With Ubuntu's shift to Qt in 11.10, an attack on the mobile sector must be imminent

Qt, come the end of 2011, is to become a standard component of Ubuntu 11.10. Ubuntu currently, and in the upcoming 11.04 Natty Narwhal distribution, uses Gtk+, a competing toolkit maintained by the GNOME Foundation.

When Canonical announced Ubuntu's shift away from the GNOME desktop manager in 11.04, the switch to Qt was almost a foregone conclusion; GNOME requires Gtk+, but Unity doesn't -- so why stick around? A better question to ask, though, is why Qt?

The odd, but overwhelmingly likely truth seems to be that Ubuntu is moving into the mobile sector. Unity was originally designed as a netbook or small-screen interface; and there's no denying that Unity 2D, without its shiny bells and whistles, is designed for very low-powered devices, like cheap tablets and smartphones.

Qt

That's where Qt enters the equation: Qt is the application framework used on Nokia's Symbian and Maemo phones. Qt is also fully cross-platform, with support for Windows, Mac and Linux. With Qt, developers could write a single program for Ubuntu, and have it run on desktops, laptops, tablets, and even smartphones.

But why oh why does Canonical even want to go into the mobile market? Has someone at the top lost their marbles?

Continue reading With Ubuntu's shift to Qt in 11.10, an attack on the mobile sector must be imminent

With Ubuntu's shift to Qt in 11.10, an attack on the mobile sector must be imminent originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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