Hildon vs. QT: Developers at Ubuntu Mobile consider Change to KDE

Jan 22, 2009

Since November 2008 it's been popular knowledge that Ubuntu has been working on a version of its operating system for the mobile ARMv7 architecture, especially for Cortex A8/A9 processors. Now it seems that Ubuntu mobile might drop Gnome Mobile Hildon framework in favor of Qt.

A report in Computerworldclaims developers involved with the project are seriously considering dropping the Gnome Mobile Hildon frameworkin favor of QT, the Nokia software recently released for commercial purposes under the LGPL.

According to Canonical developer, David Mandala, the standard resolution for Gnome is 800x600 pixels, and a lot of work is needed to customize screen sizes for other applications. He could not confirm Ubuntu Mobile'sswitch from Hildon to QT but predicted that Hildon would react swiftly to keep up with developments at Nokia, which he added, could not have been foreseen.

Porting to the ARM architecture is still posing problems because the distro has to run on proprietary systems and hardware. There are also issues arising from the fact that most boards are without 2D and 3D Linux drivers. A porting of Ubuntu to broadband mobile telephones is not currently planned. Says Mandala, "the big drawback is there is no telephony stack out there for us to use and there are certification issues".

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