ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Georges Thill <gthill@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

Somehow at first I did not believe it when I read the news. Ubuntu is 
giving up on phones and convergence.
To put this in the right context, I was one of the early Ubuntu Edge 
crowdfunding supporters.
I currently own multiple Ubuntu touch devices and have actively been 
supporting bug tracking in the last years.

I still don't get it. They give up.

I am not sure if, as a project, you can expect full acceptance of end 
users if some key features that an average
end user is totally entitled to expect are just not yet met. Probably 
most of you will be familiar with
the "kano model". Various expected "must be" features (in kano terms) 
have been missing up to today.
Most notably:

* Bluetooth is not working correctly on any device I own. Headset, 
car-headset are not working. Though, most
of the time a bluetooth keyboard does work. This is a no go. It is a 
base feature to have a working bluetooth.
An normal end user will be severely dissatisfied it if doesn't. To make 
it even worth there is not even
a list of "supported devices".

* Screen cast is not working. This is one of the hour one promises. 
Convergence. What good is it to be able
to start a convergent desktop application if I only have it on my 5 or 
even 10 inch screen?
To make it worse it is a feature that expectation was raised on, but 
never fulfilled. A promise that is met is
"attractive". (in kano terms) If it is not met, again it causes "severe 
dissatisfaction".
To make this even worse, even the recommended MS miracast only times 
out. To be fair, though,  I finally
managed to connect my M10 with hdmi cable.
Again, a list of "supported devices" or of combinations would have been 
helpful.

* Various apps just don't always work right. Video playback doesn't 
respect aspect ratio, Weather app opens
dead links and Favorites don't let you choose the default dialing number 
- just to name a few. This was annoying.
Though I could (temporarily as I thought) do with it. Some of these bugs 
are tracked, but the fix will now
never make it to the end user. Sad.

* One big miss is probably the absence of whatsapp. While this was not a 
big deal for me, it was for a lot of
average end users. You (canonical) don't have much influence on this. 
Though I am convinced it would
have been supported if enough users had been using Ubuntu touch.

* A part that I really don't get is the Wayland vs Mir discussions. Mir 
only advances slowly and causes endless
controversial? Why not take the generally accepted Wayland then?

Now to the point that will earn me a lot of bad comments. I just think 
it is not the right decision to just give
up when you did not really do your homework yet. I mean it does not make 
sense to focus on "attractive"
elements (in kano terms) when you do not meet basic "must be" features.
This said, unmet promises are a no go too.

In my opinion it is just the wrong reasons to quit development. The 
arguments used are all faulty.
Mistakes were made. But quitting is the wrong conclusion.

There is a community. There is interest even far beyond the actual 
community. The point is:
when you don't meet "must be" standards and you don't meet (more or less 
explicitly made) promises,
you should not expect a too wide acceptance.
And quitting the project without having met either of them is just... poor.

This said, I should maybe mention that despite all this, my every day 
phone is still an Ubuntu Edition MX4 . I still
think that scopes and the general UI ideas are great. Also I really like 
Unity. It is usable, it is stable and it is easy to
get used to. All these are totally positive aspects we all should not 
forget about. All this to say the potential is there.
Definitely.

Back to current reality. What I still do not know is what the canonical 
decision means for security or other updates
for Ubuntu touch devices. I will have to find out before I decide on how 
my mobile things will go on for me.

I am an hour 1 fan. But I am disappointed, because despite all the 
problems I have been believing in this project.
And now you just give up. Thats wrong. Don't.

They say hope dies last. Right now hope is not in very good shape, though.

Georges