Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu operating system, has announced the launch of Ubuntu Frame. The new product seeks to give developers a way to easily build and deploy applications on embedded displays such as interactive kiosks and digital signage solutions.
According to the company, the availability of Ubuntu Frame now means that developers do not need to integrate and maintain partial solutions such as DRM, KMS, input protocols or security policies. This will free up more time for developers to focus on content that’ll be shown on the display and reduce the number of bugs and vulnerabilities in code that is no longer necessary.
To make development as easy as possible Ubuntu Frame is compatible with toolkits such as Flutter, Qt, GTK, Electron and SDL2, and it also has a solution for applications based on HTML5 and Java, among others.
Commenting on the launch of Ubuntu Frame, Michał Sawicz, Smart Displays Engineering Manager at Canonical, said:
“Ubuntu Frame’s reliability has been widely tested in the field. Its technology has been in development for over 7 years and in production for 5 years, using state-of-the-art techniques, and deployed in production to Linux desktop and mobile users. As such, Ubuntu Frame is one of the most mature graphical servers available today for embedded devices.”
Along with Canonical’s operating system for IoT and embedded systems – Ubuntu Core, Ubuntu Frame will be supported for 10 years ensuring that devices are supported for their entire lifetime. Canonical will also provide support for product teams and enterprise customers of Ubuntu Frame to help them overcome any issues they run into.
It’s interesting to see Canonical launch Ubuntu Frame. Unlike in the personal computing space where Ubuntu usage pales in comparison to Windows, it is quite a bit more popular in the business world for doing jobs such as running servers. Hopefully, this move will help Canonical generate more revenue.
