TelecomTV TelecomTV
  • News
  • Videos
  • Channels
  • Events
  • Directory
  • Smart Studio
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • DSP Leaders World Forum
  • DSP Leaders
  • Great Telco Debate
    • |
    • Follow
    • |
    • Subscribe
  • |
  • More
  • Webcasts
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • Great Telco Debate
  • |
  • Follow TelecomTV
  • |
    • Subscribe
    • |
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Help
  • Contact
  • Follow TelecomTV
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Help
  • Contact
  • Sign In Register Subscribe
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In
    • Register
  • Search

Canonical

Canonical

Shuttleworth cans the Ubuntu ‘Unity’ convergence project

Ian Scales
By Ian Scales

Apr 6, 2017

via Flickr © Justin Ruckman (CC BY 2.0)

via Flickr © Justin Ruckman (CC BY 2.0)

As bombshells go, the news that Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Linux outfit Canonical - the maker of Ubuntu - had decided to throw in a big sweaty towel called Unity was about as big as it gets in the Linux world.

Mark had put Canonical and others to work on the ambitious open source convergence project which was supposed to draw together the separate worlds of server, desktop and phone into one big open source operating system nirvana based on the Ubuntu core.

Turned out this was about as difficult as it sounds -  the latest version of the project, Unity 8, was running about two years late and the whole effort was sucking time and money away from Canonical, so Mark Shuttleworth, to his credit, has just swallowed hard and canned it.

The Unity vision incorporated the idea that a smartphone could act as a desktop CPU and  be docked to drive a separate screen and keyboard - a compelling vision which had already been tried a couple of times and, I have a feeling, may well pop up again as one form of Chrome OS/Android convergence.

However, it didn’t draw a great deal of interest from Ubuntu or smartphone users and on that basis there was nowhere for the Unity concept to go. As a result, Ubuntu, which sported the converged Unity user interface, is to revert back to the default - and more popular - Gnome UI early next year.

So it turns out that trying to get a single OS to work effectively over completely different device form factors is almost impossible, not so much technically but human-wise. Humans just don’t compromise over operating systems - once they’re used to one they’re loath to find any merit in a replacement. Look inside yourself, you know it’s true.

So Unity has hit the buffers and its demise may well have put off anyone else from attempting the cross platform OS trick…  at least for a while.

See - Second look: Shuttleworth, Ubuntu, OpenStack and the private cloud bubble

 

Related Topics
  • 6G R&I,
  • Analysis & Opinion,
  • Canonical,
  • Device Software & Apps,
  • Devices,
  • Digital Platforms & Services,
  • News,
  • Open Source

More Like This

Device Software & Apps

Anyone for cloud-based Android? Canonical has some tech for that

Jan 22, 2020

Open Source

Canonical CEO says OpenStack success comes down to OPEX

Dec 4, 2018

Open Source

A movement builds as a diverse group of 14 additional leaders seek greater predictability in open source licensing

Jul 16, 2018

Open Software

Why Canonical is taking a managed services approach to OpenStack with Ubuntu

Jun 11, 2018

OpenStack Summit

Canonical CEO: Keeping up with the speed of software

Nov 30, 2017

Email Newsletters

Stay up to date with the latest industry developments: sign up to receive TelecomTV's top news and videos plus exclusive subscriber-only content direct to your inbox – including our daily news briefing and weekly wrap.

Subscribe

Top Picks

Highlights of our content from across TelecomTV today

1:4:29

Great Telco Debate: Live Debate – Day 2 (On-demand)

1:18:20

Great Telco Debate: Live Debate – Day 3 (On-demand)

43:08

Developing an ecosystem for vRAN

2:23

The TelecomTV Snapshot: The Great Telco Debate 2020 - CSP Highlights

  • TelecomTV
  • Decisive Media

TelecomTV is produced by the team at Decisive Media

Menu
  • News
  • Videos
  • Channels
  • Directory
  • Smart Studio
 
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • Events
  • About Us
Our Brands
  • TelecomTV Tracker
  • TelecomTV Perspectives
  • DSP Leaders
  • DSP Leaders World Forum
  • The Great Telco Debate
Get In Touch
[email protected]
+44 (0) 207 448 1070

Request a Media Pack

Follow
  • © Decisive Media Limited 2021. All rights reserved. All brands and products are the trademarks of their respective holder(s).
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Legal Notices