{"slug": "ubuntu-touch", "name": "Ubuntu Touch", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 7, "warners": 3, "score": -0.195, "rising": 2.0, "first": "2026-01-10", "latest": "2026-10-23", "why": "SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, and Nura seem to be good contenders", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1, "compare": 1, "warn": 3}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, and Nura seem to be good contenders", "icon": false, "domain": "ubuntu-touch.io", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://ubuntu-touch.io", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Ubuntu Touch"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 803374625, "item_id": 50210914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50210914", "by": "dethos", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, and Nura seem to be good contenders", "excerpt": "SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, and Nura seem to be good contenders. One of them must become a real alternative to the duopoly.", "context": "", "use_case": "alternative mobile OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your Phone Is About to Stop Being Yours: 70 Days Until Lockdown"}, {"id": 789455329, "item_id": 49340958, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49340958", "by": "d3Xt3r", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "are also pretty good daily drivers", "excerpt": "> If you're looking for a daily driver the most reliable I've seen is the furi phone. The Jolla C2 (SailfishOS) and Volla Phone Quintus (Ubuntu Touch) are also pretty good daily drivers, only issue is they they're only available in the EU. Also worth keeping an eye out for the upcoming Comodore Callback (SailfishOS), which is being shipped worldwide.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily driver phone OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 781241825, "item_id": 48827614, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48827614", "by": "burningChrome", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I was running Ubuntu Touch on it before and it was super sluggish", "excerpt": ">> 74% of installs are unofficial builds, not ones released by LineageOS. One of the first versions of LineageOS I used was Evolution X on my Moms old OnePlus phone since it wasn't supported by the \"official\" Lineage version. Great track record of almost daily updates, and the customization you could do with it was phenomenal. The funny thing was I was running Ubuntu Touch on it before and it was super sluggish (tota", "context": "", "use_case": "phone OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "LineageOS Statistics"}, {"id": 748084992, "item_id": 46755312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46755312", "by": "ottah", "date": "2026-01-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I have struggled with getting anything functional on a Fairphone running Ubuntu Touch.", "excerpt": "I have struggled with getting anything functional on a Fairphone running Ubuntu Touch. The problem is you can't really run any Linux app, it has to be written to support their specific display manager. Running regular Linux apps is possible but not properly documented and I haven't gotten it to work. Android apps through Waydroid sort of works, but is unstable and not suitable for daily use. I really want Linux on mo", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux on phone", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android"}, {"id": 745144944, "item_id": 46571559, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46571559", "by": "godelski", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it seems that the implementation is the worst of both worlds", "excerpt": "I remember them working on a hybrid OS that would run on your phone or tablet and then you could switch it to desktop mode. Actually looks like they're still working on that https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/ Edit: seriously guys, can we design product pages so they actually give you a sense of how the product actually works? That page sucks. I found a video and honestly while I love the idea it seems that the implementati", "context": "", "use_case": "phone/desktop hybrid OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["alternative mobile os", "daily driver phone os", "linux phone os", "phone os", "mobile linux", "linux on phone"], "compared": [{"slug": "postmarketos", "name": "postmarketOS", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "lineageos", "name": "LineageOS", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "sailfish-os", "name": "Sailfish OS", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "mobian", "name": "Mobian", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "grapheneos", "name": "GrapheneOS", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46688804", "title": "Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50208558", "title": "Your Phone Is About to Stop Being Yours: 70 Days Until Lockdown", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49338285", "title": "Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331220", "title": "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48826329", "title": "LineageOS Statistics", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46566465", "title": "I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"warn": 2, "compare": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"warn": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803374625, "item_id": 50210914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50210914", "by": "dethos", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, and Nura seem to be good contenders", "excerpt": "SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, and Nura seem to be good contenders. One of them must become a real alternative to the duopoly.", "context": "", "use_case": "alternative mobile OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your Phone Is About to Stop Being Yours: 70 Days Until Lockdown"}, {"id": 789455329, "item_id": 49340958, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49340958", "by": "d3Xt3r", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "are also pretty good daily drivers", "excerpt": "> If you're looking for a daily driver the most reliable I've seen is the furi phone. The Jolla C2 (SailfishOS) and Volla Phone Quintus (Ubuntu Touch) are also pretty good daily drivers, only issue is they they're only available in the EU. Also worth keeping an eye out for the upcoming Comodore Callback (SailfishOS), which is being shipped worldwide.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily driver phone OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera"}, {"id": 789454546, "item_id": 49340909, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49340909", "by": "dredmorbius", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Ubuntu Touch (33 supported devices", "excerpt": "If you want pure-play Linux, there's Purism (PureOS), Pine (PineOS), SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch (33 supported devices, including Fairphone, Xiaomi, Google Pixel, and Lenovo, amongst others), Tizen, Mobian (based on Debian), and postMarketOS (based on Alpine Linux). If you want an alternative to the iOS / Android duopoly, and will accept AOSP (Android Open Source Project) or de-Googled Android, there are AOSP devices (i", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux phone OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI"}, {"id": 781241825, "item_id": 48827614, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48827614", "by": "burningChrome", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I was running Ubuntu Touch on it before and it was super sluggish", "excerpt": ">> 74% of installs are unofficial builds, not ones released by LineageOS. One of the first versions of LineageOS I used was Evolution X on my Moms old OnePlus phone since it wasn't supported by the \"official\" Lineage version. Great track record of almost daily updates, and the customization you could do with it was phenomenal. The funny thing was I was running Ubuntu Touch on it before and it was super sluggish (tota", "context": "", "use_case": "phone OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "LineageOS Statistics"}, {"id": 748096611, "item_id": 46756038, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46756038", "by": "fsflover", "date": "2026-01-25", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Unlike Ubuntu Touch, they allow you to run ordinary Linux desktop apps.", "excerpt": "> alternatives to Google/Apple duopoly on mobile. Link: https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/ This is far from the only alternative. There are also Mobian, PureOS, postmarketOS and more. Unlike Ubuntu Touch, they allow you to run ordinary Linux desktop apps. Also there is hardware not tied to an ancient Android kernel, designed to run desktop GNU/Linux: Pinephone and Librem 5. The latter is my daily driver.", "context": "", "use_case": "mobile Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android"}, {"id": 748084992, "item_id": 46755312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46755312", "by": "ottah", "date": "2026-01-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I have struggled with getting anything functional on a Fairphone running Ubuntu Touch.", "excerpt": "I have struggled with getting anything functional on a Fairphone running Ubuntu Touch. The problem is you can't really run any Linux app, it has to be written to support their specific display manager. Running regular Linux apps is possible but not properly documented and I haven't gotten it to work. Android apps through Waydroid sort of works, but is unstable and not suitable for daily use. I really want Linux on mo", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux on phone", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android"}, {"id": 745144944, "item_id": 46571559, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46571559", "by": "godelski", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it seems that the implementation is the worst of both worlds", "excerpt": "I remember them working on a hybrid OS that would run on your phone or tablet and then you could switch it to desktop mode. Actually looks like they're still working on that https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/ Edit: seriously guys, can we design product pages so they actually give you a sense of how the product actually works? That page sucks. I found a video and honestly while I love the idea it seems that the implementati", "context": "", "use_case": "phone/desktop hybrid OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great"}]}