Are we able to really make a difference? Yes, definitely! April 5^th 2017, the Community took full responsibility for the development and maintenance of the Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system. UBports activities led to continuous growth of the community.

In an early stage we became aware that in order to fulfill the growing needs of the community, and to support the ambition of sustaining development of Ubuntu Touch and its ecosystem, a formal and legal entity with proper leadership would be required to make our dreams come true.

We are very proud and excited to announce that we are about to be granted the status of an official foundation. The authorities in Berlin have accepted our plans and the required paperwork. A wonderful milestone in our mission to make Ubuntu Touch a successful alternative mobile OS.

Ubuntu Touch is built by the community for everybody who values freedom of choice. Forming an official Foundation has been a long-time goal for UBports. To make our dream come true, we had to cross some hurdles. We want to thank all of our members, sponsors and others who are involved and/or supported the community.

April 2017: A Bomb Dropped but a New Starting point

The idea to create a foundation evolved over time, but one critical moment is present in all our minds. Exactly 2 years ago, on April 5^th 2017, Canonical announced that they would no longer be developing Ubuntu Touch and Unity 8 - its "phone and convergence shell". Unity 8 was central to Canonical's efforts to have one user interface across all devices. At that time a small group of contributors started to explore the opportunity of restarting the development of Ubuntu on the mobile devices. UBports made its first steps and prepared to “fork” Ubuntu Touch. As of today we are still allowed to use the brand name Ubuntu, due to agreement with Canonical.

Steps needed to actually secure our foundation status

Since the UBports community took over the full development of Ubuntu Touch, new steps needed to follow. In order for UBports to reach its full potential, the establishment of an official legal Foundation was required to maintain the interests of the community.

As members of the BoD, Jan Sprinz and Ewald Pierre took upon themselves the task of preparing the required documents and Foundation structure. To do this correctly, a first visit to an accountant took place on June 28th, 2017. On the side, lawyers took care of the legal documentation, including laying out the correct usage of the brand (logo, name, distinctive marks, etc...) and finalizing the Foundation documents. When requested, an experienced partner (The Document Foundation - LibreOffice) helped us out. Meanwhile Ewald also took responsibility for arranging the financial structure. Meetings with banks, governmental organizations, other foundations, accountants, …., it took a lot of time to complete the structure.

During this process, the community behind Ubuntu Touch has grown consistently. New sponsors committed themselves to the project and UBports transformed into a well structured group with a current community member count of well over 2.000 people.