@holloway I would assume so yes don't take my word for it if all requirements dependencies are met why not if the hard drive cam be mounted read etc also indicates should have no problem
What these projects need: - unified kernel efforts - unified efforts on libs and drivers for hardware - unified efforts for low level api interfaces Win!
Literally this, with a unified system, each distro can just focus on having a good shell, so then when a new feature gets implemented, everyone benefits!
I know the PostmarketOS developers are currently working on trying to mainstream as many devices as possible, though there's a ton of work to be done there
@@TheLinuxEXP If you want to have a working camera, and more generally if you want more or less everything to work, you have to get yourself one of the Android devices that are well supported, because there, the Halium hardware abstraction layer takes care of all the hardware. E.g. the OneplusOne or the Fairphone 2. On the Pinephone your kernel actually has to support the hardware, and as long as Ubuntu Touch is based on the heavily outdated Ubuntu 16.04, there is no chance of that happening. The transition will still take a while, I understand.
@@TheLinuxEXP as others note, it is certainly a challenge of UT on Pinephone. My Nexus 5 for less than $50 USD with Ubuntu Touch is faster than the pinephone and has a very decently working camera (and no crashing when copying / pasting files). I suspect (???) the copy paste bug is because of Wayland (only on Pinephone, others use Mir only), and that apps auto-suspend when in the background to save battery (but do they go to the background or not when you bring up the copy / paste dialog?)
I love the back button. The number of times I've accidentally swiped back and lost where I was/what I was doing has made me long for a way to disable the back swipe globally
@@hyperspeed1313 losing things because of a swipe based back isn’t fault of the back being swipe based. It’s a fault of not having a forward swipe. If you swipe back and realise you didn’t want to you should be able to swipe the other way to get back to where you were.
Ubuntu Touch was ahead of time. I remember Ubuntu Touch was parenting with a company that was a dual booting phone with Android that has Cyanogen Mod and Ubuntu Touch. I remember being excited because I loved Unity and saw it worked on Nexus 5 was going to get a Nexus 5 until Ubuntu announced they were stopping the project. I still remember Ubuntu TV that was cool but it reminded me of regular Ubuntu with the Unity DE
But its failure, I'd say, was inevitable. the 17 million USD they were aiming for were completely unprecedented. It was quite unlikely that they would be able to hit that target.
Ubuntu touch was really ahead of its time. Even in 2021, it looks modern and the gestures are fantastic. Very sad that Canonical basically killed it along with normal Unity. Still hurts me after all these years. Thankfully, we have Plasma..
Thankfully, we have UBports that continue improving uTouch and supporting more and more devices, as canonical throwed us, who believed in their phone OS from the beginning, away...
The problem with UT is that it is an island solution. Canonical has developed, pushed and subsequently discarded many island solutions such as upstart, mir, unity and Ubuntu touch with its very restrictive concept making it neither a real Linux nor a real android was another one. They wanted to push a completely new ecosystem into the market. The other mobile distributions on the other hand try to adapt a mainline Linux to phones and tablet, and although the result is still a bit clunky is gas improved a lot over the last year and as a Linux user you feel instantly completely at home.
@@jochannan7379 Well, the UBPorts team is working on building bridges off the island :-) Work is going on to get it into Manjaro / Arch and also Debian proper. Yes it is not "traditional linux" but after they get to the 20.04 base, possibly some extra tweaks would then allow flatpak, then ??? Mainline or Halium, that is the kernel base, but really it is about the ecosystem and the apps which could come via Anbox work, flatpak, other??
@@jochannan7379 uTouch IS a real GNU/Linux, but it's fitted to smartphones, with for prior in mind user security (that means, any kind of users, not only GNUL geeks), so it is highly confined in apps managment and about messing with file system when "out of the box", BUT you can do whatever you want on it as an advanced GNUL user too, just make system r/w and you're free...
@@BombingBasta Sure I can always do mount -o remount,rw / and then install whatever I want, but any modification I have made will be overwritten by the next OTA. And working with Libertine containers also isn't pleasant. So, while I can understand the rationale behind their decisions, I personally am not comfortable with them, and that sentiment seems to be shared by many Linuxers.
great review as usual! sadly most of the issues are more related to the Pinephone itself rather than the OS. Right now there is a huge work focused in bringing UT to 20.04 LTS, the next milestone. UBPorts team and the community are doing an excellent work
Thank you for next awesome video. Your channel is very informative and promotes beauty of Linux and OpenSource. Personally I have been user of Linux for about 20 years now (different distributions => started from Mandrake and RedHat). The Pine64 is a breakthrough product which (from my point of view) outperforms the others (regarding possibilities and privacy). Great also that Ubuntu is available on this platform also. Canonical is the state-of-the-art company! If you consider to have your Pine64 consider also to purchase a Docking Bar and enjoy your phone as normal PC. I really recommend. I keep finger for the channel and have a nice day!
@@TheLinuxEXP As far as I understand, someone has ported sailfish to the Pinephone, but since sailfish was originally developed for android devices, you will probably face the same issue: No working camera, no gps, no autorotation, etc. I think the sailfish port is merely a proof of concept, not something intended for regular use.
To take a look at Sailfish, I would use it on one the phones it was made for by Jolla - not the Pinephone. It would perform better and everything will work. In fact I don't get why there's been so much talk about Linux phones lately, but it's all about Pinephone and Librem5. Nobody mentions SailfishOS, when it's actually the only mobile Linux out there that you can actually use, and it comes on decent hardware too. It's partly proprietary, but Jolla is no Google, it's still more open than Android, and it's real Linux. All that fuss about Librem5, Pinephone and the various distros you can try on them is nice and well, but really it's all unusable on a day-to-day basis. Sailfish is a proper, complete mobile OS and it even runs Android app - without Gapps. I really don't get why Linux phone reviewers never talk about it.
I’ll try it on the pine phone because I can’t justify buying a new device, and that’s more interesting as a comparison with the other platforms I already reviewed :)
@@TheLinuxEXP Only that, as far as I know, no work has gone into really adapting it to the pinephone, so don't expect the hardware (camera, gyrometer, vibrator, gps) to work. Don't be disappointed when it doesn't and don't judge Sailfish by the experience it gives you on an unsupported device.
This is pretty nice. Especially the performance, given how low the specs of the Pinephone are, for this year. I feel pretty confident for the future non-Android Linux phone in the near future.
That back button observation reminded me of the advert for the iPhone 5: “Your thumb goes from here (bottom left) to here (top right)”. What they failed to mention is that your thumb doesn’t go to “there” top left. They also seem to have forgotten about this revelation that a screen size that you can reach with one hand can be a good thing. I completely agree, it’s crazy that back buttons are in the top left.
I really like this. They have done a fantastic job. UI and navigation may just be the best I have seen for a Linux based phone. If only they would iron out some of those bugs and give me a halfway serviceable camera, I may even consider using something like this daily.
Showing Ubuntu Touch on the Pinephone was a huge disservice to the look of Ubuntu Touch's current state. Because development on the Pinephone was halted until 20.04 comes out, so nobody is putting on the work to make the camera work. On some other devices the camera DOES work.
Really this is a cool project. The community should push it further. I'm actually feeling that having an open source, free and privacy oriented phone usable for daily use is possible
I was so hyped for the Ubuntu Phone back in the day. It'd be great if they can make this distro more usable now that the Pinephone seems to be somewhat of what the Raspberry Pi is to SBCs.
The Pinephone is the one phone where nothing works on Ubuntu Touch. It's quite ironic, and silly, really. Development will start once 20.04 rolls out. Until then, development is completely halted.
I absolutely love things like this, alternatives to the standard Android and iOS that's become so prevalent. It's a shame that these kinds of phones are hard to use in Sweden due to extremely dumb decisions on part of our banks and agencies regarding mandatory electronic ID. Basically, you use Android/iOS, or you go without.
Those are specific pinephone bugs, Ubuntu Touch works well con OnePlus One, for example, except for Hotspot and laggy Android Apps, but everything else works very well.
This project needs unity. If Linux community manages to make one opensource, stable and usable OS then web3 era will begin. No more polarized mobile OS.
The current deal-breakers for me are the camera and lack of navigation. I truly want to support Linux phones, but I'd basically just be making a donation that I cannot afford for a phone I cannot use. I don't need to take 'great' pictures, but I use my phone multiple times a day to supplement my middle-aged memory. Speaking of middle-aged memory, I simply cannot go to a new place without turn-by-turn directions. On complicated highways with consecutive exits, it's not practical to read directions on the move. Not a deal-breaker, but a nice-to-have would be the ability to install APKs from Fdroid or APKmirror. I play a couple casual games with family members abroad, and losing that connection would be a bummer.
Mine 3; days. But mine is a moto android phone. I think if Linux is going into the cell phone business they must master the phone carrier choices first, then the internet, then the camera and music portion then they can build on that foundation. The only choice we have.now is the laptop or PC which runs pretty well after choosing a good distribution. There are improvements needed but much better than their phones. I am going by the test made on TH-cam. When a good phone comes out then I may buy. Right now there is no Linux phone worth the money. I'm sorry I cannot get on board as a developer because I have poor computer skills. I do appreciate all the hard work that went into the Linux PC/laptop distributions.
Yes that should work fine. I believe the copy / paste bug is because apps auto-suspend when in the background. Don't have that bug on android based devices (like my Nexus 5)
Guessing from what youve shown, I'd say ubuntu touch is not made to use in portray mode but in landscape mode. Then there is no problem anymore with the screen space real estate in the drop down menu and the back button on the top left is easily accessible with even a puny human thumb. ;)
Pixel 3a (XL) would be a waaaay better experience with Ubuntu Touch, plus better hardware (esp the camera). Pinephone lets you run mainline linux, but isn't comparable to android performance (Nexus 5 from many years back is more performant currently with UT than Pinephone .... I have both: Pinephone is great for flexibility, development for the future, but not for replacing your daily driver)
@@rikshaw8429 well theres a bit of a problem im never going to buy a google device because i hate google i was saying that im going to get a android with a custom rom then when i need something else a few years later ill check the pinephones progress on if i should buy it
@@killertigergaming6762 what better way to stick it to Google than by buying a 2nd hand one so they don't get the money then wipe it and install Ubuntu touch? :-) but yeah I understand
@@rikshaw8429 i mean i could although i still am likely helping them make money for example i buy the pixel then they use the money they made from selling there old phone to buy a new phone from google
I know I'm late to the video but, I find outrageous to still see search fields and buttons on the top. Said that this whole effort is amazing and I hope they nail the drivers issue soon.
Good news, the camera app Megapixels has finally reached a 1.0 update, so on the pinephone, the other linux distros have a *much* better performing camera app than last time you tried btw. The pinephone is a slow burn, but software for it is still evolving.
I really hope projects like this mean momentum is building on a fully functional Linux phone. It's a sad state of affairs that people are pretty much forced between whether they want apple or Google to spy on them when they buy a phone. That said, as other have pointed out, the lack of camera and navigation functionality mean this just isn't viable to use as an actual everyday phone. Also, even though it's slick by Linux mobile standards, the interface still looks pretty sluggish and twitchy on this video, not gonna lie.
I wish Palm had been successful with WebOS. It was so promising and I loved my Palm Pre more than any other phone I’ve ever had. I think it would have evolved well seeing how much you can do right in a browser now, similar to chromebooks. The Firefox phone was a good idea too, anyone could make hardware if they wanted but it just never went anywhere. I found a couple Firefox phones at work they had used to test in the past and totally forgot it ever existed.
Palm was way ahead of their time. I had a palm lifedrive back in 2005. That thing was very promising and had many of the features you find on smartphone today. Its a shame they went under.
On the edge swiping mechanic, I remember when Google updated my Pixel 3 with edge gesture support (IIRC it was Android 10), at first I hated it but after just a few hours it becomes really natural and you mentioned the biggest advantage in this video, you can go back from any page with a single finger without needing to move your hand at all. Now I'm so used to it that I struggle using Android phones that don't have support, its a very natural and intuitive way of controlling a phone. Its a bit different on Android, half swipe up from the bottom for recent apps, full swipe up from bottom for app drawer, swipe down from top for quick settings and a side swipe from either side edge goes back.
omg. I just noticed that I'm watching this on very same lg monitor) I'm thinking on getting OnePlus 5/5T for Ubuntu Touch, because its affordable, common, more or less modern and has more RAM than pine phone.
JingOS is more futuristic concept to make linux tablet but can run android native. Although pros and cons about this OS that developed by China who have issues regarding the security and privacy of user data.
I couldn't root my phone because I had to root it externally but I only had a very old chromebook so I installed some stuff and it made my phone interface feel more like real ubuntu touch, and it's great. (even though it isn't actually ubuntu touch)
Nice work Nick. They should hire you as a consultant. There is a market for these phones. So close. If they make the changes you suggest, they'll make a killing.
I've been thinking about trying out Ubuntu Touch, but my main concern is related to using a bank application. Where can I find some info on this? Is it a feature that we can't expect in the following years?
Absolutely not. Banking apps expect the phone to pass SafetyNet, which asks for you to run stock firmware (which you won't) and Google Play Services. They're never going to support Ubuntu, or Linux in general, let alone Ubuntu Touch. One bank I am in required me to run a browser that was on either macOS or Windows. This made me so mad I actually switched banks, because it's unacceptable for me. (You can change the user agent, but that's annoying.) Ubuntu Touch does run Android Apps on Waydroid but it uses the battery much faster so you have to open the app, use it, and close Waydroid so it doesn't drain it.
Great video on Ubuntu Touch on the Pinephone. I’m using UT on the Nexus 5 & 7, but I’m always curious on how it performs on newer devices. The overall experience seems the same. The major difference as far as I can tell between devices that are able to run UT is how individual apps perform. I’ve encountered this on my Nexus devices, and shows up a bit here in this video as well. Overall UT is currently my 3rd favorite mobile os.
Since more than two years now updating and updating my Ubuntu Touch Nexus5, it is still not ready for daily use. But, nevertheless, I love the OS and use the phone always while charging my Lineage phone. Nice Video, thanks!
thanks, looks good, that choppiness GUI sucks always, is that feeling of touching something you're not sure if you did it right. must be smooth like apple, add required visual delay by default
I think it would be smart for ubuntu touch to shoot for a niche: e-ink displays, which seem theoretically obvious for phones given the energy efficiency and outdoor visibility. Only display interfaces and conventions must be sorted since animations and colors are out.
How about Manjaro (or Arch) with Lomiri? As far as I can understand it's effectively the ubuntu touch UI but ported to the OS that is the official Pinephone one. Maybe the best of both? I haven't tried it myself yet. The Pinephone forum suggests that Mobian is the most stable OS but I found it annoyingly laggy compared with Plasma mobile on Manjaro.
@@KSPAtlas Yeah, I know I did it too. You can install random apps from apt just like 16.04, but if you upgrade, it totally breaks the operating system unlike 16.04. Also After OTA, all your changes to the system will be wiped. Unless they changed something of course, it's been a couple of months since I tried ubuntu touch.
Do you remember when we talked in the comments about the laggy experience on Phosh and Plasma Mobile on the Pinephone? You said it was because of bad hardware. I said it was because of being badly optimized. After using Ubuntu Touch, do you still think the hardware is too bad to provide a good user experience? Because from watching the video it seems to barely/not lag.
@@TheLinuxEXP it's ofc weak hardware for today's standard, but compare it to cellphones from 2011, it was even worse back then and phones weren't really laggy
I really want to use this as my new phone since my 2012 iphone isn't cuting it anymore, but the performance leaves a lot to be desired compared to android phones.
Oh. Installed on a Nexus 6P and everything works. Including camera. The UX isn't very smooth, but usable. Also, quite easy to install with their app. I guess the apps are the real deal breaker.
Here's a question about Linux Mobile's not specifically the Pine Phone, I have owned both Nokia N900 & N9. They were brilliant little phones with the power of Linux underneath! However phones like Purism with its ridiculous price tag & phones like PinePhones incomplete & unfinished just makes me disappointed as they over promise and fail to deliver. Of course not to mention other competitors like Lineage OS, Sailfish, Kai, Tizen & Graphehe OS all are viable competitors to the Smartphone market. Only I wish more developers would take part in the mobile arena for such contribution really helps the phone become a indispensable part of the technological world! What would you honestly say about the Nokia Phones compared to the newer generation of phones in the market and the support they receive? What sort of applications would you like to see ported on developed exclusively for Linux phones as opposed to what android provides? I would like to hear your thoughts!
this phone and OS need to get finished ASAP because i am ready and looking for a new phone and i am done with android and since i am a PC user i am NOT touching apple.....
Ubuntu touch was the most promising alternative to Android and iOS. I loved the concept, visuals and so on. I couldn't wait for it. Till now I am still sad about how it ended
@@TheLinuxEXP what this dude meant (most likely) how the protect went into a halt by the founder of the concept (Canonical) and basically gave it away like a pile of garbage and killed it as a official Ubuntu flavour for Mobile
Do you think that if try to sync an account from terminal, would work? Like, Yandex syncs by terminal, at least in the desktop pc . . . cli apps could be a meanwhile solution.
Love it! Few questions please: 1. APK compatible/ emulator available? Like if I want to use WhatsApp? 2. Swipe typing/ voice typing? 3. Email client available like thunder bird?
When you Swipe from the left it shows you the most recent apps which are open and gives control. Could they add a Swipe from the left which gives an option for back or home on pages?
Can phone calls be hung up now? I use an Nexus with ubuntu touch and often can't hang up phone calls. As well bluetooth audio e.g. listening to music in car doesn't work at all or using the car's bluetooth for phone calls doesn't work with it either. I really liked it and it would've been a great alternative to let's say Android or LineAge OS. Another alternative would be Sailfish OS or Purism OS.
see this is an example "less is more"? in the mobile space the linux community should all come together to get *one* workable (daily driver 24/7) linux mobile OS 1st then diversify but no....
To be fair, on other phones like my nexus5 it works much more better. Camera+files are no problems, and some apps are allmost unique for ubuntu touch, like an iso stick emulator from which you can emulate a boot stick, or cloud music from wich you can hear much of music without ads or paying for it. There are also TWO good Map Apps including offline maps, you don't have to pay for and not send data. And Anbox is also working (Whatsapp, Corona Tracing, ...), so I really use it in my daily life.
The first 1000 people to use the link will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: skl.sh/thelinuxexperiment05211
thanks bro love the video just subscribed to skillshare
@holloway I would assume so yes don't take my word for it if all requirements dependencies are met why not if the hard drive cam be mounted read etc also indicates should have no problem
Skillshare is not for everyone, they don't get any thing i can use.
Can you look at iodeos please
did this ever ship installed on phones or is it just vaporware?
I feel like it's one of these cool projects that will be never finished...
Yeah, or maybe will get failed like Windows phones. 😞
Linux never finishes.
@Cindy SparkleFarts I see you're a fart enthusiast as well. Pleased to make your acquaintance.
Like Windows 10 Mobile was I dislike what Microsoft did to Windows Phone.
@Cindy SparkleFarts The Librem 5 has evolved a lot in the past weeks, it might get to the market at any time.
What these projects need:
- unified kernel efforts
- unified efforts on libs and drivers for hardware
- unified efforts for low level api interfaces
Win!
Literally this, with a unified system, each distro can just focus on having a good shell, so then when a new feature gets implemented, everyone benefits!
Exactly, this is why android is screwed by fragmentation
And $$$$
So unity. 😉
I know the PostmarketOS developers are currently working on trying to mainstream as many devices as possible, though there's a ton of work to be done there
The interface is beautiful, and I really like the gestures, but the lack of camera and navigation make it a nonstarter.
Yeah lack of camera breaks it for me
@@TheLinuxEXP If you want to have a working camera, and more generally if you want more or less everything to work, you have to get yourself one of the Android devices that are well supported, because there, the Halium hardware abstraction layer takes care of all the hardware. E.g. the OneplusOne or the Fairphone 2. On the Pinephone your kernel actually has to support the hardware, and as long as Ubuntu Touch is based on the heavily outdated Ubuntu 16.04, there is no chance of that happening. The transition will still take a while, I understand.
@@TheLinuxEXP What? I have it installed on a Sony Xperia X and the camera is fine, only glitches sometimes and a relaunch fixes it.
@Lucas Zhu As I said, they are working on it. It is actually their main priority, but since this is a huge task, it won't be ready by tomorrow.
@@TheLinuxEXP as others note, it is certainly a challenge of UT on Pinephone. My Nexus 5 for less than $50 USD with Ubuntu Touch is faster than the pinephone and has a very decently working camera (and no crashing when copying / pasting files). I suspect (???) the copy paste bug is because of Wayland (only on Pinephone, others use Mir only), and that apps auto-suspend when in the background to save battery (but do they go to the background or not when you bring up the copy / paste dialog?)
The ui looks so polished, apart from a dark theme and a gesture based back button, I loved everything in it. Hoping 🤞
I love the back button. The number of times I've accidentally swiped back and lost where I was/what I was doing has made me long for a way to disable the back swipe globally
@@hyperspeed1313 yeah maybe there should be an option, like in my Android there are 4 types of navigation button options.
You can get dark theme just get UT Tweak tool
@@hyperspeed1313 losing things because of a swipe based back isn’t fault of the back being swipe based. It’s a fault of not having a forward swipe. If you swipe back and realise you didn’t want to you should be able to swipe the other way to get back to where you were.
I think ubuntu touch's lomiri is the most polished mobile UI. Although phosh is catching up :D
Ubuntu Touch was ahead of time. I remember Ubuntu Touch was parenting with a company that was a dual booting phone with Android that has Cyanogen Mod and Ubuntu Touch. I remember being excited because I loved Unity and saw it worked on Nexus 5 was going to get a Nexus 5 until Ubuntu announced they were stopping the project.
I still remember Ubuntu TV that was cool but it reminded me of regular Ubuntu with the Unity DE
6:26 „Mom Murder Hotline” xD
Btw this os looks nice
3:45 Ahh, the Aero 3D view .. * hnnnnngg ahhhh nostalgia! *
Thank you, Nick. I had volunteered for the Ubuntu Edge phone before the Unity project collapsed.
But its failure, I'd say, was inevitable. the 17 million USD they were aiming for were completely unprecedented. It was quite unlikely that they would be able to hit that target.
Ubuntu touch was really ahead of its time. Even in 2021, it looks modern and the gestures are fantastic. Very sad that Canonical basically killed it along with normal Unity. Still hurts me after all these years. Thankfully, we have Plasma..
Thankfully, we have UBports that continue improving uTouch and supporting more and more devices, as canonical throwed us, who believed in their phone OS from the beginning, away...
The problem with UT is that it is an island solution. Canonical has developed, pushed and subsequently discarded many island solutions such as upstart, mir, unity and Ubuntu touch with its very restrictive concept making it neither a real Linux nor a real android was another one. They wanted to push a completely new ecosystem into the market. The other mobile distributions on the other hand try to adapt a mainline Linux to phones and tablet, and although the result is still a bit clunky is gas improved a lot over the last year and as a Linux user you feel instantly completely at home.
@@jochannan7379 Well, the UBPorts team is working on building bridges off the island :-) Work is going on to get it into Manjaro / Arch and also Debian proper. Yes it is not "traditional linux" but after they get to the 20.04 base, possibly some extra tweaks would then allow flatpak, then ??? Mainline or Halium, that is the kernel base, but really it is about the ecosystem and the apps which could come via Anbox work, flatpak, other??
@@jochannan7379 uTouch IS a real GNU/Linux, but it's fitted to smartphones, with for prior in mind user security (that means, any kind of users, not only GNUL geeks), so it is highly confined in apps managment and about messing with file system when "out of the box", BUT you can do whatever you want on it as an advanced GNUL user too, just make system r/w and you're free...
@@BombingBasta Sure I can always do mount -o remount,rw / and then install whatever I want, but any modification I have made will be overwritten by the next OTA. And working with Libertine containers also isn't pleasant. So, while I can understand the rationale behind their decisions, I personally am not comfortable with them, and that sentiment seems to be shared by many Linuxers.
the contacts made me laugh
lol
lol
Why?
lol
oh my god i forgot about this i used to run ubuntu touch on my nexus 4 and i liked it so much more than android
thank you so much for covering this!
great review as usual! sadly most of the issues are more related to the Pinephone itself rather than the OS. Right now there is a huge work focused in bringing UT to 20.04 LTS, the next milestone. UBPorts team and the community are doing an excellent work
Thank you for next awesome video. Your channel is very informative and promotes beauty of Linux and OpenSource. Personally I have been user of Linux for about 20 years now (different distributions => started from Mandrake and RedHat). The Pine64 is a breakthrough product which (from my point of view) outperforms the others (regarding possibilities and privacy). Great also that Ubuntu is available on this platform also. Canonical is the state-of-the-art company! If you consider to have your Pine64 consider also to purchase a Docking Bar and enjoy your phone as normal PC. I really recommend. I keep finger for the channel and have a nice day!
Thanks a lot for the kind words :)
There is a Sailfish OS version for the Pine Phone. Check this one out next :)
That’s the plan :)
@@TheLinuxEXP As far as I understand, someone has ported sailfish to the Pinephone, but since sailfish was originally developed for android devices, you will probably face the same issue: No working camera, no gps, no autorotation, etc. I think the sailfish port is merely a proof of concept, not something intended for regular use.
To take a look at Sailfish, I would use it on one the phones it was made for by Jolla - not the Pinephone. It would perform better and everything will work.
In fact I don't get why there's been so much talk about Linux phones lately, but it's all about Pinephone and Librem5. Nobody mentions SailfishOS, when it's actually the only mobile Linux out there that you can actually use, and it comes on decent hardware too. It's partly proprietary, but Jolla is no Google, it's still more open than Android, and it's real Linux. All that fuss about Librem5, Pinephone and the various distros you can try on them is nice and well, but really it's all unusable on a day-to-day basis. Sailfish is a proper, complete mobile OS and it even runs Android app - without Gapps. I really don't get why Linux phone reviewers never talk about it.
I’ll try it on the pine phone because I can’t justify buying a new device, and that’s more interesting as a comparison with the other platforms I already reviewed :)
@@TheLinuxEXP Only that, as far as I know, no work has gone into really adapting it to the pinephone, so don't expect the hardware (camera, gyrometer, vibrator, gps) to work. Don't be disappointed when it doesn't and don't judge Sailfish by the experience it gives you on an unsupported device.
This is pretty nice. Especially the performance, given how low the specs of the Pinephone are, for this year.
I feel pretty confident for the future non-Android Linux phone in the near future.
That back button observation reminded me of the advert for the iPhone 5: “Your thumb goes from here (bottom left) to here (top right)”. What they failed to mention is that your thumb doesn’t go to “there” top left. They also seem to have forgotten about this revelation that a screen size that you can reach with one hand can be a good thing. I completely agree, it’s crazy that back buttons are in the top left.
I really like this. They have done a fantastic job. UI and navigation may just be the best I have seen for a Linux based phone. If only they would iron out some of those bugs and give me a halfway serviceable camera, I may even consider using something like this daily.
Pixel 3a (XL) has a great camera, works great with UT, waaaay more performant than the Pinephone. About $120 USD
Showing Ubuntu Touch on the Pinephone was a huge disservice to the look of Ubuntu Touch's current state. Because development on the Pinephone was halted until 20.04 comes out, so nobody is putting on the work to make the camera work.
On some other devices the camera DOES work.
This looks very good actually
Really this is a cool project. The community should push it further. I'm actually feeling that having an open source, free and privacy oriented phone usable for daily use is possible
Did your mom ever get back to you on those cleaning tips?
Yeah I listed them on the Notes
I was wondering the same thing for a friend.
Great video.Really appreciate the feature showcasting.
That's one great profile pic ur using, respect 🤡
That's one great profile pic ur using, respect 🤡
@@tubbalcain Thanks.
7:24 Interesting reciepient and more interesting text when you open the mesaging app
😅😅
I was so hyped for the Ubuntu Phone back in the day.
It'd be great if they can make this distro more usable now that the Pinephone seems to be somewhat of what the Raspberry Pi is to SBCs.
The Pinephone is the one phone where nothing works on Ubuntu Touch.
It's quite ironic, and silly, really.
Development will start once 20.04 rolls out. Until then, development is completely halted.
I absolutely love things like this, alternatives to the standard Android and iOS that's become so prevalent. It's a shame that these kinds of phones are hard to use in Sweden due to extremely dumb decisions on part of our banks and agencies regarding mandatory electronic ID. Basically, you use Android/iOS, or you go without.
Sounds like big brother made a deal with big teck
Smuggle one in on the dl
Those are specific pinephone bugs, Ubuntu Touch works well con OnePlus One, for example, except for Hotspot and laggy Android Apps, but everything else works very well.
Even hotspot can work with... workaround ^^
It's a lot better than I imagined. I might give it a shot. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
This project needs unity. If Linux community manages to make one opensource, stable and usable OS then web3 era will begin. No more polarized mobile OS.
3:46 - Brest tips plop. Considering your contacts and reminders, I am unwilling to believe this was an accident.
I love how you say 'animations are fluid' while the app switcher animation is chugging along at 15fps in the background
« Fluid compares to other alternatives that run in the pine phone »
@@TheLinuxEXP Ah yeah, that's definitely true. Love your channel btw
Thanks :)
The current deal-breakers for me are the camera and lack of navigation. I truly want to support Linux phones, but I'd basically just be making a donation that I cannot afford for a phone I cannot use. I don't need to take 'great' pictures, but I use my phone multiple times a day to supplement my middle-aged memory. Speaking of middle-aged memory, I simply cannot go to a new place without turn-by-turn directions. On complicated highways with consecutive exits, it's not practical to read directions on the move.
Not a deal-breaker, but a nice-to-have would be the ability to install APKs from Fdroid or APKmirror. I play a couple casual games with family members abroad, and losing that connection would be a bummer.
Yeah no camera is a blocker for me as well
GPS and pictures works great on lot of uTouch devices, PinePhone is a device under development.
How many people noticed all the 'How to Murder Your Mom" references? And the SMS asking his mom how to clean up her own murder.
I love the gestures!!!! The vertical launcher is so nice!
How was your battery life on the PinePhone/UbuntuTouch? My PinePhone/ManjaroKDE has a battery life of 3 hours.
3 hours? That's really bad. No crust support?
Sony Xperia X has like 12 hours
Mine 3; days. But mine is a moto android phone. I think if Linux is going into the cell phone business they must master the phone carrier choices first, then the internet, then the camera and music portion then they can build on that foundation. The only choice we have.now is the laptop or PC which runs pretty well after choosing a good distribution. There are improvements needed but much better than their phones. I am going by the test made on TH-cam. When a good phone comes out then I may buy. Right now there is no Linux phone worth the money. I'm sorry I cannot get on board as a developer because I have poor computer skills. I do appreciate all the hard work that went into the Linux PC/laptop distributions.
@@jochannan7379 Not sure what's up with Pine/ManjaroKDE ; I just switched to Pine/Arch and I'll see what that means in terms of battery life.
@@KSPAtlas Thank you. I will find a way to apply this to the conversation about PinePhone/UbuntuTouch vs PinePhone/Manjaro .
if it has a terminal app couldn't u use the mv and cp commands to get the music and such where it needs to be?
Yes that should work fine. I believe the copy / paste bug is because apps auto-suspend when in the background. Don't have that bug on android based devices (like my Nexus 5)
Yeah, you could, but Nick isn't a fan of using the terminal for trivial tasks on the phone - and who is?
But from which media? Mount an external hard drive?
@@TurboGoth he said he was able to download stuff but couldn't get the media from the downloads folder to where it needed to be
not every user know how to use terminal...even though only cp or mv command :D
Guessing from what youve shown, I'd say ubuntu touch is not made to use in portray mode but in landscape mode. Then there is no problem anymore with the screen space real estate in the drop down menu and the back button on the top left is easily accessible with even a puny human thumb. ;)
This actually looks pretty nice as of now im still getting a android with a custom rom but after that i will check on the pinephone and might get it
Pixel 3a (XL) would be a waaaay better experience with Ubuntu Touch, plus better hardware (esp the camera). Pinephone lets you run mainline linux, but isn't comparable to android performance (Nexus 5 from many years back is more performant currently with UT than Pinephone .... I have both: Pinephone is great for flexibility, development for the future, but not for replacing your daily driver)
@@rikshaw8429 well theres a bit of a problem im never going to buy a google device because i hate google i was saying that im going to get a android with a custom rom then when i need something else a few years later ill check the pinephones progress on if i should buy it
@@killertigergaming6762 what better way to stick it to Google than by buying a 2nd hand one so they don't get the money then wipe it and install Ubuntu touch? :-) but yeah I understand
@@rikshaw8429 i mean i could although i still am likely helping them make money for example i buy the pixel then they use the money they made from selling there old phone to buy a new phone from google
@@killertigergaming6762 If "they" sell their old phone, that's because "they" already bought a new one...
I know I'm late to the video but, I find outrageous to still see search fields and buttons on the top. Said that this whole effort is amazing and I hope they nail the drivers issue soon.
Good news, the camera app Megapixels has finally reached a 1.0 update, so on the pinephone, the other linux distros have a *much* better performing camera app than last time you tried btw. The pinephone is a slow burn, but software for it is still evolving.
I'm choosing to believe that Dad's "accident" was he had a bloody and embarrassing poop on the carpet.
I really hope projects like this mean momentum is building on a fully functional Linux phone. It's a sad state of affairs that people are pretty much forced between whether they want apple or Google to spy on them when they buy a phone.
That said, as other have pointed out, the lack of camera and navigation functionality mean this just isn't viable to use as an actual everyday phone.
Also, even though it's slick by Linux mobile standards, the interface still looks pretty sluggish and twitchy on this video, not gonna lie.
I wish Palm had been successful with WebOS. It was so promising and I loved my Palm Pre more than any other phone I’ve ever had. I think it would have evolved well seeing how much you can do right in a browser now, similar to chromebooks. The Firefox phone was a good idea too, anyone could make hardware if they wanted but it just never went anywhere. I found a couple Firefox phones at work they had used to test in the past and totally forgot it ever existed.
Palm was way ahead of their time. I had a palm lifedrive back in 2005. That thing was very promising and had many of the features you find on smartphone today. Its a shame they went under.
It has improved a lot since last year.. I would suggest another view at this..
Thanks Nick, I have this running on an LG Nexus 5. Smaller screen and still works well.
8:46 my contacts be like:
On the edge swiping mechanic, I remember when Google updated my Pixel 3 with edge gesture support (IIRC it was Android 10), at first I hated it but after just a few hours it becomes really natural and you mentioned the biggest advantage in this video, you can go back from any page with a single finger without needing to move your hand at all. Now I'm so used to it that I struggle using Android phones that don't have support, its a very natural and intuitive way of controlling a phone.
Its a bit different on Android, half swipe up from the bottom for recent apps, full swipe up from bottom for app drawer, swipe down from top for quick settings and a side swipe from either side edge goes back.
I wonder if this will ever be a viable alternative to Android and iOS. I would love to support it if they can bring it massively to market.
Are we not going to ask about the "accident" mentioned in the calendar on 5:32 ?
omg. I just noticed that I'm watching this on very same lg monitor)
I'm thinking on getting OnePlus 5/5T for Ubuntu Touch, because its affordable, common, more or less modern and has more RAM than pine phone.
JingOS is more futuristic concept to make linux tablet but can run android native. Although pros and cons about this OS that developed by China who have issues regarding the security and privacy of user data.
I love how it looks and feels 👍🏼 great video. They all should cooperate to make a better experience instead of divide themselves to make mediocre ones
BTW, I ported ubuntu touch to my old phone.
Too bad that it's not available on more devices, especially more powerful ones
BTW I use Arch
Best flex EU West
Same
@Lucas Zhu it's Moto Z2 Play.
Could you come back to this this year? I think they have improved a lot in the last year.
I love the subtle jokes like the contact names lol :D Great vid! (comment for engagement, it's the least I can do)
Thanks :)
I couldn't root my phone because I had to root it externally but I only had a very old chromebook so I installed some stuff and it made my phone interface feel more like real ubuntu touch, and it's great. (even though it isn't actually ubuntu touch)
I'd love to run my next phone on this OS, once it gets a bit more ironed out
not gonna lie, looks pretty solid, i was thinking in getting an xperia and flash sailfish os, but i won't lie that this also feels like a solid option
I use Smart Launcher 5 on Android and this layout of Ubuntu Touch looks fantastic to me for usage ease.
Woow!
Love the running gag about your texts to your mom about dad! Hilarious!!
Hahah thanks :)
I agree, weaving a story into the review is next level stuff!
Nice work Nick. They should hire you as a consultant. There is a market for these phones. So close. If they make the changes you suggest, they'll make a killing.
Haha I’d love that!
I've been thinking about trying out Ubuntu Touch, but my main concern is related to using a bank application. Where can I find some info on this? Is it a feature that we can't expect in the following years?
Absolutely not. Banking apps expect the phone to pass SafetyNet, which asks for you to run stock firmware (which you won't) and Google Play Services.
They're never going to support Ubuntu, or Linux in general, let alone Ubuntu Touch.
One bank I am in required me to run a browser that was on either macOS or Windows. This made me so mad I actually switched banks, because it's unacceptable for me. (You can change the user agent, but that's annoying.)
Ubuntu Touch does run Android Apps on Waydroid but it uses the battery much faster so you have to open the app, use it, and close Waydroid so it doesn't drain it.
Thanks for the presentation: I’m trying out Mobian and seeing the UI & philosophy differences is nice for me to decide whether to switch or not!
Hope it can installed on many smartphone so it will be alternative for some people or give a life for older phone just like linux desktop
Merci pour cette video, je vais essayer d'installer Ubuntu Touch sur mon Moto G5s.
Now I can breathe in peace, we know who the target was and can go back to sleep
Target? No, this wasn’t planned at all!
All I want is a private phone. I need to call, message and now and then lookup something on the net. Give them time. They'll figure it out.
Great video on Ubuntu Touch on the Pinephone. I’m using UT on the Nexus 5 & 7, but I’m always curious on how it performs on newer devices. The overall experience seems the same. The major difference as far as I can tell between devices that are able to run UT is how individual apps perform. I’ve encountered this on my Nexus devices, and shows up a bit here in this video as well. Overall UT is currently my 3rd favorite mobile os.
Umm... Should we be concerned about the calendar events and the contacts?
Nah let’s forget about that haha
Since more than two years now updating and updating my Ubuntu Touch Nexus5, it is still not ready for daily use. But, nevertheless, I love the OS and use the phone always while charging my Lineage phone. Nice Video, thanks!
thanks, looks good, that choppiness GUI sucks always, is that feeling of touching something you're not sure if you did it right. must be smooth like apple, add required visual delay by default
Only issue is the slow active development. Otherwise I'd say it's a good UI and phone in general.
We need more Devs working on Ubuntu touch!!
I think it would be smart for ubuntu touch to shoot for a niche: e-ink displays, which seem theoretically obvious for phones given the energy efficiency and outdoor visibility. Only display interfaces and conventions must be sorted since animations and colors are out.
You can remount the filesystem ("root" it) and you can then use it sort of like a regular desktop but some stuff will break like the camera for me
Great video. I'm still disappointed that the project never really took off.
How about Manjaro (or Arch) with Lomiri? As far as I can understand it's effectively the ubuntu touch UI but ported to the OS that is the official Pinephone one. Maybe the best of both? I haven't tried it myself yet. The Pinephone forum suggests that Mobian is the most stable OS but I found it annoyingly laggy compared with Plasma mobile on Manjaro.
Since copy paste failed from the file manager but you have access to a terminal, did you try to do a mv command to move files?
I didn’t :) I try to do things as a « regular user » would, so command line to move files wasn’t in the cards!
@@TheLinuxEXP Could be interesting, just to see how the music player and the rest work.
Where do u come from Nick !! Streaming you every day from France !!
I’m French
Wait did he scroll through the options in notification bar while pulling the notification bar?? 2:47 That's freaking coooool!!!!
Has it been optimized in terms of performance?
See what happens if you get apt working, and run sudo apt upgrade. Also, the camera app on other distros has become somewhat useable recently.
I did it, you have to remount root as read/write, and then it works. Just works like a regular install of Ubuntu 16.04 but for ARM
@@KSPAtlas
Yeah, I know I did it too.
You can install random apps from apt just like 16.04, but if you upgrade, it totally breaks the operating system unlike 16.04.
Also After OTA, all your changes to the system will be wiped.
Unless they changed something of course, it's been a couple of months since I tried ubuntu touch.
Do you remember when we talked in the comments about the laggy experience on Phosh and Plasma Mobile on the Pinephone? You said it was because of bad hardware. I said it was because of being badly optimized.
After using Ubuntu Touch, do you still think the hardware is too bad to provide a good user experience? Because from watching the video it seems to barely/not lag.
I think it’s still weak hardware, but as I said in the video, the performance of Ubuntu touch makes me hopeful it can at least be decently usable :)
@@TheLinuxEXP it's ofc weak hardware for today's standard, but compare it to cellphones from 2011, it was even worse back then and phones weren't really laggy
Oh absolutely, what I’m saying is that it’s never going to « fly » like what users are used to on today’s phones :)
@@TheLinuxEXP Yes true. Nexus 5 is *way* faster than PinePhone with Ubuntu Touch :-)
That sidebar is amazing. I wish Android had that
I really want to use this as my new phone since my 2012 iphone isn't cuting it anymore, but the performance leaves a lot to be desired compared to android phones.
the pinephone is not a consumer product. get an android one phone.
Any swipe gesture support in the keyboard?
No, not supported on UT yet.
global preference is work in progress, with ut tweak tool you can set that
Oh. Installed on a Nexus 6P and everything works. Including camera. The UX isn't very smooth, but usable. Also, quite easy to install with their app. I guess the apps are the real deal breaker.
Ubuntu Touch best linux phone hands down no doubt. The phone OS runs under read only access with restricted app space.
Here's a question about Linux Mobile's not specifically the Pine Phone, I have owned both Nokia N900 & N9. They were brilliant little phones with the power of Linux underneath! However phones like Purism with its ridiculous price tag & phones like PinePhones incomplete & unfinished just makes me disappointed as they over promise and fail to deliver. Of course not to mention other competitors like Lineage OS, Sailfish, Kai, Tizen & Graphehe OS all are viable competitors to the Smartphone market. Only I wish more developers would take part in the mobile arena for such contribution really helps the phone become a indispensable part of the technological world! What would you honestly say about the Nokia Phones compared to the newer generation of phones in the market and the support they receive? What sort of applications would you like to see ported on developed exclusively for Linux phones as opposed to what android provides? I would like to hear your thoughts!
Excellent!
this phone and OS need to get finished ASAP because i am ready and looking for a new phone and i am done with android and since i am a PC user i am NOT touching apple.....
cool video , does ubuntu touch run Flutter apps ? can it run a virtual machine ?
Nice, I would like to try it on a tablet. Thanks for explaining Ubuntu touch. Greetings
It's also great on a tablet :)
Ubuntu touch was the most promising alternative to Android and iOS. I loved the concept, visuals and so on. I couldn't wait for it. Till now I am still sad about how it ended
It hasn’t ended, it got an update a few days ago
@@TheLinuxEXP what this dude meant (most likely) how the protect went into a halt by the founder of the concept (Canonical) and basically gave it away like a pile of garbage and killed it as a official Ubuntu flavour for Mobile
Do you think that if try to sync an account from terminal, would work? Like, Yandex syncs by terminal, at least in the desktop pc . . . cli apps could be a meanwhile solution.
Love it! Few questions please:
1. APK compatible/ emulator available? Like if I want to use WhatsApp?
2. Swipe typing/ voice typing?
3. Email client available like thunder bird?
They where adding desktop support so you could install Real Linux PC Programs
When you Swipe from the left it shows you the most recent apps which are open and gives control. Could they add a Swipe from the left which gives an option for back or home on pages?
Can phone calls be hung up now? I use an Nexus with ubuntu touch and often can't hang up phone calls. As well bluetooth audio e.g. listening to music in car doesn't work at all or using the car's bluetooth for phone calls doesn't work with it either. I really liked it and it would've been a great alternative to let's say Android or LineAge OS. Another alternative would be Sailfish OS or Purism OS.
see this is an example "less is more"? in the mobile space the linux community should all come together to get *one* workable (daily driver 24/7) linux mobile OS 1st then diversify but no....
To be fair, on other phones like my nexus5 it works much more better.
Camera+files are no problems, and some apps are allmost unique for ubuntu touch, like an iso stick emulator from which you can emulate a boot stick, or cloud music from wich you can hear much of music without ads or paying for it.
There are also TWO good Map Apps including offline maps, you don't have to pay for and not send data.
And Anbox is also working (Whatsapp, Corona Tracing, ...), so I really use it in my daily life.