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Can anyone that has tried a Ubuntu Phone give a review? Is this Android under the hood as was the case with Firefox OS?

by corv 11y ago

withjive 11y ago
Under the hood for mobile is the same as Ubuntu Desktop. Unity is built for mobile devices, and works great. But underneath that, you have a full linux environment.
logicrook 11y ago
Linux enthusiasts have had a very bad time when wanting to try a Ubuntu phone because you had, to do so, to activate an account with a valid email address. As you may imagine these Linux users are concerned by privacy issues, so it was a definitive problem. Other early reviews of people who could get past that were usually not good because of not-consumer-readiness and low-specs of the phone, making usage a slow torture. I hope these early reviews should be forgotten, so wait and see. BTW, the fact that FXOS is heavily reliant on android was revealed to me as a cruel joke: you need to use a Microsoft only program to be able to unlock your FX phone. Hooray for free software!
- noobermin 11y ago
  So if Canonical can do one thing, I suppose it comes down to getting more beta-testing to get the UX better? I admit I haven't used it, but it seems like they have interesting ideas, it just fails on the delivery, not necessarily are their ideas (scopes, the whole convergence story) are flawed, they just need to do better on delivering.
- se6 11y ago
  Linux enthusiast here. Had a BQ E4.5 Ubuntu edition since April 2015 and I am pretty pleased with it. I love the UX. It has come a long way already: the off the air (OTA) upgrades roughly every month make it better and better. It is more than usable. If not having Skype, WhatsApp etc.. is not a show stopper for you, then it can be a great phone for you. There are already many apps, but of course not comparable to Android. Can see an official app viewer here: https://uappexplorer.com/ https://uappexplorer.com/ Also the dev tools for it are great. The Ubuntu SDK, based on QtCreator is pretty slick. It is quite easy to write a native app. There are many guidelines and good docs for it: https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/ https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/
  - logicrook 11y ago
    Happy to hear that! Could you comment on the account requirement? Is it still a thing?
    - slgeorge 11y ago
      To use the appstore you need an Ubuntu One account. Basically, so it can customise the experience (ie reload your apps onto a new phone) to you and lets you buy commercial applications. Most end-users want convenience and customised experiences are a good way to go. If you absolutely require privacy then using a temporary email would be a way around it.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  >you need to use a Microsoft only program to be able to unlock your FX phone Do you mean a Windows-only app? Blame the chipset manufacturer. fastboot oem unlock works just fine on any platform that runs fastboot/adb - it's up to the firmware on the phone to accept that command.
  - logicrook 11y ago
    Didn't think of that, but it's true that there's an unhealthy circle between locked hardware and locked software. Still a pretty horrible experience to read "now find a windows computer"... when trying to install free software.
    - voltagex_ 11y ago
      Yep - what was the model of phone?
alexandrerond 11y ago
I tried it for months (like 5) with the BQ Aquaris E4.5 and ended up flashing Android on top. It got me raging. Most reviews are from folks who had it for a few hours and then go back to their usual feature-full system. I did an honest effort though. It's not even about the apps. I could manage without them. The problem is Ubuntu phone was utterly broken. Slow as hell. Everything browser based, but they provided the worst browser (it couldn't even parse css for some sites). The team behind was like 10-15 people. You cannot pull this show with such a small team. The phone email app was left to the community. They have only recently figured out how to provide email notifications (this is the extent of brokenness - a mobile OS which cannot notify you of new emails...). There were problems with the calendar, the Wi-Fi, the contacts sync.. The gesture system was awesome. but the UI was laggy, buggy. The idea of scopes was nice, but they were broken: the news scope didn't pull the news, the one showing the weather didn't show the weather etc. to the point I just left the app list. And the worst was the lock screen. No pattern unlock. instead a circle which would show a text in the middle informing you of how many pictures you've taken or how many messages you've sent. But no way for it to provide actual notifications! This was an OS that was live, commercially sold, and in reality it looked like a pre-alpha build of a proof of concept. I am sure some things have improved (cannot get worse), but Canonical has clearly not the muscle to take this idea anywhere and is of course leveraging on community to do their job while milking whatever profits from the few adventurers who pay for it. I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped the project entirely at some point. I'll be sorry for the people which have contributed apps to this ecosystem. Ubuntu phone pretty much killed the reputation that Canonical had left for me.
- slgeorge 11y ago
  I'm sorry you're so upset and had such a poor experience. To my knowledge the online sales objective was for Ubuntu Phones to be for developers and technical enthusiasts. As you said it's not full mature. Unfortunately, it sounds like that didn't make it a great fit for you! On a point of fact, creating an Open Source mobile OS takes years and costs millions: Firefox OS is a comparable example. A lot of people have worked hard for years on it, so this is fantastic to see - the team in in Canonical working on mobile is hundreds not tens. I wish them the very best of luck.
- 11y ago

Can anyone that has tried a Ubuntu Phone give a review? Is this Android under the hood as was the case with Firefox OS?

by corv 11y ago

Can anyone that has tried a Ubuntu Phone give a review? Is this Android under the hood as was the case with Firefox OS?

Under the hood for mobile is the same as Ubuntu Desktop. Unity is built for mobile devices, and works great. But underneath that, you have a full linux environment.

logicrook 11y ago

Linux enthusiasts have had a very bad time when wanting to try a Ubuntu phone because you had, to do so, to activate an account with a valid email address. As you may imagine these Linux users are concerned by privacy issues, so it was a definitive problem. Other early reviews of people who could get past that were usually not good because of not-consumer-readiness and low-specs of the phone, making usage a slow torture. I hope these early reviews should be forgotten, so wait and see. BTW, the fact that FXOS is heavily reliant on android was revealed to me as a cruel joke: you need to use a Microsoft only program to be able to unlock your FX phone. Hooray for free software!

noobermin 11y ago
So if Canonical can do one thing, I suppose it comes down to getting more beta-testing to get the UX better? I admit I haven't used it, but it seems like they have interesting ideas, it just fails on the delivery, not necessarily are their ideas (scopes, the whole convergence story) are flawed, they just need to do better on delivering.
se6 11y ago
Linux enthusiast here. Had a BQ E4.5 Ubuntu edition since April 2015 and I am pretty pleased with it. I love the UX. It has come a long way already: the off the air (OTA) upgrades roughly every month make it better and better. It is more than usable. If not having Skype, WhatsApp etc.. is not a show stopper for you, then it can be a great phone for you. There are already many apps, but of course not comparable to Android. Can see an official app viewer here: https://uappexplorer.com/ https://uappexplorer.com/ Also the dev tools for it are great. The Ubuntu SDK, based on QtCreator is pretty slick. It is quite easy to write a native app. There are many guidelines and good docs for it: https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/ https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/
- logicrook 11y ago
  Happy to hear that! Could you comment on the account requirement? Is it still a thing?
  - slgeorge 11y ago
    To use the appstore you need an Ubuntu One account. Basically, so it can customise the experience (ie reload your apps onto a new phone) to you and lets you buy commercial applications. Most end-users want convenience and customised experiences are a good way to go. If you absolutely require privacy then using a temporary email would be a way around it.
voltagex_ 11y ago
>you need to use a Microsoft only program to be able to unlock your FX phone Do you mean a Windows-only app? Blame the chipset manufacturer. fastboot oem unlock works just fine on any platform that runs fastboot/adb - it's up to the firmware on the phone to accept that command.
- logicrook 11y ago
  Didn't think of that, but it's true that there's an unhealthy circle between locked hardware and locked software. Still a pretty horrible experience to read "now find a windows computer"... when trying to install free software.
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    Yep - what was the model of phone?

alexandrerond 11y ago

I tried it for months (like 5) with the BQ Aquaris E4.5 and ended up flashing Android on top. It got me raging. Most reviews are from folks who had it for a few hours and then go back to their usual feature-full system. I did an honest effort though. It's not even about the apps. I could manage without them. The problem is Ubuntu phone was utterly broken. Slow as hell. Everything browser based, but they provided the worst browser (it couldn't even parse css for some sites). The team behind was like 10-15 people. You cannot pull this show with such a small team. The phone email app was left to the community. They have only recently figured out how to provide email notifications (this is the extent of brokenness - a mobile OS which cannot notify you of new emails...). There were problems with the calendar, the Wi-Fi, the contacts sync.. The gesture system was awesome. but the UI was laggy, buggy. The idea of scopes was nice, but they were broken: the news scope didn't pull the news, the one showing the weather didn't show the weather etc. to the point I just left the app list. And the worst was the lock screen. No pattern unlock. instead a circle which would show a text in the middle informing you of how many pictures you've taken or how many messages you've sent. But no way for it to provide actual notifications! This was an OS that was live, commercially sold, and in reality it looked like a pre-alpha build of a proof of concept. I am sure some things have improved (cannot get worse), but Canonical has clearly not the muscle to take this idea anywhere and is of course leveraging on community to do their job while milking whatever profits from the few adventurers who pay for it. I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped the project entirely at some point. I'll be sorry for the people which have contributed apps to this ecosystem. Ubuntu phone pretty much killed the reputation that Canonical had left for me.

slgeorge 11y ago
I'm sorry you're so upset and had such a poor experience. To my knowledge the online sales objective was for Ubuntu Phones to be for developers and technical enthusiasts. As you said it's not full mature. Unfortunately, it sounds like that didn't make it a great fit for you! On a point of fact, creating an Open Source mobile OS takes years and costs millions: Firefox OS is a comparable example. A lot of people have worked hard for years on it, so this is fantastic to see - the team in in Canonical working on mobile is hundreds not tens. I wish them the very best of luck.
11y ago