Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Month With a Ubuntu Phone

Posted by Soulskill on from the upstart-contenders dept.

When the first Ubuntu phone came out, reviews were quick to criticize it for its lackluster hardware and unusual take on common mobile software interactions. It's been out for a while, now, and Alastair Stevenson has written about his experiences using it for an entire month. While he doesn't recommend it for phone users who aren't tech savvy, he does say that he began to like it better than Android after adjusting to how Ubuntu does things. From the article: [T]he Ubuntu OS has a completely reworked user interface that replaces the traditional home screen with a new system of "scopes." The scope system does away with the traditional mobile interface where applications are stored and accessed from a central series of homescreens. ... Adding to Ubuntu’s otherworldly, unique feel, the OS is also significantly more touch- and gesture-focused than iOS and Android. We found nearly all the key features and menus on the Meizu MX4 are accessed using gesture controls, not with screen shortcuts. ... Finally, there's my biggest criticism – Ubuntu phone is not smart enough yet. While the app selection is impressive for a prototype, in its infancy Ubuntu phone doesn't have enough data feeding into it, as key services are missing."

4 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. I hate it already! by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We found nearly all the key features and menus on the Meizu MX4 are accessed using gesture controls, not with screen shortcuts. ...

    As it is I am struggling to use most features of a smart phone. I still have not figured out a reliable way to tell which parts of the screen is active and is clickable and which parts are not. For example, today I got into the Google maps directions in the "walking" mode. 13 hours of walking to destination. Could not find a way simply change from walk to car. I have seen the icon, I know it exists. But if you are already in walk mode, switching to car mode was very non-intuitive. I am sure hundreds of young slashdotters will follow up with variations of "I am not getting off your lawn, grandpa".

    Now all the key features are through gestures? How are the available gestures indicated on the screen? Or we are expected to go through the entire routine of dressing in drags and doing a hoola? Is it left right left right up up down down A B A B or right left right left up up down down A B A B?

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:I hate it already! by nine-times · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I agree with your criticism about gestures. I had the same general problem with Windows 8 when it first came out: a lot of the features in the metro UI were hidden under some kind of obscured interaction. Hover over this area, and you get one menu. Hover in a different location, and something else happens. Right click when you're in this application, and it pops up with a menu from the bottom. Right click somewhere else, and it does something different. Drag down, swipe left, do a little dance, and some kind of other magic happens. What are all the features? Who knows what you'll find next!

      It also reminds me of Apple's reluctance to have two-button mice. A lot of people made fun of it as pure stupidity, or as though it was a technological failure. It was a design choice. Apple designers didn't like context menus, since context menus mean that right-clicking in different places and in different contexts produced different menus, and the user had no real way of knowing what would be in a context menu ahead of time. The only way to learn context menus is to right-click in various places and try to discern what the pattern is, and hope that the developer was consistent. It's rumored that a big part of the reason Apple has stuck with one-button mice is that, if you're not relying on context menus, multiple buttons are largely unnecessary for normal productivity uses, and not having multiple buttons deters developers from putting important functions in context menus.

  2. Re:Developers will not come by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How many developers does it realistically need though?

    I think the plan is that once 16.04 is released the devices should be capable of running most any Linux desktop application and while that isn't always the most manageable in a touch environment, it's more of a matter of adapting them for use on a phone instead of having to build an app from scratch.

    I'm probably not the typically user in this regard, but I have an iPad and use almost no third party apps, with the only one that gets much frequent use being the YouTube app. Beyond that it's a few games, but the browser and various included media apps are sufficient. Having a huge number of apps also means that it's necessary to weed out a lot of crud that was just made as a quick cash-in move and is laden with ads as a result.

    Ubuntu phone doesn't need to have the market share of Android or Apple to be successful just like Linux never needed the market share of Microsoft to be successful.

  3. Re:Developers will not come by thoriumbr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A few years ago you would be saying "You basically have two major players in mobile OS, Symbian and BlackBerry OS. I don't see that changing..."

    Blackberry is dead, Nokia is dead. Android and iOS will die someday too. Ubuntu may be a very very small player, but the licensing and cost will appeal to very low cost hardware makers, and maybe someday Ubuntu phones can flood Chinese and Indian markets. Or they could die as Windows mobile.