Many of us have dreamed of running Linux on all the things, including our TVs. A decade ago, Ubuntu TV promised to make this a reality. What happened, and are would-be Linux TV viewers out of luck?
When Ubuntu expanded beyond computers
What were they thinking?
2012 was an ambitious year for Canonical. Ubuntu was the most popular version of desktop Linux in the world, and Canonical was the company that made that happen. Now it wanted to expand Ubuntu beyond desktops, laptops, and servers. Ubuntu was to also appear on netbooks, phones, tablets, and, yes, even TVs.
Naturally, you couldn’t just take existing Linux software and place it on all of these different devices. Canonical needed new software, so it created the Unity interface.
Unity first appeared in the Ubuntu Netbook Remix in 2010, and it became the new desktop paradigm for the standard version of Ubuntu in 2011. In 2012, Unity appeared in its first long-term support version of Ubuntu, version 12.04, which Canonical would support until 2017.
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Canonical’s vision for Unity was to create an interface that would adapt to different screen sizes as needed. The Unity that you used on your computer would resemble the Unity on your phone, which would resemble Unity on your TV. The apps you used would simply adapt as needed, as would different parts of the Unity interface itself.
The TV interface that never was
Demoing a concept
At CES 2012, Canonical showed off Ubuntu TV to the world. The company promised a multimedia experience where you would no longer need to switch between apps to watch different shows. Instead, shows would appear directly in Unity. You would be able to browse, stream, and purchase videos all in one place.
The demo Canonical showed off at CES looked familiar. In fact, it looked a lot like the existing interface on desktop Ubuntu. That’s because the software Canonical needed to make Ubuntu TV a reality didn’t exist yet. Instead, the company threw together a proof of concept.
Ubuntu…