14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical has ended the year with a bang by releasing a dual-boot tool for their Ubuntu Touch operating system.
Its official name is “Ubuntu and Android dual boot developer preview” and the preview at the end says it all. It’s still in the development stages and it should not be used by regular users.
It’s been hard to adopt Ubuntu Touch until now because a lot of the Nexus users also have an Android system and don’t want to erase everything. This problem should be solved now with the release of this tool, which comes at a great time, right after Canonical just published one of the most stable versions of Ubuntu Touch.
“Christmas has come early in Ubuntu this time around, with a finely wrapped present: dual-booting with Android. We are thrilled to announce a preview of a new feature for developers: Ubuntu on mobile devices can now run alongside Android on a single handset,” reads the announcement on the official Canonical website.
Until now it was quite a hassle to install Ubuntu Touch. Normal users needed guidance and things could go wrong. In the end, the proud owners of Ubuntu Touch would lose their Android installation and the provided back-up function is not enough.
“With dual boot, switching between OSs had never been easier. No more key combinations or command line interfaces to jump into the next OS: on each side, an app with a simple user interface will enable you to boot back and forth at the tap of a button.”
“The Android app manages the initial installation of Ubuntu, upgrades and rebooting into Ubuntu. On Ubuntu, the dual boot app provides an easy way to reboot into Android,” reads the announcement.
This seems simple enough, but be warned! There are a lot of things which could go wrong and you might need to flash you phone in order to get it working again.
A comprehensive tutorial has also been provided on the website.
