Mark Shuttleworth, the father of Ubuntu, arguably one of the most successful Linux distributions out there, which is like saying it’s one of the smartest kids in remedial algebra, has revealed that the name of the upcoming 11.04 will be Natty Narwhal and that support for ARM’s low power and ubiquitous architecture will be one of the headline features. What exactly does this have to do with mobile? Well, just about everything, especially if the tablet space gives you a nerd-gasm.
With Ubuntu 11.04, named that way because it will come out in the 11th year of this century on the 4th month, Mark also hopes that the money he’s invested in design will be more noticeable. He says 11.04 will be the “best-dressed ever”. Since Google’s Chrome OS is based on Ubuntu, and it’s supposed to be out this November, I’ve got to wonder what Mark has planned up his sleeve, or if he’s just covering Mountain View’s ass from their terrible reputation in the open source community. Google, as free tards may know by now, has a habit of releasing free and open software, but then never touching it again. They don’t package their fixes upstream, meaning they don’t contribute to the project from which they’re taking code, and they’re slow to take user’s bug fixes, instead preferring to do all the work themselves in house.
Many Maemo, Meego, whatever you want to call it, fans use that as a reason for saying Google’s not open and that their operating system is superior … but the man on the street could card less about internet nerd fights. Now back to Ubuntu, 2011 will be a killer year for smartbooks, also known as netbooks that utilize the ARM processor. Expect 11.04 to target that segment of the market and offer itself as an alternative to Google’s Chrome OS, which no doubt will be laced with Google services and will probably be unusable if you don’t have a Google account.
[Via: Ars.Technica]
[Yes, the above photo is of Barack Obama riding a narwhal]