Apps I would love to see eventually made available on UT:

Video Chat - even a single way to do this would be fantastic - whether it is via eventual support for Telegrams currently alpha video call capabilities being enabled in TELEports - or via Morph support for various web based services, or via WebRTC - whatever gives us a viable option on UT devices that is easiest to implement is all good by me.

Task List with ToDoTxt support - there are a ton of existing task list apps for UT already, but I really would like one that has ToDoTxt support, along with NextCloud syncing support, so that it could be synced to a multitude of cross platform apps, all in a "future proof" format. Info on the ToDoTxt spec is at http://todotxt.org/

Native basic Video Editing app - while there are a number of online web services that can be used for this task, it would be way more efficient and reliable if there was a UT app that could do basic functions like trim, rotate, resize and reformat for videos - especially useful for posting to social media directly from ones mobile device.

Ride share app - it would be very useful for me if there was a UT native app for either Uber or Lyft (the two most popular services for this in the USA). While these services can be hailed via an online web page accessible via Morph, the rest of the experience is definitely not as smooth as what you get on Android and iOS.

Widevine support - it would be nice if there was a Widevine plugin for Morph, allowing it to be used for movie streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. I understand the proprietary DRM nature of this makes it difficult to do this - but given that there are plugins for Linux via Chrome (that is compatible with some of the other Chromium based browsers, as well as Firefox) - perhaps there is some way this could still be implemented.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Start with installing gimp package in your Libertine Container.
Screenshot is GIMP running in Libertine Container using the Color 48 theme to make icons usable on a mobile device - https://bitbucket.org/paynekj/paynekj-gimp-scripts/raw/2e8e87faf5eaaf6036e0d8b68ff9f6f37a3f0421/themes/Color-48.7z

In order to install this theme I had to extract the 7z archive on my computer and upload the folder to the phone. Then I had to go into home/phablet/cache/libertine-container/xenial/rootfs/usr/share/gimp/2.0/themes rename the "Default" theme folder as "Old Default" - and then paste in the Color 48 theme folder renamed as "Default" (because trying to change the theme from Gimp's gui would just crash it)

Also to get the GTK menus to be sized to be useable on phone it is important to: create a file named .Xdefaults in a text editor (tedit is a good Ubuntu Touch native one for this) with a single line Xft.dpi: 280 - or whatever other dpi value which you prefer. Save this to the home directory of your chroot environment - usually .local/share/libertine-container/user-data/xenial/ in your normal home directory.

You also still need to use an external bluetooth keyboard for GIMP on the phone in order to have the gui respond.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

great and informative interview! Thanks for posting and huge thanks to TheKit for all the work he has done for UT

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Phone calls over VoLTE in the USA are now working for Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro (miatoll), using latest Focal (20.04) dev channel build! Tested using T-mobile network, calls are clear with no echoes either way, with both calling and receiving working great. SMS text and single recipient MMS photo sending and receiving work on this device with VoLTE as well. Big thanks to the UBports team and the community devs and porters for this very big step for UT!!

Best regards,
Steve Berson

I was just thinking it would be fun and illuminating, and could possibly garner some promotion for UBports, if some recent devices (e.g. Volla Phone) that were fully configured were handed to some figures that were key to Canonical's initial effort to create Ubuntu Touch (e.g. Mark Shuttleworth, Jono Bacon, etc.) and if there impressions on how far Ubuntu Touch has come in the 4 years since Canonical dropped it were recorded and posted as a video. It would be nice to hear some talk by them on what they think could have happened if Ubuntu Edge had become a reality, as well as what they think UBports can offer for the future in terms of what has become of their "baby" once it "left home."

Just an idea! - and given that UBports has now been developing UT for around the same amount of time that Canonical did (about 4 years each - Canonical did 2013-2017) maybe one that makes sense to do now.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

For those attempting to use Firefox in UT, the one option currently available to us is to use it within a Libertine container. For many devices the Firefox 84 version that is in the default repositories will crash whenever a site is attempted to be loaded. However, Firefox-esr (extended support release) 78 works stably in my testing (although slowly, due to the lack of hardware acceleration for apps in Libertine containers currently).

arm64 version is here (scroll to bottom of page to find download links to the deb package in your language)
https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+build/21042451

and armhf version is here -
https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+build/21042452

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Telegram is NOT hosted in Russia - servers are located around the globe, financial HQ is in London UK, operational HQ is in Dubai UAE. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)

There are chat groups for UT also already hosted on Matrix (but that do not bridge to the Telegram groups) if one is looking for an existing alternative to Telegram.

I had never even heard of the Mattermost service prior to this post - given that there is no UT client for it at all seems one is putting the cart before the horse as far as this request goes.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Given that the current "promoted/supported devices" are now all discontinued and at least 4 years old (with the Nexus 5 now 7 years old) - doesn't it make sense to change both the website as well as support priorities to a new set of "promoted devices"? Seems to me Volla Phone, PinePhone, OnePlus 3/3T, Sony Xperia X series, PineTab, perhaps Google Pixel 3A, and whatever Xiaomi/Redmi device is looking to be easiest to fully support, would all make sense to change the focuses to as far as what is "promoted"- with the understanding that some devices (e.g. PinePhone, PineTab) need a bit more development before placing into this category.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Us users tend to fill up these Q&A's with feature requests for things we would most like to see developed sooner than later - but what things would the UBports team like to see added to UT by their fellow devs and the community first??

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Excellent news! Thanks so much for your work on this! So, just to check, camera and bluetooth are currently not working?

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@RobTheBold - I have no plans to drive on the interstate between cities any time soon, plus I don't answer calls while driving anyway - and there are close to no basements here in central TX, plus this is a test device with a cracked screen, not a daily driver for me. So I am afraid I can't answer your questions at all.

Phone calls over VoLTE in the USA are now working for Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro (miatoll), using latest Focal (20.04) dev channel build! Tested using T-mobile network, calls are clear with no echoes either way, with both calling and receiving working great. SMS text and single recipient MMS photo sending and receiving work on this device with VoLTE as well. Big thanks to the UBports team and the community devs and porters for this very big step for UT!!

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@MrT10001 - 23.10 were easy enough installs and have worked excellently for me on both an MS Surface Go 1st gen (using the Surface Linux kernel) and on an older i7 dual boot desktop. I'm someone that uses a lot of Gnome extensions as well. The only issues I've had on the desktop have been related to the Nvidia video card I have on it (thinking of replacing this with a Radeon) - otherwise performance has been excellent with it. I have yet to try out 24.04 but I will probably do the upgrade in a few days after official release.

@thedeafenguy - T-mobile announced that they were temporarily delaying the 2G shutdown in the USA, but have not announced a revised shutdown date yet. I think it will likely be shutdown in 2025 though.

You can read more on this at
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/t-mobile-decides-not-to-abandon-its-millions-of-old-customers/ar-BB1i7OeU

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@klh - I have 4 different watches that I have flashed to Asteroid OS: Ticwatch C2+ (skipjack), Huawei gen1 (sturgeon), LG G Watch R (lenok), and LG Watch Urbane (bass). These sync to Android using either the Asteroid OS sync app or Gadgetbridge.

There is a UT native Asteroid OS sync app called Telescope that has yet to be updated to Focal, I believe the maintainer of this app was needing some help to figure out getting around some issues for this port.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@Mark-Muth - Libertine in Focal is working well for me on my Volla Phone now, it just took multiple tries for me to get it installed (I ended up having to use the Terminal instead of the Systems Setting gui to get it done).

Best regards,
Steve Berson

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@doniks - thank you so much for this! In my tests on Volla Phone running Focal it works
The only issue I saw is that the default container id shown by it on launch is "xenial" - please change this so it defaults to "focal" so users do not have to enter this for each new install.

Beat regards,
Steve Berson

@osndok - to be clear, there is currently nothing that fulfills all those requirements that runs UT - OR that is expected or in the works to fulfill all those requirements in the next year.

Regarding VoLTE: the only option that currently works for that for both calling / receiving is the PinePhone (and once ported, the PinePhone Pro as well). Otherwise Pixel 2XL, 3a or OnePlus 5, 5t, 6,6t have all been reported to be able to receive calls via VoLTE, but none of those devices can send calls via VoLTE when running UT. There are efforts being made to try and solve this, but whether and when they will show any results is unknown.

@idj - the Libertine Tweak Tool is in the Open Store at https://open-store.io/app/libertine-tweak-tool.doniks -. but it is built for Xenial only, so you can not install it if your device is running Focal. Hopefully the app will be updated with Focal support sooner than later.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@rugby - there are no updates that I am aware of. I don't think it will end up getting ported to Focal, unless someone outside of the usual suspects does some heavy lifting in a porting effort (which entails the arduous task of backporting systemd into the kernel, just for starters). A nine year life span for a smart phone is about as long as one can hope for these days, but probably time to put these beloved devices into their final resting places.