Wow, Ubuntu Edge

I have got to hand it to Mr Shuttleworth, he has flair. The ambition of this is quite incredible. See the offer here:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge

An assessment here:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-sanity-check/ubuntus-cross-over-android-device-three-big-takeaways/

Probably I'm crazy, but I'll go for it. The only thing that has stopped me from committing $860 (830 + 30 postage) right now, is that I only have a tiny fraction of that in my PayPal account, and I first have to verify my credit card, then transfer the money in. Which will take a couple of days (I previously have relied on Puppy-donations only to get some balance into my PayPal account). It is quite a lot of money for me, as I am on a pension.

I have recently paid about $180 for a pre-production EOMA-68 A20 (dual-cpu) board, plus a tiny motherboard. Only about 20 guys committed to this. I did too, mostly just to support the project.
A report on this A20 board is here:
http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/news/

Anyway, back on the Ubuntu Edge. Yeah, lots of hype, and Mr Shuttleworth is a showman. But, if he can pull this one off, it will be really something. A phone with those specs, yes, I would finally commit to buying such a smartphone (I currently own a very dumb and cheap keyboard-driven flip-phone).

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Comments

no


Puppy rather than Ubuntu
Username: Tony
"If runs Puppy and Android I will be hooked 8-)

Handhelp system
Username: GCMartin
"This has enormous implecations to human-kind. And, it provides businesses a simple solution to BYOD as well. Like you, I see tremendous benefit in this framework. And, feel it is a worthwhile investment-contribution. Work done here can also benefit the Puppy mission and provide a clear long-term future for Puppy Linux as well. Puppy has a long history or [u]not only[/u] addressing old hardware, but recent kernel use and recent technology use shows it adapts equally to new technology and the systems as well. "This is a noteworthy effort and approach."

Re $32 million
Username: BarryK
"Yeah, I will be very surprised if they can reach $32,000,000 in 31 days. OK, $3 million in first day, but that was all the super-enthusiastic people, wanting to get in on the $600 deal. After that, the orders will be much slower.

Re Ubuntu Edge
Username: BarryK
"One reason that I am going to support this initiative, perhaps even the main reason, is that it is an open project. The phone will be specifically designed for easy installation of new releases of Ubuntu Touch, with a failsafe to fall back to the factory installation. There will probably be not much risk of "bricking" it. I expect that open-ness will be of use to me, to install something other than Ubuntu Touch :happy: Or, probably, Ubuntu Touch that has been morphed into a Puppy-like experience. ...this is of course wild speculation at this stage. Also, $860 is not much more than a top-of-the-range commercial phone on the market today.

Re 32 million
Username: BarryK
"Anyway, the crowdfunding initiative seems unlikely to reach $32,000,000. At the current rate of orders, it is looking more like they will reach somewhere between 10 and 15 million. But, you never know. Other things have happened in life that surprised me -- like when George Bush got re-elected for a second term.

Down to $625
Username: BarryK
"The original day1 $600 offering sold out, so I thought that I would have to pay $830. However, there is now an offer for $625: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge 674 of 1250 claimed ...nooooo! I'm still waiting on my Visa debit card to get verified with PayPal. It can take 2-3 days. Actually, that price is pretty amazing, just for the hardware. The phone will have stock Android dual-booting with Ubuntu Touch, so if all you want is a very-high-spec Android phone, that's a great offer.

Tags: general