Re: SurfaceFlinger [LWN.net]

Re: SurfaceFlinger

Posted Feb 23, 2013 18:24 UTC (Sat) by jspaleta (subscriber, #50639)
In reply to: Re: SurfaceFlinger by rsidd
Parent article: Ubuntu for phone/tablet available

I think the point is, Canonical needs OEM partners who are willing to pay for engineering services to offset the costs to get to the final deliverable product. And a lot of what we see right now is visioneering of the final concept using Android as a shortcut to get something into the hands of prospective partners, partners who will put money into bringing the final vision forward.

I wouldn't get too bogged down in the technical details of the preview.

It's already been reported that Jono has commented on the particular issue of a custom display server. Canonical is working on a custom display server specifically to meet their needs. Not X, Not Wayland. I fully expect Canonical to talk about their plans in the display server space soon and give more detail. Especially now that its obvious to everyone they are rebasing on Android to launch their mobile. They really do have to explain how they plan to bridge the Android/traditional X server space. It could be they plan to run an Xserver on top of Android for _legacy_ desktop applications. It's not impossible to imagine.

-jef"In an alternative universe there is a version of Canonical using kickstarter to crowdsource funding for new concepts. The actor Jerry O'Connell has taken me there, and its an eerie sort of place, with Ubuntu branded electronics everywhere."spaleta

(Log in to post comments)

Re: SurfaceFlinger

Posted Feb 28, 2013 9:40 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

I wouldn't get too bogged down in the technical details of the preview.

I would. Remember: it's 2013 on the calendar. Last year world have seen almost 700 million smartphones sold and year before that the number was 500 million — that's about 40% year-to-year growth but, more importantly, it's growth to about 40% of all mobile phones sold (1.75 billion in last year — and this number is actually 1.7% smaller then 2011th number). With any luck we'll have a magic point where half all phones sold will be smartphones this year.

What does it mean? Well, it's easy: platforms with ≳5-7% will go on to fight for the smartphone, platforms with ≲5-7% will go on to fight for the nice Wikipedia article. Because it's much, much, MUCH easier to grab "fresh" user who had no prior experience rather then pull the existing smartphone user with tons of games, books, videos and other things bought for the particular type of smartphone. Not "easy" by any means (just ask Microsoft), but much, much, MUCH easier.

And frankly, Ubuntu does not impress me. State of preview is abysmal. If we'll have something usable by Christmas — it'll be a miracle. And clock is ticking.

Now, Canonical may pull a miracle similar to Firefox OS one and suddenly become contender, not pretender, but right now it all looks extremely weak.