Ubuntu Developers Post Screenshots Of Core Apps, Reveal Clean UI
Further differentiating itself from the GNOME desktop stack it was previously based upon, developers are working on their own calendar, weather, and clock applications that are written against the Ubuntu SDK. They’ve even developed their own Sudoku and other games.
Published today by Canonical’s Michael Hall was a note on his blog about forthcoming Ubuntu SDK Apps, including screenshots of some of the early applications.
There wasn’t much you could actually do with Ubuntu Touch when Canonical released the Developer Preview firmware images in February. The OS would boot, it supported basic internet access over Wi-Fi, and you could place calls with the smartphone version, but most of the preinstalled “apps” were actually just placeholders for software that had yet to be written.
But according to Hall, work is already underway to build a set of apps to handle most of the everyday functions users expect from their phones and fondleslabs.
Hall writes, “Shortly after making Ubuntu Touch and the SDK preview announcements, we kicked off an effort to develop the coreapplications for Ubuntu devices in the open with full community involvement. We identified a number of desired applications, recruited interested community contributors, and dedicated design and project management resources from Canonical staff.”
In addition, a number of independent app developers have been working on apps outside the Core group, including feed readers, a WhatsApp client, and such games as chess, Sudoku, and a bubble-popping game.
Longtime Linux users will doubtless observe that versions of all of these apps already exist for the open source OS, and many of them are far more mature and feature-rich than Canonical’s counterparts.
What sets the Ubuntu apps in Hall’s showcase apart, however, is that they were all built using the new Ubuntu SDK, an alpha version of which was released simultaneously with the Touch Developer Preview ROM images.
[The Register]
