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Hi all,
first of all I want to give my thanks to all the people that have contributed to Ubunt Touch. I was so glad when I read about it and when I after buying a Fairphone 2 got it installed. I was thrilled of having a real open source Linux distro running my phone.
But I was soon quite disappointed with it. It sucks in all the wrong places, for example:
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the battery is consumed very rapidly, even after having upgraded all the firmware images from fairphone.
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Morph browser is slow, crashes a lot and the tabs are hard to manage. It's barely usable.
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practically every other app sucks too, and running anything in anbox is so slow
So is it supposed to be like this? Is the future looking brighter or might I as well give up and go back to Android?
Thanks, and please, I mean no disrespect to the people still developing Ubuntu Touch.
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I think UT is "bad" for most people but not for those who doesn't expect much and doesn't intend to use UT like Android/iOS.
In my opinion, there are really bad things that were done in the early days of UT that still affects many part of the OS.
I still believe that UT has a bright future.If that's your perception with UT right now, then I guess you should really just go back to Android. You can always go back later on
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@ollehell Even if your opinion is respectable as every opinion, you could say : Ubuntu Touch is bad FOR ME...
As a user, not for me, for my daily use.
You know i think : a very little team of developers VERY ENGAGED FREELY !
But you are right on the point that a lot of things can be improved : it will be done GRADUALLY ! And UT will become better and better !
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@ollehell if you mean no disrespect to the UT developers, why to make such a statement in a first place? UT is no Android/iOS, no company behind it and entirely run/developed by community. Instead of such a statements ( there were some more like this one) why not get engaged in this project and help to make it ''less bad''. Surely you can contribute in some way, even just by reporting the bugs on Github. Anyway, UT is GOOOOOOOOOD, not ''bad''. Have a nice day.
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@ollehell first of all, maybe you can change your post title to something less inflammatory? Thank you.
I don't have an FP2, I have a BQ E4.5 and a Nexus 5, an based on those models and my needs, I can tell you:
- The battery life is pretty good, specially in krillin and good enough to use hammerhead as my daily driver without any issue.
- With the exception of these well-known issues: https://github.com/ubports/morph-browser/issues, I don't have any relevant problem with Morph. It works great for me.
- Every app that I need works fine.
- I don't use anbox, I don't like anbox, and I don't like Android apps, so I can't comment on this point really.
The future will be what we (all of us, a.k.a. the community) make of it. This is a volunteer based project, so if you want to get a better experience "for you" you have to do your part too
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@advocatux Have to echo all of this. I have used my E4.5 for over 4 years now and the last year (I think) with UT. I have had little glitches here and there, but nothing to stop me doing my job. Everything I need on it works. End of.
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Ubuntu Touch on my M10 tablet is good for me. I use it for a minimum of 2 hours each day. My wife also uses it in preference to our laptop. Morph browser works fine. File Manager is really cool once you discover how to slide files right or left to reveal the hidden tools. System Settings and OpenStore are most reliable. You can roll your own webapps with Clickable or Webapp Creator. You can move files back and forth between your UT device and your Ubuntu laptop with WifiTransfer. Document Viewer and Sturm Reader handle pdfs smoothly.
I could go on. To close, I prefer Ubuntu Touch to Android. I wiped Android from my Nexus 4, installed UT and it's great.
In support of Android, many folk cite the availability of a plethora of apps. How many do you really need? Aren't many of them simply "shovelware"?
Oh, by the way the Community is knowledgeable and helpful.
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Yes, I could have said "UT is bad for me", you are right @domubpkm. I can't seem to find where to edit the topic subject, there is just a "delete topic" button.
And no, I really don't mean to disrespect the developers of UT, but I am honestly curious about how other users feel about living with UT from day to day so I thought I'd share my opinion about it. I had fully anticipated that UT would not be close to as good as Android, but things work so poorly that I am wondering if UT-users really are used to this by now or if my case is extreme in some way. And things seem to be working better for some of you, so maybe my problem is to trace back to the hardware I am running UT on, namely the FP2?
I really want to get involved with the development of UT (I am working within DevOps) but with children and a family I have little spare time. I will add bug reports when and if I can seem to find a good case for it.
Maybe this post was a mistake. I merely want to know if others feel the same and if I can expect things to improve within let's say the next year or so. Or maybe it is just an with issue running UT on the FP2.
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I am very happy ubuntu touch user for many years. It depends whom you ask. Since it is my first smartphone, I don't see any deficiencies. Except my bank will require to use android app login in the future (but there are more complicated alternatives which I will use).
- Battery is good.
- Morph browser never crashed I could remember, though I don't browse too often.
- There are many good apps Anbox did not use, but will use it when it is ready.
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@ollehell Let's be honest, Ubuntu Touch is Awesome
... Of course it depends on your expectations.
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@ollehell to change the title, press the 3 standing points on the right below your post, you will see TOOLS / EDIT
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@dtarrant said in Let's be honest, Ubuntu Touch is bad:
In support of Android, many folk cite the availability of a plethora of apps. How many do you really need? Aren't many of them simply "shovelware"?
Of course I can give only examples relevant to me
Some apps that come to my mind
- I pay 10 EUR per month for Spotify Premium and I mostly listen to it while on my way (to work, friends, etc.); haven't found a way to do that on UT natively (Spotify is one of the few apps that works in anbox, though, but with horrible battery life)
- I pay money to use car/bike/scooter sharing apps and none of them offer a way to book a vehicle on their mobile website
- my Office 365 apps at work only work with certain trusted apps installed
These are kind of show stoppers for me.
So personally I can very well understand where ollehell comes from. For me UT is unusable as a daily driver. And probably will be forever, I don't know. Still I like and support the idea that people have a choice. And I met some in person who are happy using UT. So I contribute a little (working on docs, the installer and providing a manual installation alternative), but admittedly with focus on the Fairphone 2 which ultimately is what drives me.
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@domubpkm ah, now I found it. I hope the new subject isn't as provoking
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@ollehell Firstly thank you for changing the title of your post and secondly I hope we can help improve your experience so far with Ubuntu Touch. I'm sure someone in the community will be able to help with any individual issues.
Please remember Ubuntu Touch is not nor does it want to be Android or IOS. The OS is developing and moving forward all the time. We know there are few issues that need work and they are and will be worked out.
We are a helpful and friendly bunch and very proud of UBports and Ubuntu Touch, so join in and if you do have the time and can help out in anyway it will be very much appreciated. -
@lakotaubp you should be proud of the work you have done so far. But for me, as someone who has been running Linux almost exclusively since -99, the buggy experience I have had so far with UT is probably forcing me away from it. My biggest concern is probably Morph, it's barely usable if you as I tend to have about 5-10 tabs open and click around quite quickly. A couple of days ago the phone rebooted spontaneously while I was talking to my sister. My current batterystatus is 39% and I have barely used my phone at all today, I've made one two minute phonecall.
So what can I do except adding issues on Github?
I feel like a monster posting this, but I prefer to honestly discuss these matters. Perhaps it's just my FP2 which is underpowered? Is anyone else having my experience?
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@ollehell I think something is wrong with your device, probably something related to anbox. What kernel are you using?
as someone who has been running Linux almost exclusively since -99, the buggy experience I have had so far with UT is probably forcing me away from it
Do you mean 1999? And you think UT is more buggy than Linux those days? lol
I can answer that question because I was using Linux too at that time: no way! -
@ollehell I only know about Nexus 4, but it is not that buggy. Its similar as Ubuntu Desktop. Actually, it is surprisingly not buggy in my experience, and I use it for a long time I don't remember. Concerning Morph, I only have 1-3 tabs open at the time (similar on the Desktop, so different kind of habits
so did not experience slowness or crashes. Concerning battery, I often had problems a year ago (but used external battery often) before replacing phone battery and now battery is good. For you, maybe its Ubuntu+FP2 issue, maybe its anbox issue as others mentioned (which is not officially ready yet) or battery itself. -
@ollehell I personally have no experience of FP2 and use a OPO on a daily basis. The battery on that with 4g on all day has gone from 100% to 67% in eleven hours. As for Morph I currently have 8 tabs open without issue so again cannot comment on your issue.
Now the spontaneous reboot I had one today while using FluffyChat. Know idea why, so I'm keeping an eye on that. Think we need someone with direct FP2 knowledge to answer that.
Maybe create a new post in Support on the FP2 battery issue and see if someone can help. It sounds like your phone thinks it's a Nexus 5 pre OTA-6 with that sort of battery drain on a couple of calls : )p.s Try changing update channels to dev for a couple of days and see if that helps. you can always go back to whatever after.
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@advocatux My kernel is: 3.4.0-g340584c9a4f-dirty #1 SMP PREEMPT.
Just because everyone is so positive, I will give a reinstall a go and later try out using the dev-channel for a while.
But while we are at the subject, why not shed the Ubuntu past completely and start a rolling upgrade philosophy? Skip the OTA updates altogether!
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@ollehell We are a small team, all changes must come slowly. Without much money and resources, the project is currently how it is. If you can contribute your time or donate money, it might change.
As an example, I have a day job, and already during my day job, as well as at home until late night, I work for UT. Not to mention I have family and a baby son at home. We are all working hard what we can, but you cannot expect dramatic changes during the next months or years. Canonical had over 100 employees working on this full time!
