Is An Ubuntu Tablet In Your Future?

Ubuntu is well known as being Open Source software which you can download and install on a computer. And for those who have worked with it, there is an appreciation for just how well it works. And given the experience on the desktop, anything done on a tablet is going to have the same ease to work with along with some fairly advanced features for those who using it.

Canonical, the parent company for Ubuntu is announcing Ubuntu for the tablet. And with that comes a number of claims for the OS they will be delivering. We are getting a preview on what you can expect to see when the Ubuntu OS is shipping on tablets. And some of those things include merging of the smart phone, tablet and desktop into something which seems to be seamless. While this will be shipping on hardware later this year, you still may be able to start experiencing what it can do for you this month. It can run right now on selected Android hardware like the Nexus Tablet. But this is not for the faint of heart. Head on over to the developers site and take a look for yourself.

You can see a number of great features on their site, but one of the interesting ones is the claims regarding convergence between the Ubuntu tablet being a full PC and claims of being able to access Windows apps with a thin client. By having the exact same OS running on the Ubuntu phone, Ubuntu PC and Ubuntu TV, you get a single platform to run everything. This is what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 8 and has some successes and some not so successful. Given what Ubuntu has done over the past few years in delivering their computer OS, they may well be in a better position to accomplish this.

In the video below, they demonstrate the ability to show things from your Ubuntu phone in a side panel of the tablet. Or the capability to take your tablet, attach a keyboard and mouse to turn it into a computer. Seems pretty impressive if they can deliver. We talked previously about coming smartphones using the Ubuntu OS to drive them. With coming tablets based on the Ubuntu OS, it looks like there is an organized challenge to Google. And that challenge is going be a big uphill battle to take away market share from Google's Android OS.

Ubuntu is working to provide for a comprehensive package by providing Ubuntu for the smartphone, Ubuntu for the tablet and Ubuntu TV. There is even Ubuntu for Android where they promote Ubuntu as being able to run on existing Android devices as we have already talked about. And it may be that simplicity and multiple platforms which will give them the inroads to convince people to give Ubuntu a try on either their smartphones or tablets.

If you have ever worked with Ubuntu as a desktop OS or even as a server OS, you know how easy they have made things to install and work with. If they carry that forward to the tablets, they are going to make life difficult for Google. Is an Ubuntu tablet something which you are will to consider?

Is An Ubuntu Phone In Your Future?

Flying in the face of the big mobile phone operating systems, comes a new threat on the horizon. Apple with their iOS and Google with their Android OS have monopolized the marketplace. While one can debate the merits of each, there are always others lurking on the sidelines which can cut into their market share. In the past, RIM, now Blackberry, had a huge share of the market, but now have a much smaller market share which is down from years earlier.

Coming to the sidelines is Ubuntu for your phone and that means another OS for the market place. And this one us known for the great OS that runs on PC's and servers around the world. Already having a big name provides automatic recognition to consumers. The news about Ubuntu preparing to enter the phone market is not new and was known in April last year. What is new is a date when the first Ubuntu phones will be released and shipping according to the Wall Street Journal. This can be considered big news, but for Google, this presents a threat to their huge market share.

We know that major manufacturers of smart phones have been hit with lawsuits over features of the Android OS, most notably Samsung. With Ubuntu, a new option is being offered as a way to gain sales of smart phones without relying on Android for the majority of sales. There have been several reviews about just how well the Ubuntu OS is going to work on smart phones and there are obviously issues with a pre-beta product. Versions of the Ubuntu Phone OS are running on Android capable phones because it handles the same Android kernel and the associated drivers. This is making it very easy for people to look at the features for the Ubuntu OS on their phones.

A Ubuntu Phone OS is a ways off and much can change between now and October which may alter the landscape. As an example, a new Samsung Galaxy S5 or the next iPhone is going to have an impact. These and other items are going to be a major challenge for Ubuntu to be present on a significant number of phones this year. There is a lot of competition in the market right now with the Windows Phone OS continuing to struggle with growing its market share.

There is a possibility you may have a phone running the Ubuntu Phone OS. Is that something you would consider?