The First Ubuntu Phone Officially Launches

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The First Ubuntu Phone Officially Launches

The BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition smartphone has been announced and will begin shipping in the days ahead...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=BQ-Aquaris-E4.5-Ubuntu-Edition

[gnufreex]

What graphics chip does it have? Does it have free driver?

[Cerberus]

What graphics chip does it have? Does it have free driver?

I believe it's Mali400, dont know about whether the driver is free or not.

[Nille]

What graphics chip does it have? Does it have free driver?

It is a Mediatek SoC. There are no Free drivers, Not for Wlan, Touch, GPS, Sensors, Reclock ..... A Mediatek Soc is the worst choice for the community. Even with android the SoCs are horrible... If a Company what to forbid and avoid coustom roms for there products ... they choose Mediatek.

[Cerberus]

It is a Mediatek SoC. There are no Free drivers, Not for Wlan, Touch, GPS, Sensors, Reclock ..... A Mediatek Soc is the worst choice for the community. Even with android the SoCs are horrible... If a Company what to forbid and avoid coustom roms for there products ... they choose Mediatek.

Canonical is not a hardware vendor so the manufacturers choose the chipsets for the Ubuntu Touch smartphones, OEM layer is responsible for the drivers, Ubuntu Touch OS is separate from it afaik and uses drivers provided by the manufacturer in the OEM layer, this allows for easy updates to Ubuntu Touch as manufacturer does not need to be involved in making of the "firmware" unlike on Android where manufacturer has the sole responsibility for issuing updates.

[Nille]

Thats the stupidest choice for canonical to let the hardware manufacture select the SoC Vendor. With this Ubuntu Phone is dead.

[Cerberus]

Thats the stupidest choice for canonical to let the hardware manufacture select the SoC Vendor. With this Ubuntu Phone is dead.

You do realize most people dont care about chipsets and just want Linux on their phones? And Ubuntu Touch is Linux. Besides is Linux dead because lots of hardware it runs on uses proprietary BIOS and drivers? Certainly not.

[blackout23]

You do realize most people dont care about chipsets and just want Linux on their phones? And Ubuntu Touch is Linux. Besides is Linux dead because lots of hardware it runs on uses proprietary BIOS and drivers? Certainly not.

You realize that most people who will be interested in a Ubuntu Touch device are geeks? You realize that those are exactly the kind of people who care about this?
I'd much rather buy an Android device w/o Mediatek SoC. Even if the manufacturer doesn't ship OTAs after some time I can probably flash a custom rom at least. A Mediatek device is as useful as a brick if it isn't supported anymore.

[Nille]

You do realize most people dont care about chipsets and just want Linux on their phones?

That user don't see any Updates for there phones in the future. And if they want Linux, they can use jolla or Android.

And Ubuntu Touch is Linux. Besides is Linux dead because lots of hardware it runs on uses proprietary BIOS and drivers? Certainly not.

No one say something different. Only that the choice kills any future system updates, because they didn't happen. No new Drivers, no new Kernels.

[dh04000]

You do realize most people dont care about chipsets and just want Linux on their phones? And Ubuntu Touch is Linux. Besides is Linux dead because lots of hardware it runs on uses proprietary BIOS and drivers? Certainly not.

Shhhhhh.... just let it happen..... no matter how logically and well thought out your argument is..... he wants to take a shot at Canonical so nothing you say will ever appease him. I stopped trying here. If Canonical's official stance on the color of the sky was that it was blue, you'd have people here saying that it was green, the color of real freedom and that anyone that disagrees with them are just fanboys and obviously unworthy linux noobs.

Anywhoo...... 169.90 EUR = $192.40 (as of 02/06/2014 @ 12:30pm EST) is a pretty good price for a new unlocked device with those specs. I might see if my savings could take a hit just to have it as a media device (I don't have a data plan or will anytime soon).

NOTE: I'm not willing to argue if the price is actually good or not. That is opinion and not empirical fact.