Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

DistroWatch Ubuntu Phone review

distrowatch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 94 posts

Re: DistroWatch Ubuntu Phone review

#51

Post by dmca »

rglullis wrote: post #46

I got the BQ Aquarius 5 a few months ago, after my Moto G2 SIM card stopped working. So when comparing two budget-but-capable-phones, I can say that the hardware on the Ubuntu phone is not the problem. The software they have is great, and I haven't seen any half-backed features. The updates are consistent and always bring something interesting. The idea of lenses and scopes are great as an alternative to the lack of…

I can't speak for this OS but I use OsmAnd (http://osmand.net) in place of google maps on cyanogenmod and it does do a reasonable job of voice navigation (using the same OpenStreetMap data as uNav). It's open source so it should be able to work in principle.

Re: DistroWatch Ubuntu Phone review

#52

Post by mrmondo »

pjmlp wrote: post #38
mrmondo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise, how on earth do you manage to make Linux use 1GB of RAM without running Java or some sort of large, memory optimised database?

JavaScript, QML and Go.

Totally agree with JavaScript, it's the new Java except that it's lowered the bar to people that otherwise couldn't write 'applications', which while thats great for learners and education - it means that you tend to get people that are great designers and good at product branding pushing poorly engineered software.

Go however, in my experience tends to be very fast and lightweight.

I don't know anything about QML so won't comment.

Re: DistroWatch Ubuntu Phone review

#53

Post by mrmondo »

Arnt wrote: post #40
mrmondo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise, how on earth do you manage to make Linux use 1GB of RAM without running Java or some sort of large, memory optimised database?

Twenty years ago we linuxheads poked fun at Irix for starting 36 daemons on a singleuser workstation. Or was it 43? Whatever the number, I guess ubuntu has caught up.

Sir, I approve of your comment :)

Ubuntu is the one distro that I wouldn't want to run on my phone, but I'd love a functioning Linux phone that's well setup and maintained, I think the real kicker for me would be able to plug it into a simple dock when I get to work and have my full desktop OS running, but first we need a distro that's more... shall we say 'sensible' or 'tested' taking on that task I think.

I wonder if it has block level encryption and SELinux enabled? I'd hope so.

Re: DistroWatch Ubuntu Phone review

#54

Post by luxpir »

rglullis wrote: post #46

I got the BQ Aquarius 5 a few months ago, after my Moto G2 SIM card stopped working. So when comparing two budget-but-capable-phones, I can say that the hardware on the Ubuntu phone is not the problem. The software they have is great, and I haven't seen any half-backed features. The updates are consistent and always bring something interesting. The idea of lenses and scopes are great as an alternative to the lack of…

> - There is no decent story for messaging/VoIP

I have many gripes with my Ubuntu phone, but this isn't one of them. Aside from my personal preference of opting out of Whatsapp, they do have the webapp version so you don't need to carry that Android around once registered.

They also have Signal, which works well. I SSH/tmux into a box with command line Finch (pidgin for CLI) and IRSSI when I really need to IM 'on the go' and I don't have their number for a message. Which is a rare situation.

Re: DistroWatch Ubuntu Phone review

#55

Post by Arnt »

mrmondo wrote: post #53
Arnt wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twenty years ago we linuxheads poked fun at Irix for starting 36 daemons on a singleuser workstation. Or was it 43? Whatever the number, I guess ubuntu has caught up.

Sir, I approve of your comment :) Ubuntu is the one distro that I wouldn't want to run on my phone, but I'd love a functioning Linux phone that's well setup and maintained, I think the real kicker for me would be able to plug it into a simple dock when I get to work and have my full desktop OS running, but first we need a distro that's more... shall we say 'sensible' or 'tested' taking on that task I think. I wonder…

There's always chroot debian and https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andromium/the-superbook...

Re: DistroWatch Ubuntu Phone review

#56

Post by Brakenshire »

CaptSpify wrote: post #9
rtpg wrote: post #2

Surprised at how good this phone sounds! Though I am not sure I have the courage to move from Android, it does sound like Ubuntu Phone could be a decent 4th player in the market now that FFOS is DOA. I imagine you have a lot more flexibility for the software you write? Like, could I easily use Python + Tkinter to set up a quick "app" for my phone? Basically, is this phone more of a small computer with Ubuntu, or a di…

I keep hearing it's supposed to be pretty much stock ubuntu with a slick front-end and phone drivers. I haven't been able to try it yet though. I hope it is, because I've been dying to get an actual linux phone for a long time. Unfortunately this review was a little skimpy on what went on underneath the hood.

It's not quite stock Ubuntu in the sense that the core system is read only, in order to allow for OTA updates. So at present you can only apt-get by going into a dev mode which means you can't get the OTA's.

Re: DistroWatch Ubuntu Phone review

#57

Post by Brakenshire »

dmca wrote: post #51
rglullis wrote: post #46

I got the BQ Aquarius 5 a few months ago, after my Moto G2 SIM card stopped working. So when comparing two budget-but-capable-phones, I can say that the hardware on the Ubuntu phone is not the problem. The software they have is great, and I haven't seen any half-backed features. The updates are consistent and always bring something interesting. The idea of lenses and scopes are great as an alternative to the lack of…

I can't speak for this OS but I use OsmAnd ( http://osmand.net ) in place of google maps on cyanogenmod and it does do a reasonable job of voice navigation (using the same OpenStreetMap data as uNav). It's open source so it should be able to work in principle.

I agree there are good applications available, but OSMAnd is an Android app, you'd need some sort of compatibility layer for it to run on stock Linux. I think there is work going on for that happen, but it's not there yet. The project I can recall is Shashlik, there are one or two others as well.

I think Android app compatibility is necessary for a Linux phone. You won't be able to use Play Services, but a lot of apps do not require that. Android compatibility would for instance give you WhatsApp. It also gives you access to hardware like activity monitors (Garmin and Withings apps don't require play services), which otherwise is very unlikely to be supported. And also sophisticated public transport apps like Moovit.

Re: DistroWatch Ubuntu Phone review

#59

Post by pjmlp »

mrmondo wrote: post #52
pjmlp wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JavaScript, QML and Go.

Totally agree with JavaScript, it's the new Java except that it's lowered the bar to people that otherwise couldn't write 'applications', which while thats great for learners and education - it means that you tend to get people that are great designers and good at product branding pushing poorly engineered software. Go however, in my experience tends to be very fast and lightweight. I don't know anything about QML so…

QML is something like XAML for UI design, but it is based on JavaScript. You can write a full application in QML if the built in widgets are good enough.
Post reply on HN