Canonical hope to invade the home television market with a brand new Ubuntu TV operating system, which would come pre-installed on units instead of having a regular TV interface. So it’s a bit like Google TV, only Ubuntu TV will be available to all manufactures like Android is, therefore we can expect a hefty amount of Chinese companies abusing this and creating old CRT TV’s with Ubuntu on it.
As you can see from the image, the Unity interface makes an appearance here as well as elements from the Ubuntu Desktops log in screen (top white icons). It looks nice in my honest opinion, it looks fancy and fills the screen well. It will also come with an “app framework” which would allow for developers to design special TV apps for Ubuntu TV.
OEMs and ODMs are increasingly wary of the walled garden [approach] that certainly Apple takes – and increasingly Google, although it’s much more open than Apple,” she claimed. “We see a lot of demand for a neutral player” - Canonical CEO
This OS also sets itself apart from the other open-source TV software, namely XBMC, because of its ability to record live TV shows, record series’ and buy movies and music from the OS itself. There may be Netflix support coming but it already has Ubuntu One integration which means anything you buy on Ubuntu One will automatically be on your TV. That may also imply that Ubuntu One will soon be getting on-demand movies and/or TV shows.
Overall, Ubuntu will be in direct competition with other offerings such as the Google TV and Apple’s much-loved offering. But unlike those platforms, Ubuntu will potentially be available on more devices and not just approved ones due to its open-source nature. This can also mean that TV’s are made which don’t quite meet the system spec thus Ubuntu runs slow on it, Canonical may want to design a reference unit for that reason.
But what do you think? Would you buy a Ubuntu TV (UTV)? Do you think it stands a chance? It’s easy to pre-judge with this sort of thing so at-least try to be objective when commenting. None the less we would most certainly love to hear your opinion in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!
[Information sourced from OMG! Ubuntu! article]
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