Deeper dive to Ubuntu Touch – Part 2

Ubuntu Touch, would you give it to your grandmother?

Ubuntu Touch was the operating system that really grabbed me and pulled me into the lovely Linux mobile community, and I am truly grateful for what Canonical started and even more amazed by how UBports continued and made the OS even better.

I will first try to explain shortly how Ubuntu Touch works, and it is impossible without explaining the ideology behind it. Ubuntu Touch is not built for tinkerers and “I build my own kernel” people. It doesn’t mean you can’t do it because you sure can. Ubuntu Touch tries to be a bulletproof, out-of-the-box working OS that is nearly impossible to break. If you want to give a Linux phone to your 80-year-old grandmother, your choice is most likely an Ubuntu Touch-powered device.

Today, we can divide Linux mobile projects into two camps: mainline (using as pure a Linux kernel as possible) and Halium (using a Linux kernel modified for a specific device). Given Ubuntu Touch’s goal, it’s no surprise that their devices are mostly Halium based. While Halium isn’t perfect, it’s still the only option that can consistently compete with modern corporate solutions (iOS/Android). I know some people daily drive mainline (I have done it for years too), but it’s not something you’d recommend to a friend who just wants a working phone. Your friend uses Arch and installed it without a guide? Yeah, then maybe.

I’m not trying to trash-talk mainline devices, but quite literally, I have (well, some I did sell) all the options with me side by side, and I can fully stand by what I said. Needs to be said that also some Halium devices are quite edgy, so they need heavy lifting as well.

So, after the Halium/kernel layer comes what I consider the Ubuntu Touch best parts. The root is read-only. The idea is that you don’t touch it. User changes happen through the software store, and apps are packaged in the Click format. Everything happens safely without messing up the core features.

Ubuntu Touch also has a safe upgrade method, and for the best-supported devices, there are channels like stable, staging, and development. This clear channel system is a huge benefit for reliability.

All core apps and the integration between them is better than any other Linux desktop environment. It just works. The development for these is slow (sorry, I know you are working hard folks), but the reason is partially that there are no crucial issues or missing features.

My First Ubuntu Touch Devices

When I got my first Ubuntu Touch devices, the world was certainly different. For me, the most used channels to communicate back then were email, SMS, MMS, and the good old phone call. Those are still there today, but on top of that, some of your friends use WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal, Telegram and the list just keeps growing.

My Meizu Pro 5 and Nexus 5 had some rough edges, but they were evolving quite nicely. If these phones had been at the same level of polish four years after their launch, they would have fulfilled all my needs perfectly, but ironically, the world and my own expectations were also moving.

Fun fact: Ubuntu Touch even had a native WhatsApp client once, but WhatsApp eventually started to ban users if they detected people using it, so it unfortunately vanished.

The Convergence Dream: Display Out Challenges

Wireless display out for convergence was something that was initially introduced in Ubuntu Touch. The idea was perfect, but it only worked (or works) with some Miracast dongles, and the user experience is frankly terrible. The delay and lag are just too big to use comfortably. It works if you use it as a showcase or a party trick, but it is nothing you would want to use daily.

The Nexus 5 had an option for wired display out, but because it was the only device where that worked (and for a long time, as far as I know), the experience had a lot of issues. And perhaps the Nexus 5 wasn’t powerful enough for actual desktop usage? Regardless, it was a solid proof-of-concept.

New Hardware & The Android Bridge

The OnePlus One was my next Ubuntu Touch phone, and I really loved it. Despite having rough edges, it was a really nice phone to use.

Then Volla jumped into the business and launched the first Ubuntu Touch phone with commercial support for ages. I actually ordered mine because I thought it would support wired display out, but it turned out it did not. But even if it didn’t, it was an awesome phone. So awesome that I also bought the Volla X. The Volla X was also an excellent phone.

A fun fact is that somewhere in these years, the Ubuntu Touch community (I recall the mastermind behind this was Rudi, and the hired developer was Erfan) started a crowdfunding campaign for Waydroid, and I also donated there. This is a good example of how the world had changed, because so many things happen only in Android/iOS apps, and the community urgently wanted a solution for that. This was a significant success, allowing us to run Android apps in a container, bridging the gap for essential services.

Why I eventually left?

I still have most of these devices, and I try them occasionally to see how the development is going. But here is what I was missing (I am not sure if some of these are fixed/implemented now, but this was the case when I moved on):

• Nextcloud Sync Issues: Contacts syncing to Nextcloud was never implemented, I think only sync option online was Google. Calendar sync also had persistent issues.
• Crucial Connectivity: In many places (including Finland), VoLTE calls were being forced as a must, and this was a crucial reason because they did not work.
• Email Client: The email client was the only core app that wasn’t that nice to use, though I also have to say that we don’t have much better options in any Linux mobile OS yet.
• Password Management: Oh boy, how much time I spent on this, just because the OS was so awesome otherwise. Ubuntu Touch did not have a browser that could save login details. The only option was to use separate password apps where you had to manually copy/paste usernames and passwords into the browser.
• The Convergence Dream was powerful, but it remained elusive. More recently, I also bought the Fairphone 4, which supports display out, but the experience is still quite rough and needs much more love to be enjoyable.

Time for a New Direction

After chasing the Convergence dream, my own mind also changed. I wanted to run the same apps I use on my laptop/PC on my phone. I think the Purism approach to shrink the PC to a phone was a brilliant idea.

While Ubuntu Touch provided the stability and ease-of-use I needed, the underlying drive for a more “true Linux desktop” experience on a phone. It was time to turn the page.

If you don’t want to follow my route and burn your money to test everything what is available you can also choose to pre-order the FLX1s and support most polished and complete linux smartphone today.