The Case for Ubuntu Phone • Hacker News Board

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#91

Post by digi_owl » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 6:32 AM UTC

vinay427 wrote: post #21

giancarlostoro wrote: post #13

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. If they can sooner reach the multiple carriers in this side of the globe effectively (and hopefully not AT&T first, kind of sick of everyone going to them first) then that would help the ecosystem currently going on. I am not enjoying the options left. I loved Android at first because it is base…

I don't understand the aversion to rooting, other than the obvious security implications. Few consumers install Ubuntu (or another desktop distro) on their machine and don't allow themselves root access, so it's difficult to imagine having much freedoms on your phone without doing so either. Try a custom ROM (e.g. CyanogenMod or its apparent descendant LineageOS) which adds many more options to AOSP and doesn't force…

I think it comes down to expense upon repair, and OEMs raising a stink if you try to get something fixed on a rooted device (even if it is clearly a hardware failure).

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#92

Post by digi_owl » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 6:40 AM UTC

atmin wrote: post #81

rsync wrote: post #67

We really need something like "GNU phoneutils" ... a big package of command line utilities to control and manipulate a telephone. I really, really want to do things like this: cat file | sms -send -n 4157771234 grep mom addresses | awk (field with phonenumber) | dial --nobusy --retry 3 That is to say, I want a unix phone . I want to run the phone with unix and unix commands. Certainly not all of the time, but some of…

You kinda can do it on Android via Termux: https://termux.com/add-on-api.html

Hrmf, 5.0 or newer. And here I was wondering if I could get some extra mileage out of my older devices...

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#93

Post by BuuQu9hu » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 9:02 AM UTC

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…

That is exactly how they started before partnering with some phone vendors:

https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/phone/devices/installing-ubu...

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#94

Post by BuuQu9hu » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 9:04 AM UTC

dsr_ wrote: post #45

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.

They have a porting guide here:

https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/phone/devices/porting-new-de...

Cross-compilers have been available for a while now.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#95

Post by BuuQu9hu » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 9:06 AM UTC

rsync wrote: post #67

We really need something like "GNU phoneutils" ... a big package of command line utilities to control and manipulate a telephone. I really, really want to do things like this: cat file | sms -send -n 4157771234 grep mom addresses | awk (field with phonenumber) | dial --nobusy --retry 3 That is to say, I want a unix phone . I want to run the phone with unix and unix commands. Certainly not all of the time, but some of…

Closest you can get is sending DBUS commands to oFono or FSO. Should be easy to write a command-line wrapper for those though.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#96

Post by BuuQu9hu » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 9:07 AM UTC

opless wrote: post #51

"What I find most interesting thing about this discussion is that it is the original reason that Google bought Android. They were concerned that with Apple controlling the smartphone market they’d be in a position to damage Google’s ability to compete in services" Google bought android in 2005. Apple release iPhone in 2007. Do what now? I'd love a truly linux-based phone. Though it's unlikely that you'll ever get "ro…

Android phones are Linux-based and you can often get root via fastboot or some exploits.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#97

Post by BuuQu9hu » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 9:11 AM UTC

jasonkostempski wrote: post #62

quanticle wrote: post #58

The biggest strength and weakness of Ubuntu Phone is that it's a device without an intrinsic set of services. If you buy an Android device, you get Google Services. If you buy an iPhone, you get Apple services. What he's missing is that the device is pretty much useless without the services. The services are as necessary to the functionality of the device as say, filesystem drivers are on an operating system. Yes, it…

If they're trying to target the same customers that buy Apple and Android for the services and all the other skin-deep beauty, I think they're going to fail for sure. Hopefully, there's enough people that just want a general purpose computer with and open source operating system that just happens to include cellular internet connection (bonuses for me would be a a hardware keyboard, is at a size that actually fits in…

Folks interested in what you describe should probably look at the Neo900 or the Pyra:

https://neo900.org/ http://pyra-handheld.com/

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#98

Post by digi_owl » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 1:41 PM UTC

Brakenshire wrote: post #35

akjainaj wrote: post #32

>Another good answer is all the benefits of Free Software, but many of those are benefits the general public doesn’t yet realize they need. So if they don't agree those benefits are needed, it's because they are wrong/inexperienced/misled/stupid/...? You think people should care about privacy and "openness of the software", whatever that is (most people can't code, so they rightfully don't care about the availability…

> You think people should care about privacy and "openness of the software", whatever that is (most people can't code, so they rightfully don't care about the availability of the source code of the OS or apps). What most people (including myself) care about, instead, is ease of use and reliability. If you talk to inexperienced computer users, probably the most common complaint you will get is that software they are u…

I don't see how "inexperience" have anything to do with it.

Sure, experienced users may be more adaptive. But that does not mean they enjoy it. In particular when they have been through the process a few times, and it always ended up feeling like a red queen's race.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#99

Post by jasonvorhe » Mon, Jan 16, 2017, 11:26 PM UTC

Reading this I'm totally confused what he's talking about: On Android, Telegram is miles ahead of Hangouts & Allo in terms of UX, feature support and performance, while Google Drive feels like a completely wasted opportunity for a storage service by Google on their own platform. Hangouts even ships being disabled per default on their flagship Pixel phones. Instead of growing the amount of apps OEMs need to preinstall to get access to the Play Store, they reduce it, year by year. Even after all these years Android is still designed to be an OS where every company could offer Google-like services and integrate them like Google does.

I'd be surprised if the author actually used an Android device in the last years.

Re: The Case for Ubuntu Phone

#100

Post by sreenadh » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 11:00 AM UTC

What we really need is a good device. A device with proper open standards so that we can install Ubuntu or Jolla or Cyanogenmod or any other future OSs. We can get some standard devices by some OEMs.