Ubuntu Touch Q&A 55 Is Saturday 27th Of July At 19:00 UTC

UBportsNews · 23 Jul 2019, 17:34

Ubuntu Touch Q&A 55 is this Saturday the 27th of July at 19:00 UTC. Please join us for Ubuntu Touch development, updates and answers to your questions! Post them here before the event and Youtube Livechat and Telegram during the live show.

Live Show : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0gYaRfeTE

Please remember that questions on porting to device **** or it's status, and questions on bugs will not be answered

jimmy T · 25 Jul 2019, 07:45

@UBportsNews There was some discussion on the move to GitLab from GitHub a few months ago. Is this ongoing? Do we still want to move all our code to GitLab?

A Former User · 25 Jul 2019, 07:58

Hi

There was a progress report on the Pine64 hardware last night ...

I was wondering how the software is progressing for it: what is done, and what still needs to be done?

Thanks.

A Former User · 25 Jul 2019, 17:26

Will the UT of the 18.04LTS version be built in the future or continue to develop the UT of 16.04?

alefnode · 26 Jul 2019, 06:38

Is working on communication with companies to be able to take out a Smartphone with Ubuntu Touch, as happened in the past with BQ and Meizu?

sh4nks · 26 Jul 2019, 06:56

Whats the status of the Unity 8 Desktop?
How is the update to the latest/newer Mir version going?

kalle.kruse · 26 Jul 2019, 18:50

Any news on the partnership with Purism regarding the Librem 5? Did the core team receive the dev kits, as somebody from Purism claimed on their forum?

Stefano · 27 Jul 2019, 01:25

@kalle-kruse Recently Ubports received 2pcs of Devkit, so I believe the work has started on porting

trainailleur · 27 Jul 2019, 01:48

@Stefano said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 55 Is Saturday 27th Of July At 19:00 UTC:

@kalle-kruse Recently Ubports received 2pcs of Devkit, so I believe the work has started on porting

Great news!

GizmoChicken · 27 Jul 2019, 08:27

@Louies said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 55 Is Saturday 27th Of July At 19:00 UTC:

Will the UT of the 18.04LTS version be built in the future or continue to develop the UT of 16.04?

As a followup to the above quoted question for the Q&A:

If I recall correctly, one of the reasons for sticking with Xenial on the phone was that moving to systemd (needed for 18.04 and later) would require lots of work. Do you plan to start using systemd on Xenial in anticipation of eventually building for 18.04/20.04?

domubpkm · 27 Jul 2019, 08:27

With your new status, could you have an ubports shop and would you be allowed to sell the Pinephone directly in conjunction with Pine Store but with the pre-installed UT operating system ?

GizmoChicken · 27 Jul 2019, 08:34

@sh4nks said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 55 Is Saturday 27th Of July At 19:00 UTC:

Whats the status of the Unity 8 Desktop?

As a followup to the above quoted question for the Q&A:

Regarding development of Unity8 for the desktop, are the fixes that are being pushed to the "edge" channel for phones currently being pushed to the repository for the desktop? If not, could we get an "edge" channel for the desktop?

I'll just add that I'm eager to have Unity8 working on the desktop. My thinking is that many will want to try Unity8 on the desktop first, and if they like what they see on the desktop, they'll be more likely to install UT on a phone.

Aury88 · 27 Jul 2019, 08:55

If I understand correctly you are trying to substitute the most possible ubports-maintained packages/libs/toolkits... to mainstream ones so to save devel energy, have all updated and let you concentrate only on few important and Ubports specific pieces like unity8, click packaging or the core apps. what is still missing in this substitution process?

alan_g · 27 Jul 2019, 09:51

@GizmoChicken said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 55 Is Saturday 27th Of July At 19:00 UTC:

I'll just add that I'm eager to have Unity8 working on the desktop. My thinking is that many will want to try Unity8 on the desktop first, and if they like what they see on the desktop, they'll be more likely to install UT on a phone.

The reality is that the priority for the UBports developers is the phone, and there's more than enough work for them there.

I too would like to see some "dev love" for the desktop but, it needs new developers so it doesn't distract from the phone. While I am a developer by trade, I don't find time for it either, so I do understand why nothing much happens.

dobey · 27 Jul 2019, 19:19

@GizmoChicken said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 55 Is Saturday 27th Of July At 19:00 UTC:

Regarding development of Unity8 for the desktop, are the fixes that are being pushed to the "edge" channel for phones currently being pushed to the repository for the desktop? If not, could we get an "edge" channel for the desktop?

There is no separate repository. The changes go to the xenial_-_edge branch, which you will get if you use the unity8 install tool to install on 16.04. At some point the features will get synced to the xenial branch when the updates are released to the devel channel on the phone, and after the stable update with the changes, we could probably get the bionic branch synced up, so the changes would be in 18.04 unity8 as well.

However, there are still many problems with using unity8 on a PC, as phones/tablets were always the primary target platform.

GizmoChicken · 27 Jul 2019, 19:26

@dobey said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 55 Is Saturday 27th Of July At 19:00 UTC:

The changes go to the xenial_-_edge branch, which you will get if you use the unity8 install tool to install on 16.04. At some point the features will get synced to the xenial branch when the updates are released to the devel channel on the phone, and after the stable update with the changes, we could probably get the bionic branch synced up, so the changes would be in 18.04 unity8 as well.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated!

GizmoChicken · 27 Jul 2019, 21:18

@UniSuperBox and @Flohack :

Thanks so much for addressing my questions regarding Unity8 in the Q&A. Much appreciated!

Also, sorry for relentlessly pestering you regarding desktop. I realize that your top priority is (and should be) the phone. But I'm thinking that getting Unity8 on the desktop may be a good way to grow your user base.

As you know, convincing potential users to buy a specialty phone to test Ubuntu Touch is a heavy lift. But I suspect that, once Unity8 is working on the desktop, those who like what they see on the desktop will be much more inclined to buy a specialty phone for further testing. So that's why I'm so eager.

You mentioned in the Q&A that UBports could use more financial/developer support. I wonder if you'd consider the following:

How about reaching out to SAMSUNG to ask if they'd be willing to support your Unity8 desktop efforts? They may have an interest in offering Unity8 as a shiny alternative DE for their Linux on DeX project.

Yes, I know that Linux on DeX is antithetical (and maybe even heretical) to your goal of convergence. But hear me out...

If SAMSUNG provided enough financial support, that may be a good way to fund Unity8 desktop development. And as an added bonus, Samsung's huge user base would be introduced to the goodness of Unity8, which, ultimately, would attract users to Ubuntu Touch. A win-win.

Too heretical?

Regards,
GizmoChicken

Leppa · 28 Jul 2019, 11:09

@GizmoChicken said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 55 Is Saturday 27th Of July At 19:00 UTC:

Too heretical?

Maybe not too heretical, but maybe difficult - Samsung's been working on deX for a long while now, so you'd have to convince them to give up all of their desktop related work. You also have to get Mir & Unity8 working on android, which would in itself be a huge task.

GizmoChicken · 28 Jul 2019, 12:29

@Leppa said in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 55 Is Saturday 27th Of July At 19:00 UTC:

Samsung's been working on deX for a long while now, so you'd have to convince them to give up all of their desktop related work.

I think maybe you're referring to Samsung Dex, for which, as you mention, Samsung has invested heavily in their own desktop.

But I'm referring to Samsung's Linux on DeX project, which runs a modified version of Ubuntu (developed by Canonical) in a container, and already has a Unity-like desktop, which if I'm not mistaken, is based on MATE. Also, Samsung Linux on DeX allows installing at least a few other distros and DEs.

You also have to get Mir & Unity8 working on android, which would in itself be a huge task.

Yep, 100% agreed. I'm under the impression that the above mentioned Unity-like desktop (because it's based on MATE) doesn't support Wayland, and so can't (yet) rely on Mir as a compositor. Whether Linux on DeX is currently capable of using a DE that supports Wayland, I don't know. But I imagine that if it's not yet possible, Samsung is working on it.