Almost Seamless Conversion from Android to Ubuntu Touch with the Xperia X
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Device: Sony Xperia X F5121
UT Version: 16.04Hey everyone,
I am just sharing my overall good experience with the switch from Android to Linux with the Xperia X.
Firstly, I'd like to congratulate the develpers for such a great job. I am lost for words, actually. I am just truly tired of being stuck with Android and iOS and Linux on my phone is just a breath of fresh air. I never thought I'd be running actual GNU Linux this early.
The actual installation from the installer took about 10 minutes. I spent time, though, attempting to backup the TA partition, which didn't happen and upgrading to Android 8.0, which also didn't happen. I had 7.1.1 on that device and it was stuck on that. It's probably because of my region. I tried the manual upgrade but that didn't work, too.
So, I just said I didn't mind bricking the phone so I just started at Android 7.1.1 from the installer, the binaries were installed and in 10 mins, I was already running GNU Linux on my phone!
If I decided to go straight to the installation I would have saved a lot of time, but the whole process was a good learning experience.
I like that everything works, my battery is around 40% longer vs when it was still with Android 7.1.1. I can use the GPS much more happily because it's not assisted by Google servers and I am just thankful for this kind of freedom.
I do have some issues that I am working on right now but I will make separate threads for them just in case I haven't found a solution yet. Some of them are:
- Dekko 2: I haven't added my Office 365 business accounts there. I have already added my personal live.com and outlook.com accounts.
- Wire, my current favourite FOSS messenger, still thinks that the webapp is open in another after restarting the app. This is present my app created using Morph-based Webber.
*Skype works with Morph and I can login properly but I can't get it to work with Webber. - There were some unforced restarts when dealing with Morph, Sapot and Webber but that's fine with me. My normie phones did that too.
Those are minor issues as I was already resigned to use my Nokia brick phone just to get out of the Google - Apple ecosystem. Ubuntu Touch is a huge plus for me just by being present on the Xperia. Also, I work extensively on my Linux desktop and laptop where the apps involved work properly.
Regarding settings as to why my phone runs longer with UT vs Android, as asked by @arubislander, as well, my settings are just standard. I am assuming that my use of Android 7.1.1 has an effect on this? It's just that many experience that Apple and Google slow their devices down as they approach their devices' EOL. Maybe, Android 7.1.1 is still in the early stages of the support for the device?
My last full charge gave me 40 hours and that's with playing with Libertine, creating Webapps, calling through Wire, which is rather clear, in my opinion, and browsing through locally-created shopping sites. Of course, using the GPS and uNav kind of drained the battery much quicker but it wasn't that bad.
Anyway, the experience was rather smooth. Thanks again devs!