Ubuntu OTA-14 Released, Fixes A Number Of Bugs

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu OTA-14 Released, Fixes A Number Of Bugs

It is arriving a few weeks late, but the latest over-the-air update to Ubuntu Touch is now available for the select Ubuntu phones and tablets this holiday season...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Touch-OTA-14

[Cerberus]

Ubuntu Touch will switch to snap base in the future, that should enable it to have more applications, especially in desktop mode.

[Julius]

If someone really sees a future in this (I used to), they should probably fork or rebase it now, as Canonical seems to have decided to more or less stop developing phone features and turn it into a IoT platforms (according to a recent interview with their CEO). A bit sad, but I lost confidence long ago that this would turn out to be a real alternative instead of a me too Android type system with an appstore full of unmaintained crap.

[Cerberus]

If someone really sees a future in this (I used to), they should probably fork or rebase it now, as Canonical seems to have decided to more or less stop developing phone features and turn it into a IoT platforms (according to a recent interview with their CEO). A bit sad, but I lost confidence long ago that this would turn out to be a real alternative instead of a me too Android type system with an appstore full of unmaintained crap.

Convergence is the one thing that might make Ubuntu phones a reality in the future, even if only as niche product for enthusiasts and people who need a computer in their pocket. The original goal was to have one OS for all platforms, with snaps that goal becomes more realistic, it was an uphill battle from day one when you have multibillion dollar companies against you on the crowded market, but I still hope they can carve out a niche for themselves once convergence is completed and Unity 8 and Mir are working well. If Ubuntu Touch falls then open source phone as an idea is pretty much done for, FirefoxOS is axed, SailfishOS is barely surviving with Jolla having financial difficulties and I am not expecting much from Plasma Mobile because KDE doesnt have the manpower for such a project. If all those projects fail I fear that we might never see a proper open source phone on the market.

[akincer]

If someone really sees a future in this (I used to), they should probably fork or rebase it now, as Canonical seems to have decided to more or less stop developing phone features and turn it into a IoT platforms (according to a recent interview with their CEO). A bit sad, but I lost confidence long ago that this would turn out to be a real alternative instead of a me too Android type system with an appstore full of unmaintained crap.

I'm not sure how accurate this is. At some point, they had to circle back around and start paying attention to the non-phone side of things since that was the original goal -- a full fledged computer in your pocket depending on how you want to use it at any given moment. As a phone only, they don't have a selling point. But convergence absolutely is a selling point. Maybe not for everyone, but I expect for enough people to build an ample market. Besides, there are literally phone related updates in this OTA.

[andre30correia]

i already upgrade, it becomes much faster switching scopes and open apps, I think this is the last 15.04 ubuntu touch release, they will switch to ubuntu 16.04 base

[theghost]

...SailfishOS is barely surviving with Jolla having financial difficulties....

Well, there is improvement as they switched their focus to the business sector.
According to their CEO their finances are stable and they operate normal plus they are also hiring:

http://www.golem.de/news/jolla-sailfish-os-in-russland-als-referenzmodell-fuer-andere-laender-1612-124850.html

Link is in German so you might use a translator.

[Julius]

The thing is that as nice convergence is as a concept, the actual UT implementation of it both regarding it's functionality (as much as they say in their PR, it is not a full Linux desktop if you lock down the system and only allow "apps" to be installed) and in the theoretical implementation as they depend on too much non-standard backends (Mir, snaps, a containerized android kernel and other minimized android systems etc.).

An Android with a chrooted Debian (best example would be MaruOS, but you can set up something similar manually with "Linux deploy") is as it stands much closer to the a real Linux desktop kind of convergence on a mobile device than Ubuntu Touch ever was and probably will be.

And as much as I dislike Android for various design choices, you can run it as fully open-source software and with no Gapps (check fdroid)... and if the current efforts to get back to mainline Linux kernels succeeds (at least for Qualcomm chipsets) soonish, running a hybrid system like MaruOS will become really interesting.

[akincer]

The thing is that as nice convergence is as a concept, the actual UT implementation of it both regarding it's functionality (as much as they say in their PR, it is not a full Linux desktop if you lock down the system and only allow "apps" to be installed) and in the theoretical implementation as they depend on too much non-standard backends (Mir, snaps, a containerized android kernel and other minimized android systems etc.).

When have they ever said that only "apps" will be allowed? I think for obvious reasons in phone-mode only apps will launch. Wouldn't make sense to try to launch a desktop app on a phone.

[Julius]

They have quite low profile on it, but since I actally have a device with UT I can tell you that on the desktop side of things also only "apps" will run. Every program you want to run has to be first adapted, recompiled and repackaged as a snap app. The entire apt-get system is diabled and if you hack it open again it breaks the entire system and system updates are no longer possible.
There might very well be good technical reasons for this, but just as much it is also Canocial who is trying to push their snap based app-store.