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Canonical is the only Linux company that's still betting on the consumer space; competing against the likes of Microsoft, Google and Apple. To differentiate itself, Canonical came up with what it calls "convergence": The vision is to run one code base across all devices. No separate iOS and Mac OS; no separate Android and ChromeOS. Just one Ubuntu to run on desktops, servers, IoT devices, mobile phones, tablets... you get the point.
But an operating system, no matter how ambitious, is of no use without hardware. In 2015, Canonical brought the first Ubuntu phones to market and in 2016 it launched the first Ubuntu powered tablet, the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition (available for sale worldwide on the BQ website for about $260).
Canonical was kind enough to send me a review unit of the Aquaris M10. Here are my impressions.
The hardware
BQ Aquaris M10 is an Android device repurposed to run Ubuntu Touch. It has a plastic body, two front-facing speakers, one main and one front-facing camera, microSD card slot, microUSB port and micro HDMI port. The processor is a quad-core, 64-bit MediaTek MT8163 SoC, which is powerful enough to drive Ubuntu Touch.
But the hardware is not the real story here, it's the software.
Getting started
BQ Aquaris M10 runs Ubuntu 15.04. (OTA 10.1) The hardware is powerful enough to run Ubuntu very well. Ubuntu Touch is a gesture-based operating system; there are no physical or virtual buttons. A swipe from the left edge of the screen reveals Launcher, which is the most familiar feature of Ubuntu desktop. For those who have never used Ubuntu, Launcher is something similar to the dock of Mac OS.
ubuntu launcher Swapnil Bhartiya
Ubuntu Launcher
At the bottom of the launcher is the Ubuntu icon, which opens Scopes (more on Scopes below), and then there is a set of pinned apps. You can pin new apps, change their position on Launcher and remove those you don't need. Launcher also shows what apps are running so you can easily switch between them.
More about Scopes
Ubuntu is taking a different approach towards apps and content. Unlike iOS or Android, which offer a grid of apps on the home screen that can be sorted into folders, Canonical calls each...