application-developmentubuntu-touch
I've come away a little confused on how to develop mobile apps for Ubuntu.
First of all, do developers need the Ubuntu operating system to develop for Ubuntu?
Is it possible to develop Ubuntu apps in Windows?
Also, PhoneGap was mentioned somewhere along the way. I'm guessing this is something which isn't implemented yet? Where can I find out more information?
I'm currently using PhoneGap to target Android and Windows Phone, so it would be great if I could target Ubuntu with PhoneGap too!
You can use Ubuntu Touch Emulator
For More Details
Is there an Ubuntu Touch emulator or a way to install it in a VM?
As far as I know, HTML5 Web Applications which run on Ubuntu [Touch] are simply a Chromeless browser running your application "like" a native application in Ubuntu, with some low-level API to access a few features of Ubuntu (currently, only Desktop). So it doesn't matter what server-side language you use, Node.js or whatever.
We can't forget this one, ever. Phonegap supports Ubuntu, too. This initially means Ubuntu Desktop, but lemme quote this:
Cross compiling applications for Ubuntu Touch on ARM is natively supported by the cordova-ubuntu platform support module, as of version 3.4 or superior.
So you can make Ubuntu applications which run on ARM-based CPUs, too.
This is a list of APIs supported by PhoneGap
Of course, native has always been the best choice, and probably will stay as the best for a while. If you want blazingly fast apps with access to every API, native is the way to go.
Best Answer
You'll get all the information you need on the Cordova Overview page, including a full tutorial. PhoneGap or other development platforms other than Ubuntu are not supported at this point.