From the last post it is published that my OnePlus One currently has Ubuntu Touch installed on it. After using for nearly a month these are my current views.
The new look is really refreshing. It's workings are a little different wanting the user an initial attempt of adjusting. Once comfortable the ease of usage is very much friendly. Initially the absence of hardware buttons for back-home-backgroud apps felt like a handicap but then realized that this independence from the hardware buttons gives one two advantages. One that the orientation does not matter anymore for it is the same this way or that and second that it gives more space for the screen, in case a mobile is manufactured just for Ubuntu Touch.
The ideology of Left-Swipe showing the currently open apps, just as in the OS is very helpful. It also gives a new way to place regularly used apps on a launch bar. The Right-Swipe showing the recently used is much more comfortable than the android version of of long-click a button or a dedicated button for viewing this. This feature could probably be incorporated into android. Even in other screens it is the right and left swipes that provide additional action options that can be performed on that view.
Like for example for SMS on right-swipe option to delete is shown and on left-swipe option to copy/forward is shown. This is really helpful and convenient. Additional the landscape and portrait mode for SMS shows different view. With portrait one can see the preview of the SMS text making it just a question of orientation to view the text.
So from here let me list the problems of the Ubuntu Touch. There are simple ones but many and that's what makes it problematic. Like the one faced during the installation itself. The device is not getting detected. It is the same after flashing Ubuntu Touch, i.e. the mobile is not getting detected. Tried many things from lsusb command to adding the to doing a curl to adb_usb.ini. Yet the mobile would not get detected on Ubuntu, neither in Windows OS was it getting detected so that data could be transferred. So the last option was to use browser to upload / download data from drive.
The state of app support was already known as Ubuntu Touch still needs enough community support to get that app-store piled up but to me it was a surprise that Firefox was not available for Ubuntu Touch. If two great open-source don't team up it, sort of, dampens the enthusiasm. Further more the WhatsApp and Telegram apps are just wrapper apps to the browser ones. For WhatsApp app, the app gives a QR Code that we need to scan from the mobile while it is visible in the same mobile screen. Impossible. Telegram keeps logging-off after every few minutes and so in the app one has to login again and again providing the mobile number and then the SMS verification code etc. Interestingly in the browser Telegram never logs-off and so once logged in, even on restart the session stays.
Similar problem exists with connecting to a hidden network. Once connected, after a restart it would not connect to the same network automatically. On the desktop version of Ubuntu on selecting "Connect to Hidden WiFi Network" there is a drop-down list of already added hidden network but that is missing here. So every time one has to delete the saved hidden network, else it will cry duplicate network, and then add the hidden network which then connects immediately. Was it a generic problem or device specific is still unsure.
There is one more problem of restart. That is of the time update. If you see the home screen, a very innovative look with a sun-dial type of clock that reflects the day of the time, you will notice something interesting. The date is January 1970. In-spite of time setting for automatic update with network operator, it does not get updated on a start / restart. Only on connecting with internet does it get updated, probably using UTC clock.
The new look is really refreshing. It's workings are a little different wanting the user an initial attempt of adjusting. Once comfortable the ease of usage is very much friendly. Initially the absence of hardware buttons for back-home-backgroud apps felt like a handicap but then realized that this independence from the hardware buttons gives one two advantages. One that the orientation does not matter anymore for it is the same this way or that and second that it gives more space for the screen, in case a mobile is manufactured just for Ubuntu Touch.
The ideology of Left-Swipe showing the currently open apps, just as in the OS is very helpful. It also gives a new way to place regularly used apps on a launch bar. The Right-Swipe showing the recently used is much more comfortable than the android version of of long-click a button or a dedicated button for viewing this. This feature could probably be incorporated into android. Even in other screens it is the right and left swipes that provide additional action options that can be performed on that view.
Like for example for SMS on right-swipe option to delete is shown and on left-swipe option to copy/forward is shown. This is really helpful and convenient. Additional the landscape and portrait mode for SMS shows different view. With portrait one can see the preview of the SMS text making it just a question of orientation to view the text.So from here let me list the problems of the Ubuntu Touch. There are simple ones but many and that's what makes it problematic. Like the one faced during the installation itself. The device is not getting detected. It is the same after flashing Ubuntu Touch, i.e. the mobile is not getting detected. Tried many things from lsusb command to adding the to doing a curl to adb_usb.ini. Yet the mobile would not get detected on Ubuntu, neither in Windows OS was it getting detected so that data could be transferred. So the last option was to use browser to upload / download data from drive.
The state of app support was already known as Ubuntu Touch still needs enough community support to get that app-store piled up but to me it was a surprise that Firefox was not available for Ubuntu Touch. If two great open-source don't team up it, sort of, dampens the enthusiasm. Further more the WhatsApp and Telegram apps are just wrapper apps to the browser ones. For WhatsApp app, the app gives a QR Code that we need to scan from the mobile while it is visible in the same mobile screen. Impossible. Telegram keeps logging-off after every few minutes and so in the app one has to login again and again providing the mobile number and then the SMS verification code etc. Interestingly in the browser Telegram never logs-off and so once logged in, even on restart the session stays.
Similar problem exists with connecting to a hidden network. Once connected, after a restart it would not connect to the same network automatically. On the desktop version of Ubuntu on selecting "Connect to Hidden WiFi Network" there is a drop-down list of already added hidden network but that is missing here. So every time one has to delete the saved hidden network, else it will cry duplicate network, and then add the hidden network which then connects immediately. Was it a generic problem or device specific is still unsure.
There is one more problem of restart. That is of the time update. If you see the home screen, a very innovative look with a sun-dial type of clock that reflects the day of the time, you will notice something interesting. The date is January 1970. In-spite of time setting for automatic update with network operator, it does not get updated on a start / restart. Only on connecting with internet does it get updated, probably using UTC clock.One of the games tried was called Balls2. It is not a very graphics intensive game and on doing quick operations it would hang, the app and the OS both. The other games seemed migrated version of desktop apps and not modified to use the mobile screen capabilities. But that's different issue, i.e. the availability of proper apps for Ubuntu Touch, again probably due to the lack of community and companies interest for this OS.
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