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January 10, 2012

CES 2012 officially opens this morning in Las Vegas and as usual, companies are in a rush to showcase their new products, and sometimes a new concept. Here's a new one for you-- a TV that runs on the Linux operating system!

Linux reseller and support firm Canonical is presenting CES visitors with a TV-of-the-future concept maximizing its touch-based Linux distribution and its Ubuntu Cloud Solution.

The new project has been percolating inside Canonical's offices when it received a bit of publicity late last year from Canonical's CEO, Mark Shuttleworth.

The idea behind Ubuntu TV, Canonical says, is to deliver television as it was intended-- with no cables, no boxes, and, most importantly, no hassles for the TV viewer. In other words, a 'no frills TV', but no frills doesn't mean no features.

Canonical director of communications Gerry Car says "The goal is to uncomplicate television for the average viewer while still delivering all the services and options that they are becoming used to."

From its modest beginnings, Ubuntu has always been closely associated with PCs and servers that run on Ubuntu, a Linux flavor that closely resembles Debian Linux, but that was developed by Canonical and then renamed Ubuntu. And in 2011, Canonical developed its Ubuntu Linux Cloud Solution.

The Ubuntu TV concept actually shadows and extends developments in the fusion of TV, computing and the web. It also creates the Ubuntu media cloud – with Ubuntu One as the "web hub" of everything. Think a bit of Steve Jobs' idea of a central hub for everything: computing, music, voice and now TV.

Canonical's cloud service is actually called Ubuntu One Service. Canonical's old pitch phrase had been "Linux for human beings". The motto for Ubuntu TV is "TV for human beings".

We're told that Ubuntu TV will offer its users the ability to pause and watch programs on different TVs and other devices, like smartphones. Ubuntu One is a data-synching service, which currently allows you to stream music and access content on different devices.

You can currently stream tunes in Ubuntu One to Apple's iPhone, the iPad and any Android mobile devices. Remember that Android 'does run' on Linux.

The goal is to go beyond music, and to integrate TV and film content providers to the Canonical hub, as Microsoft has achieved with the Xbox 360 and as Apple has done with its iTunes and Apple TV. Google, too, is pushing into TVs – running Android on TV sets that merge film and television with internet-based content and online surfing.

Through Ubuntu One, users will be able to view photos and other files stored online and will be able to download apps for their TV set via the Ubuntu Software Center.

Everything: TV, Blu-ray or web will be controlled via a single, Ubuntu-powered handset or device, according to Canonical. We are promised the device will also have the ability to search, record and play TV programs from different cable and satellite providers as well.

Overall, just about everything will be played and displayed using the Ubuntu Unity interface, while Ubuntu TV will support ARM and x86 chip sets.

Of course, concept is one thing, but there’s plenty of hard work ahead before any of this can be delivered to the typical television viewer. While Ubuntu talks of making TV better for humans, the TV site that it has built with Monday's news firmly reaches out to hardware and content partners and invites people to contact Canonical.

Canonical needs TV and device-makers to build TVs with Ubuntu embedded. On the content side, it must attract broadcasters, satellite service providers, cable companies and studio partners who can stuff their programming down Ubuntu's tubes. It can probably be done, but there's still a mountain of work that needs to be done to achieve this, and to come up with an initial version of a solution that can be tested.

On the hardware side, Canonical claims it already has a foot in the door with Dell. The two companies worked closely together to put Ubuntu on Dell's PCs and servers. Dell also happens to make media centers and flat-screen HD TVs.

But make no mistake, such partners won't get Ubuntu TV for free, even though the Ubuntu source code is licensed for free, without charge under the GPL license. Companies licensing an Ubuntu-branded commercial device will have to pay Canonical a per-unit price covering engineering, maintenance, quality assurance, third-party licensing and consulting costs, Shuttleworth said.

"Canonical shares post-purchase services revenue from the sale of content, applications and subscriptions through Ubuntu TV products with OEMs and distribution/channel partners," he added.

On media, Canonical's only partner right now is 7 Digital, which provides the warehouse and store that underpins the Ubuntu One music store. 7 Digial, in turn, boasts relationships with the major music studios with download stores in 37 countries and a licensed catalog of more than 17 million MP3 tracks.

Mark Shuttleworth has long sought to beat Steve Jobs’ Apple on the look and features of the desktop with his Linux distro. Now, to go beyond music on Ubuntu One, he’ll have to actually emulate Jobs by getting film and TV companies to buy into his company's TV platform.

You have to give Shuttleworth credit where credit is due. His concept is a good one, but the question is, will it fly? We happen to believe that Apple still has a better chance at succeeding at this. With more than $60 billion in cash, Apple stands out as a strong competitor, not just to Ubuntu Linux, but to all others with a similar concept. And Apple has been around longer than Canonical has been. We will keep you posted.

In other Linux news

Speaking of Canonical, the company said in December that it has released its first alpha build version of Ubuntu 12.04, dubbed Precise Pangolin, and the company added that this latest version would be a long term support (LTS) release for its users.

Ubuntu version 12.04, available for x86 and 64-bit servers and computers, is based around the Linux kernel 3.2 release, and a lot of work has already gone into bugfixing for Ubuntu’s code, including some issues with how it interacts with Intel’s Sandy Bridge and Centrino hardware.

The source code also includes version 9 of both Firefox and Thunderbird from Mozilla. But just keep in mind that this is an alpha release. “Pre-releases of Precise Pangolin are not encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent operating system breakage," said Kate Stewart, Ubuntu release manager, in a message board posting.

The posting adds "They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu system developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this LTS release ready.”

But there are still a few obstacles, however. At the start of this build, the team identified no less than 2237 work items, of which 339 have been completed and 41 simply postponed, still leaving a massive job of work to do before the expected final release of the build sometime in April or May 2012.

So far, the new alpha version for ARM processors isn’t available as yet, but one is in the cards and the team is ironing out some issues with the new architecture. In a blog post in November, Canonical's CEO Mark Shuttleworth promised Ubuntu would support ARM for the first time with the Pangolin release, and that the new operating system would be much more focused on cloud systems.

“Ubuntu is the number one operating system for cloud computing, whether you measure it by the number of instances running on all the major public clouds, the number of Ubuntu-based cloud appliances, the number of public and private clouds running on Ubuntu host OS,” he wrote.

“The extraordinary diversity of the Ubuntu community, the calibre of collaboration between Ubuntu and OpenStack, and the focused efforts of Canonical to make Ubuntu useful in the Cloud have all contributed to that position,” he added.

In other Linux news

The final version of Linux Mint 12 dubbed Lisa has just been released, with MGSE extensions to GNOME 3.2 that let users create a more GNOME 2.3x-like environment. Based on Ubuntu 11.10 and Linux 3.0, Linux Mint 12 features upgrades to Firefox 7.0, LibreOffice 3.4.3 and Thunderbird 7.0.1.

The Mint project released the RC1 version of Linux Mint 12 just two weeks ago, so there are few new surprises in this final release.

Somewhat more surprising is the large increase in popularity in its Distrowatch rankings in recent weeks.

As noted previously, Linux Mint 12 is based on a foundation of the Linux 3.0 kernel and Ubuntu 11.10 distribution. The final release offers package updates including the Firefox 7.0 web browser and LibreOffice 3.4.3 productivity suite.

But the Upgrade Manager offers updates to LibreOffice 3.4.4 and Firefox 8.0 respectively, says the Mint project. Other updated packages include the Thunderbird 7.0.1 email client, the Totem 3.0.1 video player, as well as a rival to Totem in version 1.1.12 of the VLC media player.

The Moonlight Linux implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight browser plug-in has been excised on account of a bug, says the project. But a bug-fixed version is available for download now at the Mono project.

As we discovered with RC1, the biggest modifications in Mint include the ability to choose from several new alternative desktops. First, users can move up to GNOME 3.2, the version found in Fedora 16 and OpenSUSE 12.1, which fixes numerous bugs and modifies a few of the GNOME 3.0 environment's more controversial changes.

In addition, Linux Mint 12 offers "MGSE" (Mint Gnome Shell Extensions)-- a desktop layer sitting atop GNOME 3.2 that lets users disable various components within MGSE to get more of a GNOME 2.3 experience. Users can choose which customizations they want to be ported back.

Finally, the project has included an early version of the MATE project's MATE fork of GNOME 2, which is said to be compatible with GNOME 3.x. With MATE, Mint users can run both GNOME 3.2 and MATE on the same system, says the Mint project. Available on the DVD edition of Linux Mint 12, MATE is "not completely stable yet, and it's missing a few parts," stated the Mint project.

Other Mint 12 additions include a new theme called Mint-Z. This is said to feature new artwork and backgrounds. And Linux Mint 12 introduces a new default search engine called DuckGo, which is touted for not tracking or recording user information.

For those who prefer Google or another search engine, however, the Mint project says it now offers an easier way to install them.

In addition, the project has launched a new business model in which search engine companies share with Linux Mint the revenue generated for them by the distribution. In a Nov. 26 blog announcement, Linux Mint Founder Clement Lefebvre announced the first such partnership with DuckGo.

The Mint project says DuckGo is "built on and contributes to Open Source," although "much of the initiative is closed."

The search engine isn't open source at the core, and in fact relies on Microsoft Bing for its back end! DuckGo's search results regarding open source projects are typically Bing-like, writes reviewer Neil Richards. In other words they are tinged with Microsoft bias.

A search for "open source office suite," for example, buries the leading LibreOffice suite at the very bottom. Similarly a search for "open source web browser" shunts Mozilla and Chrome to the second page, reports Richards. Hilariously, neither Linux or GNU were found on the first page results for a search for "open source operating systems."

Beyond such Ballmer red flag terms, there are indeed some advantages to Bing's far less filtered searches. However, Richards also points out that many users prefer Google's personalized search results, and notes that one can always delete history and cookies to maintain privacy.

Linux Mint has gained considerable steam over the last year, and has surpassed Ubuntu on the DistroWatch page hit rankings. Since the Mint 12 RC1 release, Mint has soared far beyond its competition, while the once-leading Ubuntu-- ranked at number two for most of the year, has now fallen back to fourth place behind the now GNOME 3.2-ready Fedora and OpenSUSE.

DistroWatch is far from a scientific ranking, as it's based on the page hits of the site's readers. For example, Red Hat's widely deployed enterprise Linux desktop ranks a distant 31st, so results are very skewed and unreliable as they can be.

But the rankings do offer one of the windows we have on the relative popularity of Linux desktop distributions. Some have analyzed the rankings a bit further, and concluded that user dissatisfaction with Ubuntu's new Unity desktop environment may be a key factor in the two distros' reversal in fortunes.

The relatively high rankings of Fedora and OpenSUSE over the last month suggest that those distros' regular users have surrendered to the bug-fixed, but still often counter-intuitive GNOME 3.2. Linux Mint 12 is available for free download from various sources.

Source: Canonical.

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