It’s a well known fact that Canonical has such vast engineering resources, they manage to produce a new version of Ubuntu every 6 months, without these versions being half-baked or rushed. Obviously something to do with pink unicorns and the power of open source, don’t ask YouWouldntUnderstand™. However, having such vast engineering resources and focusing just on the desktop and the server is clearly a waste, so why not also make a smartphone and tablet version?
Yes that’s right folks, Ubuntu for the smartphone, the tablet, the dekstop and the server. One Ubuntu to ruin… i mean, rule them all!
The bad news is that if this ever becomes a reality, the FUD mill for the smartphone and tablet market will shift into overdrive. 'Till now, with Android being NotTrulyFree™ and with MeeGo apparently dead, and hence with no OS to recommend, the FUD mill was working at half of it’s capacity (“Android is big step closer, but MeeGo would be better”). But if Ubuntu Smartphone Remix ever arrives (and hence gNewSense Smartphone Remix), the FUD mill will shift into 110% of it’s capacity, with freetards attempting to shoe horn their (P)OS of choice to our phones and tablets, in exchange for not trolling us on forums everywhere. Just like on the desktop.
On the bright side, Ubuntu Smartphone Remix will serve the freetards well. Freetards don’t have a social life, so it’s not like they need to receive phone calls and SMSes (“the calls and messages modules don’t work, but it opens Firefox Mobile so i 'm happy”)
Comments
What makes you think it will even boot Firefox Mobile?
Over at LHB they’re discussing the latest text editor which won’t even close. Now, think about quite how atrocious your QA has to be before you release a product like that.
Yup, I’m with you on this one. The results will be extremely funny, if it ever happens. Just one tiny problem:
Hardware?
Well, GNU doesn’t include Canonical in its list of recommended vendors, since they commit the cardinal sin of contaminating their products with un-free software. So if Canonical is an unapproved source, don’t expect the Freetards to back them up w/ their cash.
They’d probably wait until Hurd is available for tablets. ;)
The interesting thing, of course, is that practically no Linux distro is recognised as free by the FSF. They’re perfectly entitled to their (ridiculous) opinion, but doesn’t this make a mockery of the whole “GNU/Linux” thing?
Not that it wasn’t a mockery in the first place. Anyhow, clearly Loons aren’t very consistent in this particular area of principle; otherwise they would basically only ever use the hardware, networking and software tools that RMS uses.
Possibly also toasters.
Actually, no Linux that you or I have HEARD of is recognized as free by the FSF. RedHat? No. Ubuntu? No. Debian? Forget it. Centos? We can’t tell, so no! But if you include distros that you’ve never heard of – Blag, Trisquel, Parabola, those are free, since they don’t commit the cardinal sin of pointing out where users might find those filthy non-Free software. I wonder whether they can smoothly support much hardware – the only way one can make any software run on the most diverse hardware is by allowing blobs, or even non-free drivers. Which hardware manufacturer wants you to have the source code, thereby giving away their design to their competitors?
I really wish those clowns could complete Hurd, so that they can have a complete OS that is GNU – GNU Mach + GNU Hurd + Gnome. That way, the Linux & BSD people can be left alone. Maybe, on a Hurd tablet, one can write bash commands on the screen, such as partprobe, and watch it execute ;D
“Actually, no Linux that you or I have HEARD of is recognized as free by the FSF.”
And why call it “free” when it’s in fact just software with forced source code attachment anyway? That’s just downright cretinous double-talk.
The FSF maintains a list of TrulyFree™ distributions
http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
But the real lulz is in the list of NotTrulyFree™ distros
http://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html
Let‘s see, Debian is not truly free because it links to a remote repository of closed source software. When i asked Stallman how this violates even one of the 4 software freedoms, he said he considers the software in the repository to be “part of the Debian system“ (i ‘ll post screens tomorrow). So, here you get it, even if you do everything by the book and open all source and not include blobs, but your OS links to one piece of closed source software, it‘s not truly free and offends the tiny minority of Stallman and his followers. Please remove any app stores and driver repositories 99.99% of users want, so that Stallman considers your system truly free. Did anyone really think you could do things differently than Stallman wants and stay FSF definition-compliant? After all, the whole FSF movement was founded because Stallman couldn‘t understand things don‘t always happen the way you want them to.
@Unixisc
I think freetards have a “freedom meter“ which measures how “free“ a piece of software is. So, Android is lower than Ubuntu in the freedomness scale, but Ubuntu is lower than gNewSense. So, if a cellphone version of Ubuntu happens, expect freetards to try to convince you put it in your phone.
@Kurkos:
you’re weaving this stuff out of belly-button fluff again, aren’t you?
gNewSense. Jeez. Even Loons haven’t heard of that one.
For some reason you remind me of Warren Zevon’s “Excitable Boy.” Don’t go near inviting any young ladies to the Prom, now, will ya?
“otherwise they would basically only ever use the hardware, networking and software tools that RMS uses.”
You mean the Chinese MIPS laptop ( http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/ )?
This Chinese MIPS laptop? http://stallman.org/photos/rms-working/pages/2.html
Brought to RMS by a company with flawless reputation.
Also, food. Lots of it.
Just to add some more lulz to hypocrisy, he put sticker on top of IBM logo on most of his “working” photos: http://stallman.org/photos/rms-working/
KURKOSDR
So to use the equivalents in the proprietary world of software, Norton Internet Security would be a part of a Microsoft Setup if Microsoft points to it as a source from which to get anti-malware software. Wouldn’t that make him a part of the Open Source movement that he loathes, since people even in that movement do recognize his achievements on things like Emacs, even if they may share our view of him as a loon?
But the most interesting thing I found from the common-distros link that you provided was this gem about Centos: 'CentOS
We’re not aware of problems in CentOS aside from the two usual ones: there’s no clear policy about what software can be included, and nonfree blobs are shipped with Linux, the kernel. Of course, with no firm policy in place, there might be other nonfree software included that we missed.’
In other words, if we don’t know that there isn’t a problem, there is a problem. Since Centos doesn’t obsess about these details the way he does, they are a problem. Yet, when it comes to criminals and thugs around the world, he wants them to be given the 'innocent until proven guilty’.
Linuxoid
Stallman uses the Lemote Yeelong NOW, the use of the IBM Thinkpad was in the ugly old days of non-free hardware. But the link to his album, where he says 'Some of these photos show machines (such as a Thinkpad and the XO) which I don’t recommend’ is priceless.
Stallman is the gift that keeps on giving.
@DrLoser
I don’t fully understand what you posted, but yes, the freetards do consider Ubuntu more free than Android, so if a smartphone version of Ubuntu comes, expect them to try to shove it down as many throats as possible. gNewSense is indeed not known to many freetards, only the most fanatical ones, but even the less fanatical freetards consider anything that comes out of Canonical more free than Android.
PS: Please try answering with less aggressiveness next time. This is not LHB, noone tries to one-up each other here.
You must be signed in to leave comments.