We’re thrilled to announce yet another significant milestone in the history of the Ubuntu project. After having recently unveiled the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview, today we’re publishing the full source code and images for supported devices.
For developers and enthusiasts only
While a huge amount of Engineering and Design work has been put into ensuring that the foundations for our user experience vision are in place, we want to stress that the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview is currently work in progress. We are releasing the full code at this point to align to our philosophy of transparency and open source development.
We recommend to install the Touch Developer Preview only if you are a developer or enthusiast who wants to test or contribute to the platform. It is not intended to replace production devices or the tablet or handset you use every day.
Flash your device
All that said, let’s get on to how to install Touch Developer Preview from a public image on your device.
What to expect after flashing
Not all functionality from a production device is yet available on the Touch Preview. The list of functions you can expect after installing the preview on your handset or tablet are as follows. For detailed information check the release notes.
- Shell and core applications
- Connection to the GSM network (on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4)
- Phone calls and SMS (on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4)
- Networking via Wifi
- Functional camera (front and back)
- Device connectivity through the Android Developer Bridge tool (adb)
Supported devices
The images we are making available today support the following devices:
- Galaxy Nexus
- Nexus 4
- Nexus 7
- Nexus 10
I’m all set, show me how to flash!
You will find the detailed instructions to flash on the Ubuntu wiki.
Install the Touch Developer Preview >
Contributing and the road ahead
These are exciting times for Ubuntu. We’re building the technology of the future, this time aiming at a whole new level of massive adoption. The Touch Developer Preview means the first fully open source mobile OS developed also in the open. True to our principles this milestone also enables our community of developers to contribute and be a key part of this exciting journey.
In terms of the next steps, today we’re making the preview images available for the Ubuntu 12.10 stable release. In the next few days we’re going to switch to Raring Ringtail, our development release, which is where development will happen on the road to our convergence story.
You’ll find the full details of how the infrastructure and the code are being published and used on the Ubuntu wiki.
Contribute to the Touch Developer Preview >