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The worst thing to happen would be for early-adopters to get screwed over if/when Canonical decides to drop support for the mobile OS. The truth is that just l

The worst thing to happen would be for early-adopters to get screwed over if/when Canonical decides to drop support for the mobile OS. The truth is that just like Windows, Android will dominate market-share for a long time, but there are millions of linux users out there who will gladly purchase a pure-linux phone if a decently-polished one with LTS can be delivered. It sucks that the market beyond Android and iOS consists of Windows-phone as a distant third and everyone else scrambling for 0.1%, but Linux can grow here too, cause Android is (just like Windows is/was) a malware breeding-ground (and worse, considering Google is the for-profit version of the NSA).

Zardoz84 11y ago
Tell me with Samsung Bada. Not only the user experience was bad. Samsung was promising to update my old Wave to Bada 2 for at least 6 months, and then drop the support. It was the last time that I buy a Samsung phone. Now I'm very happy with my BQ phone that simply works fine.
simonh 11y ago
I'm not trolling, but genuinely curious. Android runs on a Linux kernel, as does Tizen and probably several other phone OSes. What makes the Canonical phone more Linux than these for Linux fans? Presumably it's more like a desktop linux distro in some ways, but if so what ways?
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  Android development is not open (Google code dumps each release) and Android does not use the GNU userland based stack. EDIT Also Android functionality is gradually moving into the propriety Google libraries.
- maheart 11y ago
  Android uses the Linux kernel. That's where the similarities between Android and GNU/Linux end. Ubuntu Touch is GNU/Linux. It is largely[1] made up of "standard" GNU/Linux components (e.g. glibc, systemd [soon], BASH, gcc, Pulseaudio, Gstreamer, NetworkManager, Telepathy, oFono, BlueZ, deb, apt). This has several advantages: 1. People familiar with GNU/Linux can re-use their existing knowledge 2. The GNU/Linux ecosystem is developed by a lot of different parties. If you feel you can do better you can write your own components and swap them in (e.g. as Canonical did with Mir) 3. A community (or business) can develop their own "spins" (distros), which could extend the lifetime of your mobile (security fixes!) 4. It's a real pleasure to develop software on your Linux desktop, knowing there'll be less friction getting it to work on Linux on the mobile. [1] The exception probably being using Mir instead of Wayland
- vegabook 11y ago
  Android basically forces you to use Java. Enough said.
maheart 11y ago
Linux on the mobile has made some great progress in the last couple of years. A large part of this progress is thanks to the efforts of Jolla (SailfishOS), Canonical (Ubuntu Touch) and Samsung/Intel (Tizen). Linux on the mobile can today make use of Android drivers thanks to libhybris (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybris_%28software%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybris_%28software%29). The overwhelming majority of software that makes up "Linux on the mobile" is made up of mature FOSS components (e.g. Qt, systemd, Pulseaudio, Gstreamer, ffmpeg/libav, NetworkManager/Connman, Telepathy, oFono, BlueZ, rpm/deb, apt/zypp -- Wayland for SailishOS [and as of recently Tizen]). I think at this point Linux on the mobile has a mature base. We now need a mature, polished, FOSS set of core applications. At that point (thanks to libhybris, and being able to leverage Android drivers) -- I think a self-sustaining community will be able to take over. I think we're about 2 years away from this goal. I currently use Jolla (SailfishOS) as my daily driver, and I'm extremely happy with it.

Zardoz84 11y ago

Tell me with Samsung Bada. Not only the user experience was bad. Samsung was promising to update my old Wave to Bada 2 for at least 6 months, and then drop the support. It was the last time that I buy a Samsung phone. Now I'm very happy with my BQ phone that simply works fine.

simonh 11y ago

I'm not trolling, but genuinely curious. Android runs on a Linux kernel, as does Tizen and probably several other phone OSes. What makes the Canonical phone more Linux than these for Linux fans? Presumably it's more like a desktop linux distro in some ways, but if so what ways?

JupiterMoon 11y ago
Android development is not open (Google code dumps each release) and Android does not use the GNU userland based stack. EDIT Also Android functionality is gradually moving into the propriety Google libraries.
maheart 11y ago
Android uses the Linux kernel. That's where the similarities between Android and GNU/Linux end. Ubuntu Touch is GNU/Linux. It is largely[1] made up of "standard" GNU/Linux components (e.g. glibc, systemd [soon], BASH, gcc, Pulseaudio, Gstreamer, NetworkManager, Telepathy, oFono, BlueZ, deb, apt). This has several advantages: 1. People familiar with GNU/Linux can re-use their existing knowledge 2. The GNU/Linux ecosystem is developed by a lot of different parties. If you feel you can do better you can write your own components and swap them in (e.g. as Canonical did with Mir) 3. A community (or business) can develop their own "spins" (distros), which could extend the lifetime of your mobile (security fixes!) 4. It's a real pleasure to develop software on your Linux desktop, knowing there'll be less friction getting it to work on Linux on the mobile. [1] The exception probably being using Mir instead of Wayland
vegabook 11y ago
Android basically forces you to use Java. Enough said.

maheart 11y ago

Linux on the mobile has made some great progress in the last couple of years. A large part of this progress is thanks to the efforts of Jolla (SailfishOS), Canonical (Ubuntu Touch) and Samsung/Intel (Tizen). Linux on the mobile can today make use of Android drivers thanks to libhybris (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybris_%28software%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybris_%28software%29). The overwhelming majority of software that makes up "Linux on the mobile" is made up of mature FOSS components (e.g. Qt, systemd, Pulseaudio, Gstreamer, ffmpeg/libav, NetworkManager/Connman, Telepathy, oFono, BlueZ, rpm/deb, apt/zypp -- Wayland for SailishOS [and as of recently Tizen]). I think at this point Linux on the mobile has a mature base. We now need a mature, polished, FOSS set of core applications. At that point (thanks to libhybris, and being able to leverage Android drivers) -- I think a self-sustaining community will be able to take over. I think we're about 2 years away from this goal. I currently use Jolla (SailfishOS) as my daily driver, and I'm extremely happy with it.