Development Planning 2023 ~ lets take over the world :)

Beta Break

Please keep in mind this planning is work in progress!!!

January 2023 -> 20.04 RC
Finalizing / User ready

Locationd (hack) A(gps) (cannonical way) via proxy HERE/google/moz) https://blog.wirelessmoves.com/2014/08/supl-reveals-my-identity-and-location-to-google.html
~~Waydroid (as it is) in core replacing anbox~~
~~Flashlight (use 16.04 temp fix)~~
~~Fix calendar sync account plugins~~
~~Volume (popup volume toggle)~~
Move screen under Notch?
Enable 22.04 builds, ignore failures

March 2023 -> 20.04 Maintenance support <-

March 2023 - July 2023 -> 22.04 Development
All new features in 22.04

Dist-Upgrade from 20.04 -> 22.04
Adjust CI
◦ create a list of transitions required
◦ adjust components subject to transitions of 3rd party libraries
◦ fix other FTBFS or test issues (due to gcc-11/12, Qt 5.15, etc.)
VoLTE
Notch support
Push forward qtubuntu -> qtwayland migration (as option)
◦ if it goes well, do the Mir 2.11 transition for 22.04, if not see 24.04
Background services for Click packages
Improve/consolidate Waydroid / Android App Support
Contact backend, if is available, if not -> 24.04 (not a critical-to-have transition)
Update Qtwebengine
Migrate to hfd-service -> will fix Flashlight toggle
Greeter: Allow launching apps in an "allow list" on top of the lockscreen (e.g. Camera)
Migrate Lomiri Keyboard to Maliit Keyboard
Become upstream of libqtdbustest/libqtbusmock
Improve NFC settings page
Implement blue light filter / Redshift support
Go applications (ciborium, ldm-go, nuntium)
◦ Migrate to Go modules
◦ Migrate to github.com/godbus/dbus
Bluetooth:
◦ Bluetooth: Show battery level of supported connected devices
Morph Browser:
◦ Feature request: How to open javascript console?
◦ Add custom search engine
◦ hardware acceleration?
Libusermetrics:
◦ Get rid of qdjango!!!
Build .deb Packages of core apps, preventing regressions in Debian packaging

September 2023 - April 2024 -> 24.04:Development
24.04 (ubuntu upstream development starts end of Q3)

Locationd
Definitely do the Mir 2.11 transition
Qtwebengine Update
Qt6 transition (???)
WebRTC phone calls
More tailored notifications >> do not disturb
CI-Migration from Jenkins to Gitlab

Looking forward to read your feedback below and when you are interested to pick-up some of the issues discussed.

domubpkm

Is there a stable 20.04 somewhere?

lsitongia

@beta-break
The core app list includes calendar, but not contacts. The list described here includes Morph, which is not a core app, but does not include an email client, such as dekko.

I realize that there's a lot of work planned here (like, VoLTE), but I think that contacts and an email client should be added. Also, the list of core apps should be re-evaluated?

Thank you!

kugiigi

@lsitongia I believe the list of core apps in gitlab are the ones that are in click package and installable/updatable via the OpenStore. Other core apps are still currently in deb format such as Morph and they are under Core in gitlab. Dekko was never preinstalled and as much as that would be good, even the existing core apps lack maintainers so adding Dekko might not change much.

Beta Break

@domubpkm yes, we are trying to achieve that at the end of the month and then 20.04 feature development will stop.

domubpkm

@beta-break Thank you for the clarification.

Beta Break

@lsitongia yes you right the definition of core app is kind of vague. Some important apps are not preinstalled because they make the system image so big, that they could break installations. You are right that an app such as Dekko is very important for our user base, but as @kugiigi says it is difficult to find maintainers.

Though it could be a good agenda point to address how to deal with the "essential" apps, Dekko, Contacts, Morph as a community.

domubpkm

Personally, in the immediate future, because I don't think that dekko will become efficient quickly given the maintainer problem mentioned and the multiple issues of dekko, it would be rather desirable to have a strong morph (quickly correct DNS and WebRTC leaks), coupled with a strong Webber.

arubislander

@domubpkm what would a strong Webber look like, over and above what it does now?

domubpkm

@arubislander means for me clean of bugs because it still has some and stuck as close as possible to ubuntu updates.

Lakotaubp

@domubpkm Should you not be taking those up with the app dev? Also dekko for Focal is getting a look at from what I understand.

Fla

I didn't expect to see any work on 22.04 right now, let alone 24.04. That would be amazing of course, but isn't it a bit too optimistic? I guess many problems will be found once 20.04 will be widely adopted, so you will have to work on that first.

And what about the stabilization on Lomiri on desktop, being fully included in Debian etc?

arubislander

@fla The idea is that all of that work will be done in parallel or at the very least in shorter cycles.
Trying to stabilise the current version 'first' is what got us in the situation of still being on xenial long after it went out of canonical support.

The idea now is, rather, to have the new features and fixes always going into the 'next' version, and where appropriate backporting them to the 'current' version. This has the advantage (among others) of making the 'current' version truly stable (i.e. no breaking changes, mostly bugfixes) while ensuring that the 'next' version will not be missing features present in the 'current' version. This will mean less regressions when moving to the 'next' version.

arubislander

@fla said in Development Planning 2023 ~ lets take over the world :

And what about the stabilization on Lomiri on desktop, being fully included in Debian etc?

It is thought Lomiri being in Debian (And other Distro bases) will attract the attention of Debian developers, or of developers of derivative distros who want to see Lomiri run well on theirs. That will result in patches being proposed to fix bugs, and maybe also features being implemented. All of this will spread the development load.

kugiigi

@fla I think they are after more on the momentum. The jump from 20.04 to 22.04/24.04 won't be as big as xenial to focal. There won't be renaming or moving to Gitlab. Many issues with deprecared stuffs have been fixed already. In this approach, we'll be closer to current version and getting stability in that version means longer time to have stable and updated system.

domubpkm

If I understand correctly https://gitlab.com/groups/ubports/development/core/-/milestones?state=opened , OTA-1 Focal is very close, but really, Focal will only be usable with OTA-2 (OTA-1 maintenance) which should theoretically follow quite quickly

kugiigi

I think one of the main thing that should be fixed are the issues after upgrading from xenial. The one I encountered for example was the difficulty in uninstalling/upgrading xenial version apps. I had to reboot multiple times and try different things to make them work correctly again

Homer

Happy to read about background service for clickable apps.
Will focal upgrades improve bluetooth experience?