Sounds nice.
Which one is that exactly?
Aren't the keys too small?
And - isn't that also a slab of glass - only with a tiny keyboard below it?

Yes, I'm aware. I am very much for something like this.

No idea what you mean?

No, OsmAnd~ isn't available as an Ubuntu Touch app. There are some mapping apps, but they all seem to rely on being online. I've been told on the UBports forum that an app called Pure Maps is working on having offline functionality (expected in a month or so). Beyond the app, it seems there's a program of it as well. I'll wait and see how Pure Maps proceeds. In the meantime I'm just going to stick with LineageOS on my Galaxy Nexus. If I can get the Nexus 5 set up to my satisfaction with Ubuntu Touch, then I'll switch over to it.

yes, this has a tiny keyboard but it's very usable and leaves the screen free for, you knoiw, being a screen since it folds away. In many ways I preferred the Blackberry OS device I had before which was more like the original Blackberry though.

The HTC device I had, and loved, was the Universal:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Universal

^ OK thanks, but what is the Blackberry device?
I tried to find it on gsmarena.com but could not?

Oh that is sad.
But, didn't you say you can install Android apps too?
(If that isn't possible, there's quite a few OSM Linux apps that work offline)

I'm currently using the Priv and it's decent enough but I preferred the old Bold due to the keyboard. The upside of this is that it's Android so apps work but the downside is it's Android also. That and the screen allows one to watch movies -- which I never do despite the screen on this being the same resolution as my main desktop monitor.

Getting Android apps working on Ubuntu Touch seems to be like using WINE to get Windows programs working on Linux. You can sorta get some things working, but it's tricky.

Anyway, I'm curious about the "OSM Linux apps" that you mentioned. What are these?

See here.

Hm. When you wrote
I'd hoped it was a Blackberry OS device, but it's an Android device.
So you're running Android 6.x on that glorious non-slab?

I discovered something called "Libertine Container" on the Ubuntu Touch Nexus 5 phone. This apparently allows one to install and run Ubuntu Linux applications on it from the repository (at least, I think that's what it's supposed to do). I haven't been able to set up this container yet.

Here's some documentation for it: https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/u...libertine.html

If I can get this working, then it may make the Ubuntu Touch phone a superior replacement to my LineageOS phone. I figure it could open up a few new possibilities. For instance, if I could get Gnome Maps installed on it, then I wouldn't need OsmAnd~.

sadly the morons won and anything without "hundreds of apps" was not saleable. So, people now run devices and use prety much the same functionality using Android "becuase it's got more apps".

I feel Blackberry was a better option. I still know some people who use Blackberry. I myself only recently got a smartphone, that being a Galaxy Nexus, which originally had Android 4 on it. I installed LineageOS sans Gapps on it, and it works good enough for me.

I now have a Nexus 5 phone and I'm messing around with Ubuntu Touch. I got the Linux container going ("Libertine"), so I can install x-windows programs on it. But, given that the phone is not very powerful, I can't really use them (beyond playing Minesweeper). Gnome Maps always crashed.

For a mapping program that works offline, I just recently set up uNav with map tiles, using the downloadosmtiles command to get them (this took a while). Searching locations works on it, and the maps look good (tiles are from OpenStreetMap). I don't know if GPS on the phone works okay or not, though (I'll have to test it outside). uNav works well online, though I don't have data in my plan (costs too much for me -- wifi is good enough), which is why I'm working on setting up an offline option.

uNav with the map tiles I downloaded worked quite well in identifying where I was walking with my phone. In offline mode, it doesn't do directions, unfortunately (online, it does do directions, according to ad). Still, it seems it will quite effectively let me know where I am, which is the main reason I want a mapping app anyway.

I ahve to admit to using Google Earth a lot as it seems, sadly, to be unchallenged as a way to navigate. However, I tend to leave location switched off and find where I am using a street name and/or a landmark and compass. That's not really due to mistrust of uaing GPS but more mistrust of the accuracy and a need to get an idea where I am using actual, physical things rather than assuming one source is correct.
Darn, now I really have painted a bad, "get orf my lawen!" , type persona.

^ have been using actual human sense of direction + offline digital maps for a long while now (and analog before that, duh).
One of the good things about mobile computing - have a fully detailed world map in your pocket any time.
____________

I recently got myself a Nokia N9 - the 16GB models can be had dirt cheap - and am surprised that there's current, alternative operating systems for that!
Still in the process.
You can't imagine how much fun it is to ssh into your phone and do some true Linux hacking on it!
https://dt.iki.fi/resurrect-nokia-n9 (at the bottom is a link to the next article which is still in the making)
It looks like this could be a real option, not just a toy.

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/h...-on-blackberry

some cruft for this thread

https://developer.ibm.com/tutorials/...emix-apps-trs/
https://news.softpedia.com/news/you-...w-519910.shtml

OK, here's the thing:
You remember Maemo/MeeGo? The true GNU/Linux operating system Nokia used on their latest & greatest smartphones, Most notably the N9 and N900?

I bought an N9 on a whim (22€), not really expecting much. Nostalgia, love the design.

But it turns out to be very usable, I can even watch movies on it, and it has a great screen (one of those where fully black screen pixels are completely turned off).
More than that, it's very hackable. True multibooting is possible. All the alternative OSs I tried where next to unusable (*), but the original MeeGo Harmattan readily lends itself to command line manipulation (one can ssh into it, install standard Linux utilities etc.); I'm hoping to not only remove some bothersome applications but also upgrade some core components to newer, safer versions (openssh, openssl). Hoping! have not done that yet.
Anyhow, I have a few articles on my blog, check it out.

(*) Maemo Leste is mostly for the N900; so I bought an N900, too, hoping it will run better!

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