Ubuntu 10.10 Getting Multitouch ''Sequences''
Canonical has announced that the next version of Ubuntu will come with support for multitouch.
Company founder Mark Shuttleworth yesterday announced that Ubuntu 10.10, scheduled for release in October, will feature multitouch support in the form of UTouch.
Multitouch is nothing new, however, Shuttleworth says Canonical tried to do something different with its implementation in Ubuntu.
"The design team has lead the way, developing a “touch language” which goes beyond the work that we’ve seen elsewhere," Mr. Shuttleworth writes on his blog. "Rather than single, magic gestures, we’re making it possible for basic gestures to be chained, or composed, into more sophisticated 'sentences,'" he explains. "The basic gestures, or primitives, are like individual verbs, and stringing them together allows for richer interactions. It’s not quite the difference between banging rocks together and conducting a symphony orchestra, but it feels like a good step in the right direction."
Expect things to be pretty basic in 10.10, but Shuttleworth hopes that as third part developers jump on board, Ubuntu's multitouch experience will start to fill out quite nicely.
Ars Technica reports that uTouch is tightly integrated with Unity, Ubuntu's new lightweight netbook environment, and relies on recent improvements to the Linux kernel like the Xorg display server, and the Gtk+ toolkit.
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firebee1991 What is it with Ubuntu and trying to rip off Apple lately? I can think of much better companies to rip off...Reply -
zaixionito So? If they can do it for hundreds of dollars less, it = more win for the consumers...Reply
Also, with all the people working on it, it might be better... -
failboat This would be great. I almost bought a lenovo s10 3t. Hopefully, better touch screen netbooks come out soon.Reply -
gm0n3y Sounds complicated. I'm sure if you could learn it, it would be worthwhile, but that's kind of like Linux in general.Reply -
mlopinto2k1 How about they come with optimized code that utilizes all the power of your CPU and Video Card? I love Ubuntu but the only thing that works "pretty damn good" is the low latency of Jack/Audio programs. Everything else "works" but is far from being as fast as Windows. This is not an opinion. I am a pretty detailed person and I have tested both to ends wit. I would rather deal with some of the drawbacks of Windows just to get full speed from my software.Reply -
guzz46 Everything else "works" but is far from being as fast as Windows.
Thats interesting, in my case i find it to be the opposite -
mlopinto2k1 guzz46Thats interesting, in my case i find it to be the oppositeI've heard that from others as well. Let me try and be more specific. Ubuntu's actual "OS" and backend runs extremely well. The operating system itself runs great. But, programs, other than the ones I mentioned.. do not. Not saying they couldn't! They could probably run way better. I just think more time needs to go into "software" development. I know it's hard work and I am not criticizing anyone. Just what I have experienced.Reply
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rjmehra That's a great feature. Now if only they can make it install without black-screening, update without removing the menus, share folders without creating mounting conflicts, increase compatibility with basic web features... Ah I can dream.Reply -
I installed 10.04 on a old system that I wanted to setup in a spare bedroom for internet browsing. It works well enough, but I just cant see any advantage to it beyond it being free. I left it on there as I just dont care enough to go back and install XP on it.Reply
The biggest issue I saw with Ubuntu is that the software installation is buggy and very limited. I used the software browser that came with it, found an app I wanted to try, then Id click install, it would appear to do it; but then for some of the apps it would say installed, but there was not any apparent way to open it, and I could not find it in the file system. The user experience was very dissatisfying for me when trying to add to the OS, the built in applications worked well enough though.
I also downloaded Chrome, ran it. Turned off the computer. Came back the next day, and Chrome was gone, but the installer was still there and acting like it was installed, there was just no way to open it. I guess it could have been done in a command line, but i dont know.
So I find it just stupid that they are adding multi touch when doing basic things like adding new programs can be a bitch. Can they not make it as easy as windows or mac, download a file, run the file, app is installed.
Its 2010, and if I have to go to a command line, then the OS is garbage. -
guzz46 I've heard that from others as well. Let me try and be more specific. Ubuntu's actual "OS" and backend runs extremely well. The operating system itself runs great. But, programs, other than the ones I mentioned.. do not. Not saying they couldn't! They could probably run way better. I just think more time needs to go into "software" development. I know it's hard work and I am not criticizing anyone. Just what I have experienced.
I understand what you are saying, but i personally haven't experienced any slow programs apart from limewire because its java but thats slow to start in windows also, it could be because i use xubuntu rather than ubuntu and use preload to improve app start up.
Having said that though there is always room for improvement