The Ubuntu project is looking to extend their reach and I for one am all for it. An embedded version of Ubuntu would definitely rejuvinate my Zaurus C1000 and extend its life significantly.

According to the announcement (see below), we may not have that long to wait for the first release:

"We will start more detailed planning at the Ubuntu Developer Summit next
week in Seville and the first release of this edition will be in October
with Ubuntu 7.10."

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-de...May/000289.html

I've always felt that it would take a big player or two like Canonical and their Ubuntu project to advance and mature Linux to be a user-friendly OS capable of truly competing with Microsoft. I for one wish them much success because the entire open-source community will benefit from their involvement.

Nice!

I love Ubuntu, but I feel it may be heavy for the Z. If they had it with Fluxbox (officially, not Fluxbuntu)...

They'd have to make installation easy (like being able to copy the rootfs to an SD card or somthing), though, for it to be really useful.

Just my thoughts.

I dunno. xubuntu is pretty decent on modest hardware. stripped down and optimized for handhelds it could be quite nice, i'd think

True, but I like to get the most speed out of my hardware (I'm using Xubuntu on a less-than-modest laptop right now because it loads faster).

I don't mean to complain...Ubuntu would be awesome on the Z in any form. I can always install Fluxbox if I want to.

I can't see why Angstrom fully released (for which they need testers who understand how to use the bugtracker*) would be a worthwhile competitor - the only magic ubuntu offers is that it's Debian with the latest greated versions of everything (effectively debian-testing branch) plus a well-sorted kde/gnome/x environment.

You could write some simple scripts to wrapper around ipkg to make it look like apt and voila!

*bugs seem to get inspected and fixed quite promptly

Just when you get all excited, up pops a correction. It appears that the Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded version will target the new Intel Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform. According to this quote, it is not clear whether it will be made available for ARM devices.

Carr declined to specify whether Ubuntu Mobile will also be built on traditional embedded architectures, such as ARM and MIPS, or only for x86 processors such as Intel's recently announced Pentium M-based Tolopai SoC (system-on-chip). "We'll need to defer to Intel for any details on hardware," he said, adding, "This is very much a joint project with Intel."

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2403415870.html

actually i was annoyed when they anoucned this, i really feel like ubuntu is trying to be the "only" linux avalible.

i was quite relived when it was MID's only

What is your main interest Da_Blitz? Have something that works out of the box for your Zaurus or just kill a company because it is successful? To have something powerful that works out of the box of course. We agree.
I understand you. We see Ubuntu adds everywhere. Perhaps because of its popularity but certainly because of a good marketing team.

I think we have to learn to stop punishing companies or organizations for being successful.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited with this. Reminds me of pepperpad. If some good product comes out, and hits the original $499/$500 price range for origami, I think Intel would have a winner ... especially if they have ubuntu running on it.

I think it good that <some> linux companies are trying to spread Linux to more platforms and the more pervasive they are the better for Linux (and also for the said linux company).

I think its a good thing for linux itself to see Ubuntu try to do this and spead the message of linux being easy and a no-brainer to more people using different mobile hardware (and not only Intels MIDS).

The point is the more platforms it supports, the more developers there will be and the more of a mobile Linux ecosystem will be developed.

While it may sound to be like the death-knell for smaller companies/developer's efforts to roll a suitable embedded OS with ROM for mobile devices, in the long run I think it will only benefit all - since there will be more of an uptake of Linux on mobile devices ...

You took the words out of my mouth, actually the thought right out of my head. I want this Ubuntu project to be hugely successful. Imagine all the creative things the open-source community can do once there is a stable Linux environment that runs all a wide variety of mobile platforms.

I would love to see what the OZ, Cacko, pdaXrom, and other developers could do if they didn't have to spend time dealing with kernel and driver issues on different platforms. I believe there are a great number of creative applications and solutions that never see the light of day because the developers don't have a stable environment with a large enough base of platforms it can run on.

Viva La Ubuntu! Viva La Stability!

i think that ubuntu did well in the desktop space but i have allways seen the embedded space as bieng a diffrent ball game

in my defence i thought that they meant "embedded" ie PDA or smaller (and normally no screen) but i belive it makes sense for intels MID devices.

I think they try to tell users that there is an alternative for windows (and you sure need marketing to do that). Once people know linux, they will discover that there is more than just ubuntu.

just my $ 0.02
Chero.

The way I look at it is, fantastic. There have been commercial companies producing linux os's for a long time and you all know that. I got into linux via the zaurus. In fact, I learned most of my linux skills on the Z. This spread to my desktop and laptop which I currently run some form or another of linux on at once. I don't think a little commercialism is going to hurt our open source movement. I am as passionate about the movement as the next guy but, if this is what it takes to spread the word and the idea of a somewhat geekie, tech savvy thing to the normal guy, so be it. I can't remember who said it, but, the idea of speading linux to other ecosystems is great, great metaphor.

--Fish

another news about ubuntu mobile :

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6616313390.html


now that we have a true working debian on our zaurus, why not ubuntu.........

I'd argue for a couple of reasons:

-It's not built portably (That may be incorrect terminology, I mean Debian has builds for ARM, x86, x86-64, SPARC, etc.)
-It's heavier (Even Xubuntu wants more RAM than the Z has)
-Debian already works
-Many of Ubuntu's good sides (easy config, etc.) could be lost in moving to non-standard systems and a new arch.

That's not to say Ubuntu in the Z wouldn't be cool

ok, maybe I understand wrongly, but ubuntu is basically a distro using all the debian technology, only it forgoes some of the purist open-source-only rules and also tries to be closer to the leading edge than debian's stability-at-all-costs model. however, you can choose debian-testing and debian-unstable and the (secret) mega unstable version if you wish. However, ubuntu packages have diverged somewhat so you can't mix and match without care.

anyway, my point is that if you have debian working, isn't it better to concentrate zaurus users' efforts onto one distro rather than yet another? the community is already fragmented too much

Was reading through the posts and saw my own in May last year and thought how the eeepc and other UMPCs actually did fill that price range.

Of late I find myself using the Z lesser and the Koh more as a desktop than a umpc. Maybe I'm just getting too busy or maybe I'm just getting old! ... ... ubuntu on Zaurus would be nice if it can be as fast as cacko. I'm still on cacko for my z mainly becos it just works and I just don't have the time (or patience) to troubleshoot things these days.

So if ubuntu works as well on the z as it does on the notebook/pc, I say bring it on! Otherwise it is just a pipe dream and yes, another sinkhole that will split the already spread-thin z users.

PS: I just fixed one of my notebook. It's working great with xubuntu after vista proved to be nothing impressive.

yeah you're right... these days some terrible devices are out which make all zaurus owners ask theirselves if they should sell their zaurus or not : eee for example so ubuntu would only be a proof of concept that our zaurus is a great device

- Ding ding ding!

- I use Cacko because it just works ... I've tried many a distro over the years but nary a one of them has been as rock-solid stable and plain usable as Cacko. I haven't tried Debian because I'm under the impression it's not really a viable option without a hard drive, which I don't have. (shrug)

- Not that I think anyone shouldn't develop whatever they like! The primary reason I got into the Zaurus line is because of the very flexibility that allows me to do pretty much whatever I feel like with the thing. The fact that this teeny tiny thing the size of a Tarot deck comes bundled with all that sheer potential is simply mind-boggling. I highly applaud those many developers who find the time to do this stuff; my primary limitation is time, which is why the Z has to just work, for me. During those odds snippets where I have a weekend to spare I often try out some distro to see where it is, because I have faith that one day I will find something to replace Cacko.

- But from what I've read on this thread Ubuntu wouldn't do well on the Z, if it's "heavy Debian". I only just put Ubuntu on two boxen here and it's not encouraging that one doesn't have X and the other tossed a hard drive during the final reboot! But I digress (giggle)...