It will be a while until it's ready for regular users

May 19, 2015 09:00 GMT  ·  By

Canonical defined convergence as the same code running on different form factors, like a laptop, phone, or tablet. That is no longer a concept, and it's happening under our very eyes.

Convergence used to mean a different thing a couple of years back. We used to think that it's about turning your phone into a working PC, and that was a great idea, but that concept has been refined mostly by the need of the real world. Sure enough, Canonical could have put forth a working prototype for a phone that doubled down like a PC, but they would limit themselves.

Instead, Canonical took the long way around, and it first started to put together its mobile operating system based on Ubuntu. Now, they are using the same mobile OS to transform the desktop experience. That means bringing the new Unity 8 desktop environment and the Mir display server to desktop users. It took Ubuntu developers almost three years to get to this point, but it's finally showing some tangible progress.

A single code running on all platforms

Unlike Microsoft that has different operating systems on the desktop and phone that just share some components and design directions, Canonical has a single operating system that runs on all platforms, but it just scales differently depending on where it's at.

An Ubuntu user posted on Google+ a very interesting image with Ubuntu running on the phone, tablet, and desktop. In all fairness, the tablet and the desktop editions are not ready for regular users, but only the fact that you can see it in action, even in this rudimentary stage, is proof that Canonical is on the right track.

It's impossible to provide a timetable for such a huge paradigm shift, but it's a good bet that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS will be one of the most interesting releases of all time.