There"s been tons of debate over the past year and a half on Microsoft"s embrace of a touchscreen interface for Windows 8. Now, a well known Linux-based OS is strongly hinting it may be offering a touchscreen UI in a future version.
The Ubuntu website current has a countdown clock on its main page that will reach zero at 1 pm Eastern time on Wednesday. The countdown clock has the tagline of "So close, you can almost touch it", which has led to speculation that an announcement concerning a Ubuntu version made for touchscreen PCs will be made tomorrow.
Ubuntu"s creators at Canonical have hinted strongly in the past few months that they want the OS to be inside the hardware of mobile products, including tablets and smartphones. Indeed, the latest version of Ubuntu, 12.10, includes an interface called Unity that looks like it was supposed to be made for touchscreens. In the official press release for 12.10 in October, Canonical claimed that Ubuntu was now "the perfect alternative for anyone considering a move to Windows 8".
Of course, that"s easier said than done. Even with the slow growth of Windows 8 in its first two months, it seems to already be working inside more PCs worldwide than Linux.
Source: Ubuntu | Image via Ubuntu