NOTE: Before you read this, I want to clear up some confusion. This post shares an idea that is designed purely for some intellectual fun and discussion. I am not proposing we actually do this, nor advocating for this. So, don’t read too much into these words…
The Ubuntu phone is evolving step by step. The team has worked their socks off to build a convergent user interface, toolkit, and full SDK. The phone exposes an exciting new concept, scopes, that while intriguing in their current form, after some refinement (which the team are already working on) could redefine how we use devices and access content. It is all the play for.
There is one major stumbling block though: apps.
While scopes offer a way of getting access to content quickly, they don’t completely replace apps. There will always be certain apps that people are going to want. The common examples are Skype, WhatsApp, Uber, Google Maps, Fruit Ninja, and Temple Run.
Now this is a bit of a problem. The way new platforms usually solve this is by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay those companies to create and support a port. This isn’t really an option for the Ubuntu phone (there is much more than just the phone being funded by Canonical).
So, it seems to me that the opportunity of the Ubuntu phone is a sleek and sexy user interface that converges and puts content first, but the stumbling block is the lack of apps, and the lack of apps may well have a dramatic impact on adoption.
So, i have an idea to share based on a discussion last night with a friend.
Why don’t we rebase the phone off Android?
OK, bear with me…
In other words, the Ubuntu phone would be an Android phone but instead of the normal user interface it would be a UI that looks and feels like the Ubuntu phone. It would have the messaging menu, scopes, and other pieces, and select Android API calls could be mapped to the different parts of the Unity UI such as the messaging menu and online account support.
The project could even operate like how we build Ubuntu today. Every six months upstream Android would be synced into Launchpad where a patchset would live on patches.ubuntu.com and applied to the codebase (in much the same way we do with Debian today).
This would mean that Ubuntu would continue to be an Open Source project, based on a codebase easily supported by hardware manufacturers (thus easier to ship), it would run all Android apps without requiring a cludgy porting/translation layer running on Ubuntu, it would look and feel like an Ubuntu phone, it would still expose scopes as a first-class user interface, the Ubuntu SDK would still be the main ecosystem play, Ubuntu apps would still stand out as more elegant and engaging apps, and it would reduce the amount of engineering required (I assume).
Now, the question is how this would impact a single convergent Operating System across desktop, phone, tablet, and TV. If Unity is essentially a UI that runs on top of Android and exposes a set of services, the convergence story should work well too, after all…it is all Linux. It may need different desktop, phone, tablet, and TV kernels, but I think we would need different kernels anyway.
So where does this put Debian and Ubuntu packages? Well, good question. I don’t know. The other unknown of course would be the impact of such a move on our flavors and derivatives, but then again I suspect the march towards snappy is going to put us in a similar situation if flavors/derivatives choose to stick with the Debian packaging system.
Of course, I am saying all this as who really only understands a small part of the picture, but this just strikes me as a logical step forward. I know there has been a reluctance to support Android apps on Ubuntu as it devalues the Ubuntu app ecosystem and people would just use Android apps, but I honestly think some kind of middle-ground is needed to get into the game, otherwise I worry we won’t even make it to the subs bench no matter how awesome our technology is.
Just a thought, would love to hear what everyone thinks, including if what I am suggesting is total nonsense. 🙂
Again, remember, this is just an idea I am throwing out for the fun of the discussion; I am not suggesting we actually do this.
Do you mean to just reskin Android and swap out C++/QML for JAVA?
NO WAY!!!
For goodness sake I’ve been waiting years for some non-fruit/non-java mobile OS to develop for and after the demise and betrayal of Nokia/Maemo I am really counting on Ubuntu to deliver a high performance C++/QML mobile OS that I can use NORMAL apt packages on a NORMAL linux OS framework. I know you are doing your damnedest to not use deb packages but if you want “apps” on a converged mobile/desktop system then for goodness sake get the apt packaging working for the desktop side and take advantage of 40,000 “apps” already available. THEN offer Android emulation within a NORMAL linux OS framework for extra mobile apps until native ones become available… that would be useful. Presuming the big players will never support your mobile OS is the same as saying Ubuntu mobile will never be mainstream and get major traction so you may as well give up now and/or just use stock Android and be done with it.
But to rebase everything on JAVA is 180 degrees opposite to the right thing to do.
Jono the goal is to have snappy in every piece of the ubuntu project. Some “apps” like Dropbox or WhatsApp will land as additional framework if I understand well.
I love ubuntuphones cause the system is totally new and well thunk allowed soon a real convergent from ui to base system.
Made an ubuntuphone as ui for Android is a total non-sense
Cheers Winael
No need to use Java, Android supports C++ development quite well. Shouldn’t be too hard to support QML on Android, if it’s not already supported.
the qtcompany is supporting android as a official platform. You can find qtapplication in playstore today.
Dangerous title, Jono. I give it a couple of hours before we see a Phoronix article reporting a definite switch to Android.
I can certainly see where you’re coming from. I pre-ordered a Nokia N900 back in the day. A phone with a wonderful slide-out keyboard, based on Debian (and using Apt for package management). There were a very few commercial apps but what helped is that the phone could run any GTK apps that were recompiled for it. Essentially, anything Debian had to offer. That was amazing… But ultimately I could see what was happening in Android and I wanted some of that.
Open source hasn’t had many beacons like that before and it doesn’t look like there will be any but Ubuntu in the near future. Ubuntu shouldn’t be looking how to make money from apps (though I could understand Canonical wanting that), rather how to get the best from the existing open source community and their existing applications, to help them improve things so every bit of software in Ubuntu (within reason) can run on a phone and the desktop.
But let’s say Ubuntu Phone did move to Android. That isn’t very “converged”… Would the desktop follow? Would we dump this GNU and Debian tosh and focus in on an ecosystem that already has hardware support and marketing behind it? It could work but I’m not sure how many developers would follow.
same here, I had a Nokia 770 and an N800, loved it. Now I have to make do with a rooted phone and chroot into an armel linux image.
Yes, no Android anything on the front-end, please.
I would be inclined to rebase on Firefox OS. Ditch the daft QML nonsense that nobody knows and deliver something where HTML is the toolkit. Endorse and locally serve stuff like Bootstrap and Jquery and integrate it with server side applications. Give the Ubuntu phone a special relationship with Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server. Make it just work with Asterisk on your Ubuntu Server as the primary dialler using SIP or IAX. Sell them differently, maybe in packs of 10 with an Ubuntu Server running Asterisk. There is plenty that could be done to add a unique selling point. Rebasing on Android and removing a unique selling point would be daft in the extreme. Doing it to get a bunch of non-Free closed proprietary stuff to work is nuts, if I wanted all that junk I would have an iPhone.
In short: – The lack of Apps is the main stopper. It’s key to the Ubuntu Phone success – WebApps and Scopes are really great but they are not Apps. – Android has this Apps.
So How we can use these Apps? – Use Android (kernel) instead of Ubuntu (kernel) is not an option – What about Ubuntu running LXD with Android kernel?
Containerization can not change the kernel.
True. I’m thinking on LXD with steroids plus the new kernel feature to update/change itself without reboot.
I think ubuntu phone is running a android kernel today
Jup. Kernel and drivers are reused from Android. It’s just a Linux kernel after all. Also the kernel doesn’t decide what runs on the system since no apps run directly on the kernel. It’s just the different userland of Android that doesn’t let you just run them anywhere else.
I think Ubuntu devices will be enougth powerfull to be able to run the Android’s VM hack to run apk on GNU+linux (because on the convergence goal they should allow run office apps, and probably gaming things, so a simple vm or whatever the hack is, it should be ok). Put those apk into snap or have an snappy app that reconize the apk should be possible.
But right now, I am not sure the device can handle this or the “can’t remember the hack name that run apk on linux” is stable enought, or the teams have time to work on it, and it would break the UX, when talking about convergence, that is not so wellwell (especially when people look enthousiaste about ubuntu because of its design/ergonomy).
“This would mean that Ubuntu would continue to be an Open Source project, based on a codebase easily supported by hardware manufacturers (thus easier to ship), it would run all Android apps without requiring a cludgy porting/translation layer running on Ubuntu”
Here’s the problem with what you’re suggesting. Yes, you could create something that looks and feels like the current Unity experience on top of Android. Yes, you could base it on AOSP so that the result is FOSS (or as FOSS the the current Ubuntu codebase excepting the binary blobs needed for phone stuff). No, it couldn’t run “all Android apps”. Why not? Android apps increasingly rely on proprietary Google Play Services, so unless we include that with this new Ubuntu-flavoured Android, it will only run a subset of Android apps. It seems to me that this ruins the premise on which you’re suggesting we do this.
I don’t think it is a good idea to base Ubuntu on Android for many reasons, but you know what, you are right – Ubuntu needs more apps and would substantially benefit from those.
So, here is my suggestion: Why about keeping Ubuntu as it is but make an app installable through Software Center which would work like ScumVM 🙂 or Steam. It would have catalogue of apps – or those apps would be installable through the Ubuntu Software Center as addons (and it would also allow installing .apk files). This App would then have Android runtime in it and allow Android apps running on Ubuntu Devices. It could also create .desktop files so these apps would be accessible without running the “Steam-like” manager.
I think that is is a great idea. It wouldn’t have to be on Ubuntu Phones, it wouldn’t depend on Ubuntu base as it would be separate like Steam’s runtime and it would allow what you are proposing. There are several projects aiming at this on desktops, there are even some opensource ones so it should be possible to use something there already is. Not to mention that few years back even Canonical had some Android “emulator” as the goal was to allow Android apps on Ubuntu. source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2009/05/canonical-developers-aim-to-make-android-apps-run-on-ubuntu/
Thumbs up, I really would appreciate this!
It is going to be a pretty big runtime as android and Ubuntu use different c libraries. It need to have everything but the kernel in it.
It is not that big issue. That is why I think it should be optional so low-end phones would do without it. Also, if you wanted to support current Ubuntu stuff you would have similar problem on the oposite side.
We can also use the great tools we have to create applications that make people want to buy a phone. Thus began Dropbox or Whatsapp
Basing the Ubuntu phone on Android would have been the smart thing to do. The mobile phone market does not even want Windows phone as a third platform, it certainly does not want a fourth, fifth or sixth platform. The simple fact is that IOS and Android are all the users – and the lion share of commercial developers – accept. Even Microsoft with all its former might – and vast resources – cannot convince people otherwise. And now there come Ubuntu Phone, Firefox OS and all those other niche platforms that have their individual tweaks and unique features, but essentially only offer more of the same.
Maybe I’ve been too long in the business and have become too pragmatic and lack the enthusiasm for everything new that I had thirty years ago, but nowadays I just want things to work reliably and do what I need them to do. For me, using a MacBook Pro at work already turned out to be a major problem because most of the software that I need to do my job is either Windows only or runs terribly on OS X compared to their Windows siblings. The point is that OS X is a widely used platform these days, but still falls behind the Microsoft platform and does not get the same love from the industry that Windows receives. Now somebody wants to convince me to use an Ubuntu phone that only a fistful of people actually use? As much as I like the ideas and philosophies behind Ubuntu, but that just doesn’t fly.
Yep, basing Ubuntu phone on Android would have been a strategically smart decision because that would have opened a gigantic pool of software for the platform right from day one. As an alternative, an “Android personality” could have been added to Ubuntu phone, so that it would still be Ubuntu at its core but would nonetheless be fully compatibe with Android apps. That probably would have demanded much more powerful and make the phones more expensive, and that in turn would probably no longer fit into the platform’s philosophy and design goals.
But at the moment Ubuntu Phone suffers the same problems as desktop Linux in general: Without applications, the platform is essentially useless. After all these years, desktop Linux either still does not have the software that most regular users need or there are only rather unattractive, inferior counterparts to the commercial/proprietary offerings for OS X or Windows available.
Steve Jobs was right about that: “People don’t use operating systems, they use applications.”
“Basing the Ubuntu phone on Android would have been the smart thing to do. The mobile phone market does not even want Windows phone as a third platform, it certainly does not want a fourth, fifth or sixth platform.”
This is the standard dogmatic phrase people come up with every time something new comes along…
It also applied to the desktop when Ubuntu got started, but we succeeded anyway
actually….. The desktop market was a totally different market. It was mature and one dominant player..who was brought up on antitrust charges..MS..who actually put money into its closest competitor, Apple, to keep them afloat.
Totally different market dynamics than what is happening with mobile right now.
You have to understand..its imperative…that you understand that whatever success you had in the desktop..as a disruptive commodity offering…whatever worked in the desktop space to build a business (did you build one in desktop yet? Mark’s last Q/A seemed to suggest Desktop was still not profitable as a division)…absolutely does not apply to mobile. The market dynamics are totally different. Google changes everything.
Google’s Android is sitting right in the position of commodity “open source” offering. Google undercut MS in mobile sitting in the chair Canonical would naturally sit in. The seat labelled open source disruptor. Is there another chair at that table? Maybe…but its probably got a different label on it and Canonical will have to reinvent itself to sit there.
Succeeded at what? Being an irrelevant after-ran behind Windows and OS X?
As Borat would say: Great success!!!
Succeeded at being a desktop platform that major ISVs actually target and support. I don’t care if we’re only the 3rd (or 4th, or 5th) platform on people’s priority list, as long as we are on people’s priority list.
MSFT and APPLE have been targeting the desktop since the 80s, Linux has always been decades behind in user friendliness, but that Gap is getting smaller each passing year. Development has incremented to the point that the people at MSFT and that of the linux world are having similar ideas at the same time and developing them. MSFT has even considered at some point open sourcing in more way.
Linux is also getting more and more and bigger backers. Valve is fully committed to improving the ecosystem, 1300 games strong and 100+ being ported monthly and Vulkan should go neck to neck with DX12. That’s how much this concept of standards and open source has advanced.
Sure, there’s much more road ahead, but no one is backing away:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1826976/dirty-little-secret-overnight-successes
Nobody wanted Android or IOS back when it was embedded phone OS from Nokia, Palm, and blackberry.
Wouldn’t that mean manufacturers would have to choose between Android and Ubuntu? I seem to remember there’s an “anti-fragmentation clause”. Also; do you think Ubuntu Desktop should now be based on Android as well?
Nice reply.
What you’re suggesting is what Amazon has done with its Fire brand (Kindle Fire, Fire phone). IOW, take AOSP, rip out all links into Google services and replace them with Amazon services. As mentioned by elsewhere on this thread, this behaviour has caused Google to tie more of its services into Google Play Services.
I’d be very surprised if the Ubuntu phone has its own custom kernel – most Linux-based devices have to make do with Android-ised versions of the kernels since HW vendors develop to that standard and don’t have the resources to maintain different branches of the kernel for each flavour (aka, Jolla, Ubuntu phone, Mozilla phone).
So we come to the question of the middleware – switching to a bionic C library, native java-based app development environment, Android application lifecycle management and various HALs to give access to underlying HW functionality such as cameras, audio, display, power management. Again, I strongly suspect[1] that parts of AOSP is being used either directly or at least the ideas have been replicated.
And upon checking[2], Androidisms can be seen in many places. So what you’re suggesting is already reality and it shouldn’t be too hard to run Android apps on the Ubuntu phone. I suspect more work is probably needed to make Android apps a first class citizen on the Ubuntu phone ecosystem though.
Disclaimer: I am an ex-Canonical employee but I didn’t work on the phone program
[1] Without looking at the Ubuntu SDK in any detail [2] https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/start/ubuntu-for-devices/porting-new-device/
This is the key here. Android without the Google Play services sucks. I don’t know how many of you out there have tried a pure Android device without Play services, but the experience is pretty terrible, and even when it’s done with a well funded company, like say Amazon on the FireTV, the app fragmentation is terrible. “Android compatibility, with two app stores”. That’s exactly what no one wants. Also, remember OS/2.
I’d just wait and see how Cyanogen and OnePlus end up with their Androids and see what happens. Either way I think it’s better for Ubuntu to be behind and driving it’s own destiny than being behind and stuck in the back seat.
Also, hey Amit, it’s been a long time, hope you are doing well!
it would still take the backseat if it doesn’t get some more crucial apps.
Must convince some of the devs that already have desktop apps like Viber, kingsoft, etc. to port or merge their mobile UIs and of course Whatsapp will be highly important.
If ubuntu wants that title for 3rd or fourth mobile OS some strong moves will probably be needed.
Jolla Sailfish OS isn’t based on Android but it support Android’s apps. Is there something Ubuntu can do in that direction?
Pay, Jolla is buying a proprietary solution.
I didn’t suggest to buy proprietary software, I stressed that Android’s apps support is possible without basing the OS on Android. So Ubuntu could develop a free-software solution to run Android’s apps… I asked about what Ubuntu can do in that direction.
How is Jolla paying, I don’t understand (can you give me a link)? I use a Jolla phone and I really like it, …also a colleague at work got Debian running in a chroot on his Jolla. As for convergence, first Ubuntu need to make and sell phones, THEN they can think about convergence, convergence on it’s own isn’t a good selling point IMHO. Jono, as for rebasing on Android, maybe, I think Canonical will need to reach out and engage with the Android ecosystem somehow.
I don’t know much about Jolla, so I can’t directly answer your question. But in the case of Samsung’s Tizen OS, I’m under the impression that Samsung licensed from (and presumingly pays royalties to) OpenMobile the right to use their “Android compatibility layer” (ACL) on Tizen OS. Jolla probably has a similar arrangement, but I really don’t know for certain.
In any case, OpenMobile claims that “ACL for Ubuntu is coming soon!” See http://www.openmobileww.com/#!acl-for-ubuntu/c1sz2 But OpenMobile has been making this claim for quite some time, so I’m not holding my breath.
I’d much prefer an open source option for running Android apps on Ubuntu. But in the absence of such an option, I might be willing to install OpenMobile’s propriety solution (and part with a few dollars), provided it will work as advertised.
I agree with you: Canonical should reach out and engage with the Android ecosystem somehow. So, in addition to supporting the ARChon project (discussed in my previous reply) and/or hoping for Google’s ARC project to succeed (also discussed in my previous reply), I hope that Ubuntu will work with OpenMobile to help insure compatibility of their solution, which OpenMobile should welcome, given the potential size of the Ubuntu market.
Ubuntu could contribute to the “ARChon” project, which has the goal of allowing Android apps to run on Linux via Chrome. See http://archon-runtime.github.io But from Ubuntu’s perspective, the easier (and probably more productive) thing to “do” would be to hope/wish that Google’s own “ARC” project (which also has the goal of allowing Android apps to run on Linux via Chrome) will be successful. See http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/3/8339197/android-apps-on-windows-mac-linux-chrome-os
Applications that require Google’s services won’t work on Sailfish without serious hacking. But otherwise they run pretty well, actually.
We are doing this already, well sort of, it’s called Ubuntu Core and it’s powered by snappy. Oh and no, no Android apps althought someone could provide a snappy framework for this if desired 😉
The reason we want Ubuntu and the model we have is to have one build of the core OS that can be distributed to ALL devices. In android, every device is a specific build, and thus comes fragmentation and update cycles differing between devices which is one of the actual selling points.
No !!
I would rather wait for native apps then adopting Android ones.
Adopting Android apps will never be a solution. Developers will never develop apps properly for Ubuntu since all they would need to do is just porting their Android version.
Also, this is not avceptable from a design view. Each platform has its guidelines, I would not accept a platform that mixes styles.
Please don’t kill what’s good in Ubuntu for the sake of Apps.
NO WAY
Android pretty much makes Ubuntu Phone superfluous. I think the better idea was Ubuntu for Android, which seemed like a valuable contribution with potential. So naturally Canonical killed it.
That’s kind of missing the point. The goal is not to make a successful mobile OS, the goal is to make Ubuntu a successful mobile OS. Rebasing on Android would mean it’s no longer Ubuntu, regardless of whether or not it carries the name.
Yes, it would probably be easier to sell a themed version of Android to phone OEMs. Just like it would have been easier to sell a Windows theme to desktop OEMs. But that’s not the goal.
What would be the point of winning if we have to give up the very thing we are trying to win for?
How exactly do you define what is not Ubuntu? It’s a deep question. If its whatever Canonical decides to invent or use, then everything could be Ubuntu…including an Android based UI.
I would argue that… snappy..makes it the mobile effort just as much not Ubuntu as using the Android UI layer and the APIs. Just depends on how one defines the bounds of what Ubuntu is. There is fragmentation between the Unity8 silo and all other UI avaiable in Ubuntu and its going to deepen.
The way I look at it, every single time Canonical introduces a core component that is not mergable from Debian.. not usable by Debian…its a step away from the original 30 second elevator description of what Ubuntu is. Mir,snappy,U7,U8..is not in Debian yet. So a huge step away. Mir with the new XMir code might finally be something Debian can take in now…but snappy..still entirely unconvinced that will ever be cross-distro because so much of the value in how snappy works is in the closed store backend and not in the client.
But beyond Debian as a means to define the fuzzy bounds of what ubuntu can and can not be…. snappy is going to be a significant split just inside Ubuntu. Bigger than going Android for UI. There will be classic Ubuntu, derived from Debian and new Ubuntu based on snappy… like classic coke and new coke. I can only assume we’ll see Ubuntu Zero at some point as well.
-jef
I wouldn’t rule out supporting Android apps similar to how Tizen does it, but gladly seems webapps and the web itself will be advancing a whole lot of the following Alliance is successful:
http://www.cnet.com/news/the-secret-alliance-that-could-give-the-web-a-massive-speed-boost/
Canonical should look into that.
Michael,
As you probably know, OpenMobile is developing an “Android compatibility layer” (ACL) and they claim that “ACL for Ubuntu is coming soon!” See http://www.openmobileww.com/#!acl-for-ubuntu/c1sz2 But OpenMobile has been making this claim for quite some time, so I’m not holding my breath.
As I’ve written elsewhere, I’d much prefer an open source option for running Android apps on Ubuntu. But in the absence of such an option, I might be willing to install on my own (and pay a few dollars for) OpenMobile’s propriety solution, provided it will work as advertised.
Would Ubuntu consider working with OpenMobile to help insure compatibility of their solution?
Why not just make Android apps run in Gnu Linux instead ? The Chrome folks already have a solution to run Android apps inside Chrome and that’s a browser ( well it’s more of an OS these days too, I agree ) so I imagine it’s possible to make Android apps run in Gnu Linux like Ubuntu.
Maybe Ubuntu could actually work on something usefull for a change instead of stuff like Mir…
Instead can you run android in a container and have android apps presented in windows or in multiple virtual screens? A key value for me of a phone which runs a “proper” linux distro is being able to control it better. Android takes over the whole system. If you’re going to switch the ubuntu phone’s primary purpose to be for android, might as well make it run android and just offer chroot into a linux environment (which is what I do now).
I want ubuntu touch, but I don’t Android. Fuck Android (It is slowly, buggy etc.) I want clean and freedom GNU/Linux – Ubuntu.
I just want to be clear, folks, before there is any confusion. I am not actually suggesting we do this: this is just a fun idea presented for your intellectual perusal, consideration, and debate. I don’t think I would want to take this approach, but I thought it could be fun to discuss it.
I think the Tizen middle ground approach is sane.
You got to the app store and install a compatibility layer if you need it.
Not sure if going full android would be the best way (but could be as last resort…).
In some years “convergent capable” or powerful enough hardware will probably be basically standard demanding powerful apps.
The desktop is not going away, just transforming.
“universal / responsive apps” is a good strategy by both ubuntu and msft. We need to keep that path, but the layer can surely help in the short term in case u-phone doesn’t get the necessary traction here till the end of 2016.
Running Android apps inside of Ubuntu with an Android runtime (like Blackberry does) should work. Anything relying on Google Play services would need that to work though. The biggest problem with Android is that its performance is lower than all of the other mobile OS out there.
Blackberry are running well on dual cores, iPhones running well on dual cores, Windows phones running well on dual cores, Android struggling with 4 cores.
Definitely not complete nonsense. It’s how at least one Android compatibility subsystem was prototyped, by rebasing Maemo on Android. That was accomplished fairly quickly.
I use Ubuntu for Android app and system software development and I use Drive apps for office productivity and book authoring. If I had an “Ubuntroid” on some decent tablet hardware that supported a 2.5K external monitor, I’d have a nice, quiet, very portable “self hosted” development environment. Even better if it supported 17″ USB HD monitors.
Wouldn’t your biggest problem be the need to maintain API/platform compatibility with Google in order to support those Android apps? Google has a nearly abusive relationship with open source at this point, and is continually pushing apps to migrate to using their proprietary “Play Services” APIs.
While you can develop enough to monkey patch in features to keep those apps working, and filter out Google’s constant attempts to push more of their own branding into the operating system, it would leave you somewhat dependent on Google’s whims.
Hey, as long as you can root it and firewall the kernel (and other things) from talking back to mothership Goog, then we’re good!
Google recently launched, as a beta project, a limited App Runtime for Chrome (ARC) that allows many (but certainly not all) Android apps to run on Windows, OS X, and Linux. See http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/3/8339197/android-apps-on-windows-mac-linux-chrome-os
Hopefully, once ARC is ready for prime time, developers will insure that their Android apps will properly run under ARC, which will allow those apps to be run on Ubuntu or whatever environment that we like.
Supporting convergent apps is an important innovation. Whether based off AOSP, FirefoxOS’ Gonk, or Ubuntu, is an engineering and strategic decision, which surely has been considered. As you say, AOSP would offer app compatibility, but is somewhat of a strategic sell out?
I would prefer to see “the rest” such as FirefoxOS and Ubuntu, embrace JavaScript and web-based apps, to lead the way forward to an open web app world, rather than promote the proprietary Android or iOS app platforms.
WebAssembly, Electron, ReactJS, ES6/ES7/Babel are game-changers all. Android’s Java platform is a legacy. Swift and QtQuick are cool, but as Eich says, “Don’t bet against JavaScipt.”
The converged SDK for Ubuntu apps is commendable. Expanding the “HTML5” app support to include ReactJS apps in an Electron shell for mobile apps, would be forward looking. Supporting Android apps is pragmatic but rather backward looking.
Horrible Idea ! A better Idea would be Android emulator on Ubuntu. It would also benefit Ubuntu desktop users.
Unusual to see flame bait from you Jono 😉 Sure currently Ubuntu exploits libhubris and you could base Ubuntu Appstore on the variants of Google play etc. But this would turn Ubuntu touch into nothing more than a launcher/skin for Android. It destroys diversity. Better option would be to:- 1) create an Android Launcher that looks like Ubuntu touch. 2) create a Scope-playing app for android. This allows android users a stepwise migration to Ubuntu, and makes every android phone a potential ubuntu touch phone, rather than the other way around.
Jono I think it would be much better to keep Ubuntu phone full linux and just enable Android apps
From my understanding android is a fork of Linux instead of being a proper distribution. This is why there is no desktop environment and it’s so customizable for various companies. But Ubuntu is a Linux based distribution which is a debain fork giving Ubuntu far greater support for code languages than Android this is why you can byoa bring your own apps. In many ways Ubuntu Linux is the desktop computer equivalent to android. In fact that is exactly why I do not think that Ubuntu should be relaxed on Android..it would solve the app gap but would stir up a whole lot of other issues such as hardware compatibility .drivers, chipsets etc,the x86 support for Android is abysmal,and it would place canonical development back a few years as well as have it dependant on what Google does with Android
I’m just sitting here waiting for ubuntu to fail so google and acquire it and do to it what they did to android. They can then use chrome os (chrome apps) to bridge both operating systems.
Think about it. Google has already started to an effort to bring more web apps to android and I run chrome’s web apps on ubuntu all the time so why not find common ground. I believe google branding could bring about widespread adoption for ubuntu, even possibly matching that of mac and pcs. just look at what they did with chromebooks which are not that much more than just a web browser. Imagine that instead with the power of a full linux desktop. they will still remain mostly open source like android (I said mostly XD).
Also PS. I don’t see the point in making Ubuntu phones that will only be adopted by ubuntu fanboys (who decide that can’t just simply use android). I just hope they are not investing too much into phones because I don’t want them to be disapointed when they fail. But again that will give an oppurtunity for google to cash in and take over. Mwahaha
I’m a fan of Qt but still believe in HTML5 apps. Developing for Android is pure hell due to Java and outdated documentation mess and weird terminology (Intent etc etc).
I really would like to see Ubuntu on smartphones to be a real portable Linux system for power users. A worthy successor to the Maemo/Meego, but able to be installed on any Android smartphone or tablet (or at least on a handful). Alternately: rebase Ubuntu on Tizen…
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