ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Jo-Erlend Schinstad <joerlend.schinstad@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 29 December 2016 at 11:29, Matthias Apitz <guru@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Just as background to let you know that I'm not some stupid newbie: I do
> run FreeBSD on my latops, even on a Chromebook, all compiled from svn
> rep, from the kernel up to KDE. I.e. I have certain idea about
> computers after 30 years of UNIX since PDP-11.
>

I would never refer to newbies as stupid just because they're newbies. In
fact, that would be a breach of the Code of Conduct.


> Re/ Ubuntu on phone, you cant just 'install Ubuntu' on every phone. Today
> this needs some binary container with Android kernel and device drivers
> in it, and all packed together in some image one must flash into the
> device.
>
>
Right. You also can't install Android on every phone. Is the point that
there are too few models officially supported or that there are too few
Ubuntu-branded phones in stores? Because these are very different things.


> There are on a very few devices supported at the moment, I
> think. That's why you need some OEM vendor putting this together for you,
> as BQ.com
> did in the past.
>

The goal was to get a few phones out there in order to make it easy for
people who were excited about Ubuntu on phones to contribute to the
project. We needed a couple of mid-range phones and a couple of high-end
phones. The idea is that today's mid-range will be tomorrow's low-end and
Ubuntu should work well on those devices. On the other hand, today's
high-end devices will be tomorrow's mid-range devices and Ubuntu should be
capable of making use of the fascinating things that kind of hardware can
provide.

The supported devices are not just random models; they each serve a
specific purpose. Our high-end phones are still high-end. Yes, there are
more powerful devices on the market, but they don't really allow us to do
anything new, so we don't need more high-end models to play with yet. Do
we? If so, why? Ubuntu for phones is in progress, not in mainstream. Most
people should not want an Ubuntu phone at this point in time. The product
is not at all ready for them. Developers and testers should, but if they
don't already have one, they have pretty good access to one.


> And no, you can not buy any new BQ devices any more,
> only perhaps a few in eBay or Anazon, or second hand devices.
>
>
 I wasn't aware of that. Obviously, if Bq doesn't sell the hardware at all
anymore, that's not an Ubuntu issue. It might be an argument for adding
support for new models of similar technical capabilities. The question is
whether or not it's worth it. If the goal is to give an Ubuntu phone as a
gift to a grandparent, I don't think it is. If developers are getting a
hard time coming across hardware, then it might be.

In any case, I would recommend waiting until the big changes are in place.
Existing phones must have their OS bumped to Ubuntu 16-series and have
their Click replaced with Snap, etc. That's a really big job and in my view
comparable to the pre-flip/post-flip phase.

Until all existing models have been successfully through this difficult
upgrade, I don't think it makes sense to add more models that must then go
through the same upgrade later. It's better to fix the software issues
before adding more complexity to deal with.

The great thing about convergence is that it means the software for phones
is less volatile than if it was a pure phone-OS. UT is an expense because
it's a separate system, but once convergence is achieved and it's in line
with the rest of Ubuntu, those expenses mostly goes away. That makes Ubuntu
for phones about as safe a bet as Ubuntu on desktops. And, you know; people
are still working in offices, using stationary computing equipment. That's
not going to change, so we would like them to have a nice OS running on
nice ARM hardware that just happens to run on the same hardware as phones.

It's ok to be impatient. I think we all are. But there's no reason to
worry. Things are going to be slow for phone users for a while, because
there is a million things that must be done before we can get the big
changes. But those things are being done and the big changes are coming.
Why would they not? Ubuntu for phones is a high-benefit, low-cost project
compared to anything remotely similar.

People on the internet has been writing about the demise of Ubuntu for more
than a decade. They were wrong then and they're wrong now.