Ubuntu May Be Coming to a TV Near You

By Douglas Perry
published

Could you imagine running Ubuntu as a smart TV platform in your living room?

According to Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, there are a few developers who want to develop such a platform and have met in a chat to nail down some of the priorities of a Ubuntu-TV project.

There are no surprises in the first batch of ideas or initial mockups that may blow your socks off. Shuttleworth noted that it will have to be a 10-foot interface for watching media with remote control support, cloud and/or server storage, physical media playback, Ubuntu One accounts, installable image, easy configuration, integration with other Ubuntu devices, portable devices control, as well as media sharing and the option for media purchases.

It is very early in the process and thus difficult to judge what Ubuntu-TV may look like. There may be an opportunity for Ubuntu to deliver a unified TV platform, but we know that Google TV largely failed in its first version due to the lack of content and the rough edges of the software itself. Google may come back with a big swing that could correct the errors made with the initial product generations. There are also more rumors that Apple will be releasing a true integrated Apple TV early in 2012, which will focus on content as well as intuitive user control, which could make Ubuntu-TV look old from the start - at least if the software remains as it is currently described.

The biggest challenge may be to create a consumer electronics perception for Ubuntu Linux that can match the acceptance level of the mainstream CE buyer. From a platform perspective, the integration with other Ubuntu devices will be critical, but the low penetration of Ubuntu Linux devices in the overall market decreases the value of this feature significantly.

Douglas Perry
Topics
Linux
Software
25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • silver565
    I hope this takes off... Ubuntu has so much to offer when it comes to these things.
    I was hoping for a tablet first though(A big production)
    Reply
  • zanny
    Anyone ever of mythbuntu?
    Reply
  • jryan388
    And who ever said linux's dreams of world domination were at an end?
    Reply
  • LuckyDucky7
    Unified.
    That's the key word, and is why nobody really can commit to Linux on the desktop world since you have 5 million different distributions.

    You see- if you can do that, plus make it do everything that other products don't and some of the stuff that you expect from an HPTC... you'd have a killer product on your hands.

    AppleTVs are cool and all, but they lack certain things. Things that an Apple user wouldn't miss but things that other people who buy these machines do.


    The next step would obviously be adding a Kinect-like camera to the system and speech recognition... but one thing at a time.
    Reply
  • photonboy
    Why not replace the traditional proprietary TV Video processor with a small computer (x86-APU, Tegra 3 or whatever) and have the computer ALSO handle Google TV etc. Don't want Google TV. No problem, overwrite it with another offering.

    Now that a small computer can be power friendly let's have the flexibility of a software approach.
    Reply
  • tlmck
    otacon72Linux will never ever be main stream because there are far too many distros. It would be like MS releasing 600 different versions on Windows. Not saying Linux is bad..it's not..but without consolidation it never get above it's .1% market share.
    Ever hear of Android? Besides, that argument is not relevant to this article as they are only talking about Ubuntu.

    I do see this as already being dead in the water however with Canonical dictating this and that. Mandatory Ubuntu One account? Not for me thanks.
    Reply
  • tlmck
    ZannyAnyone ever of mythbuntu?
    Yep and it is still way too primitive for most folks. Considering how long the project has been in existence, it should be much further along. The setup screens alone are downright pitiful.
    Reply
  • jsmakkar
    Sounds like a good news!!
    Reply
  • randomizer
    otacon72Linux will never ever be main stream because there are far too many distros. It would be like MS releasing 600 different versions on Windows.Yes, where they all derive from a select handful and most of them are more or less the same with different artwork. Those hundreds of distributions are not developed in vacuums.
    Reply
  • huron
    I always root for Linux and do hope they are able to make inroads into various industries (outside of the server market).

    The major problem that most Linux distros continue to have is that most people are unfamiliar with it and every once in a while it requires you to edit a config file or do something from the terminal...the non-tech person just doesn't want to do that.
    Reply