Focal/20.04 is out for quite a while now. You still use Xenial/16.04? I would like to know what stops you from upgrading?

MrT10001 · 7 Feb 2024, 04:40

@danfro @Keneda , yes, too many devices as I have others running other Android ROM's (no not a phone shop, just hobbying, but did do stuff for a Computer Shop, PC's and laptops seemed to have died a death these days, even tablets unless it's an iPad aren't so popular). A lot, I hope I have saved from landfill and I do repair and sell on.

I would like to see older devices bought onto Focal, but I can see why they aren't and a they do have a life before things fail. Batteries and eMMC's do not last for ever and screens get smashed (finding quality replacements is not easy) and of course 3G is/has gone in a lot of areas.

My favourite device has to be the Nexus 4. Easy to repair, small, quality screen and rarely bootloops...

danfro · 7 Feb 2024, 04:59

@Keneda said in Focal/20.04 is out for quite a while now. You still use Xenial/16.04? I would like to know what stops you from upgrading?:

I'd like to see Fairphone 4 or 5 sold with UT.

This has been discussed. But if they would be sold with UT preinstalled, we would need to provide professional customer care. We can't do that because we don't have the manpower. So this will likely not happen soon.

danfro · 7 Feb 2024, 05:04

@MrT10001 said in Focal/20.04 is out for quite a while now. You still use Xenial/16.04? I would like to know what stops you from upgrading?:

A lot, I hope I have saved from landfill and I do repair and sell on.

A good thing to do keeping old devices working and bring them to use.

Thats one thing I like about Fairphone. They also have a "send your old device in" service (https://shop.fairphone.com/recycle). They try to recycle and reuse components if possible. You may even get a discount voucher.

matteo · 7 Feb 2024, 05:58

@danfro what I miss the most is my own app dataMonitor, which is only available for xenial. My plan is that when I'll be moved to focal, I'll port its funtionality directly into System settings. Then other apps such as CloudMusic (albeit recently stopped to work for some reason...) and Wordle.

matteo · 2 Jul 2024, 06:04

@kugiigi thank you for the detailed feedback, it encourages me a lot to move forward. I don't exacly use many apps on UT but the ones that I use I would like to keep, starting from the app I developed, which is dataMonitor. I think, when I'll be ready for the move, I'll first minimize as much as I can the apps that I have installed so that I'll reduce the risk of any glitches during and after the installation.

arubislander · 7 Feb 2024, 06:40

@danfro said in Focal/20.04 is out for quite a while now. You still use Xenial/16.04? I would like to know what stops you from upgrading?:

But if they would be sold with UT preinstalled, we would need to provide professional customer care. We can't do that because we don't have the manpower.

I don't thinkwe would be expected to do the customer care, that would be on FairPhone. What we would need to do is get the quality of the port up to their standards. That is what is keeping us back at the moment.

Keneda · 7 Feb 2024, 06:47

@danfro said in Focal/20.04 is out for quite a while now. You still use Xenial/16.04? I would like to know what stops you from upgrading?:

But if they would be sold with UT preinstalled, we would need to provide professional customer care

Do you provide professional customer care for volla devices ?

danfro · 7 Feb 2024, 06:50

@Keneda said in Focal/20.04 is out for quite a while now. You still use Xenial/16.04? I would like to know what stops you from upgrading?:

Do you provide professional customer care for volla devices ?

Volla does support us by paying devs and team to provide support. They also develop on their own.

Lakotaubp · 7 Feb 2024, 06:51

@arubislander is correct FairPhone require a certain standard in some key areas to sell devices pre installed but that is getting OT for here.

danfro · 7 Feb 2024, 06:52

@arubislander said in Focal/20.04 is out for quite a while now. You still use Xenial/16.04? I would like to know what stops you from upgrading?:

I don't thinkwe would be expected to do the customer care, that would be on FairPhone.

You are wrong here. I talked to Fairphone people in Riga. They would expect us to do support since they can't do it. They do hardware, not software. Understandable. The quality of the OS is also a thing. And not sure if there are other reasons I am not aware of.

domubpkm · 7 Feb 2024, 07:50

@danfro Personally, I am very satisfied with Focal on the Volla 1st generation. This is very good work done by the UBports and Volla teams. The only thing that annoys me is the reloading of pages when you open for example morph and a web-app at the same time and when you switch from morph to the web-app. The web-app reloads. Same problems when you open two web-apps and when you switch from the first to the second. Already known problem with Xenial. Maybe some memory leaks somewhere.

wilfridd · 2 Jul 2024, 18:31

@danfro , my pleasure I also think that Indicator Weather is a must have !
Ah, you're right concerning Activity Tracker... I didn't MR because i'd like to try fix the "Api key reqiured" first... And maybee try to enable other map providers as uNav or Pure Maps do or why not put our efforts together...?
But atm, I'm stuck with Wifiscanner...

danfro · 8 Feb 2024, 05:11

@wilfridd said in Focal/20.04 is out for quite a while now. You still use Xenial/16.04? I would like to know what stops you from upgrading?:

But atm, I'm stuck with Wifiscanner...

Just saw a messag in main telegram group, the wifiscanner MR has been made. Also got permission to become maintainer of ActivityTracker, so will try to get that out soon to OpenStore. So once I got that up, feel free to help and contribute (like "API key...").

But lets stop talking about app development here (although interesting ). This is getting off topic for this post.

danfro · 2 Aug 2024, 05:32

So to sum up what has been written here so far (what got stuck in my head), the main reasons for not moving to focal are is order of seriousness (and lack of workarounds):

stability of focal and
too many troubles when migrating from xenial to focal. Either taken from own experience with another device or from discussions.
A clean install is the best way to do that, BUT we don't have a good backup solution.
This is followed with devices not supporting focal, sure no workaround for that.
Apps missing is an issue, but that is sorted easiest and also is due to developers not having moved to focal yet with their devices.

[edit, I forgot one big reason:]

people are just happy on xenial, no need to move on

With 24.04 knocking at the door (middle of this year planned currently) this is valuable information. I will pass that on to the core dev team.

Of course this doesn't close this post. Its more a summary for others joining new and for myself :smiling_face_with_halo: .

MrT10001 · 8 Feb 2024, 05:43

@danfro Also a lot of people have experience in the past of updates for a certain operating system that vastly reduced their user experience due to instability and developers thinking that their way is the best way. That's why people clung onto them for as long as possible......:winking_face:

Not so much with UT, but you cannot account all the time for the human condition...

danfro · 8 Feb 2024, 06:20

@MrT10001 I guess you are right. Although I personally see the advantages of new releases or updates.

To name some reasons to go for focal (OTA4):

theme switch in system settings
battery percentage indicator in system settings
home screen shows "time to fully charged" time
wallpapers can be deleted
double tap to wake setting
edge barrier sensitivuty in system settings
a newer morph (altjough still considered outdated by websites )

Blog posts hold more news.

MrT10001 · 8 Feb 2024, 06:31

@danfro Individuals always want something different out of their device, i.e. it is personal to them.

For me, a phone is a phone, so i want basic functionality of:

a phone, so
Sound is a must
SMS is a must
Mobile internet is a must

Other things that are not so important:
Camera
Maps
GPS
Reading PDF's

And other things would be:
Mobile Banking
and Video Calls

UT covers most of this for me, but it's not quite all and again this will vary for others..

wally · 8 Feb 2024, 10:55

Great question, great responses.
For me, lack of time, lack of technical skill, and fear of loss of functionality / creating a new time-sink project that I can't afford right now kept me using what was working.
But just last weekend I got around to trying out Focal on my backup OP5 (with a half-melted screen) and it's largely going quite smoothly. I flashed without wiping data, and that process was pretty pain free. A little bit of messing around with settings, but all my messages and apps persisted, some apps just needed to be deleted and reinstalled (the appstore option to Install Stable Version didn't work, but delete then install is fine).

I really miss the Scaling of UT Tweak tool. The default 21 is way too big for me. It'd be amazing if/when that app comes along, for scaling and app suspension. Meanwhile, great to see some of those features entering System Settings!

Jitsi video calls are the other big thing that went from working to not working. On my Oneplus 5T 16.04, they work in both Morph and Jitsi Web App. On my broken Oneplus 5, 20.04 it crashes in both. Very similar phones. I presume it's a Focal thing, but can't say for sure. It does manage to get a hint of video out to the other caller before crashing. It's not essential for me, but a pretty nice option to have. Causes me hesitation in switching my working phone over just yet.

@Moem On my Oneplus 5, flashing through the installer without clicking the Wipe Data button didn't result in any lost files. But a GUI backup option would sure be great in any case. Hope your install goes smoothly

@MrT10001 Fantastic list of devices, and very useful comments about functionality. Thanks!

All those developers making apps work in Focal, thank you so, so much. I never stop appreciating how much this community does. Bravo!

Moem · 8 Feb 2024, 11:09

@wally said in Focal/20.04 is out for quite a while now. You still use Xenial/16.04? I would like to know what stops you from upgrading?:

@Moem On my Oneplus 5, flashing through the installer without clicking the Wipe Data button didn't result in any lost files.

Thanks, I'm aware of that. But it seems that it will also not solve the problems. Because they live somewhere in the user settings and files, I've been told.

In any case, I tried that and the installer got stuck halfway through.

ToxyPoxy · 8 Feb 2024, 17:58

I downgraded from 20.04 to 16.04 because I could not play Futify with the screen turned off because of app suspension. 20.04 missing UT Tweak Tool.