Hello Linux Geeksters. As you may know, a new Ubuntu Touch version has been released yesterday, along with the release of Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr. Due to the fact that it is already stable enough, it still lacks a lot of important features, already present on iOS and Android.
While Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr is powered by Unity 7 and X.org, Ubuntu Touch got Unity 8 and Mir, which will be also ported on the desktop versions of future Ubuntu systems.
Canonical has been working a lot at Ubuntu Touch, the mobile version of Ubuntu. While the initial plan was to make it available for all the Google Nexus smartphones and tablets, the developers have dropped the support for Galaxy Nexus, Google Nexus 7 2012 and Google Nexus 10, Ubuntu Touch being officially available only for the Google Nexus 4 smartphone and the Google Nexus 7 2013 tablet.
Ubuntu Touch gets updated constantly, receiving both improvements and new features. Lately, new scopes for Unity 8 have been recently created (including a 500 px scope for photography enthusiasts), a new bootsplash running over Mir has been implemented, a new app switcher has been developed, and support for both conference call and dual SIM.
Until now, there aren’t a lot of applications for Ubuntu Touch available, Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth hopes that by the time the first Ubuntu Touch powered phones hit the market, the top 50 Android/iOS apps will be available for Ubuntu Touch.
Also worth mentioning, Mark’s Shuttleworth big dream is to reach full desktop-mobile convergence somewhere between the releases of Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 15.04 (between October 2014 and April 2015).