I completely agree with this. If you're using Ubuntu on something that
has a screen, then it should be based on Ubuntu -- remember, we no
longer refer to Ubuntu Desktop. Obviously, you'll want different
applications installed by default, but a lot of things will be just the
same. It is likely that we'll use Wayland for the desktop, phone, tv,
ivi and anything else that has a screen. Network Manager will be used to
handle networking, and PulseAudio will be used for audio, etc.
What is important to remember, is that all these devices _are_ normal
computers. There is no fundamental difference between a desktop and a
laptop. The laptops used to be a lot weaker, but that's no longer the
case, or both are so powerful that the distinction is less important.
There is also very little difference between a tablet and a laptop,
except that it has a touch screen and doesn't have a physical keyboard.
A phone is either a very small laptop or a very small tablet. Other than
that, there's no real difference.
I think a lot of people do not fully understand how powerful phones have
become. Nearly three years ago, I was able to use the full Ubuntu
desktop experience on an OMAP3 device that was intended for phones and
similar things. More precisely, it was the IGEPv2, which has an ARM
Cortex-A8 CPU, a single core, running at 720MHz and it has 512MB RAM. At
the time, I still had -- and made good use of -- a desktop that was
significantly less powerful! Comparable devices from 2011 are at least
3-4 times more powerful. They are now easily able to run dual-headed
Full HD and Ubuntu desktop is absolutely no challenge at all. Memory
consumption will be even more important, but that only helps to keep
things tight in Ubuntu in general. And, of course, phones won't get
_less_ memory in the future.
It should be a major goal to keep Phone, Desktop, Tablet, TV and IVI as
similar as possible. The developers efforts and users experience must be
reusable. Their defaults, such as installed apps, should be optimized
for their primary screens, but other than that, they should be treated
as normal computers and you should be able to use it as such. I
overheard a conversation at a bar last weekend. Someone asked what's the
point of having HDMI on a phone? The other replied that it was probably
to watch videos and such. The software on my Nokia N8 is completely
useless on a large screen, which makes the HDMI port rather useless in
practice. I can easily attach a keyboard and mouse to it. If I had
Ubuntu Phone on it, I could plug it into any TV and use it as a portable
desktop. That would be a _huge_ win. It would make the hardware much
more valuable, which is good for users and manufacturers.
Ubuntu has a major advantage in that our software is free and can be
ported to ARM with relative ease. Microsoft cannot do that, because most
of the things that makes Windows attractive, is the third-party software
that they're not allowed to port. Apple, of course, is a bit
schizophrenic in that they have different operating systems for
different contexts. Android has nothing to compete with for desktops and
laptops at all.
Ubuntu is the only real show in town. In this situation, we must lead
and not follow. Ubuntu is Ubuntu, regardless of device.
Jo-Erlend Schinstad
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