Ubuntu Touch OTA-10 Is Now Available For Testing

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Touch OTA-10 Is Now Available For Testing

For those with extra time on their hands over the weekend and having a spare Ubuntu Touch supported mobile device, Ubuntu Touch OTA-10 is now available in testing form...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Touch-OTA-10

[M1kkko]

It's nice I guess, but why does it run only on vintage hardware? For example, why OnePlus One and not the newer models? Why Nexus 5 but not the newer Pixel devices?

[Elv13]

It's nice I guess, but why does it run only on vintage hardware? For example, why OnePlus One and not the newer models? Why Nexus 5 but not the newer Pixel devices?

Because it takes about 1 year-person to properly port to a device where existing drivers already exist. The Nexus 5 is just starting to run fine with the upstream Linux kernel and is like the 3rd phone to get there. The OnePlus One was originally shipped with CyanogenMod (and paid for kernel support). The other phones shipped with Ubuntu Mobile from the start, that's why they work.

The rule of the thumb is that someone, somewhere has to pay people fulltime to support each SoC. Once a SoC is supported, devices based on that SoC will see some community work (usually from PostmarketOS) to bring their sensors and devices to work. Once the "mainline upbringing" of a phone is "done", then distros like PostmarketOS, Ubuntu Touch and Plasma Mobile will start to see ports.

[profoundWHALE]

It's the same reason why something like the Librem 5 is still on its way. Not only does the software stack need to be made (mobile version of apps), but the software needs to be functional for that particular SoC.

[onicsis]

Unfortunately every port of UBTouch, Plasma, Lineage or whatever must be particularized for every smartphone model. And there are out there a huge number of phones from a lot of manufacturer, often without kernel source code available or anything available, anything beside binary blobs, firmware. Really need an army of devs and reverse engineering team to work full time. And also an important fortune to spend on R&D. There is some advancement but very slow and tedious far away of what final [a non-technical] user expects.

[Flaburgan]

Not exactly true, UT uses libhybris halium with an android kernel so it could run on many more devices. But they are not supported officially because of limited resources.

[Wendigo]

It's nice I guess, but why does it run only on vintage hardware? For example, why OnePlus One and not the newer models? Why Nexus 5 but not the newer Pixel devices?

They are currently porting Ubuntu Touch to the upcoming Pinephone (and Librem5 when they get their dev-kits) which is a novelty since it is the first port that will natively run on the hardware without accessing ancient closed source Android drivers and outdated kernels.