Newsletter Feb 02

Dear Community,

Welcome to your first newsletter of 2024 (or is it? for those who spotted the time travelling typo in the last one). As we look forward to another exciting year, the first things we need to let you know about are Fosdem 2024 and the release of 20.04 OTA-4. Both of which are covered below.

This time not only are we at Fosdem we will be holding the first UBports TouchDown for two days before Fosdem in Brussels. More of these face to face TouchDown events are planned, more details further on in the Newsletter.

UBports TouchDown and FOSDEM

This first TouchDown will involve mainly developers from our community and a few other Community volunteers. The focus this time will be on planning short and long term development goals, how to achieve them and creating timelines for doing so. Not to forget there will also be some UT hacking going on.

As this is the first TouchDown, the plan is that on day one, everyone gets to know each other in a meet and greet session. Though many will know each other through group chats other events and such, very few will have met each other face to face. It will be a great opportunity to discuss and resolve projects and issues together, this is what is going to change and push UT forward.

After the that the work begins. Projects, development, and issues will be identified, prioritised and ways to work on resolving them. Some of these will no doubt be long term, others can be short and quickly resolved. It will be down to the developers themselves to work this out and decide who is doing what and when. Then the work really begins with each group starting work on their individual projects.

While the developers are doing that, other Community members will be looking at non OS, more UBports Community related issues and how to resolve them. These are as much a part of how all things UBports and Ubuntu Touch work as the OS itself.

Community matters! Not only will we be resolving issues, we will be developing common purpose, involvement, and personnel and skills development.

We will also plan on involving our strategic partners, sponsors, and other community members in future TouchDowns.

Fosdem

Marius, Alfred, and Oren will be giving talks, and we will be on the Foss on Mobile stand with other OS. It might be a tight squeeze, but we are ready and prepared to show off our OS at its best to as many people as we can. Additionally, we're planning to have a pop-up stand in the FOSDEM canteen (see the map below). Over the two days that is quite an opportunity to show a range of devices, covering the development of UT from the first Bq to work on the FP5. From 16.04 looking forward to 24.04 later this year, and how our Lomiri DE is usable from phone, tablet and laptop screen.

A full, detailed report will be in the next newsletter but if you are at FOSDEM please do come and look us up using the map below. We will be really pleased to see you chat and show off Ubuntu Touch.

Guess who's at FOSDEM

Why not use a space like this in the newsletter to tell your fellow Community members all about your Ubuntu Touch and UBports experience. Just send an article for the newsletter to socials@ubports.com

News for the Community

20.04 OTA-4

OTA-4 has/will be released on 25thJan and is available through all the usual channels. The call for testing blog can be found here https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/ubuntu-touch-ota-4-focal-3912 Give it a try and let us know what you think. All the links for reporting issues are in the blog, though we don't expect any.

We have said this before, it is really time to switch to 20.04 if you possibly can. It is stable, reliable and works very well. Bugs have and are being crushed......

Thanks to Joan Cibersheep once more for the OTA banner and also a phone background

Q&A

Ubuntu Touch Q&A 132 was on Saturday 20th Jan and can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_PVkeMPgLk The blog and audio are available now. Thanks to Alfred and AppLee for presenting. As this one is coming from FOSDEM the exact time will be on our news channels before the Q&A

Ubuntu Touch Q&A 131 Blog and Audio now available https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/ubuntu-touch-q-a-131-3909

Apps

tedit

A useful notes text editor for Ubuntu Touch.

Daniel Frost

URL Dispatcher tester

Test URL dispatcher

Lionel Duboeuf

Block Ninja

Block ninja

jhay06

Supporting Ubuntu Touch and UBports

There are many ways you can help and support UT and UBports.

One of these is in the UBports Shop, where you can buy yourself or someone else an Ubuntu Touch, UBports shaped gift.

Another is by making a donation. One at a time or on a more regular basis. No matter how large or small, please remember they are very much appreciated and that you are helping directly the development of UT!

You can also donate something else which is as equally valued by us, your time and enthusiasm. If you would like to get involved, please do. If you are not already on the Forum https://forums.ubports.com it is a great place to start. There are many other ways you can help your fellow UBports Community members, so please join in and lets us know how you want to help at socials@ubports.com.

Our Sponsors