Blender and Ubuntu for Phone/Tablet

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#1

As many surely know, Ubuntu is taking the big step with Ubuntu for phone/tablet. And I’m very happy (even it seems a bit late :/) that Ubuntu’s going mobile.

As I’m not a professional coder, especially in C++, I had one question about Blender and Ubuntu :

If Ubuntu becomes compatible with the Phone and tablet architecture, does that mean Blender is going to work on Ubuntu tablet & phone without any modification ?

Does the fact that Ubuntu’s ported to other device means that every Ubuntu program, Blender included, will run on these devices ? This is what the Ubuntu team’s claiming, saying that the full OS (with an adapted interface) is running on mobile and not a modified/lighter version like we’ve seen with Windows 8.

Of course the Blender interface is not adapted to mobile/tablet, but that my point, I’m just asking if it’ll work ?

Thanks

#2

I think there are two seperate modes:

  1. the phone/tablet mode with native apps written for the touch gestures and phone options
  2. the desktop/dock mode with all ubuntu apps, just like Ubuntu on a Desktop computer

So, yeah you will be able to have Blender on your Tablet/Phone, but you can only use it, when connected to a Monitor and Keyboard/Mouse.

#3

Alright, I hope this will work like that :)! Because this means you could use the sculpt mod with the Stylus of a Galaxy Note tablet. You could also carry all your 3D art staff in your tablet that delivers a fully working Blender when you plug your mouse and keyboard.

However, I was asking because I saw all the work that has been put into the Gsoc Android port project, and despite this work, the Android port seems still very experimental and not daily usable. And so all suddenly Blender would run on Phone and Tablet without changing a single line thanks to the next Ubuntu version ? It seems to good to be true but I hope it is the reality !

#4

A working Blender binary will need to be compiled specifically for ARM platform, so the same problems when compiling Linux for platforms other than x86, unless intel chips manage some traction in this market segment. Yet to see a binary for Blender on the Ubuntu for ARM sites. Doable if someone could be bothered and has chops.

#5

Ok thanks for the explanation. But, so when they’re saying that you can keep all your code but just write again the interface, this still need to be compiled for ARM. So following your app, no change will be required (for simple apps), or a lot of changes (for e.g for Blender) because it uses a low level C++ language that directly speaks to the CPU/GPU, and so it needs to be adapted. Is that kind of the Idea ?

Because if you need all the work we saw in the android port for porting every apps to Ubuntu Mobile, I don’t see at all why the next mobile-compatible Ubuntu version differs from its competitor, it is as “split” as windows 8 (one version for mobile/tablet that isn’t at all compatible with the desktop version). And so I don’t see where the “magic” of a “unique and convergent OS” is. Because if the only convergence is about having the same interface (Unity), Windows did it with Metro. So a it’s bit confusing :S.