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The Linux UI future; more complex than ever

Filed under
Linux
Software

With Linux being used as the foundation for numerous smartphone and mobile internet devices, it is tempting to suggest that this movement is going to open the doorway to desktop Linux. Tempting, but not accurate.

Linux, the kernel and its immediate subsystems, has never been healthier and its openness has made it relatively easy for developers and manufacturers to get an operating system onto a new class of mobile devices. However, consider the two leading strains of mobile Linux; Android and Moblin. Both start with Linux at the core, but if you move up to the user interface, they diverge.

Moving on with mobile Linux

Moblin is the closest to typical desktop Linux. It uses the X Window system, so most common Linux applications can run. The user interface though, and this is the element that has won the plaudits, is unlike any previous Linux user interface. Optimised for the small screen, the Clutter UI uses simple, clean design lines to present multiple workspaces, called zones. Each zone displays a running application. The Moblin user interface is impressive and unlike any desktop Linux environment, but it does maintain a good level of compatibility, hence the range of Moblin editions announced by Canonical, Xandros, Novell and others. There is a problem though.

Linux Unseen

The cohesive, common interface for users and portable applications are a big plus in a rapidly evolving consumer facing market place. But it does place Linux well down the software stack, unexposed to the average consumer. So, in many ways, calling it a win for Linux is true, but only a win in terms of winning over device makers and winning as a kernel for those makers to deliver a customised experience to users, often as open source, but not necessarily, or completely, as open source.

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