Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Canonical has announced plans to have Ubuntu 14.x ready for tablets and smartphones by 2014 but could that be too late? Are tablets a fad - much like PDAs and assorted mini electronics from the recent past?
First, let me define tablet for the purposes of this discussion. I'm going to omit the iPad since it uses the Apple iOS in lieu of Android. I'm also going to ignore tablets based on Windows 7 since that's a full OS and not a truncated version of something else (plus I know of just one tablet that actually runs it, and that's the Acer Iconia W500 that comes with a detachable keyboard making it a netbook minus the screen hinges).
That pretty much leaves the Android based devices, most of which sport 1:1 netbook specs (1GHz processor mated to 1GB RAM).
So do tablets look like a fad to me?
First you have the issue of inconsistency, to wit:
• Care to guess what version a particular tablet carries? Doesn't matter the price or size, chances are even the person or store selling it has no clue. You might find an expensive tablet packing 2.3 Gingerbread while the inexpensive offering has 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. My favorite? The Sylvania tablet being sold by a local store that originally came with 2.x but, somewhere down the line, had a sticker placed over that part of the box with just “Android” being listed for the OS (you could still see the 2.x entry through the sticker, though).
• Peripheral acceptance. Some come with USB connections and card readers, some don't. Better look before you buy, and don't assume that USB can be used to transfer files to your tablet. Some do, some don't.
• Wherefore art thou app store? Does your tablet of choice come with the Google Android app store or does it come with the one from outer Mongolia? Good question, and something you're not going to find out until opening the box. Buy a Nook Tablet or Kindle Fire, and you may soon discover that both use proprietary app stores charging more than Android's for the same apps (and both will try their level best to keep users from sidestepping to the Android version).
• On the topic of app stores, it may be best to state at this point that apps are not programs, they are wannabes. An app that can open Word documents and do minor edits cannot be considered a full word processor. What office suites I've seen and used through various stores are pale comparisons to even LibreOffice (which hopes to have a tablet offering sometime this year).
• Pricing. I have a netbook with the specs mentioned earlier - although it does have a 250GB HDD. I'll send it to you for $500 if you're interested. Too high? Then, why would you consider a tablet with the same basic specs plus a minuscule flash drive (usually 10GB or less) a great deal at the same price? Think about it. Even the Fire and Nook Tablet, at $200 to $250, are priced in netbook territory, yet pack puny flash drives (and the Nook reduces their version to 1GB with the other 8GB reserved for Nook apps or books).
• All the configuration allowance of a cinder block brick. Come to think of it, I can at least paint the brick, but doing anything with a tablet is forbidden. Want more RAM? Buy a computer. Battery weak? Few allow for a change by the user. Want to swap Ubuntu for the OS? Check around and you'll discover most of these are locked tighter than Fort Knox. On reflection, tablets are consistent in this area. Oops, wrong category.
• How about screen resolution and similar considerations? I've seen small 7-inch versions with sparkling screens and great video capability, while some of the 10-inchers sport archaic resolutions similar to the Windows 95 era and couldn't play a YouTube video if their life depended upon it.
• Then you have the posers such as the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire. Are they tablets or not? More not than anything else, these are essentially e-readers pimped with browsers and with limited function otherwise. Don't believe me? Buy one and see how much flexibility you have.
And these problems are just the tip. As with any new software or technology, there are initial teething problems, but Android has shown an ugly side mainly because Google released the source code to everybody - without any guidelines.
Oh, and did I mention that Android has really never gotten over the fact they started as a smartphone OS? Most of the apps you'll see were designed as smartphone time killers while waiting for a plane or bus.
Think I'm being overly critical? Being retired, I have an ample amount of time on my hands and routinely visit local retail stores. As such, I've gotten to know the clerks in various electronics sections and was mildly shocked to discover that Android tablets sold during the Black Friday specials had a return rate after the holidays of almost 50%. That's right, nearly half of the tablets sold were returned with the vast majority being sent back for not performing to customer expectations.
Meanwhile, the debate rages on. Will tablets progress far enough in the evolutionary chain to survive or will they go the way of previous but now doomed techno-wizardry?
Maybe the answer will come sooner than we know. Microsoft is set to release Windows 8 in the last quarter of 2012, and it’s quite obvious it’s designed for the tablet crowd.
For those that haven't tested the free previews, it's actually the Windows 7 Metro UI smartphone OS mated to 7 Home Premium. Microsoft proudly proclaims how fast 8 boots, and it does get up and running in 15 seconds, but it's smoke and mirrors. While 8 is ready to rock and roll, 7 is still grinding away for another minute or so in the background (and that was on my 2.2GHz dual core processor with 8GB RAM – imagine it on a 1:1 tablet).
But 8 has its own share of problems:
• It swallows about 12GB of HDD space once installed. Considering the average Android tablet I've reviewed has around 10GB, you can see the space issue. Problem is, cranking up the flash drive space also means dishing out some serious $ since SSD prices still haven't come down to less than $1 per GB.
• Efficiency is still an issue. Windows 8 is a facade pasted over Windows 7, so resource usage is still a tick heavy. On my 2.2GHz notebook running 8GB RAM, it routinely swallowed 20% at idle. With tablets packing just 1GB RAM on average, you can see the potential for sluggish performance (which is why many netbooks come with 7 Starter since it dispenses with the excess baggage that eats RAM).
• Software compatibility is questionable. At this time, 8 runs apps while 7 runs programs. As a result, you have OS schizophrenia where the desktops flip back and forth depending upon what's open (app or program).
All of this tells me you're not going to find 8 residing on your cheaper tablets. In fact, the current Acer Iconia with Windows 7 runs about $550, and has just 2GB RAM mated to a 1GHz dual core AMD C-50 processor and 32GB SSD. Meanwhile the Compaq CQ-57 laptop with the same base specs plus a 250GB HDD and keyboard, runs just $250. Not only that, but the Compaq's hard drive, RAM and battery can all be swapped out for better options (both are sold at walmart.com by the way).
Sure, it packs a pound or so more than the Acer tablet, but I also get the extra weight of $300 plus tax in my pocket.
Now we're back to Canonical and their decision to make Ubuntu a tablet OS with limited flexibility. Is this going to be a wise decision?
To be truthful, Ubuntu is a secondary OS for most users who have suddenly discovered their original OS has bought the farm. Others, like me, are in the minority by using Ubuntu as their main OS (and blowing off Windows even on a new PC). Other than this, Ubuntu hasn't exactly knocked the socks off the mainstream computing public. Care to remember the Dell debacle in which Ubuntu was offered as a primary OS in lieu of Windows? I know of absolutely nobody who bought one of these, nor have I seen any for sale on the secondary market.
But Canonical's decision to go tablet has met with less than spectacular customer approval as witnessed by the latest Distrowatch ratings showing Ubuntu losing its top spot to Linux Mint, by a comfortable margin.
Why? Ubuntu has gone to offering Unity as the one and only desktop option, although users have the option of adding another, like Xfce, Gnome, Cinnamon, Enlightenment, etc - unlike Windows or Android.
Unity may be great for tablets in which program options are limited, but it has severe shortcomings when used on computers with a lot of programs. When I tested Unity - with openArtist packing over 1,000 programs - I was mildly amused while the Applications area suffered a stroke attempting to load icons and headings for all these programs. And that was on a full computer, not some tablet.
Meanwhile the once faithful are flocking to other camps.
Pardon the pun, but I haven't seen this much disunity since Windows issued Vista.
Then you have the issue of Canonical's corporate policy of not offering proprietary codecs and drivers, while others just don't seem to care. This might be understandable if it wasn't for the fact that when you attempt to play videos or music in Ubuntu, it immediately offers to download what it considers offensive to begin with.
Meanwhile Linux Mint (and others) just include the drivers and codecs right from the start.
But Canonical is going full steam into the tablet arena, and even recently introduced a smartphone app that can run Ubuntu, albeit a reduced version that must be run on an attached monitor via a dock (be realistic – smartphone screens barely run Android let alone Ubuntu).
And the Distrowatch numbers just keep fading.
I've seen this happen before when developers have failed to seek customer guidance. Remember the Lindows/Linspire/Freespire fiasco where some group thought customers would flock to an OS that offered limited possibilities and a software download system called CNR (Click and Run) - which was better titled Cut and Run since most of the listings were overpriced and outdated? Don't worry, few do, and it's best left to the discarded OS graveyard along with Corel's WordPerfect OS (which was free but only if you bought the $40 book that had the DVD included), or the infamous K-Mart and Walmart computers that ran awful internet services on archaic specs.
In Canonical's favor, though, is a secondary issue that many probably don't know. Ubuntu is incredibly popular in European countries where smartphones outsell computers by a wide margin, mainly due to high VAT (value added tax) figures that can add 20% to the price of new technology (meanwhile the average sales tax in the U.S. is somewhere way south of 10%, with California jacking up the percentage). For these users, the tablet is king because its lower price means less in the way of taxes.
It's up to Canonical at this point to choose their path wisely, and I haven't seen that recently. Abandoning Gnome and KDE for just Unity is proving to be an unwise decision, and it may be time to consider going back to offering more than just one dinner on the menu. Unless tablets improve quickly, I'm afraid it could be curtains for that technology in the near future.