More than anything, the problem is apps. I installed Ubuntu Touch on an old device I had lying around (after replacing the battery to bring it back to life), and I ended up liking it more than my daily driver. It worked, the interface was snappy (no pun intended), and there’s a lot of solid design choices. I found myself trying to navigate with gestures on my android phone after.
However, I could not talk to my friends, who unfortunately use WhatsApp. I could not install my banking app. There’s a bunch of small thorns in the side that makes changing difficult for most users - kind of like in the early days of desktop Linux.
As in the early days of desktop Linux, the solution might lie in a compatibility layer (like WINE). Android emulation within at least Ubuntu Touch has gotten quite good, I believe. Unfortunately my device is too old to support it.
Those interested should also check out Postmarket OS.
GNOME, a major desktop environment, is also moving towards all apps being designed for all types of devices. But as long as people can’t use their banks, switching is hard.
True, its a real chicken and egg situation. No one what to use a platform without decent app support but no one wants to develop for a platform without any users.
Here’s a GNOME blog post from a couple of years ago. But really it’s about GTK4 - apps designed for GNOME are made to be adaptive. So if you’re using a GNOME desktop you can experience it yourself by simply making windows of the core apps smaller, be it GNOME Web, Maps, Weather, Calendar, or a huge range of other apps. Apps like Spot (Spotify client), Tuba (Mastodon), Shortwave (radio), and Podcasts are also perfectly adaptable for mobile devices. Basically apps in the GNOME Circle should work well on mobile, and many of them have screenshots that illustrate how they look in different form factors.
More than anything, the problem is apps. I installed Ubuntu Touch on an old device I had lying around (after replacing the battery to bring it back to life), and I ended up liking it more than my daily driver. It worked, the interface was snappy (no pun intended), and there’s a lot of solid design choices. I found myself trying to navigate with gestures on my android phone after.
However, I could not talk to my friends, who unfortunately use WhatsApp. I could not install my banking app. There’s a bunch of small thorns in the side that makes changing difficult for most users - kind of like in the early days of desktop Linux.
As in the early days of desktop Linux, the solution might lie in a compatibility layer (like WINE). Android emulation within at least Ubuntu Touch has gotten quite good, I believe. Unfortunately my device is too old to support it.
Those interested should also check out Postmarket OS.
GNOME, a major desktop environment, is also moving towards all apps being designed for all types of devices. But as long as people can’t use their banks, switching is hard.
True, its a real chicken and egg situation. No one what to use a platform without decent app support but no one wants to develop for a platform without any users.
Do you have a link for what gnome is doing?
Here’s a GNOME blog post from a couple of years ago. But really it’s about GTK4 - apps designed for GNOME are made to be adaptive. So if you’re using a GNOME desktop you can experience it yourself by simply making windows of the core apps smaller, be it GNOME Web, Maps, Weather, Calendar, or a huge range of other apps. Apps like Spot (Spotify client), Tuba (Mastodon), Shortwave (radio), and Podcasts are also perfectly adaptable for mobile devices. Basically apps in the GNOME Circle should work well on mobile, and many of them have screenshots that illustrate how they look in different form factors.
Also, this.