multi-touch-dev team mailing list archive

[Liam Proven <question291885@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Question #291885 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/291885

Liam Proven posted a new comment:
Hello from another Ubuntu old-timer, a user since 4.10 "Warty Warthog"
in 2004, and an IT professional since 1988.

I do not wish to go on the attack or be unjustly ad-hominem, but I think
you either have unrealistic expectations of Ubuntu on tablets, or have
not done your research.

The touch versions of Ubuntu are as-yet unfinished products. They are
broadly equivalent to somewhere between Mac OS X Server in the late
1990s, or the OS X Public Beta. This is incomplete prototype code on a
non-native platform.

As an Ubuntu user you are presumably familiar with Unity. If so, you
should know that the touchscreen version (Unity 8), which runs on the
Mir GUI engine, is a different branch from the desktop version (Unity
7), which runs on conventional X.11. The desktop releases do not yet use
Unity 8 as it is unfinished, although you can try it:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/how-to-install-unity-8-on-ubuntu-16-04
-lts-and-ubuntu-15-10-496949.shtml

In desktop mode, there is no onscreen keyboard, because being in desktop
mode means "having a physical mouse and  keyboard connected". Firefox
only works in desktop mode; this is a documented restriction. It's been
discussed previously on the Ubuntu mailing lists -- but I have never
seen you there, I think.

The tablet runs on an ARM processor. There is no desktop-Linux Flash
player on ARM, as far as I know, only on Android.

As for missing apps such as a shell, a file manager, etc. -- this is
absolutely standard for phones and tablets.

Yes, you will need to re-learn it. This is a new OS, with a new GUI
layer and a new desktop and new apps, running on a new processor. It is
*not* desktop Ubuntu with touchscreen support. That's why it is taking
Canonical a long time to get it working.

FOSS-based phone/tablet OSes are very new and immature. If you are
expecting mass-market consumer-ready polish, then buy iOS or Android. If
you are willing to accept a bumpy ride to be on the bleeding edge, then
you might try Jolla's Sailfish tablet. It too is very new, but Sailfish
is a somewhat more conventional Linux distro -- it has a window manager
and so on, being based on MeeGo, derived from the Nokia-sponsored Maemo
and Moblin. Sailfish has been shipping for over a year, I believe, and
is thus rather more mature.

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