Did I kill Ubuntu Phone?
Based on the way some folks in the Ubuntu community reacted to a recent news article, people seem to think I not only proclaimed the project dead, but killed it with own bare hands.
And then buried it.
And then did something unspeakable upon its grave in twisted
But the reality is more nuanced.
I reported words from a Canonical engineer who said that Ubuntu Phone efforts are being moved down the priority list internally. Though a concerning development, it’s not an obituary — at least not yet.
“Cr*p reporting!”, “misinformation”, “clickbait”, “incorrect news article” — a handful of the missives directed at me (and this site) since the ‘Ubuntu Phone on Pause? No new devices, or major updates, planned‘ article went live last week.
The barrage of barbs flung my way over the weekend has been emotional draining. It’s not nice seeing people I like, and who’ve been supportive of this site, now ripping me to shreds over a proclamation they think I’ve made.
I never said Ubuntu Phone is dead.
Pat McGowan, whose mailing list post I quote in the article and forms the basis of the news report, never says Ubuntu Phone is dead.
No-one involved in the project has said Ubuntu Phone is dead.
‘The majority of people who read the article understood what it said’
It can’t be dead while there are handsets out there being used, while there are app developers issuing app updates, while groups like Uports work on images for other devices, and while Ubuntu itself has not said it’s dead.
It may well be dying, but it’s not done yet!
The outrage and scorn has poured in from the more enthusiastic supporters of Ubuntu Touch. They’re understandable riled up by the news report because they are passionate about the project and, hearing priorities shift, need to convince themselves it isn’t do.
The “good news” for me is that the majority of people who read the article understood it.
For those who read it and didn’t, the main gist is: engineering resources and developer attention are being moved away from the current Ubuntu Phones and redirected to work on ‘Snappy’ (Ubuntu’s new packaging format).
This move will, in time, serve as a base for future Ubuntu Phones (should the project continue).
Ubuntu Phone is Dead: Paragraph by Paragraph
I hate writing posts like this. It’s banal. Yet, to show “side” of what I meant, and why I worded things the way I did, I figured I might as well go through the post section-by-section, with commentary to clarify what is meant.
The post opens with:
“If you were hoping to see a new Ubuntu phone released sometime soon, we’ve some bad news for you.
And if you already own an Ubuntu phone and were hoping to see a new update released soon, we’ve bad news for you as well.”
These are literally correct. No new Ubuntu phones are coming soon, and no major OTA update is planned for existing Ubuntu devices in the near future.
“Bad news for everybody, it seems — or is there a silver lining in the clouds darkening over the project?”
A tease to the first headed section. Obviously, it’s a loaded question because yes there is a bit of an optimistic lining to the (admittedly disappointing) “news”.
“Canonical say we won’t see new Ubuntu phone models released until a Snap-based version of Ubuntu to use on them is ready, and that transition, though in progress, will take time.
Furthermore, Canonical’s Pat McGowan also says rumours that the next over-the-air update due for the Ubuntu phones, OTA-15, will not happen are ‘mostly correct’, and notes that there are currently ‘no plans to land any features to the current stable PPA‘.”
Both of these paragraphs directly quote or paraphrase Canonical engineer Pat McGowan. He’s not speaking informally, but professional. They’re also well hedged (like the opening paras) with words like “currently“, “transition“, “until“, etc.
“What few Ubuntu Touch developers there are can, for now, continue to update and upload .Click apps to the Ubuntu store. McGowan cautions that: ‘at some point we will no longer accept new clicks, and then at some further point (all tbd) the store will only serve snaps.’”
These two sentences say the same thing, first in our words, and then in Pat’s, whose quote qualifies our use of ‘for now’.
The heading of the next section is to aid skim readers. It says “Security Updates Coming“. I think that would imply to most people that the phone is not dead.
“It’s not a total cessation of support, though. Security updates to the native Ubuntu web-browser app (and the Oxide framework) will be released as and when they’re available.”
What? I’ve also written that the phone is not dead? Crikey…
“But big new shiny features, capabilities or other mobile-specific improvements are unlikely to come anytime soon, and for the earliest Ubuntu Phones, possibly never.”
Once again with the “soon”. This is to caution that this isn’t a finite pause; and then the first small tease that early devices may (as many Canonical employees have intimated in the past) may be left out of the new images.
Next big heading is “Snap to the future” (a riff on Back to the Future). This is meant to signal that snaps are now the focus for the future, but with benefit to the past.
“The big “hold up” on progress right now is the transition to Snappy and enabling full support for Snap apps on the Ubuntu desktop. Snaps rely on features only found in more recent versions of the Linux kernel than that being used on (most of) the currently Ubuntu Phones and tablets.
Again, technically correct based on previous Ubuntu on Air broadcasts, IRC chats, and Telegram group posting from Canonical employees.
“And because Ubuntu is built on top a (pared back) Android kernel (which is what contains all the relevant hardware drivers and modules that chipset vendors don’t distribute source code to) it’s not as easy as apt-get‘ing a new one; the phone has to also have a more recent version of Android available for it.;
In short, it’s going to take a stack of engineering effort to bring the new Snappy future to this devices …but the appetite to do it may not be there.”
The hint about the “appetite” there to do it is somewhat speculation on our part (albeit informed speculation) based on an off the record chat with Canonical engineers about the effort:reward of supporting old devices.
Next follows a blurb recapping the development priorities for the next few cycles (i.e. Desktop features for Unity 8) and, again, quotes Pat to back this up, who says “While we transition to Snap [desktop features are] the other major area of focus.”
Developers are encouraged to get building Snaps for Ubuntu desktop, and kicking the tyres on the Unity 8 preview session available in Ubuntu 16.10.
Once again we put the emphasis on Snappy — something you’ll have noticed Canonical has been doing a lot over the past 6 months.
Final header reads: “It’s Not All Bad News…” and ledes into:
“Although owners of the early Ubuntu phones may be disappointed to hear that their phone, for which they so invested in early to show support, may not end up being part of Ubuntu’s Snap-ified future, they’ll still have had 2 years of support from Canonical — and that’s roughly the same support period that Google supports Android on Nexus devices for.”
News about the old Ubuntu phones being unlikely to get Ubuntu 16.04 + Snaps is well known in community circles, but is likely to be ‘news’ to those not involved.
The ranting folks seem to have conflated the ‘news’ that some existing commercial Ubuntu Phones are unlikely to get updated to this shiny new Ubuntu 16.04 + Snaps base with the status of the project as a whole.
We end on a positive, noting that a reference device for the M10 tablet is in development and that works elsewhere (all roads lead to convergence) are ongoing:
“There is some good news. It looks as though the Bq M10 Ubuntu tablet may get a shiny new ‘reference image’ built on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with Snaps — hurrah!
But it does means it’s unlikely we’ll see major mobile-specific enhancements made to Unity 8 on others device until the desktop reaches parity with Unity 7.
The circuitous route to convergence continues apace!”
Phew!
So that’s what I actually wrote.
I didn’t say Ubuntu Phone is dead. It’s not my place to pass last rites on a project — perhaps Canonical is being sincere in that this is all a temporary pause “for now”. Or if, as we saw when the Ubuntu TV effort was put on pause “for now” a few years back, a polite way of moving on…