The ability to run traditional desktop applications on the Ubuntu phone & tablet has a lot of you (quite rightly) excited.

Carrying the powerful LibreOffice, Mozilla Firefox and The GIMP in your pocket is a big draw.

An Ubuntu phone, a nearby screen, and a couple of cables is all that’s needed to go from phone to pocket PC — perfect for when need to finish off that dissertation, write that e-mail or edit a video on the go.

Ubuntu saves the application ‘state’ between staged and desktops modes when docking in and out of convergence on Ubuntu. This means all your work is saved; you can literally unplug and carry on.

How Well Do X11 Apps Run on Ubuntu Phone?

Like you, I’ve been wondering about how well X11 apps run on Ubuntu phone and tablet. After all, these are mobile processors designed for mobile workflows, not umpteen untitled GIMP projects!

Thanks to Ubuntu developer Marcos Costales (of uNav fame) we don’t need to wonder: we can watch.

Now, bear in mind that the video demonstrations you see are of software still in development.

The X11 container also (currently) results in some tradeoffs. For example you can’t (currently) install any X11 app you like: you have to enter developer mode, prepare some manual config files and use a series of arcane terminal commands; and X11 apps do have an impact on battery.

Caveats posted, on to the good stuff.

In the following videos shot by Marcos Costales you can how well X11 apps run on Ubuntu. These videos aren’t the super-best quality, and weren’t taken on a tripod, so forgive their rough edges.

But since these are some of the few videos to actually show the sort of stuff I want to see I really don’t mind!

LibreOffice on Nexus 4

In this first video Marcos demoes the full desktop version of LibreOffice running off of a Nexus 4 running Ubuntu in converged mode:

The GIMP Running on Bq M10 Ubuntu Tablet

Marcos also plays with LibreOffice & The GIMP the new Bq M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet (in ‘desktop mode’ as it has a keyboard and mouse paired with it) in this 3 minute clip:

What legacy Linux apps would you love to see brought over to the Ubuntu Tablet?