In a move that could see Ubuntu veer even further away from the Linux mainstream, Canonical has proposed a new software packaging format designed to make it easier for developers to publish apps for Ubuntu’s tablet and phone–friendly future incarnations.
“This is not aimed at changing packages that are already part of the Ubuntu archive; for the most part our existing system works well for those, and they tend to have non-trivial dependency structures,” Canonical’s Colin Watson explained in a post to an Ubuntu developer mailing list on Wednesday.