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

The Case for Ubuntu Phone

gould.cx

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 103 posts

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#41

Post by BuuQu9hu »

soneil wrote: post #39
Freak_NL wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> […] but my carrier in the US probably doesn't support such phones yet as far as I'm aware. Is there something specific about US carriers that prevents a phone running Ubuntu Touch from working? My experience in Europe is that my Ubuntu Touch phone (Meizu Pro 5) just works, because it supports all the necessary bands and SIM-cards. I don't think my carrier really cares what phone I use.

The US is still split between carriers using cdma, and gsm. So if the carrier is on cdma, SIM cards don't exist.

Are the CDMA ones planning on moving to LTE?

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#42

Post by [deleted] »

soneil wrote: post #39
Freak_NL wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> […] but my carrier in the US probably doesn't support such phones yet as far as I'm aware. Is there something specific about US carriers that prevents a phone running Ubuntu Touch from working? My experience in Europe is that my Ubuntu Touch phone (Meizu Pro 5) just works, because it supports all the necessary bands and SIM-cards. I don't think my carrier really cares what phone I use.

The US is still split between carriers using cdma, and gsm. So if the carrier is on cdma, SIM cards don't exist.

[deleted]

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#43

Post by soneil »

edent wrote: post #25

The problem is, Ubuntu is completely unsuitable for a mobile phone or tablet. I bought one last year and had to return it because it was functionally unusable - https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2016/05/the-ubuntu-tablet-a-review-... The OS doesn't support modern features like multi-touch, many apps require a physical keyboard, it can't connect reliably to Bluetooth devices, app switching doesn't work - even icons are missing…

I had pretty much exactly the same experience with Ubuntu Touch (but on an Aquaris phone). All in all I found the window manager a frustrating and horrible experience.

But the one "killer app" I really missed was email. There's precisely one native app, and it fails to load subfolders in imap.

A "free" OS feels like a petty distinction when the only (usable) applications are wrappers for mobile sites.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#44

Post by Brakenshire »

hd4 wrote: post #27

The most logical thing for Ubuntu Phone to do would be to start out with making some kind of ROM that people could sideload onto their existing Android. The people who first started out using Ubuntu were interested enough and wanted an alternative to Windows badly enough that they didn't mind installing it as a replacement. Why can't Ubuntu Phone start out as a replacement to Android? The only "problem" being that An…

I think this is relatively easy if you have the right phone. I think you can even install MultiROM through the app store, and then install Ubuntu Touch alongside your existing Android installation.

https://2buntu.com/articles/1510/installing-ubuntu-touch-wit...

You're right about the half-hearted device support, though.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#45

Post by dsr_ »

hd4 wrote: post #27

The most logical thing for Ubuntu Phone to do would be to start out with making some kind of ROM that people could sideload onto their existing Android. The people who first started out using Ubuntu were interested enough and wanted an alternative to Windows badly enough that they didn't mind installing it as a replacement. Why can't Ubuntu Phone start out as a replacement to Android? The only "problem" being that An…

And they should write a porting guide, first thing. Start with setting up a dev environment and cross-compiler.

Then they should do a sample port to some very easy to obtain hardware, a Chinese $100 GSM phone, and document the whole process step-by-step.

If you want wide support, you need to leverage enthusiasm.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#46

Post by morganvachon »

sverige wrote: post #23
udp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would love to have a Ubuntu Phone, but my carrier in the US probably doesn't support such phones yet as far as I'm aware. How does that work? Does the carrier have to support each new brand of phone? I don't think we have a system like that here in the UK. I have an iPhone 6 paid for with a monthly contract, but I was using a ~2002 Nokia feature phone recently while it was away for repair.

Just went through this research again for the first time in five or six years. One of the most frustrating things about US carriers is that they force manufacturers to limit their offerings in this market. For example, dual SIM card phones are not offered on any phones built for the US market, since carriers make a lot of their money from financing new phones. There are also phones with three and four SIM cards made…

> For example, dual SIM card phones are not offered on any phones built for the US market, since carriers make a lot of their money from financing new phones.

Actually there are plenty of dual SIM models available in the US from US companies that are 100% compatible with US carriers, you just have to be willing to open a browser and shop for five minutes. I am currently using a Microsoft Lumia 650 dual SIM phone, purchased from Microsoft and shipped to me in Georgia (US) from California. It fully supports both AT&T's and T-Mobile's networks, and consequently all MVNOs of those networks. Until I gave her my Nexus 6, my wife was using a dual SIM Blu Android phone, sold by a Florida based company and shipped from the US. Again, the phone supported all US GSM bands.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#47

Post by andrewclunn »

PCs have interchangeable components that are built around standards. So if it's easier to write for them in an abstracted way. Vendors control the hardware for their phones. They have no interest in enabling people to remove their Android flavor, with built in crapware. Open source phone OSes will come, but only after we've reduced the smart phone to a commodity and market forces have compelled standardization through economy of scale.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#49

Post by grumpwagon »

sneak wrote: post #28
sverige wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just went through this research again for the first time in five or six years. One of the most frustrating things about US carriers is that they force manufacturers to limit their offerings in this market. For example, dual SIM card phones are not offered on any phones built for the US market, since carriers make a lot of their money from financing new phones. There are also phones with three and four SIM cards made…

> Sprint and Verizon use a different protocol called CDMA which is incompatible with GSM. This was only true up until LTE. LTE is GSM.

This is a distinction without a difference until VoLTE is the only option. Calls and texts are still sent over CDMA.

US CDMA carriers right now require that you whitelist your phone's IMEI before it will activate. That means, even if your phone is compatible with all bands used, you can't just pop a SIM in and have it work. That may change once VoLTE is everywhere, but it may not, because carriers like making it hard to bring your own device, so you'll buy it from them instead. Verizon has some restrictions here, due to their purchase of the 700mhz LTE spectrum, but they still make it difficult.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#50

Post by simonh »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #15
rcarmo wrote: post #10

I applaud the OP's bravery, but after a long, long time in the telco business and having seen many attempts from multiple platforms towards gaining a foothold (Symbian, Maemo, LiMo - including Vodafone's own version - Bada, etc.), I have to point out that Ubuntu Phone, despite the vision and values behind it, is at a massively overwhelming disadvantage in terms of both telco appeal (what I and my former colleagues st…

I think the biggest thing that could probably help the Ubuntu Phone is an approachable development environment. If the road to developing apps for a phone is short enough, that people on their weekend make apps for it, it will expand rapidly with apps. This requires great tooling, and documentation. Potentially even adoption of a programming language that either comes with a powerful SDK or is tailored from the groun…

They should be targeting OEMs and telcos as their primary customers and a first class dev environment is key to that. The reason Android AOSP is so widely available is it's free, is trivial to port to new hardware and is easy to customise. Since ORMS and telcos are the gatekeepers to anything reaching customers, appealing to them has to come first. Fail to attract them and it doesn't matter how popular you might have been with customers, because they'll never even get to see your product.
Post reply on HN