14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical welcomed today a couple of new community Ubuntu ports for Sony Xperia Z1 and OnePlus One.
The best way for Ubuntu to become more famous on mobile devices is to have as many community ports as possible. It’s not an easy task, and it took the Ubuntu community quite a while to come up with a couple of working versions. Even so, the fact that these phones are a Sony and an OpenPlus One is not a coincidence.
Porting Ubuntu for any device has one major hurdle, and that’s the support for open source from the hardware makers. Each phone needs drivers, and the hardware companies are more than happy to provide them for the Android platform. They do the same for other operating systems.
Fortunately, Sony has been somewhat more friendly towards open source, and the same can be said about OnePlus. The efforts of these two companies have made the Ubuntu ports for these devices a reality.
Sony Xperia Z1 and OnePlus One with Ubuntu
Both the OnePlus One and Sony Xperia Z1 are now working with Ubuntu, but that work hasn’t been completed just yet. Canonical wants to help the community maintain these ports when they are completed.
“Today, we’re celebrating the arrival of two new Ubuntu phone community ports! If you’re the lucky owner of a Sony Xperia Z1, you will soon be able to download an image to turn it into an Ubuntu phone and PC! Alternatively, if you’re the owner of a OnePlus One you will be able to flash and use Ubuntu on your phone,” Thibaut Rouffineau explained.
These two phones will be present at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (Hall 3 Booth 3J30), but they are not the only devices being ported. We also know of the OnePlus Two and Nexus 5 models, but they weren’t mentioned in today’s announcement.