# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Ubuntu Community Discussions > Mobile Technology Discussions >  PlayBook and Ubuntu

## AWB70UK

Lot's of very disappointed playbook owners and remaining stocks are very cheap. BlackBerry have decided to no longer support the PlayBook with any more software updates. It wasn't a big success because blackberry are crap at marketing but tech wise it's relatively a new product with excellent hardware.  Could it be a candidate for ubuntu to be installed?

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## Copper Bezel

No. It doesn't have a bootloader that can be altered. If it could be hacked to run Android, it wouldn't have become quite the punchline it did, and someone might be buying all of those discounted devices. (For that matter, it's too bad the update to Blackberry 10 never happened.)

It's interesting - I'd always assumed that the Blackberry OS was Linux-based, and I'd never heard of QNX. I didn't realize that the OS was that much its own thing.

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## AWB70UK

Is the PlayBook qnx? I thought it was Linux and the new phones were qnx but there you go. Regarding the boot loader, there are a few people still having a shot at hacking it. I won't pretend to understand this level of tech, I am just a mere user with a bit of interest.  Watching some of the threads that are going on apparently version 1 could be hacked but version 2 update they encrypted the boot loader. The 2update was pretty much forced on you and you had to accept so the hackers are trying to get their hands on a non updated new one which is like the proverbial rocking horse effluent.  
I still use mine quite a lot, in fact posting this on it now! It's not just disappointing that blackberry decided not to support it anymore.  It's a disgrace, the lte version was only released 2weeks before their new BB10 phone range.  I've had mine a while but if I had just bought one I would have been livid.  I wasn't fussed about BB10 not coming, personally I don't think it would have worked but to throw the baby out with the bath water was diabolical.  There is even talk about legal action as it is alleged that blackberry only announced bb10 was coming to the PlayBook to sell off their existing stock and that it was never going to happen.  
Bitter me  :Very Happy:  Anyway I digress, but if blackberry aren't going to support it they should unlock it to hackers and let them complete it. As usual with BB products their hardware is excellent but gets badly managed and implemented.  Would be interesting if ubuntu could have been put on it but I guess by your comments that is not going to happen.

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## Copper Bezel

Yeah, even with an unlocked bootloader, whether Ubuntu could run properly would be an open question, since the hardware probably wouldn't be Ubuntu-friendly. 

I didn't realize that the gap between the Playbook run and the BB10 line was - well, nonexistent. That does just seem nasty - I guess that's one of those cases for why buying locked-down hardware can bite you. = / As for QNX, here's a Wikipedia page on the Blackberry Tablet OS, which apparently only launched on the Playbook and which apparently led directly into BB10. 

The hacking efforts sound almost exciting, despite the circumstances. A little bit heist-movie. = )

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