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Thread: Does the Ubuntu Phone support full fledged desktop PC apps?

  1. #1
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    Does the Ubuntu Phone support full fledged desktop PC apps?

    If I'm not mistaken, somewhere in the Ubuntu Edge video (and I'm not talking about Edge in particular, I'm talking about the Ubuntu Phone OS) I heard them talk about running full-fledged desktop applications on the phone. I'm planning to get an Ubuntu Phone and I was wondering if this is availible on the Ubuntu Phone OS (for example, can I go into the desktop enviroment in the Ubuntu Phone and run Eclipse or Google Chrome?)

    or at the very least is it possible to install the full Ubuntu enviroment (including Unity) and VNC into it or connect the phone to an external monitor and use it as a PC?
    Last edited by kirill2485; August 29th, 2015 at 04:22 AM.

  2. #2
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    Re: Does the Ubuntu Phone support full fledged desktop PC apps?

    The short answer is "not yet, but it's probably coming."

    In early 2015, Canonical promised that an OEM would release a converged phone-with-desktop-function later in 2015.
    The phone industry is full of vaporware and delayed/cancelled projects, so that may change.
    As a version 1.0 product, expect a converged phone to be not-quite-as-polished as the Edge video.

    If the concept gains a market and OEMs release a few converged phones, then expect a lot of improvement in the first few years.
    Last edited by ian-weisser; August 29th, 2015 at 05:51 AM.

  3. #3
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    Re: Does the Ubuntu Phone support full fledged desktop PC apps?

    Thread moved to Ubuntu Phone and Tablet.

  4. #4
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    Re: Does the Ubuntu Phone support full fledged desktop PC apps?

    "Full-fledged desktop applications" are not designed to give a good user experience of a phone screen. Ubuntu phone is not the Ubuntu Linux distribution squeezed into a phone device. The Ubuntu phone is a new OS. Buy a Ubuntu phone and use it as a phone. And keep in mind that it is still very much an "early adopters" device. The more a person expects from a Ubuntu phone the greater their disappointemnt will be.

    This is a link to a fairly recent blog post by the Canonical community manager. As you can see it is tiltled, working from my Ubuntu phone.

    http://mhall119.com/2015/05/working-...-ubuntu-phone/

    We are expecting sometime this year the release of a "converged" device that should allow the connection to monitors, keyboards and mice. But it is all up to the OEMs to bring out theses devices. When a converged Ubuntu phone/tablet is connected to a monitor it should swirch to desktop mode and still provide access to the phone functions. But do not expect to get a full Ubuntu desktop experience. Not for some months.

    Here is another blog post from a Canonical employee. It gives a timeline that can be used as a guide but should not be thought of as a strict timetable.

    http://www.olli-ries.com/t-242d/

    Note the comments about Ubuntu Phone and Ubuntu personal and this conclusion
    Ubuntu Personal will be using Unity 8 and Mir as a default, with support to run any “legacy” X.org based application transparently. All the applications you have fallen in love with on the Ubuntu phone will also be available on Ubuntu Personal.

    Ubuntu phone will continue to be the driving force behind our activities in entering more mobile markets. Key feature development will continue to happen here. I am excited to see stronger support for tablets, more hardware convergence features, improvements to our Scopes framework and better integration with social services happening here.
    There is still some way to go before Ubuntu Phone becomes converged with Ubuntu Personal. Personally, I would not expect to run desktop applications on a Ubuntu phone unless it was connected to a monitor. An advantage to having a Ubuntu Phone is that the OS will never be out of date. Through Over the Air (OTA) updates those people who have already purchased a Ubuntu Phone will end up with the same OS as on Ubuntu mobile devices released next year.

    There is something else to keep in mind. Ubuntu Personal does not use apt-get to install applications. It remains to be seen if deb packages can be installed or will be allowed to run. It will break the security model of Ubuntu Phone/Personal. So, if an application you want has not been converted to a Snap package it will not be in the app store and not available for download and installation.

    My advice is to know what you are buying then you will not be disappointed.

    Regards.
    Last edited by grahammechanical; August 29th, 2015 at 01:03 PM.
    It is a machine. It is more stupid than we are. It will not stop us from doing stupid things.
    Ubuntu user #33,200. Linux user #530,530


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