Whatever happend to the android execution environment

[HansKisaragi]

We need an Android execution environment in Linux, otherwise there will be few/no tablet-optimised programs for Linux, even by the time Canonical partners with a tablet manufacturer.

Plus, having 20,000 Android games on the desktop would be a feather in our caps, even if they are really very shallow smartphone games. Not all of them would be shallow - I imagine Experia Play-optimised games would be able to work too, but mapped to the keyboard or other input devices.

Most android apps are multi-touch apps.

Would be pretty weird to use on a pc.. just saying.. but you have a point.

[1clue]

Most android apps are multi-touch apps.

Would be pretty weird to use on a pc.. just saying.. but you have a point.

Mac OS is multi-touch as well with 1, 2, 3 and 4-finger gestures. It takes all of about 10 minutes to get used to it, 20 minutes to improve your productivity with it and about 2 weeks to get used to single-touch going back to Linux. I'm all for multi-touch on Linux. Can't believe it's not there already.

For something that sounds so simple and trivial, it really makes a huge difference.

[HansKisaragi]

Mac OS is multi-touch as well with 1, 2, 3 and 4-finger gestures. It takes all of about 10 minutes to get used to it, 20 minutes to improve your productivity with it and about 2 weeks to get used to single-touch going back to Linux. I'm all for multi-touch on Linux. Can't believe it's not there already.

For something that sounds so simple and trivial, it really makes a huge difference.

Touch screens are not a standard yet for desktop pcs and cost 3 times more usually.

I just looked at a local web store and they had 2 touch screens.

1 cost 6 times more for a 17" touch then for what i paid for my 24" 1080p screen.

But hey.. it never hurts to have touch-ability in the OS.

[1clue]

It would be cumbersome at best for touch screens on a desktop PC. That IMO is why they are so rare, they're only really used for special applications or kiosks.

Macs are multi-touch through the track pad. Apple has that down so well right now that I stopped using my "magic mice" (which are also multi-touch but only 2 fingers or 1 finger) and started using a track pad by choice, because it's more convenient than the mouse.

[3rdalbum]

Would have really rather have seen this instead of "Unity" because it would have really added to the application and games stack without messing with the functionality of my OS experience in the GUI.

The GUI change was inevitable - Gnome 2 isn't maintained anymore, and MATE didn't exist at the time (and it seems to barely exist even now).

[bornagainpenguin]

The GUI change was inevitable - Gnome 2 isn't maintained anymore, and MATE didn't exist at the time (and it seems to barely exist even now).

Sure, but it could have been Shuttleworth in front of the MATE or the Cinnamon projects instead of Lefebvre. Instead we got "unity" and all its intentional lack of customizations. Heck the Cinnamon project proves that it really didn't take a whole GUI shift it would have been completely possible to extend Gnome Shell fallback mode to maintain the default look and feel of Ubuntu. Probably a lot less work also...

Which would have allowed Canonical to focus on bringing some life into the Android Execution Environment, instead of trying to foist Netbook Remix on people who don't really want it...

Regardless, the above is not why I'm posting in this thread. I just saw this and wondered what the other disappointed posters in this thread thought:

Ubuntu on Android becomes real, looks to take on Moto's Webtop experience

By Phil Nickinson


21 Feb 2012 12:04 pm

This, folks, is Ubuntu on Android. An honest-to-goodness, not janky or VNC'd, full build of the Linux distro powered by an Android smartphone.

We'll let that sink in.

Canonical -- the company behind Ubuntu -- today announced that it's bringing the full Ubuntu experience to multi-core Android phones in the same way that Motorola has attempted to extend its hardware to a more traditional computing experience with Webtop. That is, you'll connect your phone to a keyboard and display, and from there have full control over a proper Ubuntu experience, all powered by the phone. Because your Android smartphone is already running a Linux kernel, the marriage between your phone and Ubuntu is darn near seamless. The Ubuntu build actually shares the kernel from your phone and boots in parallel.

See the rest of the article here.

Personally I think it is a step in the right direction and very cool, but not something that looks like it will get in the hands of the average person who posts on Ubuntu Forums any time soon. Certainly not a replacement for being able to run the many cool hundreds and thousands of Android apps on Ubuntu any time soon. Not an excuse for the mess that is "unity" and which makes mockery out of the word.

But it is cool.

--bornagainpenguin