After second thought, this is why Ubuntu for Android will fail
I was initially quite excited to hear about Ubuntu for Android. At first glance it seemed to be the perfect meld of mobile and desktop. At least until it became clear that a) Ubuntu for Android was only available to manufactures and b) the desktop was only available when the phone was docked.
Both are quite reasonable decisions by Canonical.
At the end of the day, hobbyists were not going to make Ubuntu for Android a profitable product, so making it available to the general public was not going to be a high priority. Real dollars could only be made from the support contracts entered into by corporations looking to streamline their disparate mobile and desktop infrastructure.
And traditional desktop apps have only ever sucked on touch based devices, let alone something as small as a phone screen. Accessing the Ubuntu desktop from the phone was going to ensure that Ubuntu for Android was a frustrating experience.
Unfortunately, both decisions have also doomed the project to failure.
The only reason why corporations are even looking at supporting a mobile infrastructure is because the majority of their employees have embraced their mobile phones as a way of life, and the discontented murmurs of thousands of employees who can't work out why they can't get their work emails on their mobiles has become a cacophony the CTO and IT managers can't ignore.
This movement from desktop to mobile is exactly what Ubuntu for Android is counting on to make it a success, and yet it is exactly the kind of grass roots movement it has ignored thanks to the fact that it is not available to the very hobbyists who should be leading the charge. Nothing will inspire the widespread adoption of Ubuntu for Android like an IT department full of nerds who have nothing but good things to say about their Ubuntu for Android enabled phones.
Locking the Ubuntu desktop away until the phone is docked also ignores the practical reality of why people will want to have a desktop OS on their phones.
As I mentioned in my last blog post, it all comes down to apps. For business users this really means it all comes down to accessing your data. What good is having LibreOffice on your phone if you can't access your spreadsheets without a dock, monitor, keyboard and mouse? Under what circumstance are business users going to have access to a monitor, dock, keyboard and mouse without having access to a PC with an internet connection?
It would seem to me that there exists a very narrow set of circumstances were docking an Ubuntu for Android phone would be more convenient that simply using a phone as a glorified USB memory stick, using cloud based apps and storage, using a remote desktop, or carrying an ultrabook.
Imagine this scenario - Jimmy the Ubuntu for Android user takes a call from his boss in the airport.
Hi boss. Those sales figures are on my phone, let me dig them up. Oh, sorry, my Android spreadsheet app doesn't do macros, but thankfully I have Ubuntu for Android. Let me just find a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
5 mins later.
Ok boss, the internet kiosk guy was happy to let me disconnect one of his PCs. Let me just set up my phone.
5 mins later. Jimmy is now shouting into a docked phone.
They ordered one thousand units boss. Sorry for the mucking around.
Imagine this scenario - Jimmy the Google docs user takes a call from his boss in the airport.
Hi boss. Those sales figures are in Google docs. Let me pull them up.
10 seconds later.
They ordered one thousand units boss.
Imagine this scenario - Jimmy the ultrabook user takes a call from his boss in the airport.
Hi boss. Those sales figures are on my ultrabook. Let me boot it up.
8 seconds later.
They ordered one thousand units boss.
Being able to access your desktop only when docked provides a misplaced sense of mobility and accessibility. It will lead to more support calls, not less. It adds to the confusing distinction between mobile and desktop apps, and ultimately will only be useful to those users who are already quite IT savvy, and who can work around the lack of a dock by uploading their macro enabled spreadsheet into dropbox, syncing it to their desktop back in the office, establishing a remote desktop connection and then navigating a desktop interface on a small touch screen.
Comments
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1. The source will be released when it's ready, but that won't make much of a difference due to hardware support limiting the devices on which hobbyists can install it.
2. The desktop interface doesn't have to replace Google Docs. You make it seem like a black or white proposition. Ubuntu for Android doesn't limit mobility and decreases the number of devices a company would need to provide to employees. It is also more convenient if you can use a docking station instead of switching to another device. Instead of carrying a laptop or netbook around you can carry a laptop-like portable docking station, which should also be cheaper. So it improves mobility.
The entire reason this was even thought up was the appearance of 'Webtops' Now I own a webtop phone (most motorolas are, I have an Atrix 4G which is near 3 years old now), its basically a phone with a partitioned HDD, and a backup charger with a built in screen, speakers and keyboard that comes with it. When you jack the phone it, as well as charging it you can use the phones processing etc to power this mini laptop.
Now that currently runs 'Webtop OS' a locked down version of Linux built by Motorola, but the community has already managed to get Debian running on it, the issue is that there are some interconnectivity features missing on vanilla Debian, like being able to be working on a Doc or webpage on Android, and when you change to the Webtop the tabs on your phone appear as windows on the screen,
Now in short, the problem with Webtop OS was the apps were very limited (by lack of sudo access) and the binaries weren't compatible with any other *nixes. This solves that, and seeing as the newer webtop can now connect a phone through its mini USB port if it needs, to, it could potentially work with tons of machines.
Though docking smartphone as CPU will be frustrating. But using Tablet as Ultrabook will be more enjoyable and easy in day to day life.
No wonder Apple is laughing at these tards