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Android: will it work on current devices ?

Hi !
Does anyone actually know if android can be installed / flashed on current devices ? Or it's only for certain devices that come with it preinstalled ?
Please don't post things like: "i would love it if it did" or "omg, android is great"...
I'm looking for an answer from someone who actually knows or someone who knows exactly how this stuff works...
Thanks
PS: Menneisyys, i hope you'll post something

I don't think that you'll be getting your answer any time soon as nobody has seen the thing yet.
But i would speculate that as HTC is one of the partners, it might be possible. HTC probably wont reinvent their phones again for the android.

Not a programmer...
but i was listening to leo laport yesterday and it seems that ggls world domination strategy would be all including. so it seems very likely that they would allow some version of it for use on other phones.
http://techguylabs.com/radio/ShowNotes/Show403#toc5

At this point, since there there is no release yet and nobody has/can play with it, it's probably hard to say. However, knowing Google, there is a good possibility they will come out with an app that allows you to use your current phone (speculation).

I heard that Android based on some Java-sintacsys - maybe it is good for us?

Well, the SDK has been released, get it here: http://code.google.com/android/. A demo video is available on the page to show you what it's capable of thus far--looks promising. I'm no coder, but I wish someone would develop this for current HTC devices. As an incentive, Google launched an Android Developer Challenge (http://code.google.com/android/adc.html), where developers of "innovative, useful apps" can win up to $275,000.

leetsauce said:
Well, the SDK has been released, get it here: http://code.google.com/android/. A demo video is available on the page to show you what it's capable of thus far--looks promising. I'm no coder, but I wish someone would develop this for current HTC devices. As an incentive, Google launched an Android Developer Challenge (http://code.google.com/android/adc.html), where developers of "innovative, useful apps" can win up to $275,000.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I grabbed the SDk and got a basic hello world up and running. From what the video said and what I can glean from various sites. The Android OS is designed to run on existing hardware. I would imagine that includes HTC machines. Its a complete OS though not an app so I would imagine you have to blow away WM6 and put android on in order to take advantage of its functionality. The actual coding appears to be extremely easy.

I can see google or the community releasing a "shell" of Android.
The more people with it the more money for them. If you watched the video they are really trying to push the location based services from GPS, cell towers, IP address... can anyone say more cash for ads.
I wouldn't mind having it on WM and its open source so there a good chance we will see it.

Alpine would be perfect for Android
Alpine would be a perfect phone if recycled with android !!
Good processor, lots of mem and a big screen for touch sensasions!!
Is it a dream or could that become reality?

Is Android compatible with HTC Touch-style hardware or does it require the numberpad?

There is a linux-2.6.23-android-m3-rc20.tar.gz kernel file on the android google code project site, there is also ADB utility - Android Debug Bridge (comes with SDK), it has an option of flashing a device (over usb) or an emulator (which is also included in the package)...the question is how to compile that kernel and make it run on our HTCs, and what kindof boot loader does it require? Maybe guys from Xanadux know better
It's also interesting how JAVA is being used after becoming open source, it appears that android is mostly independent from the JAVA API, the only relevance I found was only basic stuff like java.util, java.io and etc (included in the android.jar)...

i think that android will work on htc devices because pretty much they are the ones that will be releasing the first devices preloaded with android and i think that white device was made from htc. I see a potential here so i ask some one to make a thread on porting android to any or a specific device. good luck and may the force be with you.
ps. i hope its a htc wizard

I'd say we'd be waiting to see the HDK come out before we can put it on our own devices, can't wait though.

A dream
The Android SDK includes an emulator, see here http://www.ohadev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15
Quote: "It seems that the main binary is emulator; this includes a qemu-0.8.2, which runs (in system mode) the ARM kernel image at lib/images/kernel-qemu.
Two more images are mounted from lib/images : the system.img (which appears to be the rootfs, and userdata.img, which gets replicated (and mounted from there) at $HOME/.android/userdata.img."
This guy (http://mamaich.uni.cc/fr_pocket.htm) got Qemu compiled for ARM, buggy/crashing, no visible update for several years, see also here http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/in...e_to_running_ms_dos_8_12&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Question: Anyone have any more recent news/experiences about Qemu on ARM/HTC?
So, theoretically one could try running the Android Kernel image from the SDK emulator on Qemu on PocketPC.
Even if it works (highly unlikely), this megasandwich AndroidImage->Qemu->PocketPC would probably be fantastically slow, with dodgy/absent I/O support.
Real solution is to wait for a modifyable Kernel which can run natively on the HTC ARM processor.

Did not someone from google mentioned at the day of the release that android will run on any ARM9 based device?

dirac said:
Real solution is to wait for a modifyable Kernel which can run natively on the HTC ARM processor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no such thing as "HTC ARM processor". All major ARM-based CPUs
are supported by Linux, it's the device drivers for external hardware that are
often missing because of the missing documentation.

cr2 said:
There is no such thing as "HTC ARM processor". All major ARM-based CPUs
are supported by Linux, it's the device drivers for external hardware that are
often missing because of the missing documentation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im sure that HTC will release drivers for all their devices since they are partners in the Open Handset Alliance..

prodinho said:
Im sure that HTC will release drivers for all their devices since they are partners in the Open Handset Alliance..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some doubts that the (future) drivers will be released as free software, and not some binary blobs like nvidia, ati and m-systems did it in the past.
Binary linux kernel drivers are evil

Is it possible to natively run Linux rather than on top of Android for Nexus One?

I've bought a new phone however I do not want to waste my Nexus One. The idea came to my mind firstly was to make it a small 'server' running at home.
Technically I bet it's possible however I don't have a clear path to do that... I've googled for a while and I saw a lot tutorials about how to run Ubuntu on top of Android. However what I want is to get rid of Android and run Linux directly on the hardware.
I think that should have been done by some guys... any help thanks in advance!

zhangxiao83 said:
I've bought a new phone however I do not want to waste my Nexus One. The idea came to my mind firstly was to make it a small 'server' running at home.
Technically I bet it's possible however I don't have a clear path to do that... I've googled for a while and I saw a lot tutorials about how to run Ubuntu on top of Android. However what I want is to get rid of Android and run Linux directly on the hardware.
I think that should have been done by some guys... any help thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IIRC, Android is Linux.
If you mean the computer OS, I have no idea.

Theshawty said:
IIRC, Android is Linux.
If you mean the computer OS, I have no idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I understand that - However I meant Linux such as Ubuntu or Arch distribution...

zhangxiao83 said:
Yes I understand that - However I meant Linux such as Ubuntu or Arch distribution...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Running Ubuntu has been deemed possible.

Yes, but why and who will make a port (isn't this simple)? And not all drivers are open source and available to public.
BTW, android is linux and you can even port some applications (a time ago sometime is talking about porting glibc to android, don't remember if this get done, but I think is useless somehow).

It will happen
Word on the street is that Android drivers are being merged back into the development branch of the Linux 3.3 kernel. It's not too surprising considering Android developers were working with the Linux kernel developers until the 2.6.33 Linux kernel.
I bet we will see Debian or Ubuntu running on our N1s eventually. The N1 has a great developer backing since it was pitched as a developer phone, so I bet one of the many talented developers out there will eventually cook up a native Linux ROM. Besides, there are native ports for other devices out there so they can't be too far off.

You can currently install Ubuntu on your N1 but honestly it's pointless. Yes There are great apps to use but compatibility isn't 100% on the phone AND the apps run too slow to actually be useful.
You'd have better chances developing an app for android to do what you want lol.
If this helped hit THANKS

http://nexusonehacks.net/nexus-one-hacks/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-your-android/ Check this link for a how-to.

Mozilla Boot-To-Gecko

Anyone interested in building B2G for Xperia X8?
I think it would be great for our phones , because it's very fast
And it would be amazing to build apps in HTML5

shvelo said:
Anyone interested in building B2G for Xperia X8?
I think it would be great for our phones , because it's very fast
And it would be amazing to build apps in HTML5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what do you mean? what is b2g? program language like html,java,etc?

B2G - Boot To Gecko.
HTML5 OS By Mozilla,
Running on Linux Kernel
http://iwantandroidapps.com/hands-on-with-mozillas-boot-to-gecko-mobile-operating-system-8277

shvelo said:
B2G - Boot To Gecko.
HTML5 OS By Mozilla,
Running on Linux Kernel
http://iwantandroidapps.com/hands-on-with-mozillas-boot-to-gecko-mobile-operating-system-8277
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
aa gasagebia
can you make widgets with this tool?

Im sorry, i dont understand, i would edit original post and add more info about what it is
because i doubt anyone will properly understand this

It will be work smooth on our loved x8?
I wonder of it
Can you put some more info, like ' special functions' ?

They say it's quite a heavy OS... I've seen it someone using this OS on their SGS II... BTW I kinda love the UI

azyar said:
They say it's quite a heavy OS... I've seen it someone using this OS on their SGS II... BTW I kinda love the UI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, there is prototype that runs on the Galaxy S II - and you're right that it's quite "heavy". But then this should be no real suprise here as B2G is yet another of Mozilla's "us too!" projects (you know, how can it be that this market can possibly be left to Canonical and their "Ubuntu phone OS" project as Mark seems to aim to put his Unity crap onto each and every embedded device he can possibly get into). Look at Firefox and you will see why Mozilla fails at efficient coding and not only because they got a crush on scrambling into all possible directions with idiotic projects to make LameFox even more of a LameDuck.
Anyway, as I already stated in another post...
Anyone who tries a port will most likely face the problem that lots of the "NDK" parts (the native ARM binaries below the UI) will most likely be written to match ARMv7 series - so that could need backporting to the ARMv6.
The next problem will be, yet again, the drivers. That could be fun for the poor dev tackling the idea to write them up from scratch without any kind of documentation or SEMC sources (just to remind you, SEMC only released the source of the kernel, they never released the source of the 1.6/2.0/2.1 ROMs).
I'd rate this idea at "won't happen"

B.Jay said:
Yes, there is prototype that runs on the Galaxy S II - and you're right that it's quite "heavy". But then this should be no real suprise here as B2G is yet another of Mozilla's "us too!" projects (you know, how can it be that this market can possibly be left to Canonical and their "Ubuntu phone OS" project as Mark seems to aim to put his Unity crap onto each and every embedded device he can possibly get into). Look at Firefox and you will see why Mozilla fails at efficient coding and not only because they got a crush on scrambling into all possible directions with idiotic projects to make LameFox even more of a LameDuck.
Anyway, as I already stated in another post...
Anyone who tries a port will most likely face the problem that lots of the "NDK" parts (the native ARM binaries below the UI) will most likely be written to match ARMv7 series - so that could need backporting to the ARMv6.
The next problem will be, yet again, the drivers. That could be fun for the poor dev tackling the idea to write them up from scratch without any kind of documentation or SEMC sources (just to remind you, SEMC only released the source of the kernel, they never released the source of the 1.6/2.0/2.1 ROMs).
I'd rate this idea at "won't happen"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm agree with you

Jolla for Nokia N9?

Any devs planning on porting this to the N9? Since Jolla is based of Meego (I Think?).

l.Urker said:
Any devs planning on porting this to the N9? Since Jolla is based of Meego (I Think?).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They said that the N9 can be flash on sailfish but there will be no support provide by Jolla.
Plus, you can find some video with the N950 running sailfish. As the N950 have the same hardware as the N9 so it is compatible.

Please do. I heart my n9 so much...
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

There'll eventually be a community port of Sailfish*, don't expect it to be very reliable/slick though, there'll be some things that never work properly.
This has all been explained time & time again, I'm not going into the back story as-to-why all this is true, the information is out there.
*not Jolla's flavour, just the stock version of Sailfish, which means it'll be quite bare-bones compared Jolla's Sailfish (initially anyway).

oh thanks for all the replies. my N9 is just collecting dust right now. whats the difference between jolla sailfish and normal one?
Swyped from my M9704

l.Urker said:
oh thanks for all the replies. my N9 is just collecting dust right now. whats the difference between jolla sailfish and normal one?
Swyped from my M9704
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jolla is the name of the company..
Sailfish is the name of the operating system

Do we have any news on this?

Still now, don't seen any port from Jolla..
even SDK is out..
But I really like to see Jolla port to N9.. :good:

any news about this?
and anyone has stock sailfish on n9?

Chyea!
Sent from my VZW Galaxy Note II, hyper powered via MeanBean - ICE 1.0
- Hyperion 6,200MAh Extended Battery
- Modded Otterbox to fit battery
- An S-Pen (deal with it)​

Just to clarify things.
There is this company called Jolla. They make this operating system called SailfishOS which in fact is Mer.
So what is Mer? Mer is an operating system without hardware layer and UX. This means it's useless because it won't run on any hardware. You need the hardware layer which means drivers und you probably need the UX which means the GUI. This 3 parts together give you an operating system that you can use on your hardware. An example of this is SailfishOS.
If you take Mer and add the Hardware layer for the Jolla device and then the Sailfish Silica UI you get SailfishOS. The only other iteration of SailfishOS which exists is the one with the hardware layer for the Nokia N950. This will never be released as an official or supported Version.
So for all you guys waiting for a port of SailfishOS for device xyz. This won't happen. There is only one thing that could possible become reality and that's a leaked, unsupported beta image of SailfishOS for the Nokia N950/N9. Maybe this image will be the same which we saw in early demos of SailfishOS.
So the rule is as follows:
Even if you get all the linux drivers (not Android) for Mer so that you could possibly run Mer on your device you still need the UX. Jolla won't give you their Sailfish UI. You could use the Nemo mobile UI that is similar to it but the Sailfish UI will only be available on official Jolla devices.
But let's dream a little bit. If you really get Linux drivers for your device xyz and the Jolla device is out there and it has nearly the same hardware as your device it could be possible that you take all the packages that contain the Sailfish Silica UI and install them on your own device with Mer and your own hardware layer. This is possible in theory. In reality I don't think we will see a usable port that can be your daily driver.

An exchange which should help folks understand why there's no images*: http://pastie.org/private/lgldc4h3dikjkqc9nxecaq
They've said once they have one or more devices shipping, they'll probably start to open Sailfish much more, but not a minute before, for several reasons.
But that doesn't mean they'll also start to support images for 3rd-party devices, they'll probably never do that to the degree Canonical does, see the above.
*original source for that pastie
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1941044&p=48#r950

Jolla will be ported to N9. It won't hava all the functions, that on the Jolla device (for ex. no Voice control...anyway who needs it?), but it will be officially released around september/october 2013. So be patient

Giorgio84 said:
Jolla will be ported to N9. It won't hava all the functions, that on the Jolla device (for ex. no Voice control...anyway who needs it?), but it will be officially released around september/october 2013. So be patient
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For real? or just your wish?

Is there an ETA?
Is there an ETA on when someone could make some early progress on this project? I'm worried that people are losing so much interest that a preview version of Sailfish running on the N9 might be a great idea to get people wanting more of the Meego successor.
That way, people would be falling in love with Sailfish and since it would have a significant spec-bump over the N9, people would be willing to buy it for the screen/display improvement, the "other half," and the great UI.

Giorgio84 said:
Jolla will be ported to N9. It won't hava all the functions, that on the Jolla device (for ex. no Voice control...anyway who needs it?), but it will be officially released around september/october 2013. So be patient
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have any source for this info? Because there is no official announcement that hit my attention.
hacker00740 said:
Is there an ETA on when someone could make some early progress on this project?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As always "when it's done". Please stop asking for ports. Just wait until Jolla came out with there first device. I'm sure there will be ports and adaptions all over the place once the Software gets in the hands of the right guys. And this community or t.m.o is prbably the first place to know it. But asking for it every second won't let that happen earlier.

Hello friends ..
No new news??
SDK when the operating system was released.
Test video of the operating system on it is N9. Why not port the operating system to handset N9 its wonderful ...
Please help developers...

maxomid said:
Hello friends ..
No new news??
SDK when the operating system was released.
Test video of the operating system on it is N9. Why not port the operating system to handset N9 its wonderful ...
Please help developers...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SDK didn't include the full version of the Sailfish OS. It only contains a basic emulator for apps. So until Jolla releases a phone with Sailfish, it is impossible to port
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

tbo-art said:
The SDK didn't include the full version of the Sailfish OS. It only contains a basic emulator for apps. So until Jolla releases a phone with Sailfish, it is impossible to port
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the answer
Will be released in full when it is SDk?
Why developers do not work on this phone Nitdroid ROM Port ... Time to full Android experience on these phones ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2342102

Hi, i want to share this post from a Jolla engineer giving tips to start porting Sailfish:
I'm pretty sure I phrased it a bit different So, both the N900 and N9 have the problem of having binary blobs, which Jolla is not allowed to distribute, and almost certainly never will be. The N9 additionally has the problem of having an older kernel than the N900 -- old enough that it's starting to cause problems. That's the reason why I probably mentioned N900.
As for Nemo and N9, Nemo is a community followup project of MeeGo, and as such inherited basic N9 hardware adaptation, and the right to redistribute those binary blobs. So, if you as user take a Nemo image and put Jolla stuff in there it works -- but we as Jolla can't do that.
Another problem is that the old N9 adaptation is based on X11, while we are using Wayland. We do have a proof of concept Wayland stack up on N9 (available through Nemo as well), but it has its fair shair of problems.
That we're using Wayland makes your suggestion of porting Sailfish libraries to Harmattan hard as well: Harmattan is an X11 stack (same in the different direction: you can't use a Harmattan binary on Sailfish. If you have the source porting is trivial -- unless it's using meegotouch. But if you only have a binary it won't run. In theory something hacking with xwayland might be possible, but that's pretty crazy, and a sailfish port/rewrite would almost certainly be the better option)
So, it should be pretty clear by now that we will not do N9 images. What needs to happen for community to be able to do the port? Easy: Get involved in Nemo. I mentioned that several times, though so far nobody showed interest.
It's mainly 3 areas that need work:
- finish port to the 3.5 kernel we started. The required tasks are in Nemos Bugzilla
- start fixing bugs in the Wayland proof-of-concept for N9
- reverse engineer hardware components where no driver exists, and do drivers (like GPS)
So, it's a hard task, but not impossible. The Nemo community and Jolla provided a very good starting point with Nemo, now it's up to community members to step up, and continue.
SOURCE: TMO

Maybe someone can shed some light on this?

After reading and watching multiple demonstrations of the Ubuntu phone os. I just can't seem to find features that I can't already do on my android. The notifications drawer is pretty neat in that you can pull it down at different places, but other than that, it just seems like a lightly modded android.
Sent from a galaxy far far away.

luc.highwalker said:
After reading and watching multiple demonstrations of the Ubuntu phone os. I just can't seem to find features that I can't already do on my android. The notifications drawer is pretty neat in that you can pull it down at different places, but other than that, it just seems like a lightly modded android.
Sent from a galaxy far far away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think for most users, they may not find value in this yet (until more apps are available and/or cheaper phones come out), but for those familiar with linux it will make a lot of sense.
I have been a linux developer for 3 years now (as a full time job) and I am just imagining all the cool stuff I can do with this device (at home and at work).
For one thing, you will likely be able to develop (native) apps on the phone itself instead of having to have a separate computer to do it. It might even be possible to develop Android apps!
It's basically a PC in your pocket so the apps will not be as limited as Android and iOS apps. There is still software out there that is not available on Android and iOS because those systems are designed for phones and tablets and don't fully support a desktop style interface. The appeal to an Ubuntu phone is that it can function as both, and you can develop software that will be interchangeable as both.

Thanks for your reply.
I'm not a developer (yet) so I can't say much on the subject. But I do know that you can develop apps directly on an Android device. There's even a Linux terminal Window.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see what people can make out of the phone. till then, I'll just stick to my beloved android
Sent from a galaxy far far away.

If you love linux, this *could* be a game changer if it's done right. As BukaKing mentioned, the ability to run native apps on the OS is a huge plus, as you would then be able to make the most of the hardware presented rather than utilising a java engine.
Customisation I am assuming will also be a huge factor - Ubuntu Desktop can be so heavily customised, to function exactly how you want it to, so I am *assuming* that Ubuntu for Phones will be similar. So, just because the OS behaves a particular way on those video's circulating, does not necessarily mean that is how it is destined to remain. Once it's out there in the wild, I would even assume people unhappy with the lack of soft buttons may find them re-appear, as gnome/unity has the ability to create custom panels.
The oportunities I think this OS presents to smartphones is amazing, but in the end it comes down to 2 things for me. Will it be completely open source? If yes, then there could be a bunch of forks/derivitives explode around the webs where teams have customised the OS the way they want it. Developing for it would be far easier, so i'd expect if popularity gets high enough, apps will appear from everywhere. And, implimentation - will it be as easy for a non-linux user to pick up and use, as it will be for a linux user? Hopefully, that answer is yes too.

According to Shuttleworth, it will be 100% opensource! I can't wait till the code is released and we can all play with this. Since it will be using an android kernel and drivers I'm hoping it won't be to hard to compile from source for my phone.

onlychevys said:
According to Shuttleworth, it will be 100% opensource! I can't wait till the code is released and we can all play with this. Since it will be using an android kernel and drivers I'm hoping it won't be to hard to compile from source for my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Helllooo! This what i was waiting for....Open source! so that ports can be made for devices that cant be officially supported by ubuntu. For those who keep saying ubuntu cant on GT-$5660 just STFU! No offense but Samsung said ICS or JB cant fully run properly on gio! and look it runs almost perfectly! So a bit of tweaking ubuntu for my device and we can run this!
Sent from my GT-S5660 using xda premium

batman38102 said:
Helllooo! This what i was waiting for....Open source! so that ports can be made for devices that cant be officially supported by ubuntu. For those who keep saying ubuntu cant on GT-$5660 just STFU! No offense but Samsung said ICS or JB cant fully run properly on gio! and look it runs almost perfectly! So a bit of tweaking ubuntu for my device and we can run this!
Sent from my GT-S5660 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:banghead: :banghead: No.. It won't work on the S5660... Ubuntu phone is not android... Have you ever wrote a program? Compiled software? The binary is compiled using the arm hard float v7 instructions, you will need to recompile the kernel, the OS and every damn app.. the native apps are made with C++ not java ... You may be able to get a running build on a arm v6 like the S5660 but you can't install 3rd party apps from the store or proprietary apps unless the developer thought about that and supports it .. Likely not, they will be natively for arm v7 hf only...
If canonical would have chosen soft float instead of hard float then it would have worked, but it will be freaking slow and laggy..
Getting JB on that device is something else, it and android apps are running of a virtual machine .. That is the good thing about managed code and virtual machines and the reason sun Microsystems invented java in the first place ...
QML and c++ is not running off a virtual machine.. Its 100% native ...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I'm wondering if native C++ Apps will not only be more efficient than Java on Android but if Ubuntu can take more advantage of multi-core systems than Android does. At least I have heared that Android isn't that optimized for multi-core phones.

jscurtu said:
:banghead: :banghead: No.. It won't work on the S5660... Ubuntu phone is not android... Have you ever wrote a program? Compiled software? The binary is compiled using the arm hard float v7 instructions, you will need to recompile the kernel, the OS and every damn app..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why does it have to be him that has to do that, some one else could do it and provide an image.
the native apps are made with C++ not java ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, who ever heard of making native apps in java!
The Ubuntu Phone OS equivalent to java will be HTML5.
You may be able to get a running build on a arm v6 like the S5660 but you can't install 3rd party apps from the store or proprietary apps unless the developer thought about that and supports it .. Likely not, they will be natively for arm v7 hf only...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You go from saying "No.. it won't work" to saying "You may be able to get a running build", nice!
And what proprietary apps are there right now? The only apps that I have seen are either HTML5 or the one native app (the gallery app) that Canonical made which will be open source and can be rebuilt for any device.
Also this same problem exists for Android native app (android has a lot of them), the developers have to build binaries for the different Android devices. So you can port Android to an x86 device but you will not be able to run a lot of games unless they include binaries that support it. Games built with Unity 3D are native apps, games built on Adobe Flash/Air are native apps. Native apps *can be* more efficient in performance, memory and battery than Java apps. Also C++ in the case of mobile devices is more cross platform than Java, since it can be used on both iOS and Android, and the libraries in Android Java are not available on other platforms with Java.
QML itself is not technically native, it depends on how it is used. QML is a mix of objects/widgets and javascript (similar to HTML5), but native C++ code can access QML objects/widgets through Qt.
But that said, if Canonical doesn't officially support a device I would steer clear of updates. I just spent the weekend trying to update my HP Envy from Ubuntu 10.10 to 12.10 and I had a ton of problems, and while it works now, my USB is disabled for some reason (even though internal USB devices work). This isn't the first time this has happened to me with Ubuntu updates.
I wouldn't worry about it for the Galaxy Nexus since it is an officially supported device, but for devices that are ported too by some one else, I would avoid updates coming from Canonical.

Valve is testing Steam games for Ubuntu so we could be playing some real games on our phones soon.
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getrdy said:
Valve is testing Steam games for Ubuntu so we could be playing some real games on our phones soon.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
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ARM != x86 .....

blackout23 said:
ARM != x86 .....
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What about those x86 based phones?
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Lesicnik1 said:
What about those x86 based phones?
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The smartphone GPU drivers and chips probably don't support OpenGL 3.0 like Steam games require.
Smartphones never had full blown OpenGL only OpenGLES (Embedded System).
Desktop PCs are still waaay more powerful than any smartphone. Any cheap Celeron CPU for 40 bucks will obliterate your Intel Atom powered smartphone.