@CiberSheep - unfortunately I don't think there is an x86/amd64 deb version of the UT Tweak Tool available.

@messayisto - the current lack of ability to change display scaling is exactly the same issue why I don't find Lomiri is a usable DE on laptop and desktops yet. I am hoping that support for changing display scaling in System Settings will become supported sooner than later.

@ufoddos said in Recommendations for Ubuntu Touch:

I hope Ubuntu Touch can become the most viable alternative to Android for mobile devices.

I do as well, as I think most of everyone who posts on this forum does too.

It should be secure,

That "should" is most certainly something the UBports core team and Ubuntu Touch community wants as well. In terms of online security, this is something that has been improved recently via the update to a 24.04 LTS Ubuntu base, which enables for upstream security updates to be easily shipped in the system OS. There is also ongoing work towards enabling encrypting user and other data for the OS, with initial basic support for this already implemented in the latest version. However one big downside for UT in terms of physical security is that the bootloader needs to remain unlocked for the OS to load. This is something that likely needs to cooperation of a device maker to fix for specific devices.

respect privacy, and reject government censorship and surveillance.

The UBports Foundation and the Ubuntu Touch itself already does all of these things. There is absolutely no data mining from either, and the uAdBlockNG app available from the Open Store allows one to avoid a significant amount of invasive trackers and ads.

In terms of system architecture, it should incorporate UI features from WebOS.

I will have to strongly disagree with you on this point, rather most of us using it, and certainly those developing it, think it should NOT be sublimating its own design aesthetics to one from another existing project. Ubuntu Touch was created in the first place to be exactly entwined with its own unique desktop environment (initially called Unity 8, now rebranded as "Lomiri"), as well as with a curated unified design ethic and theming, and what UT really needs is just more developers willing to contribute some PR's to shape this to improve and expand its capabilities, rather than simply replicate designs made in other projects.

In terms of applications, I hope it supports web applications.

It already does, and since it was started. Lots of apps available in the Open Store are in fact wrappers and containers for various webapps. And the "Webber" app allows one to easily create ones own webapp via making a launcher and container for a url. There are currently some compatibility issues with this due to the age of the Chromium supported by the current QtWebEngine 5.x used for the system wide Morph browser, but the core team is very busy now focusing on updating the webengine used by UT's Morph browser to QtWebEngine 6.x, and there is in fact a preview app in the Open Store alpha stage one can use, that can in fact access a good majority of services that are made available for general webapp use. Of course there is the challenge that there are a good number of online services that are only made available to Android and iOS apps currently (such as a number of banking apps), and sadly being able to create compatibility for many of these is beyond any control of UT's developers. But otherwise - yes, UT supports webapps.

It should support unified communication.

Dunno what you mean by "unified communication", but there is currently native app and/or webapp support in UT for: phone calls (via 2G, 3G, and now VoLTE for a growing number of devices) SMS & MMS (core Messenger app), email (both imap & pop3), Matrix, Telegram, Jitsi, Whatsapp, Signal, XMPP, IRC, and a few other protocols. Plus other services such as Session and Wire can be accessed via Android apps installed in Waydroid containers. While this might be the opposite from "unified" and certainly not totally complete, UT is certainly capable of being quite capable as far as messaging goes.

I dislike Android because it's closed, increasingly sluggish, has a bloated design, a virtual machine mechanism, consumes a lot of power, has excessively high device requirements, pushes system junk, and isn't a true Linux distribution.

Yes, I dislike Android for this as well, although there are some "degoogled" AOSP ROM's these days which do a good job of fixing some of those issues. However the future continuing development of those ROM's is increasingly threatened by Google's own recent moves towards even further centralizing control over the Android eco-system, which makes projects like Ubuntu Touch even more important going forward.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@pparent - did you test whether the preview for the Qt6 update for Morph available in the Open Store works for location for the website you are trying to link to yet?

@grenudi said in We Drop Ubuntu Touch Entirely:

Resource Allocation Suggestion
Current distribution (estimated):

This isn't even estimated, it's just a wild guess with zero data supporting the conclusions made in it.

@grenudi said in We Drop Ubuntu Touch Entirely:

Comparison: PostmarketOS Approach
PostmarketOS demonstrates alternative strategy:

500+ device ports versus Ubuntu Touch's approximately 50

While I appreciate the efforts by the PMOS devs, most of those 500 device ports you note from PMOS just boot the system, and then don't do anything most people need a phone to do. Where as on UT the ported devices are much more likely to actually be capable of working as daily drivers, with the majority of the supported devices having all expected functions working.

700+ contributors and growing
Active funding (NGI grants, reserves over 40k EUR)

That's great, and I know that UBports would welcome additional developers and funding too. Be aware that UBports does have a good number of patrons though.

Reuses existing components (Alpine packages, established desktop environments)

Obviously UT reuses LOTS of existing components received from Ubuntu, and has collaborated with Debian & Manjaro teams as well. PLUS there have been exchanges with the Mobian, Droidian, Postmarket and Sailfish OS teams working on certain issues too.

Monthly development updates with community engagement

There are regular updates from the UBports dev team on their YouTube Q&A, along with constant posting on multiple dedicated Telegram and Matrix channels.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@grenudi said in We Drop Ubuntu Touch Entirely:

1. Browser Development Challenge
   Current situation:

Morph browser maintained by small team

Yes, Morph is indeed maintained by a small team, but the QtWebEngine it uses is maintained by a larger team upstream of it, and is basically an implementation of Chromium (which obviously has a gigantic team maintaining it).

No extension support (including ad blocking)

INCORRECT - ad blocking can be easily enabled via the uAdBlockNG app (available in the Open Store at https://open-store.io/app/uadblockng.liohmoeller ), and in the EFF's online test at https://coveryourtracks.eff.org provides "strong protection against web trackers and ads" once it is activated

Alternative approach:
Consider adopting Firefox Mobile or Chromium-based solution with privacy enhancements, allowing browser development resources to redirect toward core OS improvements.

See above - Morph is using Chromium. AND Marius posted today on the UBports Telegram group a new test build using the Qt6 Webengine (which updates to a much more recent Chromium version) that should likely be integrated into a UT update by the end of this year.

There is also THREE additional projects led by UT community members developing alternative native browsers for UT:
uFirefox - a mobile optimized fork of Firefox that uses the current 143 verson - https://gitlab.com/debclick/uFirefox
uWolf - a mobile optimized version of Librewolf (which is a privacy/security hardened fork of Firefox) - https://open-store.io/app/uwolf.chromiumos-guy
Mimi - new browser in alpha state using Apple's WebKit webengine - https://open-store.io/app/mimibrowser.fredldotme

SO - browser development for UT is ongoing, and seeing some major improvements that will be available to all UT users soon.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

There is a known bug with Snaps that osk is not properly called up with them. From my understanding Mir 2.x integration is needed to fix this, and while this is something the core dev team is working on, it might be a few months before it arrives for UT. A possoble work around is to use bluetooth keyboard with these apps.

For Firefox, I would suggest installing the version built for UT by Fuseteam, it features osk working, along with touch scrolling, pinch to zoom, as well as some tweaks to the gui better optimizong it for mobile use. Just download the most recent build for arm64, unzip, and then open the click in Open Store to install - https://gitlab.com/debclick/uFirefox/-/artifacts

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@Simmonz - yes, this is a known bug at the OS level for Focal 20.04. Hopefully a fix will happen after Noble 24.04 is released.

@musicologist - I have never tested with this device, but generally the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter (both gen1 and gen2) works well with most UT devices that support Miracast.

@AmauryDBZ - you are in luck, Futify was just updated with a fix today

@AmauryDBZ - be aware that LibreWolf, which uWolf is forked from, is a privacy hardened browser, which might not be compatible with Spotify. You could try disabling the uBlock Origin extension (which is on by default), otherwise maybe try regular non-hardened Firefox from https://gitlab.com/debclick/uFirefox/-/jobs/10771487022/artifacts/file/build/aarch64-linux-gnu/app/firefox.fuseteam_141_arm64.click

If that doesn't work, the dev of Futify (UT native Spotify app for premium accounts) is working on a fix for its current login problems, so check back at https://open-store.io/app/futify.frenchutouch
for an update soon.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Unfortunately none of those browsers have a working Widevine extension available for them yet, which is the DRM that Netflix needs to work. A few years back Netflix worked in Waydroid for me, but with changes made by them to their app this is no longer the case.

There was an attempt by Marius to make a UT native Widevine extension, which you can download from the Open Store at https://open-store.io/app/widenabler.mariogrip - but in my tests this doesn't work for Netflix.

Some other potential fixes for this issue can be found at
https://github.com/AsahiLinux/widevine-installer
https://ftp-master.debian.org/new/widevine-installer_0.0~git20240811.eab8c66-1.html
https://codeberg.org/mogwai/widevine

• but all these possible fixes would need a maintainer to port it to UT first, and they might not necessarily fix the issue for it.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@UBportsNews - with more support for snaps coming in Noble, are there plans to also fix the bugs in Libertine, or does it make sense given the clunky legacy implementation of its code, that hasn't had anyone step up to maintain it, to just deprecate Libertine in Noble instead?

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@UBportsNews - Is there a plan as to what to do with the core Notes app for Noble?

From my understanding, it seems that the api that it uses to sync with Evernote is being deprecated by them, and given that Evernote is a commercial service that only offers syncing between two devices for its free basic plan, and also given that this is based on a legacy connection established and coded by Canonical, I was wondering how this effects Notes app in UT in the future.

Given that NextCloud provides a well known and well supported FOSS solution for file syncing, that already has account support in the System Settings, as well as other UT native apps (e.g. GhostCloud, UBsync) that use it, perhaps the way forward is to change to NextCloud syncing for the Notes app. There is also the JotIt app in the OpenStore, which syncs notes with NextCloud, that perhaps could be forked as a replacement for the Notes app.

Or, is the plan to just remove the Notes app from the list of core provided apps, given it seem there is no maintainer for it currently?

Thank you for all your continued work on UT!

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@hisacro - well, the longer term future is never all that clear, but in the more short to mid term, there are ports being worked on for the Furilabs FLX1, and the Brax Phone 3, that should be promising options for those that want to support companies that target their products specifically to be privacy respecting.

After that, the Fairphone 6 has been announced and will very likely get a UT port as well. Volla, despite being a small niche operation, has shown some resilience and consistency, with UT support being enabled for every device they have released, so I think we will see more from them in the future as well.

Pixel 5, 6, 7, and 8 (and variants of these) should be doable for Halium based ports, it just takes someone that owns one of these devices, that has the needed patience and technical know how, to volunteer for this effort.

Regarding Xiaomi phones in the future (which includes brands such as Redmi and Poco), those were already kind of a pain the a to get their bootloaders unlocked, and with Xiaomi's new HyperOS (their new bloated skin on top of Android), they have made it even harder to unlock. I had to use a third party hack called "Hypersploit" in order to unlock a Poco X3 NFC which came with HyperOS 1, and apparently this hack no longer works on Hyper OS 2.

Best reagrds,
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.