Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth is setting his sights on bringing the company's popular Ubuntu Linux distribution beyond the desktop. Already the leading Linux distributor there, Shuttleworth wants to see Ubuntu run on smartphones, tablets and "smart screens" devices, consumer electronics fronted by a touch interface.

At the Ubuntu Developer Summit held in Orlando this week, Shuttleworth introduced plans to capitalize on the company's touch framework and Unity interface to make the transition from desktop to touch devices.

Part of the strategy involves providing a unified code base so that developers writing applications for Ubuntu can get it to run on smartphones and tablets with minimal modifications. Moreover, the company has also developed a version of Ubuntu to run on the ARM processor, which it demonstrated on an ARM-based server at the conference.

The ability to run on the ARM instruction set is a crucial step towards running on tablets, which are powered predominantly by ARM processors at the moment. Indeed, even Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced its intention of releasing an ARM-based version of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

No specific release dates were given, though Canonical expects Ubuntu-powered devices to be available by 2014. As reported by TechNewsWorld, Shuttleworth summed up his confidence despite the very late entry this way: "We think the time is right for a free software alternative to emerge as a partner for industry. We think Ubuntu can be a de facto standard starting point for those building the next generation of devices around Linux."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at PCWorld
- check out this article at TechNewsWorld

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