3 Reasons Not To Convert Your Nexus 7 Into An Ubuntu Linux Tablet

106 days ago by 14

ubuntu linux nexus 7

There’s a lot of interest out there with Nexus 7 owners turning their super sweet Android Jelly Bean tablet into an Ubuntu Linux tablet.  The geek in me understands this a little bit.  But ultimately, at least at this point in the Ubuntu / Nexus 7 game, you may be better off keeping Android running on your Nexus 7 and save yourself a ton of stress, headaches, and wasted time.  The Nexus 7 is already an amazing tablet built for high end performance with the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

But for those of you who are still asking yourself why wouldn’t I want to turn my Nexus 7 into an Ubuntu Linux tablet, here’s 3 reasons why you might want to reconsider, or at least hold off until Ubuntu is more compatible to mobile devices like tablets.

Here’s 3 reasons not to turn your Nexus 7 into an Ubuntu Linux tablet

#1:  No software updates

According to the Nexus 7 Ubuntu wiki page, updates are not possible on the Nexus 7.  The wiki does imply that you could enable the updates but they recommend you do not enable this feature.  Enabling updates on the Ubuntu Linux OS on your Nexus 7 may supersede a package that was customized for the Nexus 7.  If you absolutely need to update your Ubuntu Linux install on your Nexus 7, you’ll have to reflash your device with a new image update.

#2:  No access to YouTube videos

For those of you who are into watching YouTube videos, you are going to be disappointed with Linux running on your Nexus 7.  Because Adobe Flash Player is not ported to Linux on ARM platforms, YouTube videos are not going to be able to play in the default configuration.  The only saving grace here could be that YouTube is currently testing HTML-based video playback.  If YouTube does finally release HTML-5 playback, then you’ll be able to get the videos on your Linux Ubuntu Nexus 7 tablet.  You can opt in to the YouTube HTML-5 project here and get signed up for the release.

#3:  Unstable bluetooth connectivity

The bluetooth issue with the Nexu 7 running Ubuntu Linux seems to be an ongoing problem with users.  The Wiki page references Ubuntu 13.04 as the problem with bluetooth, however in the video below you’ll see the user moving right along with his bluetooth mouse.  So if a smooth, fast bluetooth connection is what you are after, you might be better offer keeping Android on your Nexus 7.

So there you have it, 3 reasons not to convert your Nexus 7 into an Ubuntu Linux tablet.

What do you think?  Would you recommend making the conversion?  Or do you think the Nexus 7 is fine as it is, or at least fine for now with Android 4.1?

But… for those of you who are bent on turning your Nexus 7 into an Ubuntu Linux tablet, here’s a video that will help you satisfy your itch.

 

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

    2 is unfair because 4.2, the newest Andoid for Nexus 7, also has no Flash Player.

    • trey

      no flash player is a feature.
      people will pay plenty of moolah and happily give up watching Youtube for the joy and honour of paying for….

      ooh wait, this is the nexus!!

      in which case its an abomination that someone would do this!!!!!

      • Tony

        What an odd comment. You do realise that Google owns YouTube and it works just fine on any android device without the need of flash? Flash is the old, HTML5 is the new, and the world’s a better place for it in my opinion.

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

          Totally agreed. But I still think the author should change point 2 to reflect that Flash Player also isn’t possible on the newest Android on the Nexus.

  • https://idontdostuff.wordpress.com/ Ladislav Ezr

    2. is bullshit, you have MiniTube…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steven-Berson/1582454067 Steven Berson

    The best Linux distro I’ve found for Tablet use is Bodhi Linux – http://www.bodhilinux.com – as has a customized tablet profile option (rather than just trying to use the same gui as used for desktop) and uses the blingy yet lightweight Enlightenment DE instead of the currently cludgy Unity (hopefully something that will get optimized by the time 13.04 gets released and the real reason this Nexus project was started in order to figure out ways to do this optimization). Anyway – I have Bodhi Linux working well on my HP Slate 500 – and they are starting to offer ports to ARM as well – and planning to get an install image setup for the Nexus 7 soon.

  • Masoud Pourmoosa

    “You can opt in to the YouTube HTML-5 project here and get signed up for the release.”

    Nonsense. I have activated Youtube’s HTML5 feature for ages, and I’m watching videos in WebM format without any need of FlashPlayer. All recent and all popular videos have HTML5 option available.

  • http://www.facebook.com/amr.ibrahim.73 Amr Ibrahim

    Apparently, the writer missed a point here; “The core of the Ubuntu Desktop has been enabled on the Nexus 7 tablet to serve as a developer reference platform” https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7. It is not ready yet to replace Android entirely. It is just for development purposes.

  • Kyle

    Well what about dual booting, you can do that now with multirom and run ubuntu alongside android.

    • Skerminkel

      Bump this!

  • Yop Spanjers

    Stupid article… It’s not perfect because it’s for testing!

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