ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Paul Tait <paultait22@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

To be honest Mark's claim that the community weren't interested in the 
phone and that it just didn't gain traction annoy me. The phone was high on 
promises and features that just never arrived. Not to mention the multitude 
of bugs that were never fixed. Every review was bad, and the phone just 
didn't get any better. It is any surprise that people were holding back? 
Not to mention the fact that the phone was never on wide sale. 

I had the phone from Day 1 and it was pretty obvious early on that interest 
was quickly lost by Canonical, very quickly the updates went from 
improvements to 'under the hood' changes and tinkering. New phones were 
released but they had the same features and problems as the first phones. 
Did Mark really think they'd done enough?

Should they have given up? No. But they didn't give up on the 5th April 
2017, they gave up some time ago. They should have concentrated on the 
basics and delivering promises. Instead of releasing several new devices 
sporting an unfinished OS. It seemed to be all about whipping up interest 
rather than finishing the OS. 

The tablet was the death knell for me. As soon as I saw that, I knew the 
phone was dead. 

I love my phone, it had so much potential but it was unfulfilled. Canonical 
shouldn't have given up when they did, they should have seen it through but 
they did give up and almost two years ago. Everything from then on was half 
hearted. This recent announcement just put us out of our misery. 

Paul. 

On Thursday, 6 April 2017 23:44:57 BST, Georges Thill wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
> 



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