Ubuntu TV Revealed at CES; to Ship in 2012

By Benjamin Humphrey, Published January 9, 2012

Ubuntu TV has been unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, after Jane Silber announced Canonical would have something to show last week.

The interface will look very familiar for Unity users, as it appears to simply be an Ubuntu installation running with some custom Unity lenses for browsing movies, TV Shows, music, watching YouTube, and more. It’s more than a simple concept design however, with the installation running on a real television.

There is just one Ubuntu TV on show at CES, but Canonical expects Ubuntu-powered televisions to be on the shelves by the end of this year, however, there are no deals with manufacturers signed.

“We see a lot of demand for a neutral player.”

Canonical CEO Jane Silber told PC Pro that Canonical were in discussions with a number of manufacturers but couldn’t confirm any signed deals. Canonical will be hard pressed to compete with industry giants Google and Apple, who are expected to unveil prominent TV products this year, however Silber remains confident that Canonical can remain competitive.

“OEMs and ODMs are increasingly wary of the walled garden [approach] that certainly Apple takes – and increasingly Google, although it’s much more open than Apple,” she claimed. “We see a lot of demand for a neutral player.”

Canonical hopes to woo manufacturers by offering the Ubuntu TV software free of charge, and plans to target the US and Chinese markets first. Expansion into other markets (including the UK) hinges on Canonical being able to secure content deals. There’s no mention on whether the software will be available for download by regular users to install themselves and tinker with yet.

Silber said that work is continuing on Ubuntu for mobile phones, and she stressed that Canonical’s diversification into other devices shouldn’t be seen as Canonical backing away from the PC market.

“There’s no question the world is moving to a more mobile environment,” she said. “But I wouldn’t characterise it as us giving up on the PC market.”

Edit: A video of the UI in action can be seen here.

Via PC Pro & Canonical

Related posts:

  1. ‘Ubuntu TV’ to be Revealed at CES
  2. Canonical to Reveal ‘Ubuntu Concept Design’ At CES 2012
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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QVFDTY7D5VDNQPO6O354EWUDLA JakeJ

    Not too shabby…

  • Darren Nevares

    This looks awesome I want one lol

  • http://twitter.com/Zectaueus Sean

    Interface looks pretty. i might actually switch from Mint (if Linux ever works on this laptop) to Ubuntu if they can get the UI right… of course I need windows for my massive library of steam games, but that’s where an post-college desktop comes in handy :)

  • http://twitter.com/Arthur_Mars11 Arthur

    Could this mean we’ll be getting Netflix?

    • http://www.thedallemagnes.info Angel

      I sure hope so

      • Loris Zinsou

        Event in Europe ? (in the french version of the Ubuntu One Music Store, some of the main music majors titles are not available)

        • http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels

          Same on the Dutch one. Netflix is gonna come to some European countries this year.

    • oscar cuevas

      It would Be AWESOME if we could have this service for a Mothly payment not per movie. Netflix really lacks to have some of the best Movies sometimes. CAN WAIT!

    • Anonymous

      Well they could always port it. Like thats up to netflix themselves.

      • http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels

        That’s not up to Netflix at all. The problem is Silverlight. Moonlight is dead and there is no DRM-solution for Linux, which is why Netflix isn’t coming. I know, ’cause I’ve been on that discussion with Silverlight-developers and specialists.

        • Anonymous

          So what you are saying is netflix cant switch to flash? Or even better stream mp4 or webm with something like icecast? It is netflix’s problem because of the technology they use as well as the technology itself. They can always work on a better solution but they aren’t and that is their problem.

          • Anonymous

            Perhaps the content providers are pressuring Netflix to use Silverlight? Happened with another company recently (name escapes me at the moment..)

          • Anonymous

            True but its very easy to make sure people aren’t going to hack a system with proper authentication. DRM doesn’t have any major benefits to a well coded system to authenticate and distribute the video while using well supported codecs. I see why they would prefer silverlight but its dumb.

        • zekopeko

          I have no idea who you have been talking to but AFAIK they are wrong.

          Silverlight/Moonlight are irrelevant. What matters is the DRM from Microsoft. For example, Roku boxes have Netflix because they use that DRM (in a hardware form) without Silverlight, to the best of my knowledge.

          Since the manufacture would be responsible for the hardware there is only the question of licencing the DRM from Microsoft and implementing support for it in Ubuntu TV.

        • Jason Sauders

          From what I’ve been hearing, Silverlight is all-but-dead anyway. It makes me wonder what Netflix will do, and why they were ever foolish enough to go with Silverlight in the first place.

  • Nathan Moos

    The interface looks pretty and nice.

  • Anonymous

    I want to see this in action. Screens are not enough.

    I’m seriously tired of that background.

    • http://twitter.com/humphreybc Benjamin Humphrey

      I’d show you some videos or even more pictures but we don’t have them. Nobody does. Canonical didn’t email out a press release, or show us a video, or even put up a blog post on canonical.com yet they went to the effort of flying the CEO to Las Vegas. 

      What’s the point if you’re not going to tell anyone?

      • Anonymous

        I know you would’ve posted more pics and videos if you had them. :)

        But wasn’t the Ubuntu TV debut scheduled for tomorrow? If so, maybe they might release more info tomorrow.

      • Anonymous

         There is a video, a website and promo stuff. CES is a timezone waaaaaay behind you Benjamin. Patience.

        • Anonymous

          mhkv.h

      • Anonymous

        Have you seen http://ubuntu.com/tv yet?

    • Anonymous

      +1 on tired of the background.

      I think they need a Darker background now to make the white text easier to read, other than that looks pretty cool.

      anyway kudos to canonical for working before hand on this concept and not having to make us wait to see it in action till 2014 :D

    • Dumitru Gheorghiu

      Yeah, I don’t understand why they stick to that background and that colour. I think that less than 10% of users kept it, and that is only because they don’t know how to change it.

      • Anonymous

        where did you get this statistic from?

  • Giant Speck

    That interface would be a bit hard on the eyes after a while.

    • Luis Augusto Fretes Cuevas

      It’s not perfect, but it isn’t bad. It’s just their background choice that is hilariously bad.

      • Giant Speck

         Yeah.  It’s a combination of the background and the fact that the guide itself is a bit too transparent.  That, or it just needs some sort of blur behind it.

      • Anonymous

        Yep, screen nr 2: white text on bright background. Great idea :P. But this is just a detail. Overall, it looks interesting.

      • http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels

        I’m sure this will themeable.

        • Luis Augusto Fretes Cuevas

          If it’s based on Unity, I’m sure it’s just a wallpaper, picking such shots for CES just showcases Ubuntu’s amateurish nature. Also, this project won’t get any attention, they’ve just basely took the usual TV Guide interface, most of the industry is (but Ubuntu is the worst example so far), they should be thinking about the GUI. The battle over the TV revolution is based around two things: How media is distributed, and how it is presented. Ubuntu didn’t get any of those (and it seems like the competition so far is in the same predicament).

        • Luis Augusto Fretes Cuevas

          If it’s based on Unity, I’m sure it’s just a wallpaper, picking such shots for CES just showcases Ubuntu’s amateurish nature. Also, this project won’t get any attention, they’ve just basely took the usual TV Guide interface, most of the industry is (but Ubuntu is the worst example so far), they should be thinking about the GUI. The battle over the TV revolution is based around two things: How media is distributed, and how it is presented. Ubuntu didn’t get any of those (and it seems like the competition so far is in the same predicament).

    • Anonymous

      They need new Darker backgrounds !!!

  • teho openid

    It’s nice to see Ubuntu and other open source communities expand their efforts to new formfactors like tablets, phones and TVs. I hope that Ubuntu on TV will be a success as it could mean more open hardware and better mainline support for Linux. That however doesn’t change the fact that this looks absolutely horrible. It’s clearly an unifinished product and ita shame that Canonical didn’t put more effort in it. Hopefully it will be in better shape before it gets to consumer market; it has to be.

    • Anonymous

      This is a concept. Of course it will get better with time. U TV hasn’t been in development for a long time. Take it easy.

      • Anonymous

        Just like Unity got better? :|

        • Anonymous

          Unity got a lot better. And will keep improving.

        • Jason Sauders

          Unity did get a lot better. I’m actually quite surprised how good it’s gotten (though I doubt I’ll ever use it as extensively as something like Gnome Shell).

    • Anonymous

      Me too. But Canonical simple doesn’t have the massive amount of full time employees that Microsoft or Google has and no where near the same level of funds available. 

      • Joern Konopka

        Well they have a lot of Contributors, it just seems like they prefer asking people for Ideas while they already have an almost fleshed out Produt anyways *ahem* , of course people are gonna jump the ship if they feel like they invested time into coming up with good ideas that won’t have any effect anyways. 

        I don’t have a Problem with the Team doing stuff on their own but by the way they introduced it it seemed like it’s a long-term community effort that will be discussed and fleshed out. And now they have a Product not even six weeks after announcing it. I mean come on, it would be hard enough to make a good design in 6 weeks anyways for a Project like this and that accounts for a full-time Designer, not spare-time contributors. 

  • Anonymous

    This is a giant step for canonical and Ubuntu to take…. The screenshots look superb(well i like it better than Google TV which looks well…boring ;);))
    The software being sold for free is also good to hear and may prove to be a boon to Ubuntu in the future.
    I just have 1 question
     What in the name of god is the icon below the TV icon and above you tube in the launcher
    And also, the background kinda looks shabby…. hope its changed to a more attractive one :):)

    • http://twitter.com/digitalbear11 Bear

      some kind of media disc player?

  • S. E. A. D.

    Is pretty cool it’s UI :)

  • http://profiles.google.com/ashickur.noor Md Ashickur Rahman Noor

    It looks nice and feel good. Ubuntu is now on TV. But how to use it?

  • Ian Hex

    Canonical have definitely been doing their homework. Let’s see the execution in action. 

  • http://michaeltunnell.com Michael Tunnell

    That looks pretty good and I can’t wait to see a video of this but I would much rather see this in a settop box or maybe in usb stick form like the roku stick.

  • http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale

    US & China, then UK and the rest of the Europe in 2030! Awesome!

    :/

    I hope for a downloadable Ubuntu TV soon.

    • Satchit Bhogle

      2030? I THINK you might mean 2013.

      • http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale

        No, 2030 is not a mistake. :) “TV-like” devices and services are very limited around here. GoogleTV and related products were launched in 2010, still nothing here. :)

        Netflix, Hulu, Pandora? We’re still far away from that. Funny part is that _I want_ to give them my money, they just don’t let me.

        UbuntuTV is already available for download, this makes me happy.

        • Anonymous

          Yea, Netflix was launched in Canada as the first country outside of the US and the cable companies wanted to kill it. They then had to adjust quality to reduce bandwidth usage so that people don’t continue to exceed their internet usage caps by using just that one service. Hulu and Pandora are probably a long, long way away here…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FFUUPMHANTQFA2EXA74F36RG74 doodle

    is the time 12:04 or is it reporting the version number? both?

    • Varttaanen

      That’s a nice one! Well spotted.

      btw, I want one!

  • Danny Walton

    hmmmm Ubuntu Media center.

    • Anonymous

      I hope the tv software comes to the desktop. Only thing keeping me with windows is WMC, and 8 looks to be leaving it behind

      • http://rubenverhack.be/ Ruben Verhack

        I guess it’ll be in the software centre. Why wouldn’t it be?

        • Anonymous

          No idea. Just a fear, like it may be baked into a special version of the OS made for tvs. Hope so though.

        • http://www.mhall119.com/ Michael Hall

          The functionality will be merged into Unity itself, the TV specific lenses will be available in the Software Center

    • Anonymous

      Quite like XBMC

  • Anonymous

    i’m more interested to see Ubuntu on a  tablet device. I’m not gonna buy a tablet unless there is a normal usable OS on it.

    • Anonymous

      Buy sth with Android then.

      • Anonymous

        No, Joe means something like KDE Active

      • http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels

        Android on a tablet sucks. I know, ’cause I had an Android-tablet, a high-end tablet even (Motorola Xoom). No, Android on a phone is okay, but on a tablet it sucks big time IMHO.

        • Jason Sauders

          lol??

  • Richard Sequeira

    At least Unity has an acceptable place. Unity is a pain on the desktop though.

    • Anonymous

      Nope, like it a lot. The other night i was installing netbsd, and it reminded me how far linux has gotten in the last years, much thanks to Canonical. There can only be one way – forward!

  • RCA II

    Please let them announce a Netflix app for Linux….

  • http://profiles.google.com/victor.zamanian Victor Zamanian

    Awh crap, that looks terrible. :-

    • Anonymous

      a new darker background and/or blur would help at least make the text easier to read and better showcase.

  • Glennz NL

    I thought this was coming in 2014??

  • Daniel Foré

    This doesn’t look like a good TV interface to me. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to navigate this with a remote. It would be better to ditch the Unity concept completely, imo.

    • Anonymous

      I wasn’t involved on its design, but maybe you should watch a video before criticising its navigability ;)

    • Anonymous
    • Anonymous

      From the official website, it sounds like the remote will use a touch screen: “There’s only one TV so there’s only one remote – for everything that viewers want to do. Use touch and gestures to direct the show.”

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GE4EYP3QOQ246PLG2Y2DOD2NIQ Dr. Fly

        Furthermore, it makes it sound like you can opt to use a tablet or smartphone as your remote, even one you already own, presumably.

    • AJ

      I’m not entirely sure how you came to that conclusion.. Through the use of a single conventional remote there could be one button (think guide button) keyed to the unity launcher. Directional buttons could navigate the rented/etc in the main ‘frame’ of the unity ‘dash’ (are these terms yet for this?) overlay just like TV On Demand as it exists.

      My proposal would be for a library search to be navigated by the use of the numerical keys being assigned to textual keystrokes. Think simple mobile phone texting without qwerty (i.e. 1/abc 2/def). Predictive indexed file search results could speed up the process, visually something similar to google’s updated page listing as more letters are typed.

      • Anonymous

        This may be jumping ahead with frivolous features.. but I would love to see good voice recognition as an input method :D

    • Anonymous

      I don’t like the Unity interface either, but I hope this does very, very well – content on Ubuntu is likely to be content we can use in other distributions. That is, of course, if Canonical stick to the Open Source straight and narrow..

    • Anonymous

      I think it looks fantastic

  • http://twitter.com/skerit Jelle De Loecker

    By “Live tv”, do they also mean sources like dvb-c, dvb-t and dvb-s? If not, I’m sticking with MythTV.

    • http://twitter.com/zappor Ernst Sjöstrand

       That Program Guide looks _very_ MythTV inspired, they could use a mythtv backend and have made their own frontend…
      I’m running MythTV right now, would be cool if this was great.

      • Anonymous

        They definately should embrace Tvheadend. In so many ways I think it is superior to Mythtv.

  • http://rubenverhack.be/ Ruben Verhack

    “Whoa! More glow! More purple! B*tches love purple”

    Also the font is a bit small for on TV, IMO.

    • dandonio

      Purple is the Canonical color. The lack of orange makes me suspect that they won’t approach this as a community thing at all, and won’t allow tinkering,…
      They’re pretty strict about their colors  after all.

      • Anonymous

        So they should go back to the orange definetly as it looks like Mark Shuttleworth’s wife (if he has one) designed this with her pink lipstick and purple eyeshadows.

        • http://rubenverhack.be/ Ruben Verhack

          He’s into computers, we don’t have wifes

          • Anonymous

            Quite the stereotype you have there :)

        • https://launchpad.net/~sabdfl Mark Shuttleworth

          That’s “definitely”, when you grow up.

          • http://rubenverhack.be/ Ruben Verhack

            Sorry, but it’s just too tempting (see attached image)

          • http://cassidyjames.com Cassidy James

            Oh snap. xD

          • Anonymous

            Great to see you reading the comments :)

          • http://twitter.com/raulvalino Raúl Valiño

            Bazinga!

      • http://www.mhall119.com/ Michael Hall

        The source code is available on Launchpad, there are instructions for building and running it on the wiki.

        • Leonardo Torok

          Michael, are you planning to add this to software center in the future? It would be great in a media center PC (of course, for those that doesn’t have a Ubuntu TV yet).

          And by the way, it’s great to see people form Canonical (and Mark himself) replying here.

          • http://www.mhall119.com/ Michael Hall

            I’m not directly involved in this project, but from what I’ve been told the plan is to merge the UI changes back into Unity itself, and make the movie/tv listings lenses available the same way other Unity lenses and scopes will be available in the Software Center.

            That means that not only will you be able to have the Unity TV interface on your desktop, but you can also get just the TV lenses while still using the standard Unity desktop interface.  It also means that lenses written for desktop will be available on the TV interface, and vice versa.

          • Leonardo Torok

            That will be very nice!! Good work!

          • Leonardo Torok

            That will be very nice!! Good work!

  • http://twitter.com/Zta77 Stephan Henningsen

    This looks like a video-on-demand service and therefore it will most likely fail like so many others — *outside* the US.  Take the PlayStation3 for instance:  It already has several of similar services, and while the PlayStation itself is an available across continents, services are not or do not provide the same selection of movies.  I assume it’s copyright issues that are the reason of this, but I don’t care really; I’m just a consumer and I find it extremely annoying that the video stores are more or less empty.

    So sure, it cute to see the (Trailer), (Rent), and (Buy) buttons, but I’m though getting my hopes up.

    • http://profiles.google.com/michel.memeteau michel memeteau

      I guess they might start with netflix in the UK ?

      • http://twitter.com/Zta77 Stephan Henningsen

        Exactly.  Goodbye Denmark.

    • http://www.mhall119.com/ Michael Hall

      It is capable of playing broadcast/cable TV too, even has an integrated program guide and the ability to record

      • Anonymous

        Third party set top boxes for cable TV are not supported in Canada. They are supported in the US due to a law requiring cable companies to provide a standard encryption chip to anyone who wants to use a third party set top box.

  • Иван Акулов

    Oh. I’ve been waiting for ubuntu phone or ubuntu tablet…

  • http://twitter.com/ThomasBerends Thomas Berends

    Curious what they do with the remote control. I hate those devices, and I hope they will redesign it. Just remove the damn buttons. (And give it a touch screen).

    The remote should change interface depending on what you are doing (watching tv / watching a movie / etc.)

    • Anonymous

      To me, that’s overcomplicating a simple device. I like the tactile feedback — i don’t have to look at the remote control. I also like the long battery life of a simple remote with buttons. With the advanced, responsive user interfaces we can have on the screen now, the number of buttons on the remote control can simply be greatly reduced.

  • http://profiles.google.com/michel.memeteau michel memeteau

    I guess canonical is the partner of always innovating and their ARM HDMI dongle solution.
    That would mean ubuntu on your tv for less than 79$

  • Jason Scurtu

    Is it Unity2D (Qt) or Unity3D (compiz)?
    I would guess that it is based on unity2d, cant imagine tv with X-System with opensource drivers..

    • conor rynne

      no, this looks more like unity 3D. The background of the dash screen changes to match the wallpaper just like Unity 3D

  • Anonymous

    When I saw this I thought “”WOW”" both for it being conceptualized so soon, and cause it looks so much like a Pencil Mockup I submited to their Wiki thing OMG reported on a while back.

    Here the link to my mockup, not exact, but has similarities I think :-)
      http://people.ubuntu.com/~alanbell/unitytelly/daniel/#

    • Johannes Turner

      its a bit to edgy, more like windows 8 :D but the name choice *clapclapclapclap* you sir, deserve an oscar :P

      • Anonymous

        Thank ya sir :-)

        I may have gone a bit overboard on the transparencies. But I can’t help it lol I just love me some see through goodness :-P Mainly cause it adds a 3D feel without being to CPU hard, and lets the UI stay out of the way so you can still watch your shows at the same time.

        Plus I’m a crappy artist lol

  • http://profiles.google.com/lilianftp Moraru Lilian

    I would never spend a bunch of money to get a tv with this interface(and I know u want this Unity thing but it looks bad), if I get to spend some money I will choose something with a good interface. Look at apple, did they put the launcher from the bottom and the global menu in their TV? NO! Cause it’s a stupid design decision. And it’s good without them. It’s not a good idea at all with this Unity on all devices thing.

    • Satchit Bhogle

      Do you see a global menu? DO YOU? Did you even read the article, you self-aggrandised gasbag?

  • http://twitter.com/HardKhora Nas

    Can’t believe I didn’t see anyone mention XBMC. They should have worked with the XBMC team and given that app the final punch to make it a all in one. Much better to blend that than the few things I’ve seen on their version…but then again I have been using it for years.

    • Anonymous

      I was just looking at Xbox Media Center yesterday

    • Anonymous

      XMBC still has no recording function. XMBC has been around for a while now but it seems they have now vision. It needed more features.

      • Anonymous

        It actually has, when usnig the XBMC-PVR branche. You will have a fully functional XBMC setup with support for live tv from various back-ends.

    • http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels

      True, but that doesn’t make it consistent. It’s all about consistensy these days. That’s whu iStuff looks like iStuff on every device.

  • Hebert do Nascimento

    I was apprehensive not really know how long Canonical works on this TV, but it seems to me very early this presentation ..Leaving the focus of this post …http://iloveubuntu.net/ubuntu-1204-lts-feature-redesigned-improved-system-settingsIn this post the images 3 and 4 show a slightly different theme, all opaque for my taste, very good, I do not like the small scale that we currently have on ubuntu ..OMG you know something about that! It’s the new theme?!? It’s very beautiful …”From Portuguese to English with google translator, excuse any mistakes” 

    • Matheus Ligabue

      I think they use this theme just for the mockups. I might be wrong, though… wish I am.

  • http://twitter.com/TheProdejeff The Prodejeff

    You know what would be a killer app for a ubuntu based TV, is that we can install vlc or ffmpeg or mplayer on it so that I can play every damn media file out there. Strange that you guys don´t mention that in your comments. I have a philips TV but on the internet it said that it plays media file well I tested it out and it just sucks unbelievable big time.

    • Anonymous

      What always perplexed me about these vlc obsessed posts and trust me they occur every time a video player is even tangentially mentioned is they seem to assert that only vlc can play certain media files, despite the fact that totem and other gsteamer players can play virtually anything too.
      Where and what media files are these guys trying to play that they need the untold wonders of vlc and nothing else to achieve it?

      • Satchit Bhogle

        +1
        I have never installed VLC on Ubuntu since Lucid. I have encountered exactly ONE file format that Totem failed to play, and it was something obscure that only Real could play.

      • Anonymous

        It’s just that vlc on windows packages many ffmpeg codecs. Since this is all pluggable and not limited to vlc on typical linux systems, vlc can be seen as just another front-end as far as media decoding is concerned.

  • https://launchpad.net/~nfilus Nikolaus

    No, No, NO! Absolutely NO!
    Why cannot they just do 1 thing at a time, but do it right! There is so much left to do and more importantly to fix with desktop linux, so why do they loose energy on such stupid projects like ubuntu on tablets, phones, TVs, set-top boxes, … maybe they introduce coffee machines, ATMs and other useless crap next? There are enough other good projects and manufacturers already in the place and much better at it … take XBMC/Boxee for example – even, if not very successful :(

    Brainstorm was a good start – mostly abandoned.
    tens of great blueprints at each release cycle – again, abandoned

    100 Papercuts was a good start  – again, not continued enough

    NO!

    • Anonymous

      Boxee is going away… you have to buy the box to get the software now

      • Jason Sauders

        Well, that’s depressing. Cya Boxee.

    • http://twitter.com/rubencarbonero Rubén

      Sad truth is desktops don’t matter that much anymore. Desktop linux is pretty much dead now, and remember they’re a company trying to make money. So why bother to waste resources in something that won’t be profitable? They want to venture into new markets. TV is one, tablets and phones are other (for which they’re probably late too).

      And this comes from a pissed off Ubuntu user. I hate Unity.

      • Anonymous

        I like Unity, and I like that someone in the conservative Linux world has the courage to venture into TV’s and phones. (unfortunately Google has butchered theirs). However, if Microsoft hadn’t killed MeeGo (Tizen is dead for practical purposes), I would agree with you.

        Bring on the Ubuntu TV, and Ubuntu Phone.

      • Jason Sauders

        Personally, I don’t think the desktop will ever be dead. It’ll simply become more fragmented as certain devices are utilized for catering to people’s specifics needs… needs that prior to the existence of tablets/smartphones/etc., left only one device to handle all of most people’s every day tasks – the desktop computer.

        Dead? Never. Diminished numbers due to further fragmentation where people mistakenly associate it as being “dead”? Absolutely.

    • Satchit Bhogle

      No product is ever “finished”. Desktop Ubuntu will continue, with both GNOME 3 (not Shell) and Unity both becoming more mature, things becoming more polished, clear design guidelines being introduced and a general focus on integration of applications and interfaces.

    • http://nicholasferber.myopenid.com/ nicholas

      diversification is inevitable. foraying into tv will definitely benefit ubuntu. with a possible revenue stream, more effort can be put into development. you do not perfect walking before running. you try new things and try again if you fail, because otherwise life is worthless. this is true for corporate as well.

  • Anonymous

    Unity pretty much proves they’re moving away from the PC market and so it’s time for power users to jump ship.  Looks like they’ve been using us as guinea pigs for their TV and Mobile future. I need a desktop GUI not a mangled phone app.

    • Anonymous

      I still like the richness of Ubuntu repositories and ppa’s. Lately, KDE has been attaining real stability and speed. I’ve always liked the features and how it can be made to look -  and now it’s also usable. With the improved speed, I no longer get a significant feeling of feature-clutter since the added application and UI capabilities no longer co-exist with slow interface response times. You just have to add a bunch of KDE packages missing from the official Kubuntu installation for the best experience…

    • Joaquin Padilla Rivero

      You mean power users who don’t use keyboards? Unity is basically controllable with a keyboard… what do you do when you are in front of a terminal?

      I need a desktop GUI, too. And if we can use the mouse for what is good (read: not clicking on tiny icons) more power to both of us.

      • Anonymous

        A desktop gui should be controllable with either mouse or keyboard. I’m not interested in having massive icons on a 21inch screen, it makes not sense. It does on a netbook or tablet though.  Desktop users are being forced away from Ubuntu I feel. We’re not welcome anymore because it’s not as well monetised as TV or an embedded tablet OS.

  • http://twitter.com/howythegeek Howy

    All I can say is: sweeeeeet jeeeesuuuus…. :O

  • daniel brenha

    love the concept, hate the colors… and the rounded icons on the launcher. It also seems like a click based interface.. dunno if I like that on a TV

  • http://twitter.com/zzecool zzecool

    I am 100% sure that whoever said here that this Design is nice  , has never neve never never EVER never ever never ever …  saw XBMC running with Aeon  ( or other lovely themes )

    Open your eyes guys we all love linux-ubuntu  but this Design deserve a Facepalm. 

    • Anonymous

      As usual, this Unity interface appears to have unpleasant proportions in both dimensions and colours. At times, it’s too glossy. There’s also too much transparency on the channel guide and the text has too little contrast; the guide looks cluttered and a little hard to read.

  • Anonymous

    I like it. Can it morph into a fully fledged Ubuntu Media Centre? I want an Ubuntu phone as well.

  • http://rubenverhack.be/ Ruben Verhack

    If they are searching for “neutral players”, why would Ubuntu TV be a better match than the rest? It’s not neutral, it screams purple, pink Ubuntu!

    Hopefully there will not be a truly generic smartTV concept, where vendors can slap their logo on and sell it. Because that’s what they want from “neutral” players.

  • Mael Lavault
  • Rafał Proszowski

    FreeView or FreeSat (UK) over internet included would be nice!

  • http://twitter.com/raulvalino Raúl Valiño

    I’m turning into a frikin’ Canonical frikin’ fanboy, and I hate it. And love it.

  • Carlos Felipe Pessoa de Araújo

    My XBOX 360 has NETFLIX, Facebook, Youtube, can I use, for examle, a browser like Firefox, LibreOffice?

  • http://twitter.com/zc456 Squeaks

    That’s actually quite nice.

  • Anonymous

    Out of all the stuff at CES, I’m most excited about Ubuntu TV and the mention of an Ubuntu Phone. 

  • dandonio

    Looks smooth in action. Easily recognizable too. I wonder how the remote should be used. By just watching the screen you wouldn’t really know what button to press in order to access the sidebar, probably some reserved key I suppose?
    My only worry is that the interface might be a bit too crowded for a television. Why would you need a ‘power’ button on a television (that it’s also used for config isn’t that obvious to a non-Ubuntu user). Furthermore what’s the use of seeing the wifi connectivity thing? People expect it to ‘just work’. If it didn’t they wouldn’t know what to do anyway. 
    If they focus on trimming away the fat (and they still have plenty of time to do so) this might turn out to be a very nice thingie. 
    Developers should just constantly keep in mind that a television should be the ultimate no-brainer. The content should take the front stage, the underlying software should be hardly noticeable to the average user. Furthermore, if it can’t be used on sight by a drunk, tech-impaired  family member, it should go back to the drawing boards.

    I’ve got good hopes for it though, at least regarding the software. The talk about the usefulness of a ‘neutral’ player seems a bit too vague for comfort.

  • https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ActionParsnip ActionParsnip

    If it can check email too and access samba shares I’m in

  • Anonymous

    Looks good. I’m looking forward to seeing the final product.

  • Anonymous

    As long as I can also install it into my Ubuntu Dekstop-spin, it could be a good addition. Otherwise I wont ever get a new TV because I already have my HD projector and HTPC at home, which will work for the next few years…

    • Maddy

      Yes, it needs to work with our desktops, buying a separate TV when one already has it is not good. Will be awesome if we get a alpha / beta s/w on our desktop soon.

      • http://www.mhall119.com/ Michael Hall

        The plan is to merge everything back into a single Unity codebase, so it should be available on desktops.

  • http://twitter.com/qhartman Quentin Hartman

    If it can’t do Netflix this will be a non-starter.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

    Like it!

     You have to watch the video on a big screen → much better UI impression.

    Only thing I dislike so fare is the “All Channels” UI, it looks to cluttered – IMHO.

  • Anonymous

    i love the whole concept , style colors user interface everything……

  • http://twitter.com/pwaspinator waspinator

    their searching algorithm isn’t great. searching for ‘up’ returns a movie named ‘up’ as the 12th result.

  • Boondok Life

    I’m curious to see how it handles media collections and meta data.

  • http://www.corbindavenport.com/ Corbin Davenport

    I’ll hold out for GNOME TV :D

  • Will Moorhead

    First things first, more orange.
    2nd, have it when it first turns on, to display LIVE TV.
    When people turn on their tv, most of the time it is to watch live tv (and imo thats the best part of google tv, which I have. You turn it on and it doesn’t get it your way unless you want it to)
    3rd, ditch that youtube icon for something more elegant, something that fits in with everything else.
    4th, this can be extremely profitable. Give the OEM the software for free, but charge them for the licensing. Opensource doesn’t have to make no profit
    5th, once 12.04 reaches RC, make this TOP PRIORITY. This is something that has the potential to be incredible and game changing

  • Anonymous

    Using that wallpaper? That’s it, I’m switching to ArchTV!

  • Anonymous

    OMG! Ubuntu TV!

  • Noeltorious

    we uh still don’t have netflix support lol =

  • Shawn White

    Television. Meh.

  • Anonymous

    reason why I love XBMC is that it automatically convert name of tv show or movie from movie.2012.720p.etcetc.avi to something more nice. And makes difference between TV shows and movies.I’d like to see that on Ubuntu tv. 

    Btw, hope you understand me,I don’t speak english very well.

  • Anonymous

    reason why I love XBMC is that it automatically convert name of tv show or movie from movie.2012.720p.etcetc.avi to something more nice. And makes difference between TV shows and movies.I’d like to see that on Ubuntu tv. 

    Btw, hope you understand me,I don’t speak english very well.

  • Giannis Avgeris

    Shared screen experience with iOS? Maybe using iPhone as a remote? Who needs a remote when you have iPhone!!! LOL That would be awesome.

  • Edward Santiago

    Hopefully, Ubuntu TV will encourage Netflix to make a native app for Ubuntu+Ubuntu TV

    if so, im buying an Ubuntu TV

 
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