Ubuntu One is a personal cloud

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....

 service operated by Canonical Ltd.

The service enables users to store files online and sync them between computers and mobile devices, as well as stream audio and music from cloud to mobile devices.

Features

Ubuntu One has a client application that runs on Ubuntu 9.04 and later or Windows XP or newer. no Ubuntu One clients run under Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

. A free Ubuntu One account offers 5 GB of storage. Users may increase their storage by adding additional 20 GB "20-packs" for $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year.

“Ubuntu One Music Streaming” offers music-streaming apps for iPhone and Android phones. The “Music Streaming” package costs $3.99 a month or $39.99 per year.

The Ubuntu One service is similar to services such as SpiderOak

Spideroak

SpiderOak is an online backup tool for Windows, Mac and Linux users to back up, share, sync, access and store their data using an off-site server. SpiderOak allows the user to backup any given folder of his/her computer...

, Dropbox

Dropbox (storage provider)

Dropbox is a Web-based file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc. that uses cloud storage to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization. It was founded in 2007 by MIT graduates Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi as a Y Combinator...

, Box.net

Box.net

Box is an online File Sharing and Cloud Content Management service for enterprise companies. The company has adopted a freemium business model, and provides 5GB of free storage for personal accounts. A mobile version of the service is available for Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and WebOS devices...

, Mozy

Mozy

Mozy is an online backup service for both Windows and Mac users. The cloud service allows users to back up data continuously, manually or schedule updates. Mozy is known for offering backup storage space for home and business users. In 2011, they changed to their current tiered pricing model...

, Wuala

Wuala

Wuala is a secure online storage, file synchronization, versioning and backup, service, originally developed and run by Caleido Inc., which is now part of LaCie. Service is a combination of:...

, Amazon Cloud Player, Google Music, Humyo

Humyo

humyo.com is an online file storage service which synchronizes files across multiple computers and a remote data store. Files stored in humyo can be shared with other users and published on web pages...

, iDisk

IDisk

iDisk is a file hosting service offered by Apple to all MobileMe members that enables them to store their digital photos, movies and personal files online so they can be accessed remotely. With a standard subscription, MobileMe users receive a 20 GB iDisk.iDisk integrates with Mac OS X,...

, Jungle Disk

Jungle Disk

Jungle Disk is an online backup tool that stores its data in Amazon S3 or Rackspace Cloud Files. It was highlighted by Amazon as one of the earliest S3 clients The basic Jungle Disk software is sold as a monthly subscription model, and the customer is billed directly by Amazon for data storage and...

 and Live Mesh. Its client code is written in Python

Python (programming language)

Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...

. It uses Twisted

Twisted (software)

Twisted is an event-driven network programming framework written in Python and licensed under the MIT License.Twisted projects variously support TCP, UDP, SSL/TLS, IP Multicast, Unix domain sockets, a large number of protocols , and much more...

 for its low-level networking and Protocol Buffers

Protocol Buffers

Protocol Buffers are a serialization format with an interface description language developed by Google. The original Google implementation for C++, Java and Python is available under a free software, open source license....

 for protocol description.

Additional features like the integration with other services sets Ubuntu One apart from the other similar service-providers. Examples include the automatic upload of photos taken from Android mobile devices for immediate sync across computers; integration with Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser...

 for contacts and with Tomboy

Tomboy (software)

Tomboy is a free and open-source desktop notetaking application written for Unix-like and Microsoft Windows operating systems, written in C# using Gtk#. Tomboy is part of the GNOME desktop environment, often for personal information management. Its interface is a notepad with a wiki-like linking...

 for notes due to the access to the local CouchDB

CouchDB

Apache CouchDB, commonly referred to as CouchDB, is an open source document-oriented database written mostly in the Erlang programming language. It is part of the NoSQL group of data stores and is designed for local replication and to scale horizontally across a wide range of devices...

 instance. Further possibilities include the capability of editing the contacts, as well as the Tomboy notes, online via the Ubuntu One Web interface; synching contacts with mobile devices; and purchasing DRM

Digital rights management

Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

-free music while synchronizing them automatically with an Ubuntu One Account via the Ubuntu One Music Store (in partnership with 7digital

7digital

7digital is a privately held digital media delivery company based in the United Kingdom, offering downloadable music, video and movies to customers primarily within major European markets...

).

Application Developer Program

Ubuntu One publishes APIs for developers wishing to build applications utilizing file and data synchronization or music streaming.

Criticism

Ubuntu One has been criticized within the Ubuntu Community for its server software being proprietary

Proprietary software

Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...

.

There is not yet a native client integration for the Kubuntu

Kubuntu

Kubuntu is an official derivative of the Ubuntu operating system using the KDE Plasma Desktop instead of the Unity graphical environment. It is part of the Ubuntu project and uses the same underlying system. It is possible to install both the KDE Plasma Desktop as well as the Unity desktop on...

 variant of the Ubuntu operating system (as of June 2010). Kubuntu integration is under development and has also received a grant from the Google Summer of Code 2010.

Further criticism concerns the choice of the patented mp3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

 format for the music of the Ubuntu One Music Store and the unclear revenue share that will be granted to the community. The Amarok development team has announced that they will not add support for the Ubuntu One Music Store to the Amarok media player for the moment, unlike what they have done with Magnatune

Magnatune

Magnatune is an American independent record label based in Berkeley, California, founded in spring 2003 by John Buckman, then-CEO of e-mail software company Lyris. It aims at treating both its musicians and its customers fairly—its tagline is "We are not evil"...

media store, which funds the project with 10% of the revenue produced via the interface to the store built in Amarok.

External links

• Ubuntu One wiki page on the Ubuntu Wiki
• Floss Weekly 99 podcast with Ubuntu One developer Stuart Langridge