Canonical launches Ubuntu Frame for embedded displays
Canonical announced the launch of Ubuntu Frame, an easy-to-use, reliable, and secure fullscreen shell that can power edge devices; Canonical provides 10 years of support. According to the introduction, the solution allows developers to easily build and deploy graphic applications for interactive kiosks, digital signage solutions, or any other products that require graphic output.
The announcement stated that using Ubuntu Frame, developers will no longer need to integrate and maintain some solutions, such as DRM, KMS, input protocols, or security policies to provide power and protection for their displays. This means less code to manage, fewer opportunities for errors and vulnerabilities in unattended code, and more time for developing the content of the display.
The goal of the development team is to minimize the development and deployment time of building graphics solutions for edge devices by leveraging existing applications and enhancing security technologies. Therefore, Ubuntu Frame is compatible with toolkits such as Flutter, Qt, GTK, Electron, and SDL2, and also provides solutions for applications based on HTML5 and Java.
“Ubuntu Frame’s reliability has been widely tested in the field. Its technology has been in development for over 7 years and in production for 5 years, using state-of-the-art techniques, and deployed in production to Linux desktop and mobile users. As such, Ubuntu Frame is one of the most mature graphical servers available today for embedded devices.” Michał Sawicz, Smart Displays Engineering Manager at Canonical.
Together with Ubuntu Core, Canonical’s operating system for IoT and embedded systems, Ubuntu Frame supports up to 10 years; this provides developers with security updates that match the life cycle of their embedded devices. Canonical also promised to provide support to the Ubuntu Frame product team and corporate customers to better solve problems for developers.
