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The UBports version of the Pinephone isn’t just rough around the edges – that suggests that it will be a smoother experience one day, but it still needs work. R

The UBports version of the Pinephone isn’t just rough around the edges – that suggests that it will be a smoother experience one day, but it still needs work. Rather, my impression is that UBports is a dead end technologically. It is based inextricably on some 2014-era Ubuntu-specific software that even Ubuntu moved away from. The experience of SSHing into it, tweaking system configuration, etc. doesn’t feel like the "ordinary desktop Linux on your phone" that everyone was hoping for. As a former Nokia N900 owner, I was solidly disappointed by UBports. I suspect that, for example, the PureOS port to the Pinephone may eventually give users like myself what they are looking for. Luckily, even if your Pinephone is branded for a specific operating system, you can replace that OS with whatever other OS of your choosing.

AsyncAwait 6y ago
The beauty of the PinePhone is that there's literally nothing tying it to UBPorts, I've flashed Mobian[1] on mine an am supper happy with it. The Arch builds are also coming together nicely. [2] 1 - https://mobian-project.org https://mobian-project.org 2 - https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch/releases https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch/releases
blihp 6y ago
You're right that it doesn't feel like a Linux desktop port which is its primary selling point: doing a mobile-centric Linux. They do seem to have a vision for where they want to go once they get fully updated to the final Canonical release (they are already starting to diverge from Ubuntu Touch with the current release), but it's definitely not going to be for everyone. One nice thing now that I actually have my Pinephone is that I can start seriously exploring and answer the question: 'what do I want in a mobile Linux device and experience?' Which I suspect is the real point of the Pinephone: to stop theorizing and figure out where we want Linux to go on (relatively modern) mobile devices. My biggest complaint right now is the rough state of power management on all the distros. The good news is progress is being made on this front very quickly.
padraic7a 6y ago
That's an interesting point. I don't think I would agree that Ubuntu Touch is at a dead end but I think you're right that you won't be able to change everything you want via ssh. You will have to use the GUI for some things. FWIW I think the variety of available operating systems can only be a good thing. There's more going on to attract contributors and presuumably work done on things like drivers can carry over to other OSs.

AsyncAwait 6y ago

The beauty of the PinePhone is that there's literally nothing tying it to UBPorts, I've flashed Mobian[1] on mine an am supper happy with it. The Arch builds are also coming together nicely. [2] 1 - https://mobian-project.org https://mobian-project.org 2 - https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch/releases https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch/releases

blihp 6y ago

You're right that it doesn't feel like a Linux desktop port which is its primary selling point: doing a mobile-centric Linux. They do seem to have a vision for where they want to go once they get fully updated to the final Canonical release (they are already starting to diverge from Ubuntu Touch with the current release), but it's definitely not going to be for everyone. One nice thing now that I actually have my Pinephone is that I can start seriously exploring and answer the question: 'what do I want in a mobile Linux device and experience?' Which I suspect is the real point of the Pinephone: to stop theorizing and figure out where we want Linux to go on (relatively modern) mobile devices. My biggest complaint right now is the rough state of power management on all the distros. The good news is progress is being made on this front very quickly.

padraic7a 6y ago

That's an interesting point. I don't think I would agree that Ubuntu Touch is at a dead end but I think you're right that you won't be able to change everything you want via ssh. You will have to use the GUI for some things. FWIW I think the variety of available operating systems can only be a good thing. There's more going on to attract contributors and presuumably work done on things like drivers can carry over to other OSs.