Improving Ubuntu's application upload process

Posted Sep 5, 2012 22:53 UTC (Wed) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

software didn't change significantly with the shift from 'desktop' to 'laptop' form factor.

Laptops never existed as separate software or hardware category. Sure, mobile CPUs are less powerful then desktop CPUs and gap between desktop GPUs and mobile GPUs is even larger, but ultimately they come from the same company, from the same lab, they are just a slight variations.

I don't see why it would change significantly when moving to the 'docked mobile' form factor.

They will change on the road there. When they will be transitioned to mobile. Microsoft hoped that this switch will be similar to switch between desktop and laptop (that's why it's pushing x86-based tablets BTW), but it does not look like this will happen: people are buying totally different architecture with totally different OS instead.

Yes, in parallel with this, there is going to be development in software for the 'mobile, handheld' form factor, but so far, no software designed for that form factor works reasonably with large screens and full keyboards.

This is the same argument SGI and Sun used back in the day. Look on them now. The simple fact which decides everything: where are the money?

Mobile already is bigger then PC when you just count number of devices (smartphones only, obviously) and pretty soon it'll be bigger in $$, too.

as for your claims about the migration from big iron down, the user interaction has been far more stable than you indicate.

It's not the question of user interaction. It's the question of direction of development. Please read The Innovator's Dilemma or at least the Wikipedia article. The very fact that

For the first three steps, each step included all the capabilities of the step before it, just with added flexibility. However the touchscreen mode of operation does not cleanly and easily replace the prior modes of use, and as such it's not going to replace the prior modes, instead it's going to supplement them.

means that the existing desktop is doomed. Not because you can easily replace it with mobile/desktop hybrid today, but because some people are ready to use mobile as replacement for desktop/laptop yet noone may use desktop/laptop as a replacement for mobile today.

Think about it: there is clear and simple road from mobile to the mobile/desktop hybrid: you just need to add some nice dock and install faster, more powerful CPU. More RAM will be nice (1GB-2GB is not enough for many desktop programs), but bigger storage is not a requirement (32GB-64GB is enough for most laptop/desktop users). Oh, and you need to add some capabilities to mobile programs to make them usable with large monitor, too - but you can always borrow code from the desktop version of the same program thus it's not a big deal. This approach was already tested on the transition between phone and tablets, it works.

Now, move in the other direction. There are no road from the desktop/laptop to mobile/desktop hybrid. x86 CPUs and contemporary desktop/laptop software are too power-hungry and unweildy to use on mobile today. This means that there is huge chasm ahead: before you'll be able to sell the first mobile/desktop hybrid which is based on the desktop OS and desktop hardware you need to shrink them both a lot (in physical terms).

Can you bridge this chasm? Sure, no doubt about it! It shrinks every year and soon it'll be able to cross it… only to find out that all the districts are already claimed and people are already living happily there.

This is what Microsoft is experiencing right now. It only have gotten kind-of-competitive OS for mobiles this year: Windows core is just to big to run on the "underpowered" mobile hardware of year 2007 or 2008 and Windows CE core was never good enough to power mobile/desktop hybrid. But today mobile war is basically over: it's a split between Android and iOS. They will fight long and bitter trench warfare but other possibilities are already more or less closed: this train have not just left the station, it's about half-way to the next one!

Even if Microsoft (using it's billions in bank) will be able to catch this train it'll not change the fate of Linux desktop: Microsoft shows every indication to keep WRT/WP8 hardware closed and not available for Linux vendors. And the same with Intel: it, too, is trying very hard to catch this train - but it embraces Android on the road there, so no GNOME or KDE in sight.