Tech

Hands-on with Ubuntu Touch 14.04: Coming along, but miles to go

We install it so you don’t have to. Seriously, you probably shouldn’t.

Andrew Cunningham – Apr 18, 2014 8:21 am | 58

Credit: Andrew Cunningham

The last time we installed Ubuntu Touch on anything was about a year ago, shortly after the release of Ubuntu 13.04. That version of the phone and tablet operating system was more a proof-of-concept than a true beta—while it showed off the interface and the general look and feel, most of the icons were placeholders, and there wasn’t a whole lot you could actually do. It was like one of those towns you’d see in an old Western—all facades with nothing inside.

Now Ubuntu 14.04 is here, and Canonical says it will “form the basis of the first commercially available Ubuntu tablets from Canonical’s OEM partners.” The 14.04 release notes say that Ubuntu Touch is still not officially “supported” by Canonical and that it is merely “relatively” stable, but it should be more indicative of what will ship on devices later this year (the release notes mention a “going-to-market milestone” that will supposedly be met this summer).

With all of that in mind, we’ve installed the latest version of Ubuntu Touch to a Nexus 4 and a 2013 Nexus 7, relatively recent hardware that Canonical’s images support (the Galaxy Nexus and older Nexus 7 have been dropped since our last article). The installation process is still much the same as it was a year ago, so here we’ll primarily focus on how the operating system has changed and how far away it is from being something you’d actually want to use.

Interface

The user interface relies heavily on edge swipes, buttons, and labels that only appear when you interact with them. This maximizes the amount of screen space available and decreases clutter, but it’s occasionally disorienting, and it makes the platform harder to learn. Take the Clock app, for example—it has the standard alarm, stopwatch, and timer functions, and those settings are dimly visible at first when you open the app. Once they fade away, though, it’s not immediately obvious that those options are there at all.

Once you learn where everything is, it’s not so hard to get around. Swipe in from the left edge to see a dock of applications reminiscent of the one on the Ubuntu desktop. Swipe in from the right to move through your currently open apps Windows 8-style, and swipe from the right and hold to invoke a quicker app switcher. Swipe down from the top to access notifications and some quick settings panels, and swipe up from the bottom to find “back” and a few other context-sensitive items—the option to add a new contact, for example, or the browser’s address bar.

The biggest feature addition since the last time we looked is the “Scopes” view on the home screen. These various headings group items—Amazon items, local music files, Wikipedia entries, video from streaming services—by category, gathers those categories into one place, and presents them consistently. New Scopes can’t be created and customized by users, but they can be downloaded from Canonical’s store. The feature feels a little superfluous right now, but with more content and with developer interest it could become a decent aggregator of content.

Though most parts of the operating system work in a basic way, there are still bugs all over the place. Apps hang at a blank white screen for a few seconds before loading. The keyboard will hang around getting in the way, and it won’t disappear unless you rotate the phone or switch apps. Common basic smartphone features like lock screen security and voice controls are still missing. Even in our few hours with the software, crashing and hanging was common. It’s hard to hold this against Canonical since the company is clear about Ubuntu Touch’s status as a work in progress, but this far along we honestly had hoped for something that felt a little more finished.

Apps

Besides the OS itself, Ubuntu Touch includes a handful of core applications (named, appropriately, the Ubuntu Touch Core Apps Project). It covers most of the basics—there’s a calculator, a weather app, a file manager, and even more Linux-y things like a Terminal. An e-mail client is the biggest absence at this point. Our Nexus 7 got the apps automatically, but we needed to install the whole suite on the Nexus 4 via the Terminal app. Your mileage may vary—check this XDA Developers post for instructions and this page if you’re getting a “read-only filesystem” error.

Like the core operating system, these apps are currently pretty buggy, can behave inconsistently, and are missing basic functions. The Contacts and Calendar apps can do some basic syncing with online services (Google is supported, Exchange and other protocols like CardDAV and CalDAV aren’t), but obviously this isn’t quite up to the task of connecting to all of your existing stuff just yet.

As for third-party applications, there’s plenty on offer in the store, though it’s mostly populated by knockoffs and wrappers for web apps. Web apps can appear in the app list and access system services just like local apps in Ubuntu Touch, but they remain web apps and not native applications designed with Ubuntu in mind. You’ll need to create and sign in with a Ubuntu One account if you want to install anything.

Proceed with caution, or don’t proceed at all

Ubuntu Touch is coming along, but we recommend that you continue to treat this as a developer-only OS for testing and development purposes. Don’t install this on a phone you care about. Don’t install this on a phone you expect to get work done on. It’s usable in a basic sense, but especially compared to Android 4.4 (the software each of these gadgets would normally be running), it just isn’t ready for daily use yet—even if you’re a Ubuntu die-hard with the patience of a saint.

The real test for Canonical will be hitting that summer milestone, at which point the software will apparently be ready for public consumption. With a single specific hardware platform to target, the software’s speed and stability will doubtlessly improve. The real challenge will be closing that feature gap. Ubuntu fans may be willing to tolerate some early absences, but consumers with three or four other more mature platforms to choose from won’t be so forgiving.

Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter

Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue.

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