Ubuntu is part of Linux’s whopping 1% of the PC market. But that might change as soon as October, when Ubuntu makes a serious bid for smartphones.
We’d be laughing too, but apparently this has carrier support. As in, you will actually be walking by huge store displays about how Ubuntu is awesome. Linus Torvalds is either laughing or crying right now.
Canonical, of course, has made no secret of their end-game: A thin client and a dock on your desk, a smartphone with your software, and your computer on your person at all times. But until now it was like Linux nerds saying that this year was totally going to be the year people were going to forsake companies with marketing budgets and customer support staff in favor of their One True Operating System. There was no muscle behind it… except…
Mr. Shuttleworth said the new phone operating system will be available in two large geographic markets in October, and while he didn’t commit to North America being one of those, he said North America is “absolutely a key market for Ubuntu.” He said the operating system has drawn interest from carriers as well…
It’s not difficult to see what’s going on here: Carriers would much rather deal with a bunch of smelly hippies and self-righteous nerds thinking they’re saving the world than be beholden to Android, which is owned by a corporate behemoth that could crush them and is starting to make its own hardware. Not helping matters is that Google’s hardware is, er, better than a lot of the crap carriers push.
And frankly, it’s a better idea than Tizen. On the other hand, as a long-time Ubuntu user, I can sum up the opinion of Ubuntu’s staff, the tone of its documentation, and the attitude of most of the community, towards the average computer user in one GIF:
Yeah, there’s going to be a slight culture clash the first time that girl from high school who popped out three kids shows up in the Ubuntu forums to ask how to install Angry Birds.
The fact that Ubuntu hates consumers aside, there’s also the small problem that it’s a relentless work in progress. Ubuntu is going to have to sacrifice some of what makes it unique if it really wants this to work, and their current users are not going to be happy about it.
Oh, wait, they’re insufferably smug over what operating system they use. Make ’em bleed, Shuttleworth.