Spreading Ubuntu Touch to the world
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Hi guys. I've done a "local" UT/Ubports group on Minds for the Italian community (it was an Italian community approved choice).
This group substitute the Italian Google+ group (so I didn't choice diaspora after tried it because we needed something more similar to G+) .
Sadly it is not possible to see, in guest mode, directly the posts, but it's possible to see them with single direct link that I regularly post on the Italian UT/UBports Telegram Group (e.g. https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/960417396226318336).
Actually it contains only 20 posts (first post on 13 oct 2018) with an average of 20 visualizations each and 8 members so we are far from the 240 members and hundreds post of G+
the positive side is that I can use tokens, earned thank to the social activity on my personal Minds page, to advertise ubports (each token can be spent for 1000 visualizations). -
My feeling is that the communication is very community centered. Once you're inside, it's OK : you know which communication channels are available, you know what to find in it, you recognise the key members and give more importance to their annonces.
When it comes to spreading Ubuntu Touch to the world, the communication should aim outside the community, and the message should be loud and clear.
I would redesign the webpage, and re-orient it towards "the world". Now that I'm "in the community", I just use the UBports.com as a hub to access this forum, the documentation, etc... But before stepping in, I was looking for a clear description of the OS itself, to know the state of development of the thing and couldn't find a proper one on the web page. Basically, there are too many information, and too vague:
- I was expecting a revival of the Canonical Ubuntu touch page, neet, and sexy, focused on the OS. Instead I landed on an obscure crowded webpage for a developper community.
- The ubuntu touch devices pages could be optimized. Both device detail pages (for instance https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/hammerhead) and "commercial" promoted devices page (https://ubports.com/de_DE/devices/promoted-devices) could by merged together.
- Illustrations are not suited : we see a lot of safes and ubuntu logos, but no images of the actual OS itself
- No demo of the OS... I found some on the internet, but homemade. I had to navigate a lot to find a page that describes how the gestures work (which is a key information if you look for an alternative OS).
- No clear idea of what is convergence. There are no demo for it, which is a pity, because it's cool and it works! The dedicated convergence page is too long
Each paragraph almost re-says the same content. They are like 5 or 6 different (and graphically unconsistent) illustrations, but no demo, and no actual picture of what is it. It is not clear if it is a whished or a working feature... Still the image of safe in the header 
We've got some improvement to do in this direction
Maybe is it allready even a tackled topic. For my concern, I only know basics of web dev, but I have a good feeling with user experience and design in general. I could help with mock ups and illustrations if a new site is planned one day. -
Adding to my post, here the page from the canonical times I was refering to (my very first serious use of the internet archive :P) :
- 2014 : https://web.archive.org/web/20140705200020/http://www.ubuntu.com/phone
- 2016 : https://web.archive.org/web/20160729130643/http://www.ubuntu.com:80/phone
Even found the old gestures videos... https://web.archive.org/web/20180124153738/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qocy2Ypz-_Y
Unless the scopes, most is still uptodate enough to be reused for promotionnal purposes. (It is also satisfying to see that the designs from 2014 have not got old at all !) In which extend is the support from canonical about it ? Would they allow to reuse those materials and even be OK to share the project files from webpages, images and videos so that a talented community member would update them ?
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@gimenez fair points, just keep in mind that UBports is a volunteered based project, and there's an obvious lack of manpower, so any help is welcomed
Perhaps you might be interested in joining the Design and / or Marketing groups (?)
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@gimenez said in Spreading Ubuntu Touch to the world:
No clear idea of what is convergence. There are no demo for it, which is a pity, because it's cool and it works! The dedicated convergence page is too long Each paragraph almost re-says the same content. They are like 5 or 6 different (and graphically unconsistent) illustrations, but no demo, and no actual picture of what is it. It is not clear if it is a whished or a working feature... Still the image of safe in the header
Simply put, convergence means shell and apps are usable across a wide range of devices, including phones, tablets, and PCs, with the same security constraints.
Given this, convergence is still therefore not complete, and there are a few related points to make:
- The Unity8 shell does not work well on PCs as of yet
- We are not able to confine security context of apps on PCs as well as on phones/tablets yet
- While Libertine can allow running legacy apps under some confinement, it is unrelated to the goals of convergence itself.
- Being able to use a phone/tablet with external screen/kb/mouse is a nice feature, and related to convergence, but is not itself convergence.
- Most native UT apps (and webapps) are only suitable for phones/tablets still, and therefore are also not convergent yet.
So, as you can see, it can be difficult to clearly present that in a very shiny way with demos and such, when it's still not yet all there.
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@dobey Thanks for the clarification. But you got my point : summing up one entire page in one post
I'm totally OK with the fact that the convergence is still "on development" (it's actually part of the fun to live with new updates as they arrive !) and I guess some interested incommers would be OK with it as well as soon as they have a clear dev state like you presented. If the dev state is clear enough they would have al informations they need to decide this feature or not.
I do think that there are possibilities to present a shiny visual for this feature even in the actual dev state. Plug the phone, key in your password, open up some of the converged core apps and answer one or two sms/mails in the meanwhile. Would be already impressive
I'll make myself clever on how to make screen recordings, and if it is possible in the converged mode. I'm sure they are visuals that are doable, that would look as beautiful and proffessional as UT is actually !edit : the screenshots work in desktop mode. Hereunder a fresh example of a satisfyingly filled desktop. For me this is already shiny
To tell the story until the end, I took the screenshot and uploaded it like a charm here from morph browser in desktop mode. It opened up "files", I selected the screenshot. How cool is that ?edit 2: unity crashed during the redaction of this edit. Still, it rocks.
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@gimenez Right, that can work, but I think "here is my phone plugged into a screen and I have windows" as the means of showing convergence, contributes too much to the false idea that that is in fact what convergence is, when in reality it is but a very small part of it.
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To be honest, I don't think Jo/e average really cares about the technicalities of convergence... just the powerful outworking of it.
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@gimenez
You do a good job showing how pretty this OS is in use, and isn't it the case that unity always crashes right at an inconvenient moment
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@3arn0wl said in Spreading Ubuntu Touch to the world:
To be honest, I don't think Jo/e average really cares about the technicalities of convergence... just the powerful outworking of it.
It doesn't matter whether they care or not. If we can't explain it in a way that makes them understand it, then when they talk about it in a way which does not include all the other parts, it undermines the goals.
Saying "this is convergence" for a thing that is not convergence, but rather is simply the windowed mode of unity8 shell, makes it more difficult to actually build a fully convergent system.
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@dobey Show of the most prominent, visual part of convergence, then use that to explain the other parts in ways that can be easily understood without a long explanation.
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We'll have to agree to differ on that, @dobey.
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@advocatux said in Spreading Ubuntu Touch to the world:
Mastodon
The Mastodon account needs some love. Last post was January this year.
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@Opolork this is a very old thread, we're using another address now
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@advocatux said in Spreading Ubuntu Touch to the world:
@Opolork this is a very old thread, we're using another address now
Cheers, advocatux . Following.
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I think that things will change soon rapidly. So be ready for that.
The World is changing, I don't know how much you guys know what is going on out there? You are focused inside of core source and bless You for that. But things are going pretty fast right now. Talking about government hmmm.. not easy.. not even to say to sell them ubuntu. Unfortunately they are on another side and if they will promote UT then there won't be a difference if you buy android ios or ubuntu. And most likely you won't met me here to.There is going to be plenty of work and not only UT but all environment linux system, You will see. I hope that we are all mature enough to do it. Is just started 5G, Starlink etc.. the Matrix movie is going to be real soon everyone of us will decide on which side is going to stand, linux guys are clear for me.
So there is going to be lots of work.
Promotion will start very fast soon, end users are waiting, but end users aren't computer technically knowledgable so they need to get preinstalled UT like android and it must work in their hands without hangouts.
For example I'm going to promote UT and we will see how fast my promotion will grow. It will depends from two things all applications work stable, there is fast support if Inad my clients find the bug. Because my clients will be all different kinds and even some of them were doing different technical works when were young on university etc.. but when you get more adult things are changing rapidly family, kids work with very often not so ambitious things overtake all your live and you realizing that you don't have time for anything, friends are living and you are sitting with home with your family, work and many problems. This is how things are with the time. I was wandering how it is, seems that when getting older you have more space but much less time to do your job, ask your gurus, guys over 40, the time goes twice more faster than you are 20, very funny.. I was thinking why is that and is something connected that in some moment we are slowing down with thinking this is why the time goes faster, but we have more space and we are better then as managers than typical workers/programmers/etc.. but also easier solving problems and hitting the point, this is how things are and this is why you see your managers more matured in age than you.
I just bought two different phones and going to make two UT available one for me another for colleague so we can test communication and different softwares. My colleague is going to be kind of reach out, promoting UT system around his friends he is totally not computer tech, he is artists has his mac and doing some different paintbrush stuff, so I will be giving this kind of gifts to the other friends that they can use it and give me their feedbacks and also promoting around their friends, there will be different types of people from 15y.old to old programmers, from musicians to construction workers, if they are satisfy or what should be improved.For me important is simplicity, better focus on stable app than on many options. In my case, I very rare change any options in aps, for me is important that app is fast and stable and do its job.
For example I can see on Nexus 5 on UT site that is under promoted devices but there is something not 100% in compare to OnePlusOne, I don't know what exactly is that but if we wanna reach general end users then apps must work 100% what will be for general people. Convergance its a great stuff, I was thinking to make this with my tablet time ago but always something was to do, to busy just using comp to do my work which wasn't so creative, but it must work 100% on promoted devices and so on. So maybe sometimes is better to take advanced programmers who are working on some code from the list bellow and finish the top ones, pure and clear, otherwise there can be many projects open and no one finished 100%. To do the job 100% is professional job and only then we can reach really general users. In my opinion is better focus on some devices, fix them 100% and promote, like for example "iphone", you just have one "iphone" no? and not 40 different models. It will be nice to have for all of them UT working and we can do this way, but first make a core, very strong system working on dedicated phones, whatever you thing which phone will be the best, lets do for one phone from the highest shelve mean cpu etc.. I don't know exactly which one it can be I will see how work the promoted one and let you know, we will work on it, I wanna do it this is one of my dreams since always to make linux out of the box on dedicated machines otherwise not possible to much hardware creates to much mess, better choose good stuff and do it for it 100% stable and quick at least for the general users, for educations, learning yes it should work like it is. Maybe this sounds little set on limit, well I don't know, just sharing my first thoughts to community but if we wanna reach out to millions it must be like that. better have one, two, three phones of different costs so everyone can chose from the phones from 150$ to lets say 1000$ or 800 or maybe 500 $ or something like that.. so people with money can buy better in meaning only faster with better camera and better screen or something like that and people with les money can afford the same system but with lilttle less parameters.
When I was on university one dr. during classes said that 486DX is all what general user needs, and this is honestly true we could make ubuntu colorful on machines pretty close to 486DX CPU ( on some pentium) for general users of course (phones have now much more faster CPUs already). So personally I'm not demanding for new super fast devices, but to make mobile device as computer then maybe we should think to make support for one of the latests? I don't know I'm not technical in news tech. For me if is working stable and not so long waiting for load who knows what and has clear screen this is all what I need.
Similar with the tablets, the one UT supports is impossible to buy, it will be hard to promote Bq Aquaris M10 FHD if there is not possible to buy one.
I love your work! I'm here exactly for that you are looking for, for promoting your phones among general users and we will go as fast as we can mean it will be depends from three things how fast apps switching and working and from stability.
And from availability of devices. If you can get from somewhere 1000 M10 FHD at the beginning then no problem but see the future that we will need of them hundreds of thousands so we will need to have support for good device which will be available to buy. Can you imagine that your device will be stable like android with its own aps? they will go like a water from the waterfall, you will see..Sincerely
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@davidcolombo I may be wrong, but sometimes I question Ubuntu desktop privacy (not UBPorts). Just seems like most big companies are giving in to government pressure in US.
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@Nathan123 It's not only governments. Do you know Captcha, the one with the images?! It is used by Google to train its AI. Every time you complete a Captcha, you are showing AI how to distinguish between objects. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling like I'm beeing used, without my agreement. And this is just one example.
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@C0n57an71n
Completing a captcha'll never show any AI how any brain works for distinguishing anything. -
@Keneda Is not, but is showing them where they are wrong. But the point was about how Google uses you without even telling you.
