Ubuntu Mid Edition

[dbzeag]

I did a search and I couldn't find chat about the MID edition. I have read the chatter about Ubuntu itself, but not of the MID or Mobile Embedded version.

From the website, it sounds like a perfect match.

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile

* Small size/form factor
* 4 to 7 inch touch screen
* Physical and/or virtual keyboard
* Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, WiMAX
* 2GB to 8GB Flash or disk storage, 256MB+ memory/512MB+ recommended
* OpenGL 3D
* USB, camera, head phone jack, speakers, microphone

With exception of RAM, that sounds about right on with the Pandora. The unfortunate thing is the processor it is compiled for current, Atom or A110 Stealey processor, not ARM.

Seems just the right solution for those of us wanting the Pandora more for UMPC tasks rather than gaming:

* Full Web 2.0/AJAX fidelity, with custom options of Adobe Flash®, Java, and more
* Outstanding media playback so you can enjoy videos, music and photos with superior quality and easy navigation
* A suite of applications that work seamlessly to meet every need of a digital parent, student or anyone who is on-the-go
* Facebook®, MySpace®, YouTube®, Dailymotion®, 3D games, GPS, maps, in short, the full Web 2.0 experience delivered into your hands as a compact and powerful device that's easy and fun to use

Since the source is available, I would assume it would only be a matter of time before someone recompiled for ARM targets.

What do you guys think?

More info I found:

The UME-8.04 release features a Gecko-based browser with screen zooming optimized for smaller displays, Pidgin for instant messaging, GNOME's Cheese webcam app, Claws Mail eMail, and Moblin Media for music and video

Apparently on the Nokia N800 and N810 fan forums, they are asking for this, too.

According to the Ubuntu FAQ, "As stated above, our current focus in in x86 processors. Despite should be no big problem port it to run on ARM"

They are having issues with Nokia because of proprietary parts. Since the Pandora is fairly open, it shouldn't be as difficult.

And here is more discussion about it:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileAndEmbedded/ARM-EL-port

 

[adsharma23]

well the ram is really the only thing that is holding it back other than that in the future i expect to see some version of ubuntu running on the pandora
but it will probably take awhile for someone to do so because as of now concentration is on the pandora's default OS but afterwards i think other distros will become available

 

[Megamixman]

Nokia has already been working on porting recompiling Ubuntu as a whole for ARM. I don't see why it won't include Ubuntu Mobile. It is in fact a good setup, althought I think it may be a little bit much. Plain old Gnome Mobile is quite effective. It's interface is not as snazzy, but it would fit the balance between form and weight that people on these forums are concerned about.

 

[quadomatic]

Is that for ARM?

And Pandora has only 128MB of RAM, so running something like Ubuntu (which carries more bloat than u might think) might be a bad idea.

 

[Thunder]

Me wants that, it would be my perfect GUI.
(As I stated earlier, I wanted it to be some sort of TouchSmartUI Lite, this is exactly that. Well, atleast the Clutter one is)

 

[craigix]

Ubuntu runs on the omap3 already. How we might use it is yet to be decided, it would certainly go down well in certain areas of the net if some pandoras had it as the default.

 

[Balzac2m]

Thunder: Where's your avatar from?

craigix: It should run very good though. If ubuntu comes preinstalled (how can something be preinstalled anyway, will it be delivered with an SD-card?) and lags all the time, this will hurt the pandora worse than not having ubuntu.

 

[Clad]

Uh, that's the last thing I want on my Pandora: I want as much as memory and CPU power available for my apps, thank you.

Sure it would fit, but if it uses 64 megs (which is exactly what my debian is using right now, if I remove the ram used by my open apps), I'm not sure it's worth it, that's dividing the amount of available memory by two for (whatever divinity you fancy) sake !

 

[sindbad]

Ubuntu runs on the omap3 already. How we might use it is yet to be decided, it would certainly go down well in certain areas of the net if some pandoras had it as the default.
Because of the ram usage, I think Angstrom would be a better choice, since it's made specifically for tiny devices. The cool features could be extracted from Ubuntu with a bit of work.

 

[psychotron]

so which linux distribution would pandora be using as OS? it is still not decided or is it a top secret at all?

 

[davidgutierrez]

I think the best option would be that Pandora will ship with a custom light-weight firmware, but Ubuntu "Pandora Edition" could be downloaded from openpandora.org. As Pandora will be able to boot from NAND and SD card, you use the default firmware (very fast and efficient) when you want to play games and emulators or you can use Ubuntu when you need a full linux distro (internet, openoffice, etc). So you will attrack people who sees Pandora as a very powerful handheld and people who sees it as a mini-laptop.

 

[dbzeag]

Ubuntu runs on the omap3 already. How we might use it is yet to be decided, it would certainly go down well in certain areas of the net if some pandoras had it as the default.

I have seen the video of OMAP3 running Ubuntu normal edition very well, but I was more interested in the MID edition. It seems more stripped down and would run even better with the minimalist hardware as compared to the full blown distro, that's why I brought it up.

 

[kloplop321]

I like the pictures, I am sure it would be nice, since they would have a full repository for their system.

Uh, that's the last thing I want on my Pandora: I want as much as memory and CPU power available for my apps, thank you.

Sure it would fit, but if it uses 64 megs (which is exactly what my debian is using right now, if I remove the ram used by my open apps), I'm not sure it's worth it, that's dividing the amount of available memory by two for (whatever divinity you fancy) sake !

that is why you can kill off the nonindependent processes in linux

 

[Thunder]

Thunder: Where's your avatar from?

It's from Movie-Moron.Com, it's at Funny Gifs. (Or Animated Gifs at the side)

 

[beljam]

Ubuntu "Pandora Edition" could be downloaded from openpandora.org

Would that be Pubuntu? Or Panbuntu?

jam

 

[Prometheus]

I think the best option would be that Pandora will ship with a custom light-weight firmware, but Ubuntu "Pandora Edition" could be downloaded from openpandora.org. As Pandora will be able to boot from NAND and SD card, you use the default firmware (very fast and efficient) when you want to play games and emulators or you can use Ubuntu when you need a full linux distro (internet, openoffice, etc). So you will attrack people who sees Pandora as a very powerful handheld and people who sees it as a mini-laptop.

+1. I really like the idea of being able to get an ARM Ubuntu (or Kubuntu, if it's been done - Kubuntu is the OS on my main box ) on an SD Card for use if it's needed, without messing with the Pandora's firmware at all.

Might there be any chance of SD Cards containing a pre-configured (persistent?) ARM Ubuntu for easy use with the Pandora being sold, at some point, Pandora Team? (I'm sort of dreaming here, but I figured I'd throw the concept out there. )

 

[Spirit]

Thunder: Where's your avatar from?

It's from Movie-Moron.Com, it's at Funny Gifs. (Or Animated Gifs at the side)

Sorry for even more offtopic, just wanted to answer that question: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339230/ (great fun)

 

[atomicthumbs]

Ubuntu runs on the omap3 already. How we might use it is yet to be decided, it would certainly go down well in certain areas of the net if some pandoras had it as the default.

Digg D:

(of course, as a reddit user, I can't help feel prejudiced against Digg users )

 

[cb88]

any standard distro by defualt is gonna use way more ram than neccesary.... i have ran debian etch in the 40mb range booted to the desktop but even that is really too much considering that a custom embedded distro could do much better

 

[midfan]

Good to see there is a thread about Ubuntu MID Edition. Hopefully the interface can be ported and most of the functionality used for inspiration. It really looks like a great thing to try to get on something as cool as the Pandora.