ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Alan Pope <alan.pope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Roman,

On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 3:35 PM, Roman Zonov <roman2861@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> We also have a community fund where people who are
> keen on helping, but have no device can apply for funding for one, and
> we've sent devices to some people who have applied.
>
> Can you describe it? I don't understood fully.
>

Sure. When people download the Ubuntu ISO images from our official
website there is a prompt [1] where they can optionally donate some
money. They can choose where the money goes by sliding options up and
down. Zero is and always has been an option as well. However, it turns
out quite a few people have been kind enough to donate some money, and
have chosen to give some of that money to the community fund [2].

We publish what the money gets spent on [3] [4], which varies from
travel to conferences, to marketing materials, and sometimes hardware,
including devices.

It's all detailed on the community site [5] including the form where
people can apply. Not all requests are approved, but historically many
have been.

> Another question: as far as I know, N5 after 14.04 release should be the
> main device for development. I saw one table from Canonical (can't find a
> link). So, N5 won't be officially supported?
>

I guess you mean 14.10 and not 14.04.

The Nexus 5 has always been a "community port" - that is to say
members of the community maintain it. I don't believe we've ever
committed to the Nexus 5.

What I think is more likely is that we will continue with the Nexus 4
for now, because we have a lot of them, and we have an upcoming
deadline to get the images ready for our handset partners. Now isn't a
good time to switch devices (when is!?). What I expect to happen is we
continue with the Nexus 4 until we have another device available.
Given the handsets from our partners BQ and Meizu are on the near
horizon it makes complete sense for us to switch to those, given it
will actually be possible to buy them (you can't buy Nexus 4 anymore),
they will come pre-installed with Ubuntu, and I expect many Canonical
developers to have one, so support should be good.

However, that's not my decision, but just my speculation.

Cheers,
Al.


[1] http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/contribute
[2] http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/06/20/ubuntu-donations-and-community-funding/
[3] http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2014/05/29/community-donations-funding-report/
[4] http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2014/07/02/community-donations-funding-report-q1-2014/
[5] http://community.ubuntu.com/help-information/funding/


-- 
Alan Pope
Technical Project Manager

Canonical - Product Strategy
+44 (0) 7973 620 164
alan.pope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://ubuntu.com/