Ubuntu on smartphones is a complete replacement platform for Android. It’s a full-blown desktop operating system with a smartphone-centric interface. There is already a product, Ubuntu for Android that can be installed on your smartphone. This version of Ubuntu is installed alongside Android and doesn’t make itself known until the phone is docked. However this a brand new product that your smartphone can run on. One shouldn’t get confused between the two. Ubuntu for Android is designed to put Ubuntu on Android phones so that two can co-exist. With Ubuntu for Android, you use Android for your phone operating system as usual but you also have Ubuntu on-board so you can use your phone, with a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, as a PC. Ubuntu for phones, however, is a complete replacement for Android. High-end Ubuntu phones will also give you the power to use your smartphone as a PC replacement, but there won’t be any Android involved at all.
It is designed to make all your phone content easier to access and your apps more immersive – every edge has a specific purpose, making all your apps, content and controls instantly accessible, without navigating back to the home screen every time.
However there is no solid release date for the OS. It has been said that, within a month, a release of the build for the Galaxy Nexus will be available. This means users will have to install the platform themselves. By the end of 2013, there should be versions of Ubuntu for many devices (including some tablets).
There are some things one must know about the Ubuntu powered phones.
Canonical will be releasing Ubuntu for smartphones, but, unlike Microsoft with Windows RT for ARM-powered devices and Windows Windows Phone 8 for smartphones, there will be no separate version for each device. According to the plan when Ubuntu 14.04 rolls out in April 2014 one Ubuntu image will support smartphones, smart TVs, and computers.
To run the low-end version of Ubuntu one is going to need a phone with a 1GHz Cortex A9 or better processor with at least 512MBs of RAM and 4 to 8 GBs of storage plus an SD card and a multi-touch screen. Lots of phones have the horsepower to do this. If you want to run the high-end of Ubuntu on a phone, which can support a desktop from the phone, it won’t be so easy. The high-end Ubuntu phone will require a quad-core A9 or Intel Atom processor, at least a GB of RAM, and 32 GBs of storage and an SD card and multi-touch screen.
Because Ubuntu is an alternative operating system for Android phones and similar hardware, it does not support, Dalvik, Android’s Java Virtual Machine (JVM). So developers will not be able to simply port applications from Android to Ubuntu. However the developers say that they are working on an SDK [software development kit] with a special set of phone components (widgets and other user interface elements) that run on top of QML and QT, and the applications look and feel as beautiful as the rest of the phone platform.
The best part about Ubuntu is its elegance in its simplicity. Ubuntu uses simple natural swiping gestures from the edges of the screen to make it easier than ever to access your content and switch between apps. Every edge of the phone is used, letting you move faster between apps, settings and content.
However, whether Ubuntu for smartphones takes off or not, one has to wait and see.
