ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

["A. James Lewis" <james@xxxxxxxxxx>]

There is/has been a lot of frustration around this project, I think more 
so since people have been able to see a light at the end of the tunnel 
where the device is really relatively usable, just with some bugs and a 
lack of apps.

I agree tho, that one of my main frustrations has been that the bugs I 
care about as someone trying to use the device daily as a replacement 
for Android over the last 2-3 years are not in line with what the 
developers care about as they try to push the platform forward... this 
may indeed be how it needs to be with such a small team and a 
development product.

I think I can answer some questions tho...

Moving to snaps will not change anything in the UI design etc... 
although by the time the phone is using snaps, other changes may have 
been developed, Unity 8 is in heavy development for Desktop now as well 
as Phone/Tablet.... what you're specifically talking about is the 
application background execution behaviour.  If you install the "Open 
Store", and a tool from that store called Tweak Geek, you can set 
application background behaviour, and stop it from suspending some apps 
when they are not running in the foreground.... this may solve your 
issue (I believe that much of the functionality provided by Tweak Geek, 
and by the UI Tweak Tool should be available via standard settings, 
perhaps under an "Advanced" menu/or setting)..

It seems to me that you're correct that the bugs you list are unrelated 
to the implementation of Snaps.

I can however answer the "Why" question... the route from 2012 to a 
fully integrated OS via Click packages and then having to migrate to 
Snap seems illogical, and in retrospect it is... but the point you're 
missing is that "Snap" is really "Click 2.0"... new features have been 
added over time to meet requirements as the desktop "Snappy" system 
developed, and there were requirements to be distribution agnostic, and 
compete with other new package formats like Flatpak etc...

Ultimately Snap has become a much more mature system than Click, and in 
order to unify the phone and the desktop OS, the phone needs to be 
upgraded to Snap.

Once things are unified it seems to me that it would be much easier to 
maintain and release new phone versions and keep parity with the desktop 
base.

I hope this is helpful, and that someone will correct any errors I 
made...  Perhaps things will improve in future, I'm tempted to start a 
thread for users to vote for their top 3 phone bugs since I really think 
there's a slight disconnect over what causes the most irritation to 
users, vs what is moves the platform forward most.... but I think there 
would be no point at present, due to the fact that the phone is not the 
main focus currently.

James


On 06/01/17 12:30, Krzysztof T wrote:
> Hi,
>
> There was some time that I had obsession about UT. I bought MX4 and 
> worked really hard by translating various apps, reporting bugs. I 
> understand that now bigger case is moving to Snaps - that's okey.
> But will this (moving to snaps) solve our problem with lack of some 
> technology (I'm not big tech guy, so sorry imprecise words) to get 
> apps working in background (in example working GPS navi app while 
> using another appps)? I think no - if I good understand, Snaps are 
> simple way how to pack software, not how it works itself.
> Will this (moving to snaps) solve [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] or other 
> important bugs (some of them are 2+ years old) ? I don't think so.
>
> I bought MX4 to help getting UT better.
>
> What I understand for now:
>
> We (Canonical) released some phones, we all worked to get some apps 
> into it, fix some bugs.
> No, we're slowing this part (mainly stops it) to get first Snaps. Next 
> we'll maybe back to improve system itself.
> I had question - why? Why some few years ago, when UT started, why 
> then was not in the first place to develop and implement Snaps and 
> then focus on phone development?!
>
> Small tip: What would help? I think this ([6]) in example - not 
> everyone works on Ubuntu.
>
> For now, I'm giving up with UT. Maybe in the future I will come back.
> Despite my grief, I wish UT only good things.
>
> [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-application-lifecycle/+bug/1502078
> [2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-application-lifecycle/+bug/1532221
> [3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1494225
> [4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/canonical-devices-system-image/+bug/1513007
> [5] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/account-plugins/+bug/1421923
> [6] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-sdk-ide/+bug/1598095
>
> Best regards,
> KT.


--
A. James Lewis (james@xxxxxxxxxx)
"Engineering does not require science. Science helps a lot but people
built perfectly good brick walls long before they knew why cement works."