First Release of Ubuntu Mobile Edition

Hello all,
Thanks for checking out this première post if the Canonical Ubuntu Mobile Edition news blog. First let me introduce myself. I am the lead Ubuntu Mobile QA Engineer for Canonical. I have been working feverishly over the first part of this year, with the help of Ubuntu community members, to ensure that this first release of Ubuntu Mobile Edition (UME) is as good as it can be.

For those of you not aware, first, what is Ubuntu Mobile Edition? In short, it is a version of the Hardy Heron release of Ubuntu that has been customized to run on small form factor devices such as the new MID, and netbook.

This first release of UME has been specifically designed for the new Intel MID platform and is designed to be a developer reference build. We combined the best parts of Moblin, Hildon, and several independent open source projects, to roll out a full featured mobile device OS. This means that this first release image will only boot on a device using a specific Intel chipset. However, you can easily explore UME through a Virtual Machine image.

You can grab our first release as a bootable USB or VM image here:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mobile/releases/hardy/

For testing purposes, we also released a version that runs on the Samsung Q1 Ultra. This small device is ideal for exploring UME. If you have one...download our "Mccaslin" build and flash your device over to UME. Warning: This will wipe out all of the existing data on the device.

Once you have an image the Ubuntu Mobile QA Team would love to hear your comments, answer your question, and review any of the issues you find in Ubuntu Mobile Edition!

Post your comments: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/mobile

Get your questions answered: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobile

Enter your issues: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobile

In future posts I will cover the testing effort, day-to-day operations within Ubuntu Mobile QA and any requests for community testing we might need. Please stay tuned.

Sincerely,
Chris Gregan
Ubuntu Mobile QA Engineer