Could the upcoming Thunderbird mobile app be ported to Ubuntu Touch?
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Thunderbird mobile application is coming soon: https://www.ghacks.net/2022/05/03/thunderbird-mobile-application-is-coming-soon
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It's for Android/iOS so not likely. There's more chance if they make the desktop app usable on mobile or some hacks like what is commonly done in other distros like Mobian. That's more likely to work on UT than the Android/iOS version.
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@kugiigi Hi. But with all the source code being open, would an UT version be fairly easy?
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Hi @opolork
No it is not.
Seeing the code is one thing but GUI are ultra specific.For the core component of a software (a mailer for example) you have to take some time... say 1year.
Now users can use it with command lines, but it's not very convenient so you need a GUI.
The GUI for such an app will be at least one year for the simple features. And another year to test things out.Now if you want to port this software to another platform, you can often reuse the core component, but you'll have to adapt the GUI to the new platform (screen size, techno, ...).
Basically you're back to square 2 and will have to redo all the GUI (2 years).Android is mainly Java so if Thunderbird is built in Java, nothing can be reused.
If they'll use QT (which I doubt) then we might gain 10 to 15% of the development time.Oh by the way, I mentioned basic features...
With GUI, users are now asking for "costumization".
These are additional features that can double or triple the GUI's development time...If you understand this message, then you understand the hurdle it is to have Ubuntu Touch.
And why the true "convergence" is such a powerful tool (being able to use a software on multiple platforms without the need for a custom development...), and so difficult to achieve
That is the spirit behind Ubuntu Touch. -
And in my opinion, why start a new project from scratch ? If only dekko could be debugged, optimized and therefore used to its full potential, many would be satisfied.
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@domubpkm said in Could the upcoming Thunderbird mobile app be ported to Ubuntu Touch?:
And in my opinion, why start a new project from scratch ? If only dekko could be debugged, optimized and therefore used to its full potential, many would be satisfied.
Hi. Do you mean Dekko 2? https://open-store.io/app/dekko2.dekkoproject
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@opolork Of course I say dekko, because now the 2 is useless. It's like in the OpenStore I'm tired of seeing Teleports with BETA..
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@domubpkm Yeah, Dekko 2 should just be Dekko and TELEports should not be Beta
Anyway, Dekko is great and the most convergent app I use on UT. Hopefully someone picks up its development. But in reality, an email client isn't a simple app. It'll be really hard to make it comparable to existing ones. -
@domubpkm Dekko gave me a good laugh today - i was trying to add a mail to the spam list and when I clicked "add to spam list" it gave me a popup: "Note: Mark as spam not implemented yet: Fix it before release !!!"
No joke, that's one of the things I like about this OS: how pretty clear it is sometimes that just a couple of people are working on some part of it. Reminds me of an update on halium-devel where instead of the usual camera shutter noise, when I took a picture I heard an insanely loud goat noise. Whoever did it please tell me - you're a genius ^^ -
@domubpkm Fair enough.