Linux enthusiasts have had a very bad time when wanting to try a Ubuntu phone because you had, to do so, to activate an account with a valid email address. As you may imagine these Linux users are concerned by privacy issues, so it was a definitive problem.
Other early reviews of people who could get past that were usually not good because of not-consumer-readiness and low-specs of the phone, making usage a slow torture.
I hope these early reviews should be forgotten, so wait and see.
BTW, the fact that FXOS is heavily reliant on android was revealed to me as a cruel joke: you need to use a Microsoft only program to be able to unlock your FX phone. Hooray for free software!
So if Canonical can do one thing, I suppose it comes down to getting more beta-testing to get the UX better?
I admit I haven't used it, but it seems like they have interesting ideas, it just fails on the delivery, not necessarily are their ideas (scopes, the whole convergence story) are flawed, they just need to do better on delivering.
Linux enthusiast here. Had a BQ E4.5 Ubuntu edition since April 2015 and I am pretty pleased with it. I love the UX.
It has come a long way already: the off the air (OTA) upgrades roughly every month make it better and better. It is more than usable. If not having Skype, WhatsApp etc.. is not a show stopper for you, then it can be a great phone for you. There are already many apps, but of course not comparable to Android. Can see an official app viewer here: https://uappexplorer.com/
Also the dev tools for it are great. The Ubuntu SDK, based on QtCreator is pretty slick. It is quite easy to write a native app. There are many guidelines and good docs for it: https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/
To use the appstore you need an Ubuntu One account. Basically, so it can customise the experience (ie reload your apps onto a new phone) to you and lets you buy commercial applications. Most end-users want convenience and customised experiences are a good way to go. If you absolutely require privacy then using a temporary email would be a way around it.
>you need to use a Microsoft only program to be able to unlock your FX phone
Do you mean a Windows-only app? Blame the chipset manufacturer. fastboot oem unlock works just fine on any platform that runs fastboot/adb - it's up to the firmware on the phone to accept that command.
I tried it for months (like 5) with the BQ Aquaris E4.5 and ended up flashing Android on top. It got me raging.
Most reviews are from folks who had it for a few hours and then go back to their usual feature-full system.
I did an honest effort though. It's not even about the apps. I could manage without them. The problem is Ubuntu phone was utterly broken. Slow as hell. Everything browser based, but they provided the worst browser (it couldn't even parse css for some sites). The team behind was like 10-15 people. You cannot pull this show with such a small team. The phone email app was left to the community. They have only recently figured out how to provide email notifications (this is the extent of brokenness - a mobile OS which cannot notify you of new emails...). There were problems with the calendar, the Wi-Fi, the contacts sync.. The gesture system was awesome. but the UI was laggy, buggy. The idea of scopes was nice, but they were broken: the news scope didn't pull the news, the one showing the weather didn't show the weather etc. to the point I just left the app list.
And the worst was the lock screen. No pattern unlock. instead a circle which would show a text in the middle informing you of how many pictures you've taken or how many messages you've sent. But no way for it to provide actual notifications!
This was an OS that was live, commercially sold, and in reality it looked like a pre-alpha build of a proof of concept.
I am sure some things have improved (cannot get worse), but Canonical has clearly not the muscle to take this idea anywhere and is of course leveraging on community to do their job while milking whatever profits from the few adventurers who pay for it. I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped the project entirely at some point. I'll be sorry for the people which have contributed apps to this ecosystem. Ubuntu phone pretty much killed the reputation that Canonical had left for me.
I'm sorry you're so upset and had such a poor experience.
To my knowledge the online sales objective was for Ubuntu Phones to be for developers and technical enthusiasts. As you said it's not full mature. Unfortunately, it sounds like that didn't make it a great fit for you!
On a point of fact, creating an Open Source mobile OS takes years and costs millions: Firefox OS is a comparable example. A lot of people have worked hard for years on it, so this is fantastic to see - the team in in Canonical working on mobile is hundreds not tens. I wish them the very best of luck.
Canonical should have made it clear that when the E4.5 was available last year, it was intended to early adopters / dev / enthusiasts only. But my guess is that it was probably awkward to present it that way to BQ.
Anyway, being a long time Linux enthusiast and running Ubuntu as my main OS for many years, I bought the E4.5 to support the project and was not expecting an experience which would match Android.
Having said that, it has improved so much and I would venture to say that as of 2016, it is starting to be ready for general public.
It is my main phone, and everything pretty much works, the UX is great. The main annoyance is that it is a bit slow: starting an app takes a few seconds. But might be due to the not too potent hardware of a E4.5.
Ubuntu phone seems the only alternative we have to the smartphone OS duopoly and to feel and be in control of the device in our pocket. That is priceless to me.
I am not-so-proud owner of Meizu MX 4, it is the worst phone I ever had, and probably worst phone on the market. Although I have paid for it as little as $300 it is terrible phone ...
Battery life is unpredictable, you can take it off the cable, and it will show it is completely charged, in next moment it is flat zero. Sometimes it will run for day on 10% constant and just shut down. Charging while phone is turned-on does not work well, so not sure what is going on. I have tried contacting company but no one responded at the end I will need to buy another phone.
Also lots of apps are not there, skype is almost unusable, there is not WhatsApp or Viber, maps ... running application or anything else is not there ...
Only thing good for is that you have Console, and that is all ... you can write bit of code and play with ssh but overall BAD exp ....
Phone hardware is not the problem they have, Ubuntu phone is. The UX is bad, the app situation is bad (no, mobile websites are not sufficient), it has no point. I got jaded after seeing the Ubuntu TV announcement which quietly went nowhere, and every time I try Ubuntu phone (easy to install on a spare Nexus 4) the fundamentals haven't improved. It's nowhere close to Android or iOS, nor is it a powerhouse replacement for something like the Nokia N900.
The platform itself is a full Linux so of the three it's closes to being a "replacement" for the Nokia N900. Since no-one's developing the N900, it's actually the best chance of a Linux phone at this point.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 84.8 ms ] threadIs this Android under the hood as was the case with Firefox OS?
Unity is built for mobile devices, and works great. But underneath that, you have a full linux environment.
Other early reviews of people who could get past that were usually not good because of not-consumer-readiness and low-specs of the phone, making usage a slow torture.
I hope these early reviews should be forgotten, so wait and see.
BTW, the fact that FXOS is heavily reliant on android was revealed to me as a cruel joke: you need to use a Microsoft only program to be able to unlock your FX phone. Hooray for free software!
I admit I haven't used it, but it seems like they have interesting ideas, it just fails on the delivery, not necessarily are their ideas (scopes, the whole convergence story) are flawed, they just need to do better on delivering.
It has come a long way already: the off the air (OTA) upgrades roughly every month make it better and better. It is more than usable. If not having Skype, WhatsApp etc.. is not a show stopper for you, then it can be a great phone for you. There are already many apps, but of course not comparable to Android. Can see an official app viewer here: https://uappexplorer.com/
Also the dev tools for it are great. The Ubuntu SDK, based on QtCreator is pretty slick. It is quite easy to write a native app. There are many guidelines and good docs for it: https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/
Do you mean a Windows-only app? Blame the chipset manufacturer. fastboot oem unlock works just fine on any platform that runs fastboot/adb - it's up to the firmware on the phone to accept that command.
Still a pretty horrible experience to read "now find a windows computer"... when trying to install free software.
Most reviews are from folks who had it for a few hours and then go back to their usual feature-full system.
I did an honest effort though. It's not even about the apps. I could manage without them. The problem is Ubuntu phone was utterly broken. Slow as hell. Everything browser based, but they provided the worst browser (it couldn't even parse css for some sites). The team behind was like 10-15 people. You cannot pull this show with such a small team. The phone email app was left to the community. They have only recently figured out how to provide email notifications (this is the extent of brokenness - a mobile OS which cannot notify you of new emails...). There were problems with the calendar, the Wi-Fi, the contacts sync.. The gesture system was awesome. but the UI was laggy, buggy. The idea of scopes was nice, but they were broken: the news scope didn't pull the news, the one showing the weather didn't show the weather etc. to the point I just left the app list.
And the worst was the lock screen. No pattern unlock. instead a circle which would show a text in the middle informing you of how many pictures you've taken or how many messages you've sent. But no way for it to provide actual notifications!
This was an OS that was live, commercially sold, and in reality it looked like a pre-alpha build of a proof of concept.
I am sure some things have improved (cannot get worse), but Canonical has clearly not the muscle to take this idea anywhere and is of course leveraging on community to do their job while milking whatever profits from the few adventurers who pay for it. I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped the project entirely at some point. I'll be sorry for the people which have contributed apps to this ecosystem. Ubuntu phone pretty much killed the reputation that Canonical had left for me.
To my knowledge the online sales objective was for Ubuntu Phones to be for developers and technical enthusiasts. As you said it's not full mature. Unfortunately, it sounds like that didn't make it a great fit for you!
On a point of fact, creating an Open Source mobile OS takes years and costs millions: Firefox OS is a comparable example. A lot of people have worked hard for years on it, so this is fantastic to see - the team in in Canonical working on mobile is hundreds not tens. I wish them the very best of luck.
Anyway, being a long time Linux enthusiast and running Ubuntu as my main OS for many years, I bought the E4.5 to support the project and was not expecting an experience which would match Android.
Having said that, it has improved so much and I would venture to say that as of 2016, it is starting to be ready for general public.
It is my main phone, and everything pretty much works, the UX is great. The main annoyance is that it is a bit slow: starting an app takes a few seconds. But might be due to the not too potent hardware of a E4.5.
Ubuntu phone seems the only alternative we have to the smartphone OS duopoly and to feel and be in control of the device in our pocket. That is priceless to me.
The platform itself is a full Linux so of the three it's closes to being a "replacement" for the Nokia N900. Since no-one's developing the N900, it's actually the best chance of a Linux phone at this point.
Uh oh, Samsung's Exynos division does not have a good record of publishing kernel sources.