ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Andrew Penkrat <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>
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
> --
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
> Post to     : ubuntu-phone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>