Fresh versions of Ubuntu Touch, Mir display server, and Unity arrive
- Reference: 1669725011
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/11/29/new_versions_of_ubuntu_touch/
- Source link:
UBports is edging closer to moving to a different LTS – except on the PinePhone, which is going its own way. It's nearly six months since [1]Ubuntu Touch OTA-23 appeared , and the UBports community have [2]announced the next version, OTA-24. As the Reg [3]noted last year , though, this release is still based on Ubuntu 16.04. We suspect that is because this was the last LTS release before [4]Ubuntu cancelled the fondleslab version the following year, before [5]the next LTS version, 18.04 .
Graphical desktop system X Window just turned 38 [6]READ MORE
As such, UBports is going to skip 18.04. The days of "Bionic Beaver" are numbered anyway: its [7]official end of life is next April. Instead, soon, Ubuntu Touch will switch its base OS to [8]Ubuntu 20.04 , whose [9]codename is " [10]Focal Fossa ."
That won't be the next version, though. The release notes for OTA-24 say:
This is the last OTA for Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) with major features. The next OTA-25 will be mainly security fixes and long-term support updates for xenial.
Which means that we can expect at least one more version based on the geriatric but official codebase first. When Ubuntu Touch finally moves to a newer version, it will be able to incorporate some newer elements from upstream.
Canonical itself hasn't abandoned quite all of the components of its planned mobile platform. At least two of its components are still in active development by the company.
The Snap package format originated in Ubuntu Phone, and Snap is still going strong, [11]as we described earlier this month . It's not the only such part, though.
[12]
The Mir display server, which we were [13]quite excited about when it was announced and [14]which debuted in Ubuntu 13.10 , isn't dead either. It has its own [15]website , and it's still in active development. As the first line of its README on Github [16]says , Mir is a Wayland compositor now, and while Canonical [17]positions Mir for IoT functions such as [18]Ubuntu Frame , it can still be used to show a desktop. Mir 2.10 was [19]released a month ago. That's two-dot-ten, not two-point-one-zero.
[20]
[21]
Mir becoming a Wayland compositor is not quite as big a deal as it may sound. Although the [22]Weston compositor remains the reference one, the Arch Wiki [23]lists no fewer than 28 Wayland compositors, including KDE's [24]KWin , [25]GNOME's Mutter , [26]Enlightenment , and the tiling [27]Sway .
When the Focal-based Ubuntu Touch does finally happen, it should be able to incorporate some of the upstream changes from these projects, as well as the former Unity8 desktop shell, now renamed Lomiri and being [28]developed on Gitlab. The developers [29]hope that this will enable them to update Ubuntu Touch for the PinePhone as well.
[30]The App Gap and supply chains: Purism CEO on what's ahead for the Librem 5 USA
[31]Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus
[32]EndeavourOS Artemis: Arch Linux, but a bit friendlier
[33]Unity and Trinity: New releases for forks of abandoned Linux desktops
The previous version of the desktop environment, Unity 7, is moving forwards as well. As we mentioned at the time, as of Ubuntu 22.10, the Unity remix [34]is now an official flavor , but [35]lead developer Rudra Saraswat has also restarted work on ports to other distros. The long dormant [36]version for Arch Linux is first, and he [37]announced an updated version two weeks ago. It can also be [38]installed on [39]Arch derivative Manjaro , too.
Back in Unity's prime, there were others, including a [40]port to Fedora as well as an incomplete [41]port to Debian. Now, there is new hope that these may be revivified. ®
Get our [42]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/23/ubports_ota23_is_coming/
[2] https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/ubuntu-touch-ota-24-release-3872
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/20/ubports_ubuntu_touch_ota_18/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2017/04/05/ubuntu_euthanizes_unity/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2018/04/27/ubuntu_1804/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/22/the_x_window_system_just/
[7] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/ReleaseNotes
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/23/canonical_releases_ubuntu_2004_claims/
[9] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FocalFossa/ReleaseNotes
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/04/upgrade_time_for_ubuntu_focal/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/09/canonical_conference/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y4Y6qx1vAW1Mo-HQVGIp@AAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2013/07/11/ubuntu_1310_to_ship_with_mir_instead_of_x/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2013/10/01/ubuntu_second_beta_review/
[15] https://mir-server.io/
[16] https://github.com/MirServer/mir
[17] https://canonical.com/blog/canonical-launches-ubuntu-frame-the-foundation-for-embedded-displays
[18] https://mir-server.io/ubuntu-frame
[19] https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/mir-release-2-10-0/31871
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y4Y6qx1vAW1Mo-HQVGIp@AAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y4Y6qx1vAW1Mo-HQVGIp@AAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[22] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/weston
[23] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/wayland#Compositors
[24] https://userbase.kde.org/KWin
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/09/gnome_mutter_variable_refresh_rate/
[26] https://www.enlightenment.org/about-wayland
[27] https://github.com/swaywm/sway
[28] https://gitlab.com/ubports/development/core/lomiri
[29] http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=14406&pid=97314#pid97314
[30] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/02/interview_purism_ceo_librem_usa/
[31] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/01/ubuntu_unity_desktop_updated_after/
[32] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/29/endeavouros_artemis_226/
[33] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/04/unity_trinity_desktops/
[34] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/20/ubuntu_2210_kinetic_kudu/
[35] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/04/rudra_sarsawat_ubuntu_projects/
[36] https://github.com/chenxiaolong/Unity-for-Arch
[37] https://unity.ubuntuunity.org/blog/unity-for-arch/
[38] https://github.com/manjaro/unity-for-manjaro
[39] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/22/manjaro_213_released/
[40] https://github.com/chenxiaolong/Unity-for-Fedora
[41] https://wiki.debian.org/Ayatana/
[42] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Not coming here
[Author here]
I keep hearing this. I have to admit, I honestly Do Not Get It.
It's just a packaging format. It's less intrusive than systemd, say, and most normal desktop OS users will never see or interact with either of them.
Snap is more powerful and more capable than Flatpak, both both work. Both make it easy to install (and update) proprietary binary apps. For example, on my own machines, I use Slack, Skype, I'm listening to Philip Glass on Spotify right now, and I have Zoom, Signal, Telegram and so on installed but not open at this second.
I tried out the techniques I mentioned in my Zinc writeup and I removed Flatpak and Snap and all the apps I'd installed with them. Instead I installed `deb-get` and used it to reinstall all these things that aren't in the Ubuntu repos.
The end result is exactly the same. Same apps, now native packages not Snaps or Flatpaks.
They look the same, they work the same. Updating takes about the same time.
I may have saved a bit of disk space but this laptop has a ½TB SSD and it's not a noticeable saving. I can't say I have noticed any less RAM usage. Most of them are Electron apps and so they're RAM-hogs anyway.
If you want to rail against an iniquitous trend, complain about Electron! Demand proper native clients that run in a few megs not hundreds of megs of RAM! Demand no blasted Javascript in any native app!
Snap is harmless by comparison, and easily removed if you have enough of a technical clue as to know what it is and to not want it. It's trivially easy to uninstall all Snaps and then purge snapd. A native Firefox is a few commands away, and deb-get makes those easy.
This seems to me to be superstitious dread, not an actual valid technological criticism.
Lomiri all the way
I remain a huge fan of this FOSS, lightweight, converging OS, with its well thought out UI.
My hope is that it will become available on RISC-V silicon in the not too distant future.
Re: Lomiri all the way
[Author here]
Lomiri isn't an OS, though. It's a desktop, basically.
Ubuntu Touch is an OS, and I'd love to see it gain some headway against Android and iOS. I'm seriously on the look-out for a cheap used phone I can run it on.
Re: Lomiri all the way
Well... According to TuxPhones UT runs perfectly on a Google Pixel 3A, and they're reasonably priced these days!
It's the converging UI that really floats my boat. I don't mind what goes underneath. Someone called Sunweaver was trying to sit it atop Debian some time ago, which sounds like an excellent idea.
Not coming here
As far as I'm concerned, since the introduction and forcing of snap, anything connected with ubuntu is "Here Be Dragons" country.