Some good news: http://www.unity8.org/
On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 1:05 PM Piotrek Mitana
<the.mail.of.mi2@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:the.mail.of.mi2@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
I don't think moving from Snap to Flatpack will be the best idea.
With this we would lose the base of Ubuntu Core, which is all
about snaps. We could stick to deb base, but Ubuntu Core in my
opinion wonderfully separates the layers - kernel is one snap,
additional hardware support is the second (gadget snap) and the OS
core functionality and libraries are the third (OS snap). At least
if I understand the idea of Ubuntu Core correctly. Well played in
case of OTA updates and supporting multiple devices.
Having Ubuntu Core as base may be very helpful, as is sill - and
from now on even more - comercially backed by Canonical. This
increases chances that one day a hardware manufacturer would
commercially release the device with Ubuntu Core and Unity OS on
top of it.
And with Ubuntu Core the base is already here - for desktop we do
have Ubuntu Core and Unity 8 snap session. I don't know it Unity 8
snap is runnable using Ubuntu Core itself (and not the deb-based
Ubuntu Desktop with the snap session started).
Snaps gained some traction in the community. We have VLC, I think
Mozilla mentioned somewhere that it might create a Firefox snap
sometime, and some other desktop apps are snapped as well. Not
bad. Even some KDE apps are snapped and there is KDE Frameworks
snap which might be a starting point to offer Plasma Active as well.
The new OS can and in my opinion should still be all about Ubuntu.
Let's correct some mistakes done before, but take all the bits
that are still alive and have in mind that Canoncal's work can
still be a big help in terms of the core.
2017-04-06 11:49 GMT+02:00 Andrew Penkrat <penkrat8@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:penkrat8@xxxxxxxxx>>:
+1 for every point. I'd also suggest to consider using flatpak
instead of snaps, but not sure if it's reasonable.
Regards,
Andrew Penkrat
On Thu, 6 Apr 2017 at 10:48 Piotrek Mitana
<the.mail.of.mi2@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:the.mail.of.mi2@xxxxxxxxx>>
wrote:
Hello, I'm new to here.
Although I've not been active on mailing lists and on
Google+, I've been eagerly observing the Ubuntu Touch from
the very beginning. I've also bought a Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu
a few months ago and I am generally happy with it (apart
from some irritating bugs that Canonical never managed to
fix - mostly unreliable network connection and
bettery-draining Wi-Fi).
From the observations I would like to share my idea on how
I see the future for... well, let's call it Unity. Unity
OS, Unity Desktop, Unity Phone, whatever. I don't think I
can help with development - at least not now. But I hope
that my voice expressed here will be able to get to the
developers that want to stay and help them find the way
for the project. I've also posted this on UbPorts forum,
so that maybe it is more likely to make its way to the devs.
## Let's still fight for convergence!
Yes. This is in my opinion the biggest selling point of
Ubuntu Phones. It's something new - something that others
don't have yet. Ubuntu and Linux in general has lots of
great desktop aplications. The vision of having a PC in
our pockets it far too exciting to give it up.
## Ubuntu Core can still be a base
I believe that so-called Unity OS shouldn't part with
Ubuntu. Canonical is still pursuing the Ubuntu Core and
Snaps and after leaving the phone and tablet they will
pursue that even faster. It's IoT what they chosen to
start earn bigger money on and Canonical's IoT is all
about Ubuntu Core and Snaps.
### The hardware
This implies two things: there are and will be devices and
chips OFFICIALLY supported by snaps. There is Raspberry
Pi, there is Dragonboard (so it's a Qualcomm Snapdragon in
fact - not too far away from phones!). This is why I
believe the new devs should continue on what Canonical
started and not finished - moving the Ubuntu Phone and
Tablet to Ubuntu Core and Snaps.
### Ubuntu Personal
Also I believe that Ubuntu Personal concept (snap based
desktop) should still be on the list, so the "One OS to
rule them all" still can be created. I believe that snaps
have still the potential to make up a secure and reliable
desktop with nice permission and dependency management
that Snap introduces.
### Clicks and debs are not an option
Why? Well, click was kind of beta for snaps. Canonical
decied to move away from this because they decided to
create something better. And snaps are what Canonical
wants to give to the larger community, not only Ubuntu.
Why not debs? To have the proper system images, OTA
updates and a possibility to lock the system partition.
Without that probably no OEM ever would consider the
system reliable enough to put it on production device. And
well, commercial app developers will not want to care
about the dependencies in debs.
## The true Unity leads to Wayland
And here is the - what the history has shown - the
Canonical's biggest mistake: Mir. This is what put away
the rest of the Linux community and what created the most
conflicts and hatered. Moving Unity to Wayland can give
you more traction and more developers willing to
contribute to the true Unity on phone. And there is one
more thing that community had the problem with and now you
can ditch: Contributor License Agreement.
## Unity 8
The concept of Unity 8 is pretty good for all the phones
tablets and desktop. I really like many features of it and
the general concept of phone navigation. Also the scopes
are a good concept - but they need to start working much
faster and better. Let's make them ALL freely installable,
so that anyone could install only those he uses. That will
generate some benefits:
* The community will not hate us for forcing scopes on users
* The OEM's could install their scopes of their choice by
default - customization, ability to sell things with this
- more likely to comercially back the Unity OS.
* Well, the scopes developed to work well would be a
wonderful way to interact with the content.
And there is one more - Suru design. Ubuntu's font,
paperlike themes and iconset. Please do not ditch that as
Unity 8 looks really well and the theme, icons and design
language is really nice!
## Not only Unity 8
As snaps have actually gained some adoption, they can be
used to get on Ubuntu Core not only Unity, but KDE and
Plasma Active for example - and maybe other DE's as well.
A Wayland on top of Ubuntu Core can create a wonderful
base for both Unity and Plasma Active. Let's reach the
hand to Plasma Active developers, offer them Snaps and
Ubuntu Core as base. Maybe they will help in getting Core
and Wayland on phones and it would lead us to the common
goal - having both Unity and Plasma Active on the phones.
And being able to replace one with another with just a
snap swap!
## Ubuntu SDK
Yet another thing to keep. There is a bunch of cool apps
creating with it (Dekko, uNav and more) to be kept. It
still may help to reach the convergene goal.
## To sum up
So what do we have now? We have Ubuntu Core, we have Snaps
and we have Wayland. We have the communities that will
develop those and offload the Unity OS's dev team, so that
they don't have to develop the entire OS alone. Maybe we
have Mir (if Canonical still wants to push it to Ubuntu
Core devices), but without Canonical it won't make sense.
So let's take care of Unity 8 and Ubuntu SDK, move it
further toward snappification and Ubuntu Core, make a
switch to Wayland and pursue the convergence further.
So this is how I see it. Let's create the true Unity -
untiy of community with Wayland and the unity of platforms
with Convergence. I still keep my fingers crossed for you,
guys. And maybe someday I will be able to jump in as well?
Best regards,
Piotr Mitana
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