Ubuntu announces ARM port

Canonical announced it will port Ubuntu Desktop Linux to the ARMv7 architecture. Targeted at netbooks, the Ubuntu ARM distribution could set the stage for Intel to lose the "software advantage" that has enabled x86 to shrug off attacks from other architectures for the last 30 years.

Canonical announced it will develop a version of its full Ubuntu Desktop Linux distribution optimized for the ARMv7 architecture. Due to arrive in netbooks and energy-efficient "hybrid computers" in April, the ARMv7 port of Ubuntu will target system-on-chips (SoCs) based on ARM's Cortex-A processor cores. Presumably, the distro could also support SoCs built around cores that may in the future be created by ARMv7 architecture licensees.

Canonical offered few details about the new ARM distribution except to say that its partnership with ARM would highlight and leverage the two companies's support for open source initiatives, including Linux kernel, Debian, GNOME, and Mozilla communities. ARM has actively supported ARM Linux development efforts on all of the above-mentioned projects for more than a year.

Last month, Rob Coombs, ARM's director of mobile solutions, was quoted in a ZDnet.co.uk story as saying that ARM's high-end Cortex-A family of processor cores would begin appearing soon in netbooks. Future "netbooks" based on ARM cores would run on Linux, Windows Mobile, or Windows CE, but not Windows XP or Vista, unless Microsoft chose to port to the architecture.

Canonical specifically mentioned netbooks and SoCs based on ARM Cortex-A8, and the newer, multi-core Cortex-A9, as likely targets for the distro. Early Cortex parts include TI's OMAP3440, aimed at mobile phones, and the OMAP35xx, which is said to target "Internet appliances" and PMPs (portable media players). In 2007, ARM announced the multicore-enabled Cortex-A9, which is claimed to support SoCs with up to four A9 cores.

ARM's chief rival, Intel, coined the netbook moniker as defining low-cost sub-notebooks that use low-powered x86 processors such as the A110 ("McCaslin") or the Intel Atom. The latter has appeared in the vast majority of netbooks to date.

Ubuntu's road toward embedded

While several desktop Linux distributions have spun off netbook versions over the the last year, including Mandriva with its Mandriva Mini, Canonical has been especially rigorous in expanding Ubuntu into netbooks and other mobile devices. Canonical and Ubuntu Founder Mark Shuttleworth (pictured) has pushed to broaden the scope of Ubuntu, and earlier this year he predicted Linux dominance in devices.

In early 2007, for example, Canonical launched the Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded (UME) project, and in June of this year, Canonical launched a UME-based release of Ubuntu 8.04 called Ubuntu MID Edition, in cooperation with the Intel sponsored Moblin project.

Canonical has also launched an Ubuntu Netbook remix version of its distribution. In September, the Foresight group adopted Ubuntu Netbook remix for a new version of its Foresight Linux desktop distribution called Foresight Mobile Edition 1.0.

Availability

Ubuntu for ARM is expected to arrive in products in April, 2009, says ARM.

For a more detailed report, please see our coverage on LinuxDevices.

SO:http://www.desktoplinux.com