Canonical kills its Ubuntu smartphone, tablet, convergence plans
Canonical, the software support company that maintains Ubuntu Linux, has announced it is throwing in the towel on Ubuntu phones and tablets and ending work on Unity8--a concept it had hoped would create a "convergence" experience to enable its smartphones to act as a PC or smart TV.
Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of both Ubuntu and Canonical, noted in a blog posting today that "we will end our investment in Unity8, the phone and convergence shell," reverting back to the GNOME desktop in future versions of its Ubuntu desktop Linux.
Two years later it delivered its first developer edition of "Ubuntu Touch" for phones, aimed at replacing Android on select phones--particularly Google's Nexus models.
Writing for CNET, Richard Trenholm wrote of Ubuntu Touch--after seeing it demonstrated at World Mobile Congress--that "on first impression I'm hugely taken with Ubuntu Touch.
"It's elegant, thoughtful, and versatile, while remaining beautifully straightforward. Compared to the messy Android copycats Firefox OS and Tizen, it's by far the strongest potential rival to Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. In fact, I prefer it to iOS, which long ago lost its shine, and heck, maybe even to Android, too. Fingers crossed that manufacturers and phone carriers get behind it, because I'd happily lay down my own cash for an Ubuntu Touch phone."
The next year Canonical showed off plans for Ubuntu TV at CES 2012, a project that never materialized. It appears that the company eventually hoped to have Ubuntu smartphones driving TV interfaces as an extension of its Atrix-like convergence concept.
Toward the end of 2013, Ubuntu attempted to raise $32 million in funding on crowdsourcing site Indiegogo to build an Ubuntu Edge phone (below), selling tiers of reservations that cost between $600 and $800. The phone aimed to convert into a PC when connected to an external display (above).
The project was canceled after reaching nearly $13 million in pledges. Canonical's Shuttleworth accused Apple of monopolizing the supply of sapphire screens that Ubuntu Edge expected to use.
Two years later, Spanish Android maker BQ and China's Meizu shipped the first commercial phones running Ubuntu in place of Android, albeit without attracting much interest from buyers, despite the focus on convergence.
Last year, a half decade after Canonical started work on smartphones, another enthusiastic reviewer, Jack Wallen of Tech Republic. wrote of the Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition, "many people have criticized Ubuntu Touch's laggy behavior. And while that is very much front and center on the Pro 5, I accepted that fact, simply because the platform is still in its youth."
A year later, Microsoft partnered with Canonical to integrate a Linux subsystem into Windows 10 and to collaborate on cloud services.
Another year later, Samsung released its own innovation: DeX, a dock that turns its Galaxy S8 into a PC of sorts.
Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of both Ubuntu and Canonical, noted in a blog posting today that "we will end our investment in Unity8, the phone and convergence shell," reverting back to the GNOME desktop in future versions of its Ubuntu desktop Linux.
The android of Android
In 2011, after Motorola showed off its Atrix 4G phone with a dock that allowed it to connect to a display and pretend to function as a conventional PC, Canonical announced ambitious plans to eventually support phones, tablets, TVs and "smart screens everywhere" in a future version of its Ubuntu Linux distribution.Two years later it delivered its first developer edition of "Ubuntu Touch" for phones, aimed at replacing Android on select phones--particularly Google's Nexus models.
Writing for CNET, Richard Trenholm wrote of Ubuntu Touch--after seeing it demonstrated at World Mobile Congress--that "on first impression I'm hugely taken with Ubuntu Touch.
"It's elegant, thoughtful, and versatile, while remaining beautifully straightforward. Compared to the messy Android copycats Firefox OS and Tizen, it's by far the strongest potential rival to Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. In fact, I prefer it to iOS, which long ago lost its shine, and heck, maybe even to Android, too. Fingers crossed that manufacturers and phone carriers get behind it, because I'd happily lay down my own cash for an Ubuntu Touch phone."
The next year Canonical showed off plans for Ubuntu TV at CES 2012, a project that never materialized. It appears that the company eventually hoped to have Ubuntu smartphones driving TV interfaces as an extension of its Atrix-like convergence concept.
Toward the end of 2013, Ubuntu attempted to raise $32 million in funding on crowdsourcing site Indiegogo to build an Ubuntu Edge phone (below), selling tiers of reservations that cost between $600 and $800. The phone aimed to convert into a PC when connected to an external display (above).
The project was canceled after reaching nearly $13 million in pledges. Canonical's Shuttleworth accused Apple of monopolizing the supply of sapphire screens that Ubuntu Edge expected to use.
Two years later, Spanish Android maker BQ and China's Meizu shipped the first commercial phones running Ubuntu in place of Android, albeit without attracting much interest from buyers, despite the focus on convergence.
Last year, a half decade after Canonical started work on smartphones, another enthusiastic reviewer, Jack Wallen of Tech Republic. wrote of the Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition, "many people have criticized Ubuntu Touch's laggy behavior. And while that is very much front and center on the Pro 5, I accepted that fact, simply because the platform is still in its youth."
The androids of Android androids
In 2015, Canonical's years-old convergence concept of turning a smartphone into a Linux PC--apparently inspired by Motorols'a ill-fated Atrix--was appropriated by Microsoft as "Continuum," an innovation of Windows 10 Phones that enabled them to act like a Windows PC, albeit like Ubuntu, they couldn't run actually run Windows software. Like Atrix and Ubuntu Touch, it didn't work out.A year later, Microsoft partnered with Canonical to integrate a Linux subsystem into Windows 10 and to collaborate on cloud services.
Another year later, Samsung released its own innovation: DeX, a dock that turns its Galaxy S8 into a PC of sorts.
Comments
If that Behmoth called Microsoft can't make it work properly then what chance does Canonical have? Answer = close to zero.
It is a nice idea but this one size fits all has its limits with software just like it does with clothes.
There were many who criticised Apple for not merging IOS and MacOS but give the dogs breakfast MS has made with W10 and not this decision then I think Apple were right. The sort of tight integration that is possible using iCloud makes merging less of an issue.
That is not to say that something along these lines isn't possible, it clearly is but there are still problems.
But after Apple created the iPhone and iPad, they shifted from trying to get PC users to switch - again where they were making slow but steady progress - to trying to take on Apple and Android in mobile. Like Ballmer, they had the great idea to try to use the same UI for their mobile, desktop and server versions of the software. Well the mobile version had no chance of succeeding. They lacked the money that Apple, Microsoft and even Google had to get their products out to people. They also had no apps. Like Microsoft is currently pushing with Windows 10 and Continuum (Ubuntu had this idea first) they felt that they could close the app gap with Android because their desktop applications could also run on phones and tablets because Ubuntu really only needs 1 GB of RAM. Had no chance of working because Ubuntu applications were not designed or optimized for small touch screens, and there was absolutely no developer interest in adapting them because there was no money in it. Ubuntu also tried to come up with a new, innovative UX/UI to differentiate themselves from iOS (and Android), and also to provide people with a practical way to use desktop application on a mobile interface, but it was unusable.
The worst part was that where the previous Ubuntu interface - a ripoff of Windows XP - was outstanding, and in fact better than Windows XP in many ways, Unity - a lesser ripoff of iOS I suppose - made everything more difficult on a non-touchscreen desktop. As a result, the slow momentum that Ubuntu had in getting Windows users to switch came to a standstill and was reversed. Ubuntu couldn't even take advantage of the mess that was Windows 8 because their desktop was actually even worse. So scores of former Ubuntu users ultimately switched to Fedora, which is Red Hat's desktop competitor to Ubuntu. This despite Ubuntu having much more software available for desktop users due to being the Linux desktop of choice for ages.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Canonical ruined Ubuntu when they took control of the formerly open source community led effort and tried to make money off it. Thanks to their failed meddling, lots of even the Ubuntu diehards switched to Debian (on which Ubuntu is based). Even if Ubuntu had come out with good tech and a good product - and they did neither - they didn't have the billions of capital that it took to compete in this space anyway. Had they stuck with getting schools, techies and small businesses to switch from Windows PCs as well as doing a better job of competing with Red Hat and the other enterprise-focused distros in the server market, they would have done a lot better for themselves.
So all that the columnist is trying to do here is associate Android with failure i.e. Ubuntu failed with an idea that Android tried first and also failed at and Samsung is allegedly taking another crack at when truthfully, all Samsung is doing is taking advantage of the new video out standards available in USB Type C. But Canonical's idea was not "the android of Android" or "the android of Android androids" because it had nothing to do with Android whatsoever. It was not based on anything that any Android manufacturer was attempting to do on a technology, application or OS standpoint. And it was an attempt to compete with iOS, not Android, as at the time Canonical launched their mobile ambitions, Android had like 15% market share and everyone - including this blog - was predicting its inevitable and likely imminent failure. But again, the failure of Ubuntu Touch has nothing to do with Android despite this columnist's best attempts to play association games. It is just another of many in the mobile OS graveyard, joining Sailfish, Symbian, Blackberry, webOS, Firefox OS, Java Mobile, Windows CE, Windows RT, Windows Mobile, Bada, Tizen and others still more obscure.
ok what iKnockoff is next?
The only place you can really make enough money to fund things is in the support. Which is easy to convince people to pay for in enterprise where time is money, tougher in schools who are willing to cut corners in many cases, and near impossible in the consumer market where people are either willing to get a new (cheap) device when things go wrong or find a friend/family member tech enthusiast to solve problems for free.
And Ubuntu was originally touted as 'Debian for idiots'. They made Debian for the masses. That is not what Android or Chromebooks are about.
It became very popular with Linux Newbies. Moving into the Mobile space sorta made sense at the time and there were many that wanted Ubuntu Phones but they failed or failed to materialise.
Canonical was also trying to become an alternative RedHat. This didn't work very well so we end up with where we are today.
A big project cancelled and now it seems that layoffs are inevitable as budgets are trimmed.
many of my LUG friends now run Mint. I bailed from Ubuntu around 2013 and sent to CentOS(with Cinammon) on the Desktop and Servers. Far more stable than Ubuntu ever was and to me that was a big part of the problem. They often fixed something only to break it again a month later. I got fed up with that.
It is a lot better now but for me it was too late.
I understand that Ubuntu isn't the same as Android.
My point is related to finding a market (and business case) for your product. Something general purpose Linux distros, which are community/enthusiast-supported, don't have to worry about.
For the mass market, people generally prioritize cheap and easy (in that order). People who use iOS certainly aren't looking for something like Ubuntu because they're willing to pay extra for the simplicity and level of support which comes with the Apple ecosystem. If they are disgruntled, they'll tend to look for high-end Android devices at most.
So to me, the main market for a commercially-supported version of Ubuntu (outside of tech enthusiasts, which is a relatively small market that generally doesn't pay for support), is Android users who are disgruntled with the Android ecosystem for one reason or another. Which is why I put it up against Android/ChromeOS and didn't see the business case.
Then you started in again. 1) article doesn't say Motorola did continuum. It said it tried to make a phone into a PC of sorts. Google it if you've forgotten. I also linked to an article. Phone brains for a laptop shell:
Its other features aren't relevant, but the fact is its fingerprint reader stopped working by the end of the year and was dropped.
Being the "android of Android" is a reference to being a half-assed knock-off copycat that paints oneself as innovative and novel, to another of the same.