Technoglitch
Core Member
Canonical still believes in convergence. The company that makes the open-source OS Ubuntu and tried to raise $32 million for a smartphone that can power a PC has announced its first ever tablet, promising that the device is just a keyboard and mouse away from a full desktop experience. Plug in these peripherals and the 10.1-inch tablet switches from a full-screen mobile layout to a windowed user interface. Add a monitor, and you’ve got an Ubuntu PC. It’s a niche computing experience, but it’s one that’s full of possibilities.
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Canonical still believes in convergence. The company that makes the open-source OS Ubuntu and tried to raise $32 million for a smartphone that can power a PC has announced its first ever tablet, promising that the device is just a keyboard and mouse away from a full desktop experience. Plug in these peripherals and the 10.1-inch tablet switches from a full-screen mobile layout to a windowed user interface. Add a monitor, and you’ve got an Ubuntu PC. It’s a niche computing experience, but it’s one that’s full of possibilities.
"SPECIFIC FORM FACTORS [ARE] INCREASINGLY ARCANE AND OUTDATED."
The definitions of "specific form factors [are] increasingly arcane and outdated," Canonical CEO Jane Silber tells The Verge. "I think what’s happening in the industry is the blurring of those segments and the need for a consistent platform and user experience across those." Silber thinks Ubuntu can supply this.
As with Canonical’s previous mobile devices, the company has chosen to simply borrow an existing product and add Ubuntu — in this case, the Aquaris M10 tablet from Spanish manufacturer BQ. With 2GB of RAM, 1280 x 800 resolution, and a 1.5 GHz MediaTek processor, the M10 is far from a powerhouse, but the build quality is surprisingly good. It feels solid despite weighing less than an iPad Air, and the matte black plastic body looks neat and businesslike.
The hardware isn’t too important though — the real draw is the software. The M10 is the first device to be shipped with the mobile version of Ubuntu with convergence capabilities. Although this particular flavor of the company’s OS has been out for a week or so, you can’t really get a feel for it on its older mobile devices as their screens are too small and they have no outputs to hook up a larger monitor. (Although, Canonical’s engineers tell me that given the technical capabilities of Ubuntu’s users, they’ll soon find ways to get the OS on other devices.)
UBUNTU M10 TABLET
While in tablet mode, the M10 retains the quirks of Ubuntu’s mobile OS. Instead of having a single home screen or app drawer, there are scopes — themed screens that collate information from apps in certain categories, say, News or Messages. You can swipe in from the left of the tablet to bring up a task bar with pinned applications, or swipe in the from the right to access for a carousel-style app switcher with recently-used programs.
Of course, you’re not going to find the selection of apps you’d get on iOS or Android (or even Windows Phone), but Canonical is confident its scopes cover the key, non-frivolous, bases: email, messaging, news, music, etc. More importantly, though, is the future of the platform. As the underlying framework for Ubuntu’s mobile OS is the same as its desktop OS, anything that works on Ubuntu PCs and laptops can work on its mobile devices and vice versa. Many of them (like LibreOffice) already do, and Canonical offers developer tools to help coders create interfaces that work with any size screen.
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Canonical's new Ubuntu tablet can also be your PC | The Verge
Share on Facebook (386) Tweet Share (23) Pin
Canonical still believes in convergence. The company that makes the open-source OS Ubuntu and tried to raise $32 million for a smartphone that can power a PC has announced its first ever tablet, promising that the device is just a keyboard and mouse away from a full desktop experience. Plug in these peripherals and the 10.1-inch tablet switches from a full-screen mobile layout to a windowed user interface. Add a monitor, and you’ve got an Ubuntu PC. It’s a niche computing experience, but it’s one that’s full of possibilities.
"SPECIFIC FORM FACTORS [ARE] INCREASINGLY ARCANE AND OUTDATED."
The definitions of "specific form factors [are] increasingly arcane and outdated," Canonical CEO Jane Silber tells The Verge. "I think what’s happening in the industry is the blurring of those segments and the need for a consistent platform and user experience across those." Silber thinks Ubuntu can supply this.
As with Canonical’s previous mobile devices, the company has chosen to simply borrow an existing product and add Ubuntu — in this case, the Aquaris M10 tablet from Spanish manufacturer BQ. With 2GB of RAM, 1280 x 800 resolution, and a 1.5 GHz MediaTek processor, the M10 is far from a powerhouse, but the build quality is surprisingly good. It feels solid despite weighing less than an iPad Air, and the matte black plastic body looks neat and businesslike.
The hardware isn’t too important though — the real draw is the software. The M10 is the first device to be shipped with the mobile version of Ubuntu with convergence capabilities. Although this particular flavor of the company’s OS has been out for a week or so, you can’t really get a feel for it on its older mobile devices as their screens are too small and they have no outputs to hook up a larger monitor. (Although, Canonical’s engineers tell me that given the technical capabilities of Ubuntu’s users, they’ll soon find ways to get the OS on other devices.)
UBUNTU M10 TABLET
While in tablet mode, the M10 retains the quirks of Ubuntu’s mobile OS. Instead of having a single home screen or app drawer, there are scopes — themed screens that collate information from apps in certain categories, say, News or Messages. You can swipe in from the left of the tablet to bring up a task bar with pinned applications, or swipe in the from the right to access for a carousel-style app switcher with recently-used programs.
Of course, you’re not going to find the selection of apps you’d get on iOS or Android (or even Windows Phone), but Canonical is confident its scopes cover the key, non-frivolous, bases: email, messaging, news, music, etc. More importantly, though, is the future of the platform. As the underlying framework for Ubuntu’s mobile OS is the same as its desktop OS, anything that works on Ubuntu PCs and laptops can work on its mobile devices and vice versa. Many of them (like LibreOffice) already do, and Canonical offers developer tools to help coders create interfaces that work with any size screen.
Canonical's new Ubuntu tablet can also be your PC | The Verge
Ubuntu is the most used Linux. 
