[sputknick]

Can someone explain to me why this has to be a hardware project? Why can't they just make this an OS project and load it on whatever high end phone exists in 2014? Hardware falls outside of Canonical's core competency, and as such seems like an inconvenience.

[lukifer]

I've been pretty unimpressed with the build quality and general aesthetic of the majority of Android smartphones. (I'm not anticipating Ubuntu on iPhone will ever be a viable option.) The Edge looks good, and (hopefully) will feel good in hand.

The buttonless interface is also significant: every other phone has physical and/or touch buttons below, which would be superfluous. Ubuntu phones are meant to be oriented around edge swipes as virtual "buttons", with the few actual buttons being only on the top and sides.

The project is most certainly a gamble, both for buyers and Canonical. But I think it's a worthwhile one for both parties. Note that their goal is to release a new "concept phone" once per year; they clearly want to turn mobile hardware into a core competency, even if they're bound to have a hard time keeping up with Samsung and Apple.

[eterm]

Touch volume buttons are very very useful, the ability to control volume just by feel is something that should not be dismissed for the sake of a misguided minimalism.

A physical "home" button is also useful for when a phone starts to hang/go slow. If pressing the physical button has no effect then you press the physical on/off button, if that has no effect you power cycle the phone.

If those first steps are software interrupts you cannot trust them when software starts to hang, so the only satisfactory option is to powercycle, which is less useful than being able to just get back to a home screen where the phone can better recover from whatever was causing the hanging.

[lukifer]

The Edge has physical volume buttons on the side. We'll see if the lack of a Home button ends up affecting the UX or not; it depends on the responsiveness and resiliency of the OS.

[ErrantX]

I've been a die hard iPhone fan for many years, but recently switched to the HTC One. Blown away by the build quality and feel - it is a major step up from the iPhone 5.

Ubuntu on the HTC One would be very interesting!

[kayoone]

They are getting better though. HTC One, Moto X, Xperia Z all are very well built and on par with the iphone. I love the aesthetics of my HTC One and many people i show it too (including iphone users) think the same.

[TheLegace]

I love the HTC One, but sadly it's not available for my network(T-mobile equivalent of Canada). So I am really pissed of at these companies for making identical phones and two versions.

I mean the phone costs upwards of $600 and they are going to make two almost identical versions of the same fucking phone. Doesn't that have anything to do with how much it costs.

I am settling with Nexus 4 primarily because I will be able to at least run Ubuntu on it and leave Android just because everything about the platform is garbage. From the development environment, to the UX, to involvement in community, to all the shady things vendors are pulling(I'm looking at you Qualcomm), and especially now it's got backdoors in it for sure.

I swear if there is one thing I want to do with the rest of my life it's start developing tech to tear down the Berlin wall of technology that these vendors have.

They have been holding back innovation since their inception. Restricting our choices because supposedly they know better.

[rlpb]

> Why can't they just make this an OS project...

It is already an OS project, and is happening regardless of the Ubuntu Edge fundraising initiative. Images are available for various hardware, including the Nexus 4 for example. (But it's still a very early preview, not for production use.)

> Can someone explain to me why this has to be a hardware project?

Mark Shuttleworth explains the reason for the Ubuntu Edge initiative in the video on the main fundraising page. My interpretation: the high end phone that exists in 2014 will not be as good as what technology is available, because the existing phone hardware industry is conservative in technology selection. As Ubuntu is focusing on a converged experience with phone hardware driving the desktop as well, it would be better for the hardware to be better than what the industry is expected to deliver by 2014. So Canonical are driving this initiative, which is separate from the existing Ubuntu phone plans, to additionally deliver a phone with better hardware than what will be available on the market otherwise.

[cbhl]

F/OSS drivers for high-end phones are practically nonexistant; Google can't even release binary (!) drivers for the new Nexus 7.

[DannyBee]

I'm not sure what the point here is, since ubuntu edge won't change this?

[MrSourz]

It comes down to the user experience. I see it as analogous in some ways to Apple and iOS who want control over the hardware to ensure a high quality consumer experience. If the user experience is not something to lust after then I don't see it taking the place of Android-only or iOS in people's pockets.

Given that they are trying tmake a phone which runs Android and an OS traditionally run on a desktop there are many hardware requirements to ensure a quality consumer experience is upheld.

Because they're working with two operating systems and trying to integrate components between them it makes sense to me to, for the first foray, make it work with one piece of hardware and get it into peoples hands. The downside to this is holy shit hardware really complicates things and is expensive.

[berlinbrown]

Plus, a lot of people feel that software should be free across the board. Most people are paying for the hardware. So if Canonical wants to sell stuff, they better get involved in the hardware side of things.

[listic]

I think, no manufacturer has committed to making Ubuntu phones, so they have to do their own hardware first to "break the ice".

[Mikeb85]

It's hard enough installing Ubuntu onto a normal computer (well, not really, but for the masses it is), installing a new OS onto a smartphone is much more difficult.

I agree that they don't really need this phone, rather they should try putting out a 300-400 phone, along the line of the Nexus, that carriers can offer for 0-99 dollars on contract.

[gizmo686]

Using existing hardware does not mean making the end user do the install.

[zanny]

It is easier than installing Windows (partition layouts in the Ubuntu live cd are much nicer than what Windows provides).

You can also get a machine with Ubuntu pre-installed and supported, see system76.

They will have commodity Ubuntu Touch devices next year. They won't be powerful enough to take advantage of the convergence features Canonical wants to push, this device will. Carrier devices will also be horribly crippled by vendor bloatware to an even worse extent than Android because Canonical is literally selling the soul of its OS for potential market share.

You can already put Ubuntu Touch on a Nexus 4, and I bet next years Nexus Tier will see an Ubuntu Phone version as well. No problem there, nothing to do with this crowdfunding campaign. This is all about making a phone with extremely high end hardware and storage to act as a desktop replacement, period.

[berlinbrown]

Probably just like Apple. The Canonical might want a little bit more control of their hardware.