14 DAY TRIAL // After many months of hard work, the UBports community announced today the general availability of the Ubuntu Touch OTA-4 software update for supported Ubuntu Phone devices.
Ubuntu Touch OTA-4 is the first release to be based on the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system series, which means that it includes more recent and up-to-date components than all previous releases, which were based on the older and deprecated Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet) operating system series.
Therefore, Ubuntu Phone users that have a supported device (see below for supported devices) will now run a much-improved Ubuntu Touch mobile OS that runs recent technologies, such as the long-term supported Qt 5.9 application framework, which brings performance improvements and new features.
"We believe that this is the "official" starting point of the UBports project. From the point when Canonical dropped the project until today, the community has been playing 'catch up' in development, infrastructure, and community building. This release shows that the community is soundly based and capable of delivering," said UBports.
What's new in Ubuntu Touch OTA-4
Apart from being based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu Touch OTA-4 includes up-to-date firmware for various of the supported devices, new power saving features, a new upgrade wizard to help users set up their devices for the Ubuntu 16.04 base, a new option to allow users to manually set the opacity of dash's background, as well as a new option to let users request the desktop version of a website.
Ubuntu Touch OTA-4 also adds new keyboard layouts for Bulgarian, Turkish, and Swiss-French, a new search engine start page, and consistent release numbering across devices for all Ubuntu Touch channels. For developers, it adds support for Qt Quick Controls 2 (QQC2), QtWebEngine support, new QA (Quality Assurance) scripts, and PyOtherSide (Python QML bindings) support.
More than 128 bugs were fixed in this release, which improves Wi-Fi and removes pre-installed Scopes that are no longer maintained. On top of that, Ubuntu Touch OTA-4 implements an experimental feature that promises to make installing of desktop apps easier, specifically .deb packages, through the new Libertine Container Manager in System Settings.
How to install Ubuntu Touch OTA-4
Ubuntu Touch OTA-4 is now available for installation on officially supported devices, including Fairphone 2, Nexus 4, Nexus 5, OnePlus One, Meizu MX 4, Meizu PRO 5, BQ Aquaris E4.5, BQ Aquaris E5, BQ Aquaris M10 HD, and BQ Aquaris M10 FHD. It might also work on Moto G (2014)D, but it's maintained by a member of the UBports community.
To install Ubuntu Touch OTA-4 on your supported devices running a previous OTA version, such as OTA-3, you will have to download the UBports Installer, choose the "16.04/stable" channel and uncheck the "Wipe" option. Unfortunately, OTA-3 devices won't be automatically upgraded to OTA-4 due to a few known issues that will be resolved in future OTAs.