this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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I wish they did this a decade ago, back when they tried to crowdfund the Ububtu phone - and subsequently scrapped all plans just because they didn't meet the target. There was already a big dev scene in the community with people porting Ubuntu to Android phones - they could've easily partnered up with them, like how OnePlus partnered up with CyanogenMod a year later. I mean, Canonical did raise $12mil through the campaign, which showed there was not only plenty of interest, but also plenty of people willing to actually fund it.
The problem now is Google and Apple have taken such a deep foothold on the market, it may be a bit too late. After the disappointment of the scrapped Ububtu Phone and subsequent loss of trust in Canonical over the years, I can't help but be sceptical about this whole thing. I'll celebrate if and when we have an actual, usable, flagship device in our hands, and not something gimped like the Librem 5 or the Pinephone.
Before we max bet on phones, I think we should nail tablet first. The GUI for the current Linux apps are designed for mouse, not for phone/tablet.
The mobile space has been getting better. For instance, Libadwaita will scale and collapse on smaller screens and all of the UI works with a touch screen.
It's insane how good some libadwaita/GTK4 programs are at working well on large screens and small ones, and being able to switch between the two shockingly well at the drop of a hat.
Resize a window to a phone shape and many GTK4/Libadwaita apps, quite seamlessly, switch to a mobile UI that looks pretty well thought out.
I'm actually shocked the devs don't make more of a song and dance about it, because they've done a stellar job and it's currently overlooked by the community IMO.
there's been a lot of work the past couple years for gnome mobile. It looked nice on my pinetab and pinephone about a year ago. Would be great on a more powerful tablet
It may be far behind when compared to Android or iOS, but the GUI (Gnome at least) is very similar to Chromebooks as it is.
I think Linux phones would be super cool. And I dream one day it will become a properly usable reality. But what I really want is a properly supported, powerful ARM based laptop. Something approaching apple M series performance with the same kind of battery life. If Ubuntu can nail that, or another distro like asahi Linux, I will be happy with that and using graphene OS.
The problem is that they probably would be stuck with a proprietary firmware. I want a device that is more open and free.
That's a fair point.
There are a bunch of laptops coming out with the snapdragon elite x processor this year, which is comparable to the apple M type.
The already-out thinkpad x13s has an earlier generation snapdragon cpu, and can run debian. Hibernation and sleep seem to be a bit of an issue, so can't say 'full support' yet.
It seems probable that the elite X snapdragon will be able to run linux too, though there will be some lingering issues.
I will keep an eye on that. But that is good info to have. I appreciate it!
Yeah QC can actually make good chips so a Linux phone based on a NEW midrange or high end chip might actually have a chance. I'd switch if it could run F-droid apps.
I don’t necessarily think it’s too late. There will be a niche that someone/some entity will settle into for us privacy minded folk. Hopefully that niche gets beefy processors and extra ram fr fr
Canonical abruptly realized that they needed to make money. The way they did that was though the existing server market.
Ubuntu as a consumer OS is cool but they didn't have a way to fund it.
The problem with the Ubuntu phone wasn't the lack of drivers or support from Qualcomm, the real problem was just lack of strategic foresight, I mean, common fucking sense from Canonical.
Canonical was always very bad at strategy, they tried to enter the mass market of personal computing with a product full of indecipherable error messages and an ugly UI. I’m pretty sure Microsoft, Apple and Google already proved people value simplicity and a great design on their computers. They followed the trend with useless phones that never got anywhere because people wouldn't even adopt a phone that doesn't have an App Store with their favorite apps. And no, web based shit isn't enought.
Here's a quote from their CEO (Shuttleworth):
The first rule of business: the purpose of any company is to make money. It doesn’t matter your business type or products; if you’ve to change the core of your business to make more revenue you just do it without emotional attachments – if you can’t handle this do not launch a business, ever.
This was also a problem "then". When Ubuntu Phone launched the market was already consolidated into iOS and Android and Uber, banks, facebook and whatnot wouldn't develop alternative versions of their Apps for an half assed platform not backed by a serious player, ever.