A lot of people love the idea of having a full-blown desktop version of Ubuntu on their Android tablet, including the folks at Canonical. Today we see that they have released a semi-official installer to do just that -- install Ubuntu (a special build based on 12.10) right to your Nexus 7, as a full native install.
It's also pretty easy to do -- they provide a PPA repo for the installer an dependencies, and all you need to do is type a few commands, have fastboot set up and working, and find the USB cable that came with the device. Of course your bootloader has to be unlocked, but that's easy enough to accomplish when you've got a Nexus device.
The Nexus 7 is the official reference device for Ubuntu development on ARM touch devices, and the purpose of this is for users to run and find bugs. Don't go thinking the install will be perfect, as there's a list of things that need attention. Rotation doesn't yet work, there are some scrolling issues, Bluetooth isn't working, and the camera isn't active. Nothing that can't be overcome, but know ahead of time what to expect.
Don't get me wrong, I think this is great, and that Ubuntu is a great choice to run on a small tablet. I am a little miffed that a so-called developer preview is only available as a one-click application, specific to Ubuntu. I may think Ubuntu is a good choice for my tablet, but I don't think it's the best choice for my desktop. I would have liked to see the images and scripts delivered in a package that advanced users could use without installing Ubuntu on their computer. Hopefully they can address this and let everyone play.
Full instructions, and notes about known issues and tester protocol can be found at the source links.
