News today that Ubuntu has been ported to run in its full and unfettered form on a smartphone marks the beginning of a new age in personal computing. Most smartphones today have the capabilities of desktop PCs of only a few years ago and so the ability to put a real operating system that enables the user to program the phone in whatever way they like is what some may see as a logical step.
This turning point is interesting because it is another example of how the attitudes of old-world sales and distribution mechanisms have to change. With the ability to jailbreak your phone and use it in the way that you desire comes the ability to pick and choose which of the restrictive practices you adhere to in your daily use of the phone service. This will effectively force mobile service providers to change their attitudes because only those that provide services that people want will survive. It is becoming more and more difficult for a service provider to hold customers ransom to their own world view.
A real operating system on a smartphone that is capable of driving a monitor and connecting to a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse will open the world of programming to literally billions of people that would not have had access to a desktop system due to initial cost, power or portability constraints. As the machinery of computing becomes cheaper, more portable and easier to use then the ability of people to use and program those computers will empower whole populations.
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