Welcome to the UBports community! Introduce yourself here!
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Hello everyone,
I am Alter, and I would describe myself as a regular user. Although I do not have any programming skills, I do have an interest in open source technology (I have been using Linux for over 10 years on my PCs now as my sole OS), security and privacy.
I do not like the duopoly of Android and iOS, and the fact that big tech companies all use data mining technologies to spy on their users to build profile databases. I also regret the fact that it is hard to break out of this, as the mobile world is very app centric and standard apps are only available for the Big Two. I want change!
Especially because of the spying issue of the Big Two, I did not own a smartphone until recently, when I acquired a Nexus 5 on which I installed Ubuntu Touch. The available apps are sufficient for my daily use. There is still room for improvement, but considering that this comes from a (I guess) smaller community: I'm amazed!
I can use contact list, calling, text, Axolotl (end-to-end encrypted messaging via signal protocol), Morph webbrowser, photo app, galery, file manager, pdf, rotation lock, flight mode (and even choose wifi on), and there is more that I haven't tried yet. The installer is great (really smooth for me) and on RC you get weekly updates.
I am also very excited about the Linux Phone hardware developments that are currently going on: Librem Phone, Pinephone and Volla. I have ordered a Pinephone UBports Community Edition and am eagerly anticipating its arrival, and I hope that it will soon be daily driver ready! OTA updates already work, so that is a big step forward.
Although I do not have any programming skills, and don't have much time now to get involved in other ways, I did make a donation to UBports and plan to do so regularly.
Also, I will contribute to Ubuntu Touch by participating in this forum, if I feel my input can be of help.In any case, I wish this endeavor great succes!
Kind regards,
AlterRegular user, UT since 2020, Now: Volla Phone (20.04 Stable)
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@Alter said in Welcome to the UBports community! Introduce yourself here!:
I am also very excited about the Linux Phone hardware developments that are currently going on: Librem Phone, Pinephone and Volla.
Hello Alter, welcome.
I don't think VollaPhone is gnu/linux hardware (like free from closed source drivers hardware), it's an androïd device that is ubports and other gnu/linux distros friendly (unlocked bootloader and so).
Anyway the more compatible device, the more spreading possibilities.One question, where do you come from?
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@Alter Welcome and this might be useful https://ubports.com/meet-the-community
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Hello
I'm Stevie, thank you for the welcome.
I have successfully installed Ubuntu touch to my BQ M10 FHD using the ubports installer and after trying it out for a few weeks i decided to put it on a Nexus 5. installation was easy, worked first time. at the moment I'm denied access to my mobile phone network carrier, Three in the UK. I'm inclined to believe it's a carrier issue rather than the phone or Ubunu Touch. -
@Keneda & @Lakotaubp :
Thanks for welcoming me to the forum and directing me to the new users page!@Keneda : You are right, the Volla Phone is indeed not a pure Linux Phone. I should have written "and privacy and Linux-friendly Volla Phone" instead.
I was not allowed to edit my post anymore, so here is the full rectification:
The Librem 5 Phone and Pinephone are both powered by Linux, the Volla Phone with Volla OS is based on the Android Open Source project.
The mentioned phones are the ones that I think are the most interesting projects in "alternative mobile land" at this moment, each for its own reasons.
Purism because it developed a privacy focused Librem 5 phone, with free software for most hardware too, and a goal to free the rest, although it's a bit pricey.
Pine64 because it tries to open the market and speed up development of Linux Mobile OS by offering a cheaper Pinephone open to all distros.
Volla because it offers an Android-based Volla phone which is open source, without privacy invading Google apps, and is friendly to Linux with option to pre-install UT.
I got a bit carried away and called Volla Phone a "Linux Phone". It isn't.As to your question: I prefer to not disclose my geographic location in this public forum, but I can say this: I am a citizen of the European Union
Kind regards,
Alter -
Welcome!
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@steviethelights Welcome aboard!
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Hi, another new user
amazing effort from this community getting UT to the point it at, big thanks!Taking the plunge and ditching Google on my carry around phone (a NOS nexus 5 ... so cheap I think I will get a backup spare!)
Hopefully I can find a way to be useful, although my C++ skills are v rusty lol
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@pixelated Welcome!
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Hey All,
My name is Mike C. I have been using Ubuntu since college back in the 6.06 days when everything was brown. I was also heavily into openmoko back in the day when that seemed like our best hope for an open phone
. I got into the LoCo groups a bit and after college I was hired by a software company doing tech support and bug reports and what not. I am a bit of a privacy nerd and I like Ubuntu Touch for it's potential to allow me to move away from apple and android ecosystems. Hopefully when I get the pinephone in my hand I can go to work reporting bugs and doing testing. I have some experience in Python programming but I am not much of a programmer to be honest. I think the biggest areas I could contribute in would be testing, and documentation. But those are two roles that every project needs filled so I am looking forward to getting my hands dirty. -
Greetings @dcmike.
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Welcome @dcmike
Here you might find some useful information:
https://ubports.com/meet-the-community -
Hello All,
I am Robert Wurster and I am brand new to UT. I have ordered the UBports CE PinePhone and am looking to get involved in FOSS projects as I am tired of the "Big Three" selling my info to the highest bidder. I am here to put my efforts and resources to work creating an alternative.
I have been a Linux user for the last couple of years and a tech enthusiast as long as I can remember. I look forward to helping out.
I am most interested in getting the word out to more casual users, so that more and more development is feasible.
Robert Wurster
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@rmw408
Hello Robert and welcome.If you want to help you can check out the link I put in my previous comment.
You can join our matrix and telegram groups.BR
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@rmw408 Greetings, Robert.
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Hi there!
I'm Miranda, I'm 24 years old and I've been working as a graphic designer for quite some time now (Macfag here yet only because Serif apps don't run on Linux). I'm responsible for the communications on a NGO called Instituto LGBT+ (an Institute of Culture, Arts and LGBT+ memory), and always loved programming and things related to tech, so I always help as I can our technology team, since we are a very small group, we bounce back and fourth in different areas.
I guess it's been like 2 years that I found out about Ubuntu Touch and was really amazed, because inside tech, topics like privacy, cyber security and community based open source projects are things that I'm completely passionate about.
Right now I'm aiming to finally focus on programming, something that I played with since I was a child (it was dope building a ragnarok server haha) but never felt confident enough to be an actual programmer. As a trans person, the tech world can be pretty daunting, because we never know if we will be welcomed and respected, and I'm still trying to find the guts to deep dive into this big passion I always had for this area. By the way, I use neutral and masculine pronouns (they/them and he/him).
I really wanted to have a phone running Ubuntu Touch, but I'm from Brazil and there's only two sad realities: or the phones that are old and run UT are never found (ebay is not an option because dollar is like almost 6x our currency + taxes) or the newer phones like oneplus one didn't even arrived here yet. I will just keep hoping the dollar goes down so I can buy a Pinephone, haha.
I really want to help with the OS development and applications development, and I'll use my interest to see Ubuntu Touch growing to learn new skills to do so
I'm open to tips on what topics I should learn more about to be truly helpful here!
And I also talk a lot.
No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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@miranda
Welcome.
What market place do you use to buy online? There is no localised ebay to Brazil?
Sadly, i don't think real will increase as much as 1 to 1 with dollar.
Nexus 5 is quite the same age than 1P1 and may be easier to find on your local market (it costs between 50 to 100$).Here in France, before, when franc was our currency, it was 6.5x lower than dollar, now with euro, 1€=1.2$, but we earn 6.5x less euros every month than we earned in franc, adding to this that most companies convert 1€ to 1$, and not 1€ to 1.2$... So 1=1 does not necessarily solve that kind of problem.
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@Keneda we do have ebay here (but the phones I found are imported, never from local sellers so the infamous taxes still apply), and a couple of interesting market places. I searched for the nexus 5 and mostly were broken or in poorly conditions, mostly to retrieve pieces intead of using the phone, although there are tons of replacements pieces and covers for nexus 5. Unfortunately here we don't have the costume of taking really good care of phones to sell it in the future, people usually throw it of or break it. I did found one in good conditions but the seller didn't sent it through post mail and I'm from another city, so no deal
And indeed, with covid-19 I do not see dollar going down so soon, even worse with the actual president.
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@miranda Hello and welcome this link maybe useful https://ubports.com/meet-the-community
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@miranda Greetings!
