Ubuntu 10.10: multitouch support announced

Gong by the code name Maverick Meerkat, the next version 10.10 of the Linux Ubunti distribution will handle movements with the multitouch technology.

The next Ubuntu engine is anticipated for the 10th of October 2010, with Canonical, Ubuntu’s official sponsor announcing that it will integrate multitouch movements made on a tactile screen. This support will be made possible via the integration of the uTouch 1.0 framework.

For this new multitouch technology, Canonical indicates that they have directly worked with the development community developing the Linux and X.org kernels, so that the drivers can be improved while support for missing functions will be added. The open source elements are therefore very evident in this release. Canonicals’ multitouch code is also hosted on Launchpad and will be available under the LGPLv3 and GPLv3 license.

With this advance, Mark Shuttlworth - Ubuntu’s founder, anticipates that users will be able to drive the distribution’s main applications with their fingers, which is the case for Ubuntu 11.04 (April 2011) on the condition that developers agree to use the API’s made available to them. This should then be mature a year later with Ubuntu 12.04.

Already present in Ubuntu 10.10, a few Gtk applications will be made available with the movements being based on scrolling. The Evince document viewer will also benefit from particular attention with multitouch interaction possibilities having already been demonstrated.

The multitouch also concerns the Unity windows manager, the environment which will be found in the Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition, although nothing prevents you from installing Unity in the Desktop edition. Canonical also indicates that multitouch will be refreshed for Ubuntu Desktop, Netbook and the Light products which use the Unity environment which is being refined with OEM manufactures.

Mark Shuttleworth states that currently, the Dell XT2 PC is being used as a development environment to handle Ubuntu’s multitouch technology. The best results that could possibly be seen are likely to therefore be seen on this system for the moment.