UBports Continues Work On Moving From Ubuntu 15.04 Base To 16.04

For those still holding out the dream for Ubuntu on phones/tablets, the UBports community continues their work in updating their Ubuntu Touch fork to riding off a 16.04 Xenial base rather than the existing Ubuntu 15.04.

UBports is working on Ubuntu 16.04 support to eventually replace their 15.04 stable base. Ubuntu 18.04 isn't being pursued yet due to the Mir changes around Wayland support, and just being a much different target than going from 15.04 to 16.04.

UBports developers consider their 16.04 work to be "just about usable to try out", but still recommend either having two devices or be willing to go back from 16.04 to 15.04 when needed. Among the functionality not yet working on their 16.04 base are GPS and location services. Additionally, many of the applications need to be recompiled in order to work with the 16.04 base. They are also working around support in their software store to be able to handle both 15.04 and 16.04, at least until everyone is able to move on to this newer software stack.

The UBports FAQ update this weekend also acknowledges that some of their Unity 8 work in trying to get that working on the Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic Beaver" as a desktop is still going to take a lot of work due to the changes around Mir.

If you are interested in the work being pursued by the UBports camp, check out their latest FAQ for all the details.