In my opinion, most of these projects fail because the user experience is like it was developed in the stone age compared to the iPhone or standard Android phones today. These projects are often unfortunately led by engineers who don't have a shred of empathy for user experience nor aesthetics.
Well, that is because the UI/UX *_was_* , in fact, developed in the stone age (a decade ago). Ubuntu touch was and likely still is based on the older Unity interface. Modern Ubuntu uses the latest GNOME interface which you will probably prefer. I know this is your opinion, but if you don't like the older UI, perhaps just stick with the latest Android custom ROMs, eh? I personally dig the old UI, has that nostalgic feel.
My impression is, they invented something really great back in the day, but hammering it to a stable release took such a long time, most of the GUI innovations got obsolite during the years. MeeGoo had the perfect GUI for mobile Debian based operating system, so much time to reinvent the wheel. We need to take this to the next level, fast.
Agreed, back in the day I daily drove Ubuntu Touch on a Nexus 7 tablet, and I was blown away by the gesture navigation, same as with SailfishOS. Nowadays Android and even iOS have caught up, and improved upon that stuff
MeeGo lives on as SailfishOS, and I have been using it as my daily driver for last 6 years. It is by far the best Linux mobile OS in my opinion, with a big disadvantage: it is not fully open source. Parts of the GUI are closed source, which is a bummer. Especially as it prevents them from updating to a newer QT version, because of its license change. The device support list is also quite small, but you can actually use it as your daily driver, which is awesome!
@@seanseago699: I don't think that the Ubuntu Edge was ever supposed to hit the market. It was designed to be an extreme phone to enable people to develop software for the future, so that by the time the software side was ready for daily driving, there would be mass produced Android phones available to put it on. What people have forgotten, is that OHA announced an anti-fragmentation policy. Since Ubuntu Touch was based on Android for the hardware support, OEMs would've had to choose between Ubuntu and Android, which is a competition that Ubuntu would lose. But you're obviously correct in saying that the extreme negativity and conspiracy theories about Ubuntu would make it difficult to get partners.
PSA: I had a pixel 3a xl at one point in time. The "Carrier unlocked" and "OEM unlocked" variants of this device are identical in terms of hardware. I even flashed over to the OEM firmware using the script from Google perfectly, and everything works as well. As long as you can get the bootloader to unlock and flash it. I figured this might help some people, as I completely understand the pain with Carrier models and OEM models sometimes being different in terms of hardware. We are lucky that this is not one of those cases.
I was never unable to unlock the bootloader on a Verizon carrier model of the 3a. And I understood from forums that Verizon made it impossible to unlock the bootloader on their devices. Even though, yes, it is identical hardware, it seems Verizon put an irremovable software lock on the bootloader that will prevent UT from being able to run on them.
@@matthewpanhans This is true for all devices for Verizon. At this point in time, those in the modding community know not to buy from Verizon or cricket (in a lot of cases) for this very reason.
If you plug it into a compatible hub, it should function as a full blown desktop. That was one of the goals of Ubuntu Touch, was to able to have your phone and that it would also be a desktop when plugged into keyboard, mouse and monitor.
In theory it should. But when I tried it doesn't show the desktop although it detects the sound/speaker. Later I found the USB C GEN 2 OF pixel 3A/XL doesn't support video out.
It's funny, my reasons for putting aside my linux phone I got as an experiment are the exact opposite reasons he put it aside. I LOVED the app availability, being able to essentially use ARM ports of any linux application actually had me using apps MORE on my phone than ever before as I could for once actually use tools I was more used to. It was the best pocket computer I ever used. It just sucked as a PHONE, the battery life was abysmal compared to android, there's modem bugs and it would silently miss calls all the time, the spearkerphone had a tiny delay that caused feedback and crackles on the other side, the audio quality was noticeably worse, and texting was awful, anything outside of base SMS wasn't guaranteed to work, RCS and MMS was just flat out broken and often corrupted/dropped messages. Seriously I would kill for a decent, cheap linux phone that just works as a fully-functional PHONE first. Carrying around a phone where texting and making calls didn't work right was just a showstopper for me.
So here's the thing, there's this operating system called Android that's based on Linux, ever heard of it? Though running full fat Linux apps on a smartphone sounds awesome lmao
@@me_fault about 8 months ago, of the distro's I tried the one that had best support for messaging was manjaro's plasma mobile version, it had the ONLY messenger that seemed to even understand MMS properly, but RCS still broke on it and it was weirdly laggy.
that's about as relevant as saying that the ps4 runs freeBSD, yeah it's true to a point but doesn't really help any. it's a highly restricted version that doesn't properly support full applications, the android kernel itself is HEAVILY modified from vanilla and has no standard userland. Many things you normally run on desktop trivially recompile for an ARM port that will run on linux mobile, you can even dock and use it as a desktop (works great with keyboard + mouse), I was even able to use it as a complete work laptop replacement for programming PLCs out in the field. (it's still great at that, i don't have my sim card in it anymore as it was a horrible phone though)
@@Kenny-nq6lq No one needs to see it. If you downvote a video, it gets less recommendation and the uploader sees that people don't like his content. :) You can also unsubscribe.
@@sentient1640 Huge cap, the dislike ratio used to keep people safe from scams on TH-cam. They removed it because TH-cam Rewind got ratiod on its own platform. Also corporations like Rockstar Games where receiving huge amounts of dislikes for pushing GTA5 online for 11 years with no GTA6 announcement.
It seems Ubuntu Touch supports second screen, mouse and keyboars, I guess it will have been cool to see that in action. Anyways, great video! Long time ago I was seriously considering using Ubuntu Touch as daily driver but it didn't have great support, it's great to see there are devices much better supported coming up.
I'm going to get a phone and install Ubuntu Touch on it. I probably won't even get a sim card for it, but I just want to use it and do a video on it for my TH-cam channel. Honestly, the OS that seemed the most far along as an alternative to Android/iPhone are the Sailfish OS phones.
@@Fancy2209Real I forgot all about Lomiri until you mentioned it. Do you know about the Ubuntu Unity Remix? It started a couple years ago by a 12 year old boy, and is now an official Ubuntu flavor.
I ran Ubuntu Touch on my Nexus 4 and loved it. Sadly, the touchscreen died, but I used it as a daily driver for a couple years even though it was only 3g and picture messaging didn't work back then. I may just have to pick up a pixel 3a now!
It's very interesting to see Brandon (perhaps unconsciously) trying to use screen gestures from other phones, or perhaps ones that seem logical, but do not exist on Ubuntu Touch. Apple and Google have spent a lot of time on the actual operation of a UI on a touch device and i think this is something that Ubuntu Touch hasn't exactly mastered. Flicking from the bottom of the screen is a good example - according to what application you have open, you get completely different results of which some are unexpected.
Swiping up from the bottom is app specific features, so it's no wonder that you get different behaviour in different apps. But just because you're used to swiping up to get to the home screen, doesn't mean it's more _logical_ than swiping from the left. It's a habit that you have.
Yep, wouldn't want to be like the other guy's...hopefully its customizable ,so that you can make it any way that suits your needs, so the learning-curve less painful.
@@mytouchable: When you switch to a new OS, whatever it may be, you should take the time to learn it. He's using it all wrong and hasn't understood the logic in the design, which is why he doesn't understand the benefit of it. It's actually really comfortable and makes a lot more sense than any other shell I've ever used on a phone.
Agree with the first comment. It's more of a habit than anything, really. A few years ago, I criticized Android 10's navigation gestures as being "less logical" comapred to simply pressing software buttons. Well, a few years after, and now I think the opposite. Like I said, it's a habit.
That's one of my favorite in this DE. Sometimes I swipe from the right as a fiddle XD Short swipe also switches between 2 apps. Not shown in the video though.
Awesome video, glad to see UT getting some notice! Couple things of note as someone who daily drives the same phone. - Android apps can be installed and run just about like normal via the waydroid helper tool in open store and can allow android apps to be installed with or without google services attached based on how much you care about that kind of stuff. - The UT tweeker tool can allow the Desktop mode to activate and can allow window tiling in mobile or using wireless display casting can turn the phone into a fairly functional desktop (especially using a usb dock). - Libertine allows full on desktop software to be installed (via outdated repos I will admit) or via deb files (a little more reliable) and they honestly run quite well assuming you use the libertine tweak tool to fix some of the weirdness. - I have found installing Firefox ESR via a deb package allowed me to get my passwords all synced up and now when I used the device I alternate between Morph and Firefox for browsing the internet. - Not sure why, but I have had few if any problems with location services on pixel 3axl, but I mean who knows really (I am aware it varies a bit device to device).
I'm on my pixel 3a XL bonito running UT. Somehow when I installed UT my GPS works well. I'm really not sure what happened cus i used UT for a while and GPS didn't work. I installed calyoxos and used that for a while. I installed UT again and now GPS works. Also I like the dancing skeleton vid you made.
Interesting video. I used to work on Ubuntu Touch before it was cancelled, and hadn't kept up with the state of the UBPorts fork. The most obvious change I could see is that the home screen launcher seems to have been ripped out completely. I can kind of understand that since a lot of the information it incorporated came from backend services that no longer exist. The replacement app drawer looks like it works pretty well for Ubuntu Touch as it exists now, but the vision was to do a lot more.
I was on a community design team working on the ux wireframe for the files app I absolutely loved the scopes and lenses ui and where it. Was going i even mocked up a version for the desktop which included tabs as if it were a modular search engine with web apps I think the new launch is slick but yea it could have been much more
Just an FYI: you can swipe from the top and then swipe from left to right to go to the different top menu items. So you can go from notifications to battery by simply keeping your finger in the bar that you swiped down on. Also, if you swipe down from the icon, you'll open that menu. So if you touch the battery icon and swipe down, you'll get the battery settings, clock opens the calendar and so on. Once you get used to it, it's much faster than having a huge menu filled with icons.
@@maximus6884 Varies from device to device. Usually UT is good with standby battery life and SOT is a bit behind from Android. Overall, it's fine but can be improved.
@@maximus6884 Like Anino mentioned, I'm sure it varies between devices. On my FP3+, the battery life is pretty on par with other smartphones I had before. That is, it lasts a full day with common use. There are apps and features that heavily drain the battery. Waydroid being the biggest one, not surprising, since it emulates an Android phone on top of your UT OS. Hotspot also drains the battery but it is the same as any other phone with that capability. But even though I use hotspot and Waydroid on a daily basis, I usually have around 20% of battery left at the end of the day. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with Ubuntu touch's battery life on my phone.
Nice video. Didn't realise this was still getting worked on. While there's little to no chance I would be use Linux on my main phone, I would absolutely love to be able to use old phones as glorified SBCs. I mean, think of the hardware stashed inside one of these things! Wifi, bluetooth, camera, microphone, thermometer, accelerometer, you name it. And it's all battery powered, sipping only a few watts of power.
This is really encouraging. I like the idea of possibly switching my phone to Ubuntu at EOL for my Android OS so I can keep using it. Nice to see this project is still moving forward.
It will never be functional to a point of being a viable alternative for the general population, and those running the project know this. But it's been a great way to receive funding $$$ No 100% true open source Linux mobile OS will ever be allowed to reach fully successful development for the masses, because govt tracking/spyware code cannot be baked deep within the os. This isn't some "C/T" it's just a pure fact and reality.
I loved most of it and an idea of having another option as an operating system but it looks good for 2013-14 most of it gave me my highschool vibe which is not bad I would use it for nostalgic reasons but it really needs to catch up with graphics and system interface. There were not any specific features that would make me excited about it and go for the switch. But I really wish the funding took off even donated at that time will do it again if the company is willing to come out with something solid. Loved your video tho!! Keep up ❤️
Last time ive tried Ubuntu Touch, there was only Axolotl as a Signal Client which was barely working for me. As soon as there is a good working Signal Client for Linux i would be absolutly ready to use Ubuntu Touch as a daily driver.
something that doesn't get a lot of highlight: project halium, and therefore ubports which is based on top of it, CAN run on ANY treble-compatible phone, as a normal GSI image, if you patch the kernel a little (or grab a pre-patched kernel), running as a GSI means the android drivers would take care of the hardware, with a unified interface, so you DON'T need to bake up a custom image for EVERY single device granted, not everything might work...but there's a good chance a lot of stuff will!
I would like to congratulate the team. They have come a long way with Ubuntu Touch and have managed to achieve an extraordinary feat. It still requires a lot of work though, but I believe that the number of users will slowly start increasing now 😊
Yeah I'm actually pretty interested on how it would look like if the UI is a bit more polished and more app support that's not just web apps. I really hope this OS succeeded so we can get 3 competitors
throwing it out there mint isnt bad been using it for about 6 months got my brother and mom to switch and drop their expensive bill and they like it as well its pretty solid
Good video showcasing Ubuntu Touch :) I'm actually surprised how smooth UT looked in this video. I haven't tried UT on a Pixel 3a in a while and it looks good. I have a few corrections though or some things that maybe you were not aware. - I notice you always swipe from left and tap the button to open the app drawer. You can actually just swipe continuously AKA long swipe from the left to open it. - Switching theme doesn't require a reboot. Not sure where you got that since the app doesn't tell you that :) You have to restart most apps though. There are also quicker way to switch theme in the store if you like switching between them. - Short right edge swipe will switch between 2 apps so like Alt + Tab. This is one of my favorite because switching between apps is a breeze and so simple. - You can also swipe from the bottom of the keyboard to access some features like copy/paste so you don't have to press and hold text fields for the wonky popups. - Sadly, AGPS isn't available on UT so GPS needs an open sky to get its initial fix. It will work fine after that though. It has AGPS in the Canonical days but it was removed I believe due to licensing. - You can swipe down the top panel or indicators without releasing and swipe horizontally to select between the items. But I do agree that they're too many. I like the design of it but I also wish some can be combined.
@@SoundblasterYT It is based on Wifi and mobile cell data. Maybe you did notice that your GPS was turned off, but an App still knew your location on adroid. That is because the app read out the available wifi routers and similar and compared it with the database from google. The google streetview cares aren't only making pictures, they are also scanning the environment for wifi. A bit scary, google still knows your location, even when using an non-google app. But there are Alternatives like MLS - Mozilla location service. It is based on scans, done by the services users. Ubuntutouch were to use this in cannonical times, but as I understood the programm wasn't easy to maintain (?)
I love the design of the ubuntu edge design. Unfortynately there is no big app development and market appeal on the ubuntu touch platform like windows phone, will be great if we had another alternatives beyond android and iOS in the market, i'm tired of this oligopoly.
The main thing is just that many devs don't really like having to support a lot of different versions for various platforms. Multiplatform development for UT won't really happen unless it gets support from tools like Flutter and Dart.
This is a very interesting option. I have been looking to try out Linux based phones for a while. I may be tempted to get a Google A3 and give it a try.
Ubuntu touch is a weird mashup of android and ubuntu, hence why the compatibility is so good. SailfishOS is sort of better in terms of gestures and looks, but both are pretty horrible to actually use honestly, nothings beats an android custom rom Mobian or PostmarketOS are much more interesting since they are real linux and linux only, you should try them on a Pocofone F1 Strangly enough the best strange OS for a phone that i tried is Windows 11 arm, it's surprisingly usable for my poco X3 pro
You can't use pure Linux on powerful phones without coming up with a billion dollars or more in initial investment. That is the fundamental problem. I have a Pinephone and a Galaxy s8. I would love to have a Galaxy class Pinephone, but that simply is not possible. The Ubuntu Core-based approach is much better, because then you can have a company support a BSP with proprietary drivers, having signed an NDA, and then you can have open source distros on top of that. But unfortunately, that would be attacked by the Linux user community, who would rather have perfect dreams than good products, effectively preventing progress.
@@jeschinstad I installed a Pinephone Pro on FOSDEM, and its already so much better than old Pinephone, with a bit more polish I guess we have a working daily driver Linux phone at the end of the year.
Why didn't you test the Android compatibility layer ? I believe there's something called "Anbox", which your device actually supports? I've got the Meizu MX4 , which was an officially supported handset up until Canonical decided to drop the whole Ubuntu Phone / Ubuntu Touch project - and unfortunately, my device didn't get the same love from the community, so it doesn't support the Android Emulation, which is a dealbreaker for me, since I require my handset to be able to run certain Bank-related authentication apps which only exists for Android and iOS.
In oreder for Linux phones to become a viable alternative, it NEEDs to have a compatibility tool for Android apps (possibly even a good way to enable the Play Store), it needs even more so than the Linux desktop needs Wine. There are just too many apps people across the world NEED: banking apps, gov apps, whatsapp, etc
There is a way in Linux phones to use android apps. It's called Waydroid. I use it daily on my Fairphone 3 with Ubuntu touch. You can even choose to install with Google Services or with MicroG. I used both and currently have the version with Google play services installed and it works just like any android phone. All my necessary apps work flawlessly (Password, authenticator, Bank, ID, WhatsApp, etc...) And it is like any app on my Ubuntu touch phone. Once I'm done using the apps, I can close Waydroid and continue on with my day.
@@mariofeared I know some banking apps are really picky about the OS, they will not work even on Android if you're using a custom ROM or you have rooted your device. Do you know if that's the case for these apps on Waydroid?
@@WolfiiDog13 Yes it's the same case. My bank app doesn't work in it. Compatibility will always be an issue just like Proton even if Valve is a big company and works hard on it :)
@@WolfiiDog13 I can't say for all bank apps, of course, but the one I use is dependent of Google play services to function correctly. Which some custom OS might not have by default. I installed initially Waydroid without Google play services and used MicroG. It worked fine except the annoyance of having to constantly update the apps and settings. Now I installed Waydroid with Google play services and it is exactly like want Android phone. Google play store and all included. I would tell you to give it a try and see.
The problem is that nobody NEEDS another OS, neither developers nor users. A bunch of people like to play around and experiment. No amount of android compatibility will make a dent in android usage. Blackberry had a compatible android runtime, but without real Google Services. Developers didn’t bother writing native apps in part because of this. Users didn’t care about it.
Unlocking Google Pixels bootloader is the EASIEST phone to unlock. You do not need a code or a magic number. All you do is enable OEM Unlocking in developer options, then ADB reboot fastboot, then fastboot flashing unlock. It will confirm on device (because it will erase user data when it's finished the bootloader unlocking) that is all. You could do this day one
This looks so wonderfully snappy and usable. If only it had app developer support for commonly used stuff, like banking, navigation and video services, I could've probably tried daily-driving it.
Linux on mobile is still miles behind traditional android. Well i hope they integrate native android support or no one gonna use Linux alternatives on mobile.
Wow, the Linux user bases are really passionate, considering how Ubuntu is now coming to phones. I wonder how many other distributions are going mobile.
For this exact reason I got myself a cheap pre owned Pixel 3a. Although I wasnt brave enough to switch to Ubuntu Touch because of missing WhatsApp 🙏 Got mine for 45€.
Apps will always be a problem especially since our society is so integrated to them. Waydroid works on Pixel 3a but compatibility apps isn't a sure thing especially for secured apps like banking apps. Also, it kinda drain the battery faster.
@@PakoSt It works on some devices and may work quite well. Of course it depends on the app. And it also currently lacks proper integration so it's like a VM and drains the battery more than usual.
Linux probably would be a major operating system if everybody just worked together. There's so many different flavors and communities working on their own.
I remember when Google making phones was just a joke. Now, they've been creating phones for almost 6-7 years. God, how time flies before you notice it, and things change at a seemingly rapid pace.
I've used Ubports. Its a great OS, but the main drawback is the lack of software developers writing applications. I wish there were more 3rd party applications available.
That will to great extent be solved by the support for Flutter. Any app that doesn't require system integration, will just run on Linux. And that is a lot of apps.
Just the user interface is so unusual I'd probably never get used to this. In comparison with this, Iphones and Android phones have pretty much the same interface. 😅
Location and navigation actually does work, but you have to be in direct sight of the satellites, that means you need to be outdoors. Google uses other means i.e. known routers and stuff to help with location services. Location does not work behind thick walls, just as google does not work inside a tunnel and such.
I absolutely want to switch to a Linux phone, full-time. Unfortuantely, accessibility just doesn't exist in these; Neither Sailfish, Ubuntu Touch, Manjaro or PureOS have accessibility available. I need screen magnification and color inversion to work due to my impairment. But other than that? I am throughly impressed! True convergence is also slowly being implemented, which is amazing :D
That is an inherent weakness with bazaar-style development, that minorities are minorities. It's easier to get me to work for free on something that affects me directly. So for really good accessibility, you absolutely depend on serious funding, which is difficult to get when you don't have all that many users. But to be honest, we do have a problem with those who need it as well. Summers of 2010 and 2011, I spent a lot o my time volunteering for this for Ubuntu, but I had problems getting people to help me research issues. Because the minority that needs these features, see us as a minority that they don't care about. And that's fair, because they're not computer geeks. So the lack of accessibility, is not because we aren't supportive or don't want to help, but because it simply is difficult. But this is a problem that could be solved with money and money can be raised by anyone. It should primarily be raised by those who need the stuff they're raising money for, in my opinion.
I think the problem with Linux phones (despite how I'd love them to become popular) is the lack of clear vision how apps should be created (or ported to it from mainstream platforms). If UBports bet on web apps - totally fine, they are lighter, take less bandwidth to load, support offline mode (aka PWAs), etc. BUT it's not claimed by anyone that this is the designed model for developers to go. No app platform -> no devs -> no apps -> death. Take the Windows Mobile for example - it is still beautiful even today, but it was killed by wrong strategy.
@@drownthepoor I agree- these things are important, but if there’s no TOP-10 apps available and no active development being done - how would you convince non-linux enthusiast to ditch android in favor of Linux phone
@@drownthepoor Those things have been working fairly well in UT. I've been using UT as my main phone since 2015 :) Bought an Android phone as secondary a few years ago and sadly it meant my reliance to apps and such has increased.
@@lisovyy You're not going to convince any non-Linux enthusiasts to ditch Android for Linux. It's not going to happen. Even if it had every app available to them why would they want to leave behind Android? The one argument you might make is privacy, and they don't even care about that. Not to mention all of those top 10 apps are anti-privacy.
Android uses such a old, buggy and cut down Linux kernel that even FreeBSD guys feel pity for it. He must be using a very new kernel compared to the most up to date Android. Even that GPL/Kernel bugs Google so they are working on Fuschia.
16:40 *THANKS* for showing how a video *SHOULD* be shot! :) PSA: We can watch these *full screen* on our TVs, monitors and laptops instead of the stupid migraine-inducing narrow (and now ultra-narrow,) videos so many people are producing these days. Maybe they should watch this one to see just how easy it is to do it right! To make a point, a while back at the local pub, someone was trying to take a picture of several friends but couldn't get them all in. So, I suggested turning the camera into a horizontal position. They were happy with the suggestion and the result. ☺
With USB-C id love to see a bulkier beefier phone I can use as a PC with a dock anywhere / anytime. I am just waiting for the day to get Linux on my phone.
I have a pixel 3a. I initially had UT installed but I drop it for CalyxOs. It's basically a barebone droid but it's a fort knox for off the gridders 😂 I'm sold on the fact that I relocked my bootloader after install which makes it harder to override and wipe. But I do want to return back to UT tho.
That drop in connection is an issue. If that can be fixed, then I could use this as a daily driver. Currently, that seems to be an issue. But just to confirm, is there just a drop in the quality of the connection, or does it lose connection altogether? Also, how is the android app support?
drops to 2g for about 20-30 seconds then it goes back to full speed LTE. I noticed it happens a lot when calls come in. I don't think it can handle calls and data at the same time. I really hope with is fixed in the next major release.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Android a form of Linux? Or based from Linux? I understand that the googler overlords have their hands all in it though. I have a few questions/concerns regarding this particular O.S. ... 1- One thing I think I saw briefly was that the home screen rotated to the proper horizontal, widescreen position while you were moving the phone around. Is it functional in the widescreen position? How about the menus/settings/ messages etc etc screens? Do they operate in a proper widescreen orientation as well? I totally hate it when apps or certain screens are stuck in that horrid, awful, ridiculous "thinscreen" vertical position and refuse to rotate even though rotate is turned on. ...pisses me off. My eyes and peripheral vision are horizontally oriented. tallscreen/thinscreen never made one ounce of sense to me. So having the ability to use the screen properly when using a cellphone is a HUGE plus for me. 2- The large red area in the homescreen: Can there be desktop shortcuts, apps and widgets put there? Like most importantly, a clock display. Maybe a few of the most used apps. Browser. Media player. etc. Seems pointless to just have that much screen real-estate sitting empty and useless. Sure, it looks clean, and I like clean. But I would also like to have at least a prominent clock/date display there. Maybe even the ability to flick left/right for more "pages" of shortcuts. 3- Also regarding the homescreen: Is the toolbar able to be moved to the bottom (regardless of screen orientation) and possibly made smaller? Like you can do on a PC running Mint, Ubuntu or that royal "pane" in the privacy, Windows. etc. 4- Browser: Firefox. Done. There is no other option. Can it run Firefox? One would think so since Linux comes with Firefox as its default browser. (and has the neat setup to keep it updated automatically when the OS is updated) Yeah the FF app for android is kind of... crap, But it still runs adblock for those sites that violently shove 50 ads up your hiney to read 5 lines of their content. Like seriously, half of your data plan is used up loading stinkin' ads! Not for me, Jack! 5: This is a real big concern: Is there ANY word on getting the location bug fixed? I NEEED my phone for accurate, reliable, turn-by-turn navigation. That alone is a total dealbreaker. The other stuff I could kind of deal with, but no nav? Nope! 6: How about for tablets? I have a tablet that is just begging to get some form of a Linux mobile OS put on it.. I know I asked a bunch. But whatever info regarding any of these concerns that you (or any other viewer) could enlighten me with would be greatly appreciated. I'll be keeping an eye on this one. THANKS! 😄
I am blind and unfortunately accessibility for my needs is the last thing to happen for things like this. I did check Ubuntu Touch's website briefly to see if anything was mentioned about accessibility or the Orca Screen Reader, but I found nothing on the surface. Perhaps some other blind user has managed to get Orca running on that platform with some success, but I am not that advanced of a user. Beyond that, my phone has to be a phone first and a computer second. Nice to see some alternatives though becoming more of a thing, climbing out of that niche.
After a quick search, 39 million people are blind and 284 million are visually impaired. That's more than enough people to warrant a system designed from scratch for people who are blind. I mean, that's probably the same market size as Windows 98. And since so much about modern phones has to do with speed of graphics, I'm betting that you could make devices for blind people really cheap. So if you figure out a way to unite the blind into one purchasing power, I will bet my life that I can make the best system ever created for blind people. But that's always the problem; uniting people.
@@jeschinstad yeah. I mean, I don’t want to sound like things aren’t getting better. There are so many options these days compared to when I was young. Computers have gotten fast enough that we no longer need dedicated hardware for screen reading technology. Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop all have integrated accessibility software. Windows itself has several 3rd party options that improve on its already robust Narrator system. iPhones have had Voice Over since iPhone 3G. Androids have had Talkback since about 2015 and it just got a major upgrade with Braille support a year or so ago. Heck, even PlayStation got a Tripple-a title that is natively playable by the blind in The Last of Us p2 and followed that up with p1 about a year later, and the PS5 and Xbox have robust accessibility integration. So, I can’t complain too much.
@@stephenluttrell8958: Right. You can try to bridge the gap with a device that was specifically designed for the seeing and make it less hostile to the blind. That's a good thing, but "less hostile" will never be equal to friendly. So if you really want to make a good product for the blind, it should be designed for the blind. A good example of this, is when people try to design electric airplanes based on existing designs. It simply cannot work, because electric motors are fundamentally different from ICEs. If you want to make an electric plane, it has to be designed from scratch to be a an electric plane and I would argue that the same is true for computers designed for blind people. But being less hostile is better than being hostile and that's what accessibility is; being less hostile. It is not being friendly.
@@jeschinstadI'm not sure I totally agree with that. I guess, firstly I'm not sure electric motors vs Internal Combustion is a fair example. Plane engines, after all, have to obey the laws of physics. How we interact with technology from an interface perspective is a somewhat softer science. At its core, user interfaces are all about getting data to the user and the methods by which we can respond to that data. It doesn't matter if you swipe to a selection, directly touch that selection, shake the phone to get to that selection, or use a head tracking device to get to the selection, the end result is the same; a selection is made; the operating system doesn't care how that selection was made. Even in this highly graphical world we find ourselves in it's mostly just window dressing for alphanumeric data. An arrow pointing left is still just a "back" button underneath. So, making something accessible to a blind person is just finding a way to present things in an audio format, and slightly altering the response of the interface to account for the fact that we need to find something on the screen rather than just touch it with a finger. Heck, a huge percentage of interacting with a device is just knowing when a cursor moves or changes focus; so, just putting some sound effects in an interface is half the battle, before any TTS has to happen. Just watch any blind gamer play an inaccessible title. Experience teaches them where things are located in the menus even when they can't read them. So, that's why I think I have to disagree about the hostile/friendly categories. Seems a bit like a false dichotomy to me.
Does being OEM unlocked mean coming with a pre-unlocked bootloader ? Cause I was able to do that easily with a refurb mi A2 I bought, like didn't even require Xiaomi's official unlocking tool just standard android platform tools like adb and fastboot probably cause it was part of the android one programme. Since carrier locking is not a thing in India that isn't a concern either.
The Unity Design team was a very productive and cool community to be a part of. Nothing was too small. I still believe that the Unity 7 desktop is the best that has ever been made, even though others are catching up.
And here is me trying to get Fyde OS for the GPD pocket 2 for the Motorola Xoom on a microSD card while using team win recovery project as my Default recovery setting 😊 (Note: I recommend for some people to use team win recovery project because it’s actually a user friendly interface. And Fyde OS is basically chrome OS but lighter(Yes, it has a play store))
My 13 year old son is an absolute Linux guy and he's incredible at coding. He doesn't really like his iPhone 8 too much but would like to have a Ubuntu phone. Maybe I can make his wish become true by getting that Pixel phone (though it would be great if Ubuntu Touch ran on the Galaxy Note 4 with the SPen).
Thanks for the video. As a Linux desktop user, I'd like to see the Penguin to enter the mobile world. This looks promising. Unfortunately, best to my knowledge, very few (if any) banks or other institution provide apps for Linux. And this is where the problem starts. Of course, you can use the web-browser versions, but they don't always work well in mobile browsers. Still, good to see things are improving. And thank you for the video. Very much appreciated.
Can we just get one thing straight: Android is a Linux operating system, and thus phones that run Android are, by extension, Linux phones. I think for videos and articles like this, it's important to refer to GNU/Linux phones, like those running Ubuntu Touch. Yes, all of us here probably already know what you mean, but the more people keep referring to non-Android Linux phones as just "Linux Phones", the more average people will think that Android phones don't run Linux. Sorry to be pedantic!
The kernel is based on Linux. The OS is nor. Sure it uses elf, sure it has init. It mounts and swirches root to the system partition. But it uses a completely different display system, the os is based on dalvik VM, uses NDK instead of libc, so on.
I wish linux phones will be a big thing in the future.. In the meantime I really enjoy using iodéOS which allows me to have a google-free experience but still can use apps that are not compatible on linux.
This actually blew me away, i always had a weird relation with ubuntu, my few interactions with it were back in 12.10 and recently on my job and it lags af, and i was always trying to make my boomer superior's mind to install at least Lubuntu cuz it really lagged, although i'm sure the PCs are to blame, my company literally puts windows 10 on 13yo pentium machines So even tho i have been fancying mobile linux for a while AND i do have a linux QEMU VM set in a tablet here, which works great with kbd+touch, i never expected Ubuntu Phone to be so cool! I guess i have some mind opening to do, congratulations
You didn't even cover things like do we get a terminal access? do we get root access? things like that would really matter to me if I'm going to rock a Linux phone. the GPS thing sounds like a misconfiguration or bad driver. Also what browser do you get do we, is it Firefox? & on this thing you talk about playing videos is it VLC or some kind of native app
For me debloating via adb with regular android seems like a better option for people who like to game on there phones as the drivers are not comparable for example i did mess around with a nexus 5 on ubuntu touch you could not get playback ubove 360p on ub but you could stream it at 1080p on android. positive thing about using adb (and configuring privacy settings on the phone and google account) on a modern phone you can remove most of the proprietary stuff without breaking the phone (ofcourse you will need to know what each package does as you will run the risk of bricking your phone) and replace them with open source apps from fdroid and still be able to make use of the speed and utilty of a modern android phone as well for gaming and emulation. when it comes to people who want privacy they can also just not log in and remove google services (breaks alot of apps) the data collection will be no where near the level as on a stock android phone.
I installed Ubuntu Touch (based on 20.04) on my Pixel 3a today. It was on Android 12 and lost security updates a year or so ago. I am happy to breathe new life in it for it is my only phone and I see no sense in buying another while this one still functions.
Sailfish is more usable as a daily driver than this I used to use one as my daily for two years when the Jolla c(Indian variant of it anyways) came out and i still have that in my carry bag for no reason whatsoever other than pure love for the device
Have they re-written the Sailfish EULA? The last time I read it, it contained insane statements that would completely prohibit me from even consider using it.
@@kickskii: Last time I read it, they claimed the right to void your license to use the system if you display anything that they deem to be improper. So if someone sends you an obscene message and you open it, then you have forfeited your rights. Completely unenforceable, of course, but the idea itself...
"is it a good phone?"
"If you stop using your phone, then yes"
In my opinion, most of these projects fail because the user experience is like it was developed in the stone age compared to the iPhone or standard Android phones today. These projects are often unfortunately led by engineers who don't have a shred of empathy for user experience nor aesthetics.
for real, i was shocked to see this video was only 1 year ago. I thought the UI looked closer to 10 years ago
That's why I dropped Ubuntu
Well, that is because the UI/UX *_was_* , in fact, developed in the stone age (a decade ago). Ubuntu touch was and likely still is based on the older Unity interface. Modern Ubuntu uses the latest GNOME interface which you will probably prefer.
I know this is your opinion, but if you don't like the older UI, perhaps just stick with the latest Android custom ROMs, eh? I personally dig the old UI, has that nostalgic feel.
My impression is, they invented something really great back in the day, but hammering it to a stable release took such a long time, most of the GUI innovations got obsolite during the years. MeeGoo had the perfect GUI for mobile Debian based operating system, so much time to reinvent the wheel. We need to take this to the next level, fast.
Agreed, back in the day I daily drove Ubuntu Touch on a Nexus 7 tablet, and I was blown away by the gesture navigation, same as with SailfishOS. Nowadays Android and even iOS have caught up, and improved upon that stuff
MeeGo lives on as SailfishOS, and I have been using it as my daily driver for last 6 years. It is by far the best Linux mobile OS in my opinion, with a big disadvantage: it is not fully open source. Parts of the GUI are closed source, which is a bummer. Especially as it prevents them from updating to a newer QT version, because of its license change.
The device support list is also quite small, but you can actually use it as your daily driver, which is awesome!
This is more like an experimental project. They know what they have been doing and are smart enough not to waste resources on this.
@@seanseago699: I don't think that the Ubuntu Edge was ever supposed to hit the market. It was designed to be an extreme phone to enable people to develop software for the future, so that by the time the software side was ready for daily driving, there would be mass produced Android phones available to put it on. What people have forgotten, is that OHA announced an anti-fragmentation policy. Since Ubuntu Touch was based on Android for the hardware support, OEMs would've had to choose between Ubuntu and Android, which is a competition that Ubuntu would lose. But you're obviously correct in saying that the extreme negativity and conspiracy theories about Ubuntu would make it difficult to get partners.
agreed
PSA: I had a pixel 3a xl at one point in time. The "Carrier unlocked" and "OEM unlocked" variants of this device are identical in terms of hardware. I even flashed over to the OEM firmware using the script from Google perfectly, and everything works as well. As long as you can get the bootloader to unlock and flash it. I figured this might help some people, as I completely understand the pain with Carrier models and OEM models sometimes being different in terms of hardware. We are lucky that this is not one of those cases.
I was never unable to unlock the bootloader on a Verizon carrier model of the 3a. And I understood from forums that Verizon made it impossible to unlock the bootloader on their devices. Even though, yes, it is identical hardware, it seems Verizon put an irremovable software lock on the bootloader that will prevent UT from being able to run on them.
@@matthewpanhans This is true for all devices for Verizon. At this point in time, those in the modding community know not to buy from Verizon or cricket (in a lot of cases) for this very reason.
@@sprungles Good to know!
Any links on how to di this?
@@SoundblasterYT I will type instructions later today here!
If you plug it into a compatible hub, it should function as a full blown desktop. That was one of the goals of Ubuntu Touch, was to able to have your phone and that it would also be a desktop when plugged into keyboard, mouse and monitor.
In theory it should. But when I tried it doesn't show the desktop although it detects the sound/speaker. Later I found the USB C GEN 2 OF pixel 3A/XL doesn't support video out.
seems pretty pointless feature.
So samsung dex on android
Windows 10 Mobile Continuum
It's funny, my reasons for putting aside my linux phone I got as an experiment are the exact opposite reasons he put it aside. I LOVED the app availability, being able to essentially use ARM ports of any linux application actually had me using apps MORE on my phone than ever before as I could for once actually use tools I was more used to. It was the best pocket computer I ever used.
It just sucked as a PHONE, the battery life was abysmal compared to android, there's modem bugs and it would silently miss calls all the time, the spearkerphone had a tiny delay that caused feedback and crackles on the other side, the audio quality was noticeably worse, and texting was awful, anything outside of base SMS wasn't guaranteed to work, RCS and MMS was just flat out broken and often corrupted/dropped messages. Seriously I would kill for a decent, cheap linux phone that just works as a fully-functional PHONE first. Carrying around a phone where texting and making calls didn't work right was just a showstopper for me.
when did you use it?
So here's the thing, there's this operating system called Android that's based on Linux, ever heard of it?
Though running full fat Linux apps on a smartphone sounds awesome lmao
@@me_fault about 8 months ago, of the distro's I tried the one that had best support for messaging was manjaro's plasma mobile version, it had the ONLY messenger that seemed to even understand MMS properly, but RCS still broke on it and it was weirdly laggy.
that's about as relevant as saying that the ps4 runs freeBSD, yeah it's true to a point but doesn't really help any. it's a highly restricted version that doesn't properly support full applications, the android kernel itself is HEAVILY modified from vanilla and has no standard userland. Many things you normally run on desktop trivially recompile for an ARM port that will run on linux mobile, you can even dock and use it as a desktop (works great with keyboard + mouse), I was even able to use it as a complete work laptop replacement for programming PLCs out in the field. (it's still great at that, i don't have my sim card in it anymore as it was a horrible phone though)
@@1Raptor85 interesting. i use manjaro on desktop. hopefully support for the phone functions will improve across all linux flavors
Great review video. It reminded me of the hours I spent in 2012-2013 trying different ROMs on my Android devices. Thank you!
"Ive been using it for 2 weeks", Title says 30 days. Just say 2 weeks instead of lying on the title.
you can hit a dislike.
@sentient1640 what is the point of the dislike if no one can see it, even when we have a return dislike extension, it is not accurate
Dude, chill
@@Kenny-nq6lq No one needs to see it. If you downvote a video, it gets less recommendation and the uploader sees that people don't like his content. :) You can also unsubscribe.
@@sentient1640 Huge cap, the dislike ratio used to keep people safe from scams on TH-cam. They removed it because TH-cam Rewind got ratiod on its own platform. Also corporations like Rockstar Games where receiving huge amounts of dislikes for pushing GTA5 online for 11 years with no GTA6 announcement.
It seems Ubuntu Touch supports second screen, mouse and keyboars, I guess it will have been cool to see that in action. Anyways, great video!
Long time ago I was seriously considering using Ubuntu Touch as daily driver but it didn't have great support, it's great to see there are devices much better supported coming up.
I'm going to get a phone and install Ubuntu Touch on it. I probably won't even get a sim card for it, but I just want to use it and do a video on it for my TH-cam channel.
Honestly, the OS that seemed the most far along as an alternative to Android/iPhone are the Sailfish OS phones.
Unity is the Convergent Desktop, so of corse it supports secondary screens, hell why do you think they are working on Lomiri for PC?
@@Fancy2209Real I forgot all about Lomiri until you mentioned it. Do you know about the Ubuntu Unity Remix? It started a couple years ago by a 12 year old boy, and is now an official Ubuntu flavor.
@@Fancy2209Real The pixel 3a doesn't have hdmi out unfortunately.
@@grayghost832 USB c spec supports HDMI. Pretty cheap to just buy an adapter that is multifunctional w pd. I share the same one with my laptop.
I ran Ubuntu Touch on my Nexus 4 and loved it. Sadly, the touchscreen died, but I used it as a daily driver for a couple years even though it was only 3g and picture messaging didn't work back then. I may just have to pick up a pixel 3a now!
It's very interesting to see Brandon (perhaps unconsciously) trying to use screen gestures from other phones, or perhaps ones that seem logical, but do not exist on Ubuntu Touch. Apple and Google have spent a lot of time on the actual operation of a UI on a touch device and i think this is something that Ubuntu Touch hasn't exactly mastered. Flicking from the bottom of the screen is a good example - according to what application you have open, you get completely different results of which some are unexpected.
Swiping up from the bottom is app specific features, so it's no wonder that you get different behaviour in different apps. But just because you're used to swiping up to get to the home screen, doesn't mean it's more _logical_ than swiping from the left. It's a habit that you have.
Yep, wouldn't want to be like the other guy's...hopefully its customizable ,so that you can make it any way that suits your needs, so the learning-curve less painful.
@@mytouchable: When you switch to a new OS, whatever it may be, you should take the time to learn it. He's using it all wrong and hasn't understood the logic in the design, which is why he doesn't understand the benefit of it. It's actually really comfortable and makes a lot more sense than any other shell I've ever used on a phone.
Agree with the first comment. It's more of a habit than anything, really. A few years ago, I criticized Android 10's navigation gestures as being "less logical" comapred to simply pressing software buttons. Well, a few years after, and now I think the opposite. Like I said, it's a habit.
I love the multitasking gesture and the animation it does when you slide in from the side!
That's one of my favorite in this DE. Sometimes I swipe from the right as a fiddle XD
Short swipe also switches between 2 apps. Not shown in the video though.
@@AninoNiKugi oh wow
Awesome video, glad to see UT getting some notice!
Couple things of note as someone who daily drives the same phone.
- Android apps can be installed and run just about like normal via the waydroid helper tool in open store and can allow android apps to be installed with or without google services attached based on how much you care about that kind of stuff.
- The UT tweeker tool can allow the Desktop mode to activate and can allow window tiling in mobile or using wireless display casting can turn the phone into a fairly functional desktop (especially using a usb dock).
- Libertine allows full on desktop software to be installed (via outdated repos I will admit) or via deb files (a little more reliable) and they honestly run quite well assuming you use the libertine tweak tool to fix some of the weirdness.
- I have found installing Firefox ESR via a deb package allowed me to get my passwords all synced up and now when I used the device I alternate between Morph and Firefox for browsing the internet.
- Not sure why, but I have had few if any problems with location services on pixel 3axl, but I mean who knows really (I am aware it varies a bit device to device).
I'm on my pixel 3a XL bonito running UT. Somehow when I installed UT my GPS works well. I'm really not sure what happened cus i used UT for a while and GPS didn't work. I installed calyoxos and used that for a while. I installed UT again and now GPS works. Also I like the dancing skeleton vid you made.
Interesting video. I used to work on Ubuntu Touch before it was cancelled, and hadn't kept up with the state of the UBPorts fork. The most obvious change I could see is that the home screen launcher seems to have been ripped out completely. I can kind of understand that since a lot of the information it incorporated came from backend services that no longer exist.
The replacement app drawer looks like it works pretty well for Ubuntu Touch as it exists now, but the vision was to do a lot more.
I was on a community design team working on the ux wireframe for the files app
I absolutely loved the scopes and lenses ui and where it. Was going i even mocked up a version for the desktop which included tabs as if it were a modular search engine with web apps
I think the new launch is slick but yea it could have been much more
what a great little ad for "in hell ill be in good company" song. what a great song and a band, and im so happy you showed it on vid ^^
Just an FYI: you can swipe from the top and then swipe from left to right to go to the different top menu items. So you can go from notifications to battery by simply keeping your finger in the bar that you swiped down on.
Also, if you swipe down from the icon, you'll open that menu. So if you touch the battery icon and swipe down, you'll get the battery settings, clock opens the calendar and so on. Once you get used to it, it's much faster than having a huge menu filled with icons.
Yeah, it's well designed but personally, I also wish some can be combined so they're not too many 😅
what is battery life like?
@@maximus6884 Varies from device to device. Usually UT is good with standby battery life and SOT is a bit behind from Android. Overall, it's fine but can be improved.
@@maximus6884 Like Anino mentioned, I'm sure it varies between devices. On my FP3+, the battery life is pretty on par with other smartphones I had before. That is, it lasts a full day with common use.
There are apps and features that heavily drain the battery. Waydroid being the biggest one, not surprising, since it emulates an Android phone on top of your UT OS. Hotspot also drains the battery but it is the same as any other phone with that capability. But even though I use hotspot and Waydroid on a daily basis, I usually have around 20% of battery left at the end of the day.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with Ubuntu touch's battery life on my phone.
And here is me trying to port Postmarket OS to a old galaxy S5 🥲
And i am trying the same thing on my old j7
And here is me trying to unlock the bootloader on some old huawei garbage 😂
Can you give me the Port for the Galaxy s5 if you Finally did it?
Did it work ???
@@themuhammad1 Hell nah Ubuntu for the S5 is not Stable enough.
Two weeks isn't 30 days, it's 14.
Nice video. Didn't realise this was still getting worked on. While there's little to no chance I would be use Linux on my main phone, I would absolutely love to be able to use old phones as glorified SBCs. I mean, think of the hardware stashed inside one of these things! Wifi, bluetooth, camera, microphone, thermometer, accelerometer, you name it. And it's all battery powered, sipping only a few watts of power.
What's an SBC?
@@bartimaeu1 "Single Board Computer" like a Raspberry Pi
@@ugh.idontwanna ohhh. Thanks
"The best and most feature-rich Linux mobile operating system available today"
Android: "Am I a joke to you?"
This is really encouraging. I like the idea of possibly switching my phone to Ubuntu at EOL for my Android OS so I can keep using it. Nice to see this project is still moving forward.
It will never be functional to a point of being a viable alternative for the general population, and those running the project know this.
But it's been a great way to receive funding $$$
No 100% true open source Linux mobile OS will ever be allowed to reach fully successful development for the masses,
because govt tracking/spyware code cannot be baked deep within the os.
This isn't some "C/T" it's just a pure fact and reality.
I loved most of it and an idea of having another option as an operating system but it looks good for 2013-14 most of it gave me my highschool vibe which is not bad I would use it for nostalgic reasons but it really needs to catch up with graphics and system interface. There were not any specific features that would make me excited about it and go for the switch. But I really wish the funding took off even donated at that time will do it again if the company is willing to come out with something solid.
Loved your video tho!! Keep up ❤️
Last time ive tried Ubuntu Touch, there was only Axolotl as a Signal Client which was barely working for me. As soon as there is a good working Signal Client for Linux i would be absolutly ready to use Ubuntu Touch as a daily driver.
Its so clean! Loved the video and Ubuntu Touch itself!❤❤❤❤
0:31 why do you have windows installed on your machine?
something that doesn't get a lot of highlight: project halium, and therefore ubports which is based on top of it, CAN run on ANY treble-compatible phone, as a normal GSI image, if you patch the kernel a little (or grab a pre-patched kernel), running as a GSI means the android drivers would take care of the hardware, with a unified interface, so you DON'T need to bake up a custom image for EVERY single device
granted, not everything might work...but there's a good chance a lot of stuff will!
I would like to congratulate the team. They have come a long way with Ubuntu Touch and have managed to achieve an extraordinary feat.
It still requires a lot of work though, but I believe that the number of users will slowly start increasing now 😊
I'll be one ;)
Yeah I'm actually pretty interested on how it would look like if the UI is a bit more polished and more app support that's not just web apps.
I really hope this OS succeeded so we can get 3 competitors
@@blueelectric05 Exactly. Open source all the way 👍
throwing it out there mint isnt bad been using it for about 6 months got my brother and mom to switch and drop their expensive bill and they like it as well its pretty solid
Good video showcasing Ubuntu Touch :)
I'm actually surprised how smooth UT looked in this video. I haven't tried UT on a Pixel 3a in a while and it looks good.
I have a few corrections though or some things that maybe you were not aware.
- I notice you always swipe from left and tap the button to open the app drawer. You can actually just swipe continuously AKA long swipe from the left to open it.
- Switching theme doesn't require a reboot. Not sure where you got that since the app doesn't tell you that :)
You have to restart most apps though. There are also quicker way to switch theme in the store if you like switching between them.
- Short right edge swipe will switch between 2 apps so like Alt + Tab. This is one of my favorite because switching between apps is a breeze and so simple.
- You can also swipe from the bottom of the keyboard to access some features like copy/paste so you don't have to press and hold text fields for the wonky popups.
- Sadly, AGPS isn't available on UT so GPS needs an open sky to get its initial fix. It will work fine after that though. It has AGPS in the Canonical days but it was removed I believe due to licensing.
- You can swipe down the top panel or indicators without releasing and swipe horizontally to select between the items. But I do agree that they're too many. I like the design of it but I also wish some can be combined.
Wait what is AGPS
@@SoundblasterYT Assisted GPS. Most devices has it. It helps to get faster location fixes instead of solely relying on the GPS staellites.
@@SoundblasterYT It is based on Wifi and mobile cell data. Maybe you did notice that your GPS was turned off, but an App still knew your location on adroid. That is because the app read out the available wifi routers and similar and compared it with the database from google. The google streetview cares aren't only making pictures, they are also scanning the environment for wifi. A bit scary, google still knows your location, even when using an non-google app.
But there are Alternatives like MLS - Mozilla location service. It is based on scans, done by the services users. Ubuntutouch were to use this in cannonical times, but as I understood the programm wasn't easy to maintain (?)
Also price of maintenance.
the audacity of claiming 100% compatibility and then fail at brightness.
"Polycarbonate instead of plastic"... So the marketing fooled people. Of course it's a plastic.
I mean... Any Android phone is a technically a Linux phone, too.
I love the design of the ubuntu edge design. Unfortynately there is no big app development and market appeal on the ubuntu touch platform like windows phone, will be great if we had another alternatives beyond android and iOS in the market, i'm tired of this oligopoly.
The main thing is just that many devs don't really like having to support a lot of different versions for various platforms. Multiplatform development for UT won't really happen unless it gets support from tools like Flutter and Dart.
This is a very interesting option. I have been looking to try out Linux based phones for a while. I may be tempted to get a Google A3 and give it a try.
Ubuntu touch is a weird mashup of android and ubuntu, hence why the compatibility is so good. SailfishOS is sort of better in terms of gestures and looks, but both are pretty horrible to actually use honestly, nothings beats an android custom rom
Mobian or PostmarketOS are much more interesting since they are real linux and linux only, you should try them on a Pocofone F1
Strangly enough the best strange OS for a phone that i tried is Windows 11 arm, it's surprisingly usable for my poco X3 pro
You can't use pure Linux on powerful phones without coming up with a billion dollars or more in initial investment. That is the fundamental problem. I have a Pinephone and a Galaxy s8. I would love to have a Galaxy class Pinephone, but that simply is not possible. The Ubuntu Core-based approach is much better, because then you can have a company support a BSP with proprietary drivers, having signed an NDA, and then you can have open source distros on top of that. But unfortunately, that would be attacked by the Linux user community, who would rather have perfect dreams than good products, effectively preventing progress.
@@jeschinstad I installed a Pinephone Pro on FOSDEM, and its already so much better than old Pinephone, with a bit more polish I guess we have a working daily driver Linux phone at the end of the year.
@@flugfloh6281: Well, anything that they could do in 2007, we can certainly outdo now. :) We need people though.
linux phone made by google is like a hydrogen car made by exxon mobile...
Why didn't you test the Android compatibility layer ? I believe there's something called "Anbox", which your device actually supports?
I've got the Meizu MX4 , which was an officially supported handset up until Canonical decided to drop the whole Ubuntu Phone / Ubuntu Touch project - and unfortunately, my device didn't get the same love from the community, so it doesn't support the Android Emulation, which is a dealbreaker for me, since I require my handset to be able to run certain Bank-related authentication apps which only exists for Android and iOS.
Exactly what I've been hoping for ... for a few years now ... thank you for this video
In oreder for Linux phones to become a viable alternative, it NEEDs to have a compatibility tool for Android apps (possibly even a good way to enable the Play Store), it needs even more so than the Linux desktop needs Wine. There are just too many apps people across the world NEED: banking apps, gov apps, whatsapp, etc
There is a way in Linux phones to use android apps. It's called Waydroid. I use it daily on my Fairphone 3 with Ubuntu touch. You can even choose to install with Google Services or with MicroG. I used both and currently have the version with Google play services installed and it works just like any android phone.
All my necessary apps work flawlessly (Password, authenticator, Bank, ID, WhatsApp, etc...) And it is like any app on my Ubuntu touch phone. Once I'm done using the apps, I can close Waydroid and continue on with my day.
@@mariofeared I know some banking apps are really picky about the OS, they will not work even on Android if you're using a custom ROM or you have rooted your device. Do you know if that's the case for these apps on Waydroid?
@@WolfiiDog13 Yes it's the same case. My bank app doesn't work in it. Compatibility will always be an issue just like Proton even if Valve is a big company and works hard on it :)
@@WolfiiDog13 I can't say for all bank apps, of course, but the one I use is dependent of Google play services to function correctly. Which some custom OS might not have by default.
I installed initially Waydroid without Google play services and used MicroG. It worked fine except the annoyance of having to constantly update the apps and settings.
Now I installed Waydroid with Google play services and it is exactly like want Android phone. Google play store and all included.
I would tell you to give it a try and see.
The problem is that nobody NEEDS another OS, neither developers nor users. A bunch of people like to play around and experiment. No amount of android compatibility will make a dent in android usage. Blackberry had a compatible android runtime, but without real Google Services. Developers didn’t bother writing native apps in part because of this. Users didn’t care about it.
Unlocking Google Pixels bootloader is the EASIEST phone to unlock. You do not need a code or a magic number. All you do is enable OEM Unlocking in developer options, then ADB reboot fastboot, then fastboot flashing unlock. It will confirm on device (because it will erase user data when it's finished the bootloader unlocking) that is all. You could do this day one
Rare Google W
If you think about it, someone could put wine and proton and make a make shift steam deck.
You can oem unlock any pixel phone. That's one of the prerequisites for rooting. It's right in the developer settings.
This looks so wonderfully snappy and usable. If only it had app developer support for commonly used stuff, like banking, navigation and video services, I could've probably tried daily-driving it.
Tbh, phone banking is really overrated.
@@zethcader6478 Also probably the most unsafe way to do banking
I am feeling the same. I am trying Ubuntu Touch OS right now. These are common Pros and Cons as you said ... Thanks
Linux on mobile is still miles behind traditional android. Well i hope they integrate native android support or no one gonna use Linux alternatives on mobile.
check out waydroid, they literally already have that
@@tulilirockz Never heard of it, but thanks for that info.
Sailfish OS has Android app emulation. But only so many phones are aviailable and I don't think there are any available in the US currently.
First time watcher, long time Minter. Both your video and Mint are great.
Wow, the Linux user bases are really passionate, considering how Ubuntu is now coming to phones. I wonder how many other distributions are going mobile.
This is a really old project.
You're my hero. I wanted to get UT on my Pixel3a but there's no recent video about UT and sepecially about UT on Pixel3a. Thank You
For this exact reason I got myself a cheap pre owned Pixel 3a. Although I wasnt brave enough to switch to Ubuntu Touch because of missing WhatsApp 🙏 Got mine for 45€.
Apps will always be a problem especially since our society is so integrated to them.
Waydroid works on Pixel 3a but compatibility apps isn't a sure thing especially for secured apps like banking apps.
Also, it kinda drain the battery faster.
Whatsapp can open thru website
@@abdmuhaimin you can't call someone on the web version, only texting is available.
Not sure what's the state of Waydroid with Ubports but it's worth a shot
@@PakoSt It works on some devices and may work quite well. Of course it depends on the app. And it also currently lacks proper integration so it's like a VM and drains the battery more than usual.
Linux probably would be a major operating system if everybody just worked together. There's so many different flavors and communities working on their own.
I remember when Google making phones was just a joke. Now, they've been creating phones for almost 6-7 years. God, how time flies before you notice it, and things change at a seemingly rapid pace.
and they are indeed quite good for a certain profile of user!
They have low market share so not something to be proud of
While you drop down the top menu you can move your finger left and right to select the desired option.
I've used Ubports. Its a great OS, but the main drawback is the lack of software developers writing applications. I wish there were more 3rd party applications available.
That will to great extent be solved by the support for Flutter. Any app that doesn't require system integration, will just run on Linux. And that is a lot of apps.
Ubports Supports waydroid which is Android in a Container allowing ubports to run Android apps
I am still salty that they didn’t release the Ubuntu Edge.
Ubuntu hardware would do so well and this was especially true in like 2011-2014.
Ah, unity, this video aged well
Just the user interface is so unusual I'd probably never get used to this. In comparison with this, Iphones and Android phones have pretty much the same interface. 😅
If this was updated and had the bugs fixed.. i think Linux could weigh in as a viable competitor to the smart device market..
Particularly now that Flutter supports Linux. Flutter has an enormously large app developer community.
Location and navigation actually does work, but you have to be in direct sight of the satellites, that means you need to be outdoors. Google uses other means i.e. known routers and stuff to help with location services. Location does not work behind thick walls, just as google does not work inside a tunnel and such.
0:45 and as we all know, it takes 30 days for two weeks to pass 😁
I kept using it for a bit after recording this. :)
@@TechHut yeah I'm just kidding mate, just couldn't pass that without a comment :)
great video ! it was really gratifying to see this video because it was on my experiments list !
loved it !
I absolutely want to switch to a Linux phone, full-time. Unfortuantely, accessibility just doesn't exist in these; Neither Sailfish, Ubuntu Touch, Manjaro or PureOS have accessibility available. I need screen magnification and color inversion to work due to my impairment. But other than that? I am throughly impressed! True convergence is also slowly being implemented, which is amazing :D
That is an inherent weakness with bazaar-style development, that minorities are minorities. It's easier to get me to work for free on something that affects me directly. So for really good accessibility, you absolutely depend on serious funding, which is difficult to get when you don't have all that many users. But to be honest, we do have a problem with those who need it as well. Summers of 2010 and 2011, I spent a lot o my time volunteering for this for Ubuntu, but I had problems getting people to help me research issues. Because the minority that needs these features, see us as a minority that they don't care about. And that's fair, because they're not computer geeks. So the lack of accessibility, is not because we aren't supportive or don't want to help, but because it simply is difficult. But this is a problem that could be solved with money and money can be raised by anyone. It should primarily be raised by those who need the stuff they're raising money for, in my opinion.
This UI is something from another planet, incredible!
Ikr
I think the problem with Linux phones (despite how I'd love them to become popular) is the lack of clear vision how apps should be created (or ported to it from mainstream platforms). If UBports bet on web apps - totally fine, they are lighter, take less bandwidth to load, support offline mode (aka PWAs), etc. BUT it's not claimed by anyone that this is the designed model for developers to go. No app platform -> no devs -> no apps -> death. Take the Windows Mobile for example - it is still beautiful even today, but it was killed by wrong strategy.
UBports doesn't exactly bet on web apps. It's just a result of having no "native" apps support 😅
The real problems though appear to be the absolute basics. Battery life, phone calls, etc. It's not even the apps holding it back.
@@drownthepoor I agree- these things are important, but if there’s no TOP-10 apps available and no active development being done - how would you convince non-linux enthusiast to ditch android in favor of Linux phone
@@drownthepoor Those things have been working fairly well in UT. I've been using UT as my main phone since 2015 :)
Bought an Android phone as secondary a few years ago and sadly it meant my reliance to apps and such has increased.
@@lisovyy You're not going to convince any non-Linux enthusiasts to ditch Android for Linux. It's not going to happen. Even if it had every app available to them why would they want to leave behind Android? The one argument you might make is privacy, and they don't even care about that. Not to mention all of those top 10 apps are anti-privacy.
10:42 Andrew Tate conquering the TH-cam 😂😂😂😂 TOP G 😂😂😂
Lmao
Wait till he realizes what android runs on
Android uses such a old, buggy and cut down Linux kernel that even FreeBSD guys feel pity for it. He must be using a very new kernel compared to the most up to date Android. Even that GPL/Kernel bugs Google so they are working on Fuschia.
Android is spyware with closed source apps and bloat
but like isn't android based on linux kernel? I might be wrong.
16:40 *THANKS* for showing how a video *SHOULD* be shot! :)
PSA: We can watch these *full screen* on our TVs, monitors and laptops instead of the stupid migraine-inducing narrow (and now ultra-narrow,) videos so many people are producing these days. Maybe they should watch this one to see just how easy it is to do it right!
To make a point, a while back at the local pub, someone was trying to take a picture of several friends but couldn't get them all in. So, I suggested turning the camera into a horizontal position. They were happy with the suggestion and the result. ☺
1. Can you delete the web browser to simplify your phone?
2. Which music and podcast apps can you use?
3. Can you use google maps or osm and on this?
I hate to be that person, but it's worth knowing that polycarbonate is just a specific kind of plastic
With USB-C id love to see a bulkier beefier phone I can use as a PC with a dock anywhere / anytime. I am just waiting for the day to get Linux on my phone.
How did 2 weeks become 30 days?
Some people carry 2 phones.
I have a pixel 3a. I initially had UT installed but I drop it for CalyxOs. It's basically a barebone droid but it's a fort knox for off the gridders 😂 I'm sold on the fact that I relocked my bootloader after install which makes it harder to override and wipe. But I do want to return back to UT tho.
Android is Linux too
Most things are
If so someone needs to make a gui interface app that is basically a window app to create shortcuts to Linux apps and use a window kind of ui
no, the kernel is linux.
Any Android phone is technically a Linux phone ;)
That drop in connection is an issue. If that can be fixed, then I could use this as a daily driver. Currently, that seems to be an issue. But just to confirm, is there just a drop in the quality of the connection, or does it lose connection altogether? Also, how is the android app support?
drops to 2g for about 20-30 seconds then it goes back to full speed LTE. I noticed it happens a lot when calls come in. I don't think it can handle calls and data at the same time. I really hope with is fixed in the next major release.
@@TechHut Okay, thank you very much. You're one of my favourite tech youtubers. Keep it up!
@@TechHut Are you in the US? Maybe it's because of the termination of their 3G signals or something like that?
UT doesn't support VoLTE yet.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Android a form of Linux? Or based from Linux? I understand that the googler overlords have their hands all in it though.
I have a few questions/concerns regarding this particular O.S. ...
1- One thing I think I saw briefly was that the home screen rotated to the proper horizontal, widescreen position while you were moving the phone around. Is it functional in the widescreen position? How about the menus/settings/ messages etc etc screens? Do they operate in a proper widescreen orientation as well? I totally hate it when apps or certain screens are stuck in that horrid, awful, ridiculous "thinscreen" vertical position and refuse to rotate even though rotate is turned on. ...pisses me off. My eyes and peripheral vision are horizontally oriented. tallscreen/thinscreen never made one ounce of sense to me. So having the ability to use the screen properly when using a cellphone is a HUGE plus for me.
2- The large red area in the homescreen: Can there be desktop shortcuts, apps and widgets put there? Like most importantly, a clock display. Maybe a few of the most used apps. Browser. Media player. etc. Seems pointless to just have that much screen real-estate sitting empty and useless. Sure, it looks clean, and I like clean. But I would also like to have at least a prominent clock/date display there. Maybe even the ability to flick left/right for more "pages" of shortcuts.
3- Also regarding the homescreen: Is the toolbar able to be moved to the bottom (regardless of screen orientation) and possibly made smaller? Like you can do on a PC running Mint, Ubuntu or that royal "pane" in the privacy, Windows. etc.
4- Browser: Firefox. Done. There is no other option. Can it run Firefox? One would think so since Linux comes with Firefox as its default browser. (and has the neat setup to keep it updated automatically when the OS is updated) Yeah the FF app for android is kind of... crap, But it still runs adblock for those sites that violently shove 50 ads up your hiney to read 5 lines of their content. Like seriously, half of your data plan is used up loading stinkin' ads! Not for me, Jack!
5: This is a real big concern: Is there ANY word on getting the location bug fixed? I NEEED my phone for accurate, reliable, turn-by-turn navigation. That alone is a total dealbreaker. The other stuff I could kind of deal with, but no nav? Nope!
6: How about for tablets? I have a tablet that is just begging to get some form of a Linux mobile OS put on it..
I know I asked a bunch. But whatever info regarding any of these concerns that you (or any other viewer) could enlighten me with would be greatly appreciated.
I'll be keeping an eye on this one.
THANKS! 😄
Polycarbonate is plastic
I am blind and unfortunately accessibility for my needs is the last thing to happen for things like this. I did check Ubuntu Touch's website briefly to see if anything was mentioned about accessibility or the Orca Screen Reader, but I found nothing on the surface. Perhaps some other blind user has managed to get Orca running on that platform with some success, but I am not that advanced of a user. Beyond that, my phone has to be a phone first and a computer second. Nice to see some alternatives though becoming more of a thing, climbing out of that niche.
After a quick search, 39 million people are blind and 284 million are visually impaired. That's more than enough people to warrant a system designed from scratch for people who are blind. I mean, that's probably the same market size as Windows 98. And since so much about modern phones has to do with speed of graphics, I'm betting that you could make devices for blind people really cheap. So if you figure out a way to unite the blind into one purchasing power, I will bet my life that I can make the best system ever created for blind people. But that's always the problem; uniting people.
@@jeschinstad yeah. I mean, I don’t want to sound like things aren’t getting better. There are so many options these days compared to when I was young. Computers have gotten fast enough that we no longer need dedicated hardware for screen reading technology. Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop all have integrated accessibility software. Windows itself has several 3rd party options that improve on its already robust Narrator system. iPhones have had Voice Over since iPhone 3G. Androids have had Talkback since about 2015 and it just got a major upgrade with Braille support a year or so ago. Heck, even PlayStation got a Tripple-a title that is natively playable by the blind in The Last of Us p2 and followed that up with p1 about a year later, and the PS5 and Xbox have robust accessibility integration. So, I can’t complain too much.
@@stephenluttrell8958: Right. You can try to bridge the gap with a device that was specifically designed for the seeing and make it less hostile to the blind. That's a good thing, but "less hostile" will never be equal to friendly. So if you really want to make a good product for the blind, it should be designed for the blind. A good example of this, is when people try to design electric airplanes based on existing designs. It simply cannot work, because electric motors are fundamentally different from ICEs. If you want to make an electric plane, it has to be designed from scratch to be a an electric plane and I would argue that the same is true for computers designed for blind people. But being less hostile is better than being hostile and that's what accessibility is; being less hostile. It is not being friendly.
@@jeschinstadI'm not sure I totally agree with that. I guess, firstly I'm not sure electric motors vs Internal Combustion is a fair example. Plane engines, after all, have to obey the laws of physics. How we interact with technology from an interface perspective is a somewhat softer science. At its core, user interfaces are all about getting data to the user and the methods by which we can respond to that data. It doesn't matter if you swipe to a selection, directly touch that selection, shake the phone to get to that selection, or use a head tracking device to get to the selection, the end result is the same; a selection is made; the operating system doesn't care how that selection was made. Even in this highly graphical world we find ourselves in it's mostly just window dressing for alphanumeric data. An arrow pointing left is still just a "back" button underneath. So, making something accessible to a blind person is just finding a way to present things in an audio format, and slightly altering the response of the interface to account for the fact that we need to find something on the screen rather than just touch it with a finger. Heck, a huge percentage of interacting with a device is just knowing when a cursor moves or changes focus; so, just putting some sound effects in an interface is half the battle, before any TTS has to happen. Just watch any blind gamer play an inaccessible title. Experience teaches them where things are located in the menus even when they can't read them. So, that's why I think I have to disagree about the hostile/friendly categories. Seems a bit like a false dichotomy to me.
@@stephenluttrell8958: «Plane engines, after all, have to obey the laws of physics.»
Does being OEM unlocked mean coming with a pre-unlocked bootloader ? Cause I was able to do that easily with a refurb mi A2 I bought, like didn't even require Xiaomi's official unlocking tool just standard android platform tools like adb and fastboot probably cause it was part of the android one programme. Since carrier locking is not a thing in India that isn't a concern either.
Only thing stopping the change to Linux or Graphene is the fact they will not run the banking apps in the UK.
actually you can unlock the oem yourself i think you use fastboot and type "fastboot oem unlock"
In the case of pixels, you should use "fastboot flashing unlock"
The stack of icons on the left, and free space for widgets on the right is really cool and I wish I could do that on my iphone
The Unity Design team was a very productive and cool community to be a part of. Nothing was too small. I still believe that the Unity 7 desktop is the best that has ever been made, even though others are catching up.
Android is linux too but just the kernel. Most of the time when people say Linux, they mean gnu linux
And here is me trying to get Fyde OS for the GPD pocket 2 for the Motorola Xoom on a microSD card while using team win recovery project as my Default recovery setting 😊 (Note: I recommend for some people to use team win recovery project because it’s actually a user friendly interface. And Fyde OS is basically chrome OS but lighter(Yes, it has a play store))
And the TWRP theme is blue
"100% compatible" -> can't change screen brightness.
and people ask why not more people use linux
This is not on linux.
I would blame the "Adjust brightness automatically" option for this.
My 13 year old son is an absolute Linux guy and he's incredible at coding. He doesn't really like his iPhone 8 too much but would like to have a Ubuntu phone. Maybe I can make his wish become true by getting that Pixel phone (though it would be great if Ubuntu Touch ran on the Galaxy Note 4 with the SPen).
Actually Android is also a Linux based OS.
Yes and no, only the kernel
Only the kernel. Libraries, runtimes,etc are different
So is iOS.
Thanks for the video. As a Linux desktop user, I'd like to see the Penguin to enter the mobile world.
This looks promising. Unfortunately, best to my knowledge, very few (if any) banks or other institution provide apps for Linux. And this is where the problem starts. Of course, you can use the web-browser versions, but they don't always work well in mobile browsers. Still, good to see things are improving. And thank you for the video. Very much appreciated.
Can we just get one thing straight: Android is a Linux operating system, and thus phones that run Android are, by extension, Linux phones.
I think for videos and articles like this, it's important to refer to GNU/Linux phones, like those running Ubuntu Touch.
Yes, all of us here probably already know what you mean, but the more people keep referring to non-Android Linux phones as just "Linux Phones", the more average people will think that Android phones don't run Linux.
Sorry to be pedantic!
You're technically running a mobile Linux distro with Android, as it's based on the Linux kernel (last I checked). Regardless this is still cool!
misleading title, as any Android is Linux-based, proper title would be something like "I used a Linux Ubuntu Touch phone for 30 days"
The kernel is based on Linux. The OS is nor. Sure it uses elf, sure it has init. It mounts and swirches root to the system partition. But it uses a completely different display system, the os is based on dalvik VM, uses NDK instead of libc, so on.
I wish linux phones will be a big thing in the future.. In the meantime I really enjoy using iodéOS which allows me to have a google-free experience but still can use apps that are not compatible on linux.
If you wanna easily adapt from iOS or Android, you should download the right extensions and download the iOS/Android equivalent of Wine
This actually blew me away, i always had a weird relation with ubuntu, my few interactions with it were back in 12.10 and recently on my job and it lags af, and i was always trying to make my boomer superior's mind to install at least Lubuntu cuz it really lagged, although i'm sure the PCs are to blame, my company literally puts windows 10 on 13yo pentium machines
So even tho i have been fancying mobile linux for a while AND i do have a linux QEMU VM set in a tablet here, which works great with kbd+touch, i never expected Ubuntu Phone to be so cool! I guess i have some mind opening to do, congratulations
You didn't even cover things like do we get a terminal access? do we get root access? things like that would really matter to me if I'm going to rock a Linux phone. the GPS thing sounds like a misconfiguration or bad driver.
Also what browser do you get do we, is it Firefox? & on this thing you talk about playing videos is it VLC or some kind of native app
For me debloating via adb with regular android seems like a better option for people who like to game on there phones as the drivers are not comparable for example i did mess around with a nexus 5 on ubuntu touch you could not get playback ubove 360p on ub but you could stream it at 1080p on android. positive thing about using adb (and configuring privacy settings on the phone and google account) on a modern phone you can remove most of the proprietary stuff without breaking the phone (ofcourse you will need to know what each package does as you will run the risk of bricking your phone) and replace them with open source apps from fdroid and still be able to make use of the speed and utilty of a modern android phone as well for gaming and emulation. when it comes to people who want privacy they can also just not log in and remove google services (breaks alot of apps) the data collection will be no where near the level as on a stock android phone.
I installed Ubuntu Touch (based on 20.04) on my Pixel 3a today. It was on Android 12 and lost security updates a year or so ago. I am happy to breathe new life in it for it is my only phone and I see no sense in buying another while this one still functions.
I think I'll give it a try with a Google 6 or 6 Pro. Naturally, it's from eBay. It's unlocked on both ends, factory/carrier unlocked.
In hell I'll be in good company....
Sailfish is more usable as a daily driver than this
I used to use one as my daily for two years when the Jolla c(Indian variant of it anyways) came out and i still have that in my carry bag for no reason whatsoever other than pure love for the device
Have they re-written the Sailfish EULA? The last time I read it, it contained insane statements that would completely prohibit me from even consider using it.
@@jeschinstad like what?
@@kickskii: Last time I read it, they claimed the right to void your license to use the system if you display anything that they deem to be improper. So if someone sends you an obscene message and you open it, then you have forfeited your rights. Completely unenforceable, of course, but the idea itself...