Ubuntu Desktop for Android

Are you like me in that you dream of a day when all of your computing needs are handled by one device that adjusts its form factor depending on your specific needs at the moment? If so, this is an exciting time!

There are several options for achieving this task already. With Android's latest edition, 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, your phone's OS can scale up to a full desktop quite nicely. Here's a video of a man demonstrating ICS's ability to do this:

As you can see, it works rather nicely. But it's not perfect. Android is meant to be used with a touch interface. It just seems odd to use it with a mouse or a trackpad.

However, Canonical, maker of the ever popular Ubuntu version of Linux, are looking to make your phone scale up to a full desktop in a prettier fashion.

Ubuntu will run alongside Android way in the background until it detects that it has been plugged in to an external display with a keyboard and mouse. Then, if it works as billed, Ubuntu will boot up on the external display and you will have a full-fledged desktop operating system running. If this reminds you of Motorola's Webtop application, then you're on the right track. However, this should be able to be loaded up on to any phone and will run the full Ubuntu with all of its possible applications. Instead of just a Firefox browser and a file management application.

This Ubuntu would have access to all of the files saved on your Android phone, including pictures, documents, and videos.

Just imagine- you could have all of your files and computing power with you at all times without the hassle of having to sync them with an online service or loading them on to a USB drive. You could afford to buy a new desktop without shelling out thousands of dollars for a full computer- just enough for the cables and peripherals. You would no longer need to remember which machine can do what because you have only one and it can do it all!

Best of all, you will be supporting free, open-source operating systems across the board. Hooray for open-source develoment!