Ubuntu Touch OTA-8 Won't Move To Mir 1.1 + Unity 8 Due To Qualcomm Binary Blob Issues

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Touch OTA-8 Won't Move To Mir 1.1 + Unity 8 Due To Qualcomm Binary Blob Issues

The Ubuntu Touch community team has put out their latest questions/answers about this effort continuing to let the Ubuntu effort live on for mobile devices like the Nexus and other hardware as well as looking ahead to get this mobile operating system running on the likes of Librem 5 and Pine64 phones...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Touch-OTA-8-No-Unity-8

[cybertraveler]

For those who are curious, you can see a list of the planned, upcoming Pine64 devices on this page:

https://www.linux.com/blog/2019/2/pine64-launch-open-source-phone-laptop-tablet-and-camera

[stormcrow]

"The problem is the binary blobs in qualcomm devices. It would be easier if it were open source."

Pretty much sums up the problem with Android and ARM in a single sentence.

[shmerl]

Mir? I thought they switched to Wayland.

[paupav]

Mir? I thought they switched to Wayland.

how many times does this have to be answered.

Mir is a computer display server and, recently, a Wayland compositor

[andrei_me]

When Freedreno will become official, as Qualcomm has been helping the development through Code Aurora?

[AlanGriffiths]

"application stat-up problems" => "application start-up problems"

It's also worth noting that they've "got the issue...mostly solved" since the Q&A (https://forums.ubports.com/post/17838). I assume that we won't see that released until OTA9.

[moriel5]

For those who are curious, you can see a list of the planned, upcoming Pine64 devices on this page:

https://www.linux.com/blog/2019/2/pi...let-and-camera

Pine64 do have a few shortcomings, most of which are rather minor.
My main list:
1. Expensive shipping. But the Raspberry Foundation has just as expensive shipping.
2. Not enough USB2/3 ports. Though this is subjective (my minimum is 4, not including USB-C).
3. Weaker GPU than Raspberry Pi, with FOSS drivers not fully ready yet. The GPU should still be enough, and Broadcom's FOSS drivers are still not on par (on some things) with their closed source drivers.
4. Realtek WiFi/BT. Some may argue that Realtek's devices are fully open, but just like other manufacturers, they have closed-source firmware. Additionally, Realtek WiFi is absolutely horrendous, which makes this the main blocker for me to switch over to Pine64 hardware (from Raspberry Pi, not from my day-to-day devices).

I understand that they wish to keep the prices down, but they should be able to get slightly older low-end Qualcomm Atheros or Intel (or even Mediatek/Ralink) without raising the prices too much (I wonder if Marvell still makes WiFi/BT chipsets?).