On 1 December 2015 at 17:17, Barry Drake <ubuntu-advertis...@gmx.com> wrote: > Oh, I know it's quite feasible. And quite a lot of the system is open > source.
The Android core OS is FOSS, yes. The Google Play stuff is very much not, and Google is successfully manipulating the marketplace so that you really need that. As Amazon discovered with the Fire phone. > Since it runs on a very limited Linux kernel, I can see it wouldn't > be much of a problem. If you think you see that, then you're wrong and you don't really understand. :-( As I said: Blackberry and Windows both host Android runtimes. The underlying kernel is totally irrelevant. What matters is the quality of the runtime environment, and how many of Google's supporting programs it can run. > If any of the phone team are listening, please put it > on the wish-list. It's a mixed blessing. I would entirely understand if Ubuntu decided no on this one, as MS has. If you can run apps from a more popular OS, then you won't get apps of your own. And unless you are in the very very unusual position of being able to run the other OS's apps /better than it can/ then you're in a very weak competitive position. Worked example: IBM OS/2 2. OS/2 2 really was, as per its slogan, "a better DOS than DOS, a better Windows than Windows". It allowed seamless multitasking of multiple DOS apps, which DOS couldn't do without addons, and it also allowed smooth reliable multitasking of 16-bit Windows apps, better than 16-bit Windows. But Microsoft knew that 32-bit Windows was coming soon, so it released a 32-bit extension layer for 16-bit Windows and started adding 32-bit subsystems to Windows for Workgroups. OS/2 couldn't run these. So even before Windows 95 shipped, OS/2 started to lose ground. When 95 was out and selling very well, vendors started to ship 32-bit apps and OS/2 was dead in the water. If Ubuntu Mobile runs Android apps, it will be better for Ubuntu Mobile owners, but worse for Ubuntu, because it means Ubuntu Mobile will never get native apps. And that means it will be doomed. It was a problem for Blackberry, too. BB10 actually runs Android apps better than Android in some ways -- it multitasks better and more smoothly and you can always go to the Home screen and terminate rogue apps. But the compatibility isn't that good because it doesn't have Google Play. (Yes, there's a hacked version, but it only works with a few apps.) This means that there are few native apps. And that has more or less doomed the platform. It's already in maintenance mode. :-( > The physical keyboard is retrovation. I don't think that's a word ;-) -- but I take your point. It's a bit too small for me, so I'm slower on it, but it still means my typing is *VASTLY* more accurate than on any touchscreen keyboards. I hate typing on a screen. -- Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) • +420 702 829 053 (ČR) -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
