Ubuntu Touch Q&A 51 Saturday 1st Of June At 19:00 UTC

matv1 · 30 May 2019, 15:50

We are so busy with finding, analysing and fixing bugs that we sometimes loose sight. This week it struck me again how good my phone OS actually is. Compared to the last Canonical images, it is so much more advanced and so much more stable. I remember beeing used to Unity8 and OS crashing on a weekly basis. the other day I realised that I havnt seen any of that happen a single time for months. Also, I don't really feel hampered by the absence of a particular app (although ofcourse I too have a big wishlist for both OS and app improvements). This same week I read that the highly regarded Phoronix website named us:
"one of the most viable and furthest along Linux open-source smartphone operating systems". Furthermore, I noticed the UBPorts install vid on Youtube is now coming up to 150.000 views.

Despite all this, as far as I can tell (you guys may know more) best estimates still have us well under 10.000 users running UT as a daily driver world wide. This makes no sense to me.

My simple question is: Why do you guys think that is? What can/should we all do to promote adoptation of Ubuntu Touch? Or, conversely, are you of the opinion that we should just continue improving UT technically and the many will come to us eventually?

Ghostrider · 30 May 2019, 20:02

@matv1
It's, for me, the same problem like linux distributions, it works very well but sometimes we have to "tinker". An user in 2019 want a user friendly phone. In my opinion UT is a good os but not perfect for daily use, it lacks the settings found on all other os, trivial things such as setting fonts, night mode for all, bluetooth, email management, (I'm a blackberry user, and the hub is really practical) ...

GizmoChicken · 30 May 2019, 23:52

The show notes from Q&A 40 include the following:

The possibility of the project Treble as a solution.

That could use a uniform API, via a binder, instead of going through bionic and libhybris as we do now. A Linux hardware interface definition layer uses C++ to create an interface. A service starts a device side server and connects to a vendor server. This is in a way similar to the way desktop systems operate.

Is UBports still contemplating whether Project Treble will be of any help to UT? If so, what are the current thoughts?

Leppa · 31 May 2019, 00:01

@GizmoChicken said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 51 Saturday 1st Of June At 19:00 UTC:

The show notes from Q&A 40 include the following:

The possibility of the project Treble as a solution.

That could use a uniform API, via a binder, instead of going through bionic and libhybris as we do now. A Linux hardware interface definition layer uses C++ to create an interface. A service starts a device side server and connects to a vendor server. This is in a way similar to the way desktop systems operate.

Is UBports still contemplating whether Project Treble will be of any help to UT? If so, what are the current thoughts?

Doing so would require updating Halium to android 8.1/9, which is also required to port UT to most newer phones. Is there any plans to do so?

Aury88 · 31 May 2019, 05:49

@dobey I instead find interesting hear what other developers think. In that discussion I see only your and flohack answers so it can be worthwhile to bring this in a Q&A. also the anwsers in the last discussion on the forum seems different. you say it has no benefit, flohack says only it is not a priority for the moment and given it was one of the milestone I suspect your pov is not necessarily the same with the rest of the ubports foundation developers.

dotevo · 1 Jun 2019, 11:11

Could you share some statistics about the quantity of the devices with UT? Ex. based on OTA.
Which device is the most popular? Do you see any trends?
Do you plan to integrate Anbox into default image?

danfro · 1 Jun 2019, 15:04

Are there any plans to integrate system theme selection into system settings?
Because, well, it is called 'system' theme and it is applied system-wide so I think that is where it does belong to rather than having to use (great almighty) UTTT.

I am aware of the fact that still lots of apps are not (fully) supporting dark mode, but with this setting easier to reach maybe it will help to encourage developers to pay more attention to this.

Cesar Herrera · 1 Jun 2019, 18:30

@UBportsNews Will it be included xenial_-_new-bluez in an OTA?

A Former User · 2 Jun 2019, 10:35

@alan_g, @UniSuperBox, @mariogrip,

Thank you for providing a route map, and for fleshing it out... A very informative Q&A.

Leppa · 2 Jun 2019, 13:22

Will there be a blog-post version available?

Lakotaubp · 2 Jun 2019, 13:54

@Leppa Blog posts and audio versions of all the Q&As are available the last one is here for example https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-blog-1/post/ubuntu-touch-q-a-50-229 The one for this one should be available sometime next week. Keep an eye on the News section of the Forum and here UBports News Channel on Telegram https://t.me/ubports_news and Matrix https://matrix.to/#/#ubports_news:matrix.org

domubpkm · 5 Jun 2019, 07:50

This post is deleted!

advocatux · 5 Jun 2019, 08:02

@domubpkm auto-generated subtitles are working for me. Are you using any kind of script blocker on your browser?

domubpkm · 5 Jun 2019, 08:17

@advocatux mistake on my parts !! It works. Sorry. I delete.

advocatux · 5 Jun 2019, 08:30

@domubpkm no problem, I'm glad you sorted it out