Ubuntu developer Canonical tried years ago to make its way to the smartphone game with Ubuntu Touch. It failed to take off, but independent developers have kept the dream alive. Now, we have a build based on Ubuntu 20.04.

A release candidate build of Ubuntu Touch based on 20.04 has been released by the independent developers at UBports, letting you make your phone Linux-powered. That’s not the newest version of Ubuntu, as it was first released in 2020. However, Ubuntu Touch has been stuck in 16.04 since Canonical abandoned the project, so this is the first time the underlying OS has actually been updated since UBports began maintaining it.

16.04 had been getting old, so the fact that it’s now based on 20.04 means excellent news for long-term support — after all, it’ll be supported through April 2027, a little over four years from now, and it’ll have security patches until 2032.

Given how this is aftermarket firmware that you can currently install on existing Android-powered smartphones, 10 years of support is formidable — and you might even get more than that as the underlying operating system keeps getting updated. After all, Ubuntu goes up to 22.10 now.

20.04-based Ubuntu Touch is only available on a small number of devices right now, but you can check the official download page to check if yours is among them.

Source: Liliputing