UBports OTA-12 update
=====================

I am writing this  on my BQ Aquaris M10 tablet (one  of the few devices
shipped  with the  Ubuntu  Touch  pre-installed). The  community-driven
Ubuntu Touch  effort [1] is  still a thing  and the recent  update (the
OTA-12) is quite interesting.

The original Ubuntu  Touch used the Ubuntu 15.04 as  its basis. It also
used  rather experimental  versions of  the Unity  desktop and  the Mir
display server. Not only these things were upgraded as much as possible
(ubuntu 16.04, Unity 8, Mir 1.2) which was huge impact on the stability
(now it is much stable than previously) but it also allowed to update a
lot of things. The ports to modern device (thing the PinePhone [2]) use
Wayland instead of the almost abandoned Mir.

From end-user point  of view, there are some noticeable  changes in the
OTA-12:

*  greater stability  (there  were  random restarts  of  GUI, and  even
easily reproducible  ones) - no  GUI error  or restart, yet  

*  the Scopes  (HTML-based  "homepages" or  "desktop"  know from  other
systems - if was interesting idea  but it never worked well) concept is
gone, there is usual Unity interface (a  launch bar on the left side of
screen  and the  big chaotic  menu with  application icons,  as in  any
unity); now it is actually easier to use

* things which were broken in  previous version now usually works (i.e.
synchronisation of Notes with the EverNote service the Mastodon client,
virtual keyboard support in Gtk+-3 applications and so)

There are things which are not so goo, too:

* Bluetooth  stability is  not that  good - the  tablet now  refuses to
connect to a keyboard which  worked previously (the Bluetooth was never
the strongest point of this system)

* the  Calendar cannot connect  to the Google (it  says that it  is not
allowed) - this would be tiny issue except it is not possible to remove
the Google calendar from the list of calendars (so every time I run the
program it welcomes me with an synchronisation error)

If your  are asking about  the Geocaching: there  is a "web  all" which
encapsulates  the Geocaching.com  webpage. The  dedicated app  does not
work for many (it exists but it never worked for me).

At the moment I thing to try to use the tablet for a whole day for some
actual "work"  (well, to browse  refer the documents during  a meeting)
and then I will know more about the improvements.



References:

[1] https://ubport.com 
[2] https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/