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I received an email about this today. Does anyone know anything about Ubuntu stopping their support for Ubuntu Touch? Will the phone and tablet that I have not be supported any more, or receive any new/more software releases?

It is a shame as I really do like Ubuntu Touch

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  • Regardless, referring to the support schedule should alleviate any immediate concerns you may have.
    – Elder Geek
    Apr 5, 2017 at 23:15
  • YES concern is what I had when I read this too!
    – unknown user
    Apr 5, 2017 at 23:18
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    Check the version you are running against the schedule. What the buzz is about appears to be the dropping of Unity in favor of gnome in 18.04 LTS release as I recall. I wouldn't expect this plan for the future should have no impact on the current support schedule. You might find more information here: wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/GetHelp
    – Elder Geek
    Apr 5, 2017 at 23:21
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    Also, link to the original post: insights.ubuntu.com/2017/04/05/…, instead of an article which quotes another article which in turn quotes the original.
    – muru
    Apr 6, 2017 at 1:39
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    It does look like it I true. I just hope that they respect that some people did decide to go against the grain and buy Touch tablets and phones. Therefore they need to be looked after till the life of their devices.
    – Phil UK
    Apr 7, 2017 at 11:59

2 Answers 2

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Yes, Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) is no longer developing for phones and tablets. In addition, in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, the default desktop shell will switch from Unity 7 to GNOME Shell. Development on Unity 8, Mir and phone/desktop convergence will come to an end. Existing phone and desktop releases will be supported for their normal lifecycle.

This was officially announced in a post from Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu and Canonical, on the Ubuntu website: https://insights.ubuntu.com/2017/04/05/growing-ubuntu-for-cloud-and-iot-rather-than-phone-and-convergence/

Since these are free software projects, someone else can take over development and maintenance. Right now (April 2017) these communities are looking into it:

  • UBports, porting what used to be "Ubuntu Touch" to multiple mobile devices
  • yunit, continuing development of Unity 8, with a desktop focus
  • and there is possible collaboration between the two

...at this stage the discussion is mostly technical and it is yet to be seen if these communities have enough resources for long-term development.

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  • This is such a shame as I personally like the system. I have had better success with it on my tablet, than on the phone. However, the idea that they will be supported for their normal life cycle needs to be cleared up. How long are they saying the "normal life cycle" is and what is included in support.
    – Phil UK
    Apr 19, 2017 at 3:35
  • @PhilUK I think that's worth a separate question and/or contacting your vendor or Canonical directly - if you don't mind fiddling, I've added links to two development communities above
    – lofidevops
    Apr 19, 2017 at 13:03
  • thanks for the update. It is good to hear that Touch may live on past the shock announcement. I just wish it would have more of the things that people want. I remember a few months ago that it was said that Touch has Telegram. That is great, but when the rest of the work is using Whatsapp, then you need that too, That is only one example.
    – Phil UK
    Apr 19, 2017 at 22:02
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Unfortunately, it seems like they are. Development on Ubuntu Phone seems to be coming to an end since it never really took off in the first place.

Mark Coppock at Digital Trends has written an article here talking about this: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/canonical-ending-unity8-phone-and-convergence-development/

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  • Hopefully the Librem 5 will fill the gap and be a phone you can run any OS on, as you can on your computer puri.sm/shop/librem-5
    – NoBugs
    Apr 11, 2018 at 3:35

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