Ubuntu Touch System Apps Have A Ways To Improve

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Touch System Apps Have A Ways To Improve

While Ubuntu developers are working to bring Ubuntu Touch Apps to the Ubuntu desktop as part of their mobile convergence strategy, the Ubuntu Touch System Apps have quite a ways to improve in being comparable to the existing Ubuntu desktop applications or the core apps found on iOS and Android...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTUyMjE

[devius]

How the hell was this going to be ready to ship to backers of the Ubuntu Edge campaign 6 months from now?

OTOH, with 32 million $ maybe they could spare a million or two to hire more devs, so.... we'll never know what could have been.

[guido12]

How's the touch friendly terminal going? The main reason I'm interested in Ubuntu Touch is that I can run the same simple Bash scripts including the command line utilities and file system files they use as on my notebook for automating some things. I would have backed the Ubuntu Edge campaign had it had a terminal friendly slider keyboard and at the time the terminal didn't seem very good on a small touch screen. Other than that and the core phone software, I just want a robust and efficient web browser.

I've figured out how to run Debian in a chroot on my Droid 4 that has a slider keyboard but it's too slow and has too little RAM for such a thing to be useful.

[beaverusiv]

The console works nicely for what I have done with it, but the keyboard is definitely no hacker keyboard.

For me, things that I'm begging for;

- import contacts from Ubuntu One (idk about Music/files but that would be nice if it worked, I haven't tried)
- Alarms working (currently the UI to set one is there but it never goes off)
- Music app to be able to well, do anything. Currently I can only play one song at a time from the dash.

I bought a Nexus 4 specifically for this OS and I'm sticking with it. I can txt and call (and play Sudoku lol) so it works as a phone for now, but working as a smartphone will be nice when it grows up.

It has been developed so quick from what I've seen that yes, with the extra money a bit of that would've gone into getting more full-time dedicated development happening on key system apps. There is definitely not one part that doesn't need more work, but it's not crash-happy or anything - less buggy and more featureless.

[Delgarde]

How the hell was this going to be ready to ship to backers of the Ubuntu Edge campaign 6 months from now?

It wasn't. Software organisations (both companies and non-commercials) tend to be crap at doing estimates, and Canonical is no exception - take the recent delays over which Ubuntu version would see Mir become the default. My usual assumption is that I should add about 50% to any such estimate - if they say something is about a year away, I'd read that as at least 18 months...

[e8hffff]

The principles of Ubuntu-Touch and convergence is a brilliant one, and needed, but it's going to take time to get everything polished and acceptable for mainstream.

[guido12]

The console works nicely for what I have done with it, but the keyboard is definitely no hacker keyboard.

For me, things that I'm begging for;

- import contacts from Ubuntu One (idk about Music/files but that would be nice if it worked, I haven't tried)
- Alarms working (currently the UI to set one is there but it never goes off)
- Music app to be able to well, do anything. Currently I can only play one song at a time from the dash.

I bought a Nexus 4 specifically for this OS and I'm sticking with it. I can txt and call (and play Sudoku lol) so it works as a phone for now, but working as a smartphone will be nice when it grows up.

It has been developed so quick from what I've seen that yes, with the extra money a bit of that would've gone into getting more full-time dedicated development happening on key system apps. There is definitely not one part that doesn't need more work, but it's not crash-happy or anything - less buggy and more featureless.

Thanks for the info. I really hope Ubuntu Touch becomes successful. I currently use Tasker on Android to automate things on command or based on events but it's too cumbersome with its limited GUI based "script" creation tool. Of course, on Ubuntu Touch, I need to figure out a way to launch scripts based on events (ie. dock, undock, Bluetooth connected to my car, 3G or 4G is connected, AC or PC USB plugged in, headsphones plugged in/out, etc.) instead of polling to keep power consumption down. Hopefully there's going to be a way to do this using simple Bash scripts. I say simple because I'm not exactly a Bash nor a Linux guru.

Also, just opening up a terminal and running a script would be great. I can open up a terminal and run something on Android but it uses a limited shell (I think it's Bourne shell or something that's not Bash). Even if I can get a Bash shell, my Droid 4 is still missing a lot of command line tools and some files typically found in a desktop Linux file system.

Anyway, I'm not surprised Ubuntu Touch isn't that usable yet seeing its state when it was first introduced. To me, as a comparison, Android took years of commercial releases to become usable as an everyday smartphone. Maybe, I'll look into running Ubuntu Touch in a virtual machine or use that emulator that was talked about to get a better feel of things.

[sireangelus]

you are the right guy for upstart sessions it seems.

[guido12]

you are the right guy for upstart sessions it seems.

Wow, that just shows how little I know (I use [X]Ubuntu after all ). I'll look into the events currently supported. I'm sure/hope the phone specific events will added as well.

Thanks for the information.