This week, all the covers have been taken by the Focal Fossa's first OTA, figuratively speaking, but the circle of Xenial Xerus had yet to be closed. Ubuntu 16.04 has been the base that Ubuntu Touch has used since it began to gain some fame, and Free Touch OTA-25 it is the version that will mark the end of its life cycle (EOL). From now on, you have to update the operating system to base 20.04.
In the past, there were many times when it was mentioned that an update to the mobile version of Ubuntu was going to be the latest based on 16.04but this is for real. This is confirmed by UBports in the release note, and although on other occasions they also said "this will be the last" or "the next one will already be based on Focal Fossa", the fact that this first version based on 20.04 is already available makes us think that the cycle change has arrived.
What's new in Ubuntu Touch OTA-25
There is no mention of Ubuntu Touch OTA-25 supporting new devices, so the list is the same as in the earlier version. Regarding the new arrivalsThey are few, but enough if we take into account that they were already working on Focal's OTA-1:
- Security improvements for QtWebEngine.
- Waydroid installation/configuration improvements and cleanup.
- Badge counters (unread messages) for dialer and messaging app.
- Notification text can now be longer than 2 lines.
- The channel selector has moved from channels 16.04 to channels 20.04, and also shows the version number
- Fixed a bug where the date and time were difficult to see in the dark theme.
- Favorites can once again be anchored in the calls app.
- The vibration is more noticeable in the Vollaphone.
UBports says that there will be no more OTAs on this channel, unless something catastrophic happens that forces them to do so. They recommend changing the channel to Focal Fossa and start using the version based on 20.04, but that is not possible in all cases. As for the PINE64 devices, they receive the updates with other numbers, but I don't know if they will receive this OTA-25, at least one PineTab that hasn't received anything since November 2022, not even being in the developer channel.
With this, the time has come to say goodbye to 16.04 and move up to 20.04.
Since I see that you don't even bother to follow what UBports does, I attach news that I think will be of interest to you, given what you like "the complaint":
«GREAT NEWS FOR THE PINEAPPLE!
You want to install Ubuntu Touch 20.04 Focal on the PinePhone and PinePhone Pro then here is how. Thanks to Oren Klopfer for porting and Milan Korecky for instructions.
https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/pinephone-and-pinephone-pro-3889
#UbuntuTouch #UBports #PinePhone #PinePhonePro #Pine64 #MobileLinux »
Apart from that, you could mention not only the press release, but also the development of the information that is carried out on its website, which is why it no longer makes any sense to continue developing based on Xenial:
IMPORTANT RELEASE NOTE:
"Known issues
It's sad that while we thought we could also add generic security updates from Canonical's ESM program (supporting Xenial beyond the EOL date), but unfortunately these files do not contain binaries for ARM architectures. This was only added with 18.04. So the published prospect of having a significant number of security updates will not come true. One more reason to speed up the switch to Focal!”