[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu Plans

[Paul Tansom]

** paul sutton <zleap at zleap.net> [2012-03-07 11:29]:
> On 07/03/12 10:36, Nigel Verity wrote:
> > It's been interesting to read about Canonical's ideas for the future
> > of Ubuntu; in particular its use as an OS for tablets and other mobile
> > devices. It strikes me that some of this vision is undermined by the
> > implications of the "Secure Boot" functionality being specified by
> > Microsoft on ARM processors as a pre-requisite to achieve "Windows 8
> > Compatible" status.
> >
> > A lot of the up-coming tablets are going to be using ARM chips, so
> > unless the Microsoft requirement is modified, or manufacturers choose
> > to ignore it, the Canonical vision seems to be flawed. Or am I missing
> > something?
> 
> Well there is the raspberry PI, which is an arm based system, I wonder
> if canonical can work with broadcom / rasp PI foundation and come up
> with something that way, as in build a specific tablet device for
> this,   In fact the raspberry Pi  (type motherboard) + suitable case +
> screen should do the trick,  let MS do their secure boot thing,  we
> don't need it, we certainly don't need the restrictions this will come
> with,  oh specific hardware,  fully closed linux can't run, its not just
> the secure boot we need to contend with.   Offer a REAL alternative, 
> that is designed FOR ubuntu / LInux and we should be far better off.  
** end quote [paul sutton]

Sadly Ubuntu ARM doesn't support ARMv6 which is what the Raspberry Pi uses so
without some serious work Ubuntu won't be running on this particular device.
iirc support was dropped after the last LTS release.

I suspect the Canonical work is as much aimed at working with manufacturers
directly as allowing people to install Ubuntu on existing hardware supplied
with another OS. It would be great to see a selection of ARM based boards that
Ubuntu, or any Linux, can be installed on though.

-- 
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