Cool idea, not that dual-booting is a new concept.
I can't think of any good reason to boot into anything Ubuntu/Canonical. I'm so fed up with Ubuntu and Canonical.
Canonical has just given curious Reg readers something interesting to to do in the dead days between Christmas and whenever you go back to work: figuring out how to dual boot an Android phone. The Ubuntu custodian company has slipped out a developer preview of a new dual boot tool that allows owners a limited number of Android …
Cool idea, not that dual-booting is a new concept.
On a phone?
Just be glad the fruit merchant didn't do it, otherwise they'd have a patent on it by now. Yes I know, the chances of Apple even entertaining a dual-boot iPhone are about the same as the chances of anything coming from Mars.
(Well, excluding our own Martian).
I regard this as a cruel and unusual punishment.
The drooling classes already have a major headache having to actually make a decision as to which particular type of shiney they should buy next - and from which vendor. To then force them to decide on two different operating systems is just inhuman.
If you mean "lets you drop to a Windows command line", you might want to check out Busybox for Android (there's non-root versions too). Lets you open up a terminal window, erm, without rebooting.
Other than that, Windows 8 isn't really like Android at all, except perhaps both being designed around toy fondleslabs and the default UI being a bit shit on anything that's not a fondleslab.
...do the same thing for my Chromebook?
It would, on occasion, be useful.
Not, of course, that I regret purchasing a device based primarily on the fact that the keys are all in lower case...
Not at all. Not in the slightest...
But seriously, the Chromebook just what I need 90% of the time, and then utterly useless for the remaining 10%, which I knew in advance, but dual boot would solve that issue neatly.
I've got a chromebook ARM3 from Samsung running Ubuntu using crouton and it's fantastic - the series 3 machine foes have it's limitations but is surprisingly capable running Ubuntu 12.04 and unity. I use it for some ruby and Python development. It's a great improvement over the base chrome o/s and it only took about an hour to set up too...
Some links for you :-
Google chromebook crouton
How to Install Linux on a Chromebook
HTH
"Would I want to dual boot my perfectly running Android and run a horrible slow vista mark 2 kludge exactly?" Because then you have greater control over the device and it won't spend half it's time reporting back to Google and the cellular provider everything you look at, download or do.
"...in the dead days between Christmas and whenever you go back to work..."
For me, Boxing Day. My last employer in the UK, before I moved out to the good ol' USA, invariably gave us the week between Christmas and New Year off; here it's off at 3 on Christmas Eve, and back to work on the 26th. :( There are a lot of things I like about living out here, but the three things I don't like are the measly 10 days' paid holiday a year, only getting Christmas Day off, and the awful plastic cheese!
"the measly 10 days' paid holiday a year, only getting Christmas Day off, and the awful plastic cheese!"
Yeah, I was a bit surprised to find Americans don't get Dec 26 off work. Working for a UK publisher at least means Reg staff worldwide get UK-grade time off.
As for the cheese, well, I tried it on a 7-11 hotdog once. Once.
Merry Christmas from balmy northern California,
C.
Plastic cheese is not limited to the USA. Unfortunately.
Look at the ingredients list on this stuff I bought from the co-op the other day while not paying attention... (it's 89% not cheese!)
http://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1480488_10153586397710507_1311025223_n.jpg
There already is a Linux for mobiles. It's called "Android" and it's the market leader by far. Why would anyone want Ubuntu -- the OS that captured the imagination and attention of the entire Linux community and then threw it all away by pushing the universally hated Unity desktop?
Seriously guys, if you want to do something useful, find a way for us to get cheap ultra-subsidized Windoze phones and then reload them with Android.
[quote]Why would anyone want Ubuntu[/quote]
Because it's NOT Android...
<quote>find a way for us to get cheap ultra-subsidized Windoze phones and then reload them with Android.</quote>
What and let Microsoft count them as sales figures???
I already know that Linux will run on an Android phone, it's just the version of Linux that matters, getting Linux onto a winphone is far harder, especially with the secure boot locking for ARM devices already turned on.
PS guys, come on, it wouldn't be too difficult to provide a simple guide as to what tags work...
quote:: then threw it all away by pushing the universally hated Unity desktop? ::quote
There is no compulsion to use Unity. I regularly install Ubuntu for people and then install Cinnamon or Mate to replace Unity, it's easy, and you are probably some one who is sufficiently computer literate as to be able to do it. Of course there are also those computer semi literate users who actually like Unity, so I leave it there for them to use.
So stop complaining about something that will not change, that it is unnecessary to require be changed, and which it doesn't matter if you like, or not. If you like everything else about Ubuntu then install it and change the desktop, or install Linux Mint, if you don't know how to replace Unity.
Hi. I have a Nexus 10 tablet in a case with a Bluetooth keyboard. Not only would I welcome proper Unix running on the tab, I would also welcome a capability to network my Nexus 5 phone and be able to run ipython notebooks on the network when travelling.
Tablets and phones have a lot of power. A more standard Linux would allow that power to be used for traditional work tasks.