can in a tablet or phone.

I'm not sure that Unity is the best solution long-term, but I do want to get my hands on the Edge. I had a Nokia Internet Tablet, the 770, which had Maemo (based on Debian) and came out 2 years before the iPhone, and 5 years before the iPad. Loved the concept; imagine what could have been if it had greater development and a multi-touch capacitive screen.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Chrono I would love to read your website. I am a huge Ubuntu fan, from Warty till today.

Ubuntu/Debian taught me what package management could be years before any "App Store." Mark is my favorite tech celebrity and I believe in his OS. It deserves a life on mobile devices.

 

[Crono]

Chrono I would love to read your website. I am a huge Ubuntu fan, from Warty till today.

Ubuntu/Debian taught me what package management could be years before any "App Store." Mark is my favorite tech celebrity and I believe is his OS. It deserves a life on mobile OSes.

I'll update my sig when it's ready to go live.

Ubuntu was my first desktop Linux distro. Right now I'm using Mint in a VM inside Windows 8.1, but I still like Ubuntu a great deal. I'm glad you brought up package management because it's funny how the single most successful large feature of iOS - the app store - was something that had existed in Linux long before that.

Android has it's origins in Linux an Java, but it would be nice - if only for the sake of competition - to see more independent mobile operating systems being developed. Android might be free and open source, but Google dictates a lot of its development. I have nothing against Google, but I'm interested in seeing what will happen with Ubuntu, Tizen, and Mozilla/Firefox. All these big Linux projects for mobile seem to have fairly large, well-known controlling interests/benefactors steering development, but I guess that might be a necessary thing if hardware is to be developed at the same time.

 

[poofyhairguy]

My first Linux distro was Fedora. The first one I loved was Ubuntu. I am not a developer so I always hated compiling packages. Ubuntu's combo of Debian's huge repo and side repos mixed with Mark's money for polishing has always been heaven.

I will be honest, I don't use it as a desktop. That is my hackintosh and really my mobile devices that fill that role. I love Ubuntu because I can start with the minimal install and build what I want like HTPCs or servers.

Can't wait for new sig.

 

[Crono]

Ha, I didn't like compiling either. It was confusing at first for someone coming over from Windows. Driver support wasn't the greatest a few years ago, I'm happy how easy it is now to get Linux distros up and running in dual boot or in a VM.

I forgot that I posted a thread earlier about Ubuntu, specifically the possibility of Steam on Ubuntu phones: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2321224
That would be a killer feature to have. Imagine a gaming platform or market on smartphones with all the independent and big name developers releasing games for it. Probably won't happen or at least not anytime soon, but that would be a major boon for something like Ubuntu.

 

[TanisHalfElven]

is it x86.
Thats pretty much the only way i'll even consider spending 600/830 on a phone.

Plus, i don't think it'll have anything on next years android/iphone devices.

Now, if it x86, and i can jimmy windows AND linux on there, thats a different story.

 

[Crono]

is it x86.
Thats pretty much the only way i'll even consider spending 600/830 on a phone.

Plus, i don't think it'll have anything on next years android/iphone devices.

Now, if it x86, and i can jimmy windows AND linux on there, thats a different story.

I want to triple boot Windows Phone, x86 Android, and Ubuntu.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I like the shape of the phone. Single machined piece of metal looks fancy.

 

[BladeVenom]

I think they should have went for a phablet. If people are going to run desktop applications on a phone, I would think they would want as big a screen as possible.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

by the time they come out with this, there will be something similar, but better, from google, apple, etc...

 

[Red Storm]

by the time they come out with this, there will be something similar, but better, from google, apple, etc...

Thankfully the people working on new technologies be it hardware or software don't think like you do.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Thankfully the people working on new technologies be it hardware or software don't think like you do.

mostly im a cynical about ubuntu. their desktop os is already a mess, now theyre gonna release another semi-useable, buggy project?

 

[zoiks]

mostly im a cynical about ubuntu. their desktop os is already a mess, now theyre gonna release another semi-useable, buggy project?

It's actually a pretty good OS. I've been using Ubuntu for a long time now. I've never had any problems although I'd consider myself more tech saavy than the average user. I'm currently using Linux Mint 15 (offshoot from Ubuntu) on 2 30" monitors and it works amazingly smooth and well.

If you know what you're doing, Ubuntu is really awesome. I haven't had to boot my Windows partition for a few months now. The only time I used windows is when I wanted to play a windows only game. But it looks like that might soon change too with Linux becoming an up and coming gaming platform.