The Privacy Dad's review of Ubuntu Touch

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I’ve spent the last couple of months testing out Ubuntu Touch on a Pixel 3A. Here is a write-up of my experiences with it. On a side note, it was really cool to meet another privacy advocate in person when I bought the Pixel second hand!

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This was an informative read. Thank you for writing and sharing.

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Honestly Linux Mobile is just not at its prime time like Desktop Linux is, making us be stuck either iOS or Android currently.

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Depends what you are expecting. I run a Linux pocket computer (Linux phone) for over 2 years now and do not even use Waydroid since Debian has everything I need. Luckily I’m not stucked with dependencies as banking apps etc.

But I was also not expecting an Android replacement, but a PC that fits into my pocket and can do phone stuff. For most people it is more like an Android replacement and so “Android apps do not work” is the expected reaction. Even 15 years ago I wanted to have a Linux phone and no Android, so I never got much into Androids ecosystem. Maybe that is the important part.

At the end it also needs people who do the first step. Otherwise Android and iOS are the only options for ever, which would not end well.

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That’s a good point. There are a couple of Android apps that I would find difficult to be without, not personally, but because how they connect me to my environment (ID, financial, social).

If I could reliably log into those accounts via a browser on UT, like I can on my Linux desktop, then that problem would be solved, but that wasn’t my experience this time.

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To be fair, Ubuntu touch is something I guess will die sooner or later (my opinion, but their community can show me I’m wrong about). The current Linux phone development is much closer to build around the already existing things from desktop. I run native LibreWolf as main browser (Firefox ESR was preinstalled), which was supported since day one. Everything that can run on a RasPi can also run on pocket computers (ARM CPU architecture can limit in the same way as on RasPi).

There are just some CSS hacks required to run Firefox smooth, since Mozilla does not care about little screens. For common users it’s a download and packagers do also include some of these hacks as default installation on newer OS versions.

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With Liquid Glass @GorujoCY

With Liquid Glass

(A Reference To The SpongeBob Square Pants Episode Kristy Dogs)