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| A Fairphone 2 and Nexus 5 running Ubuntu Touch, as I met a member of the UBports Foundation |
The email in my inbox was both appreciative and to the point. "This post was sent to me," it began, and referenced my intial blog post [1] on the conversion of my LG Nexus 5 from the Android operating system to Ubuntu Touch [2]. "I saw your profile", it continued, "and thought we have more than 'a few' things in common so we should probably connect for a coffee soon. Nice work on that blog...Look forward to connecting if you are interested, and have a great day out there."
It turned out that someone online had noticed my posts on my blog, Twitter and Instagram feeds of my experiments with and assessment of Ubuntu Touch as a product. Noticing that I live in Vancouver, they were flagged and sent to a member of the UBports Foundation [3] also living in the city. UBports is the organization officially driving the development of the Ubuntu-based mobile operating system.
Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised and appreciative of the email and the foundation's effort to get in touch with me. I had just filed my application for official membership on the UBports website a week prior and it was nice to know that the contents of my experiments were being noted. I responded, and after some back and forth, we set up an appointment for an early morning meeting at a local Starbucks on a weekend to chat about our mutual interests in the Ubuntu Touch project and Ubports foundation, technical background, vision for the future of FOSS software and the domain for mobile operating systems, product ideas and a roadmap moving forward.
It was a most enjoyable meeting as the discussion moved through various topics both personal and professional. Midway through the conversation, the member took out a smartphone that I had not seen before, and put it on the table between us. "Here, take a look at this."
The area below the screen said "Fairphone" [4]. It took me a few seconds to comprehend what I was looking at. I had come across this name on the Ubuntu Touch site, under the list of supported mobile hardware, and looked it up out of curiosity. It was a European-made phone, with an emphasis on modularity for disassembly, repair and upgrade, as well as ethical sourcing along the supply chain for the manufacturing of the phone's components. I was quite impressed by the concept and execution of the phone from what I had read, but had never actually seen one in the wild. As I continued digesting what I was seeing, I realized that it was not just a Fairphone - like my Nexus 5, it had also been flashed and was now running Ubuntu Touch. I entered the main screen and swiped my way through the menus, looking at all the open source apps that had been installed from the Ubuntu Touch OpenStore and were now actively running. The member showed me how the apps would function with convergence or desktop mode, with the Fairphone connected to a TV or monitor via a micoUSB to HDMI adapter. Fascinating.
But there was more to come. The member powered off the phone, and then began disassembling the phone on the table in front of me. First the back cover was removed, and the battery taken out. Then the bezel around the case was taken off. Then the display itself was removed as a single unit and laid aside. What was left was the case with modular electronic components. Midway through the disassembly, I paused to ask if I could take a photo.
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| Fairphone 2 running Ubuntu Touch, disassembly in progress |
As the disassembly continued, the member showed how components could be removed in modular fashion for repair, replacement or upgrade. The SIM card module was removed. Then the camera module was removed and plugged back in. I was mightily impressed. By the end of the disassembly, I asked to take another photo before things were put back together and the phone powered back up. It worked flawlessly.
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| Partially reassembled Fairphone 2 |
During this demonstration, I began to wonder - why wasn't this phone available for customers in North America? I raised this, and was told that part of the reason was the usability and compatibility of the phone on North American telecommunication networks - it wouldn't work with Bell Canada's network, for example. The member was using the Fairphone with Rogers/Fido, and did not have a problem with operation and functionality. That was interesting to hear. We talked about what would be needed to bring the Fairphone or a similar product to market and pitch it to customers.
This opened up a door for the conversation to segue into a fascinating discussion of plans for UBports and Ubuntu Touch moving forward both in terms of short and long term goals, ideas for feature and product development, and requirements to develop a roadmap to take all this forward. In addition, we discussed various open source software projects that we were both keeping tack of which could come in useful in future. I was told at the time that the UBports foundation was just about to be recognized and given official foundation status by the authorities in Berlin. This happened just last week, and was officially announced by UBports on Twitter, Instagram and other online news avenues.
As the discussion wound down, I came away inspired in terms of ideas and personal contribution that I could deliver towards product development of Ubuntu Touch, and possible roadmaps for the future. I will be exploring some of these as I continue with my systematic exploration and product analysis of the Ubuntu Touch operating system and larger app ecosystem on my Nexus 5 testbed. Although the OS update (OTA-8) was released some weeks ago, I intend to first complete a deep dive into the OTA-7 version that I have currently installed, before moving on. I hope to do this in the next few posts.
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| My Nexus 5 running Ubuntu Touch OTA-7, with some UBports cards and stickers that I was gifted |
Things are ramping up with the UBports foundation, Ubuntu Touch and the larger Linux mobile OS space. We truly live in interesting times. See you in the next post!
REFERENCE:
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[1] Mobile OS Product Conversion and Initial Assessment: Android to Ubuntu Touch[3] UBports Foundation
[4] Fairphone
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