Ubuntu Touch: My Personal Journey

As with many other I’ve been disappointed by the news that Canonical will no longer be the driving force behind Ubuntu Touch and Unity8. Ubuntu Touch has been a fascinating project that I’ve been following for a few years now. It has really given me a creative space to expand my programing horizons. Ubuntu Touch is very hackable and great for tinkering. But even beyond the tangible benefits of Ubuntu Touch I’ve also been able to become accepted into the community where I have met a bunch of great people. I’ve had the opportunity to talk to many different people from around the globe and it has helped to expand my worldview. I’ve also forged some friendships that have afforded me extra opportunities like freelance work. While I’m upset that Ubuntu Touch will probably slowly fade out, I’m glad for the experiences that have come from it.

With Ubuntu Touch I’ve had the privilege of writing several websites, apps, and tools:

uApp Explorer

This is probably my largest project with Ubuntu Touch as it consists of a large website, an app (with a donation flavor), a scope, and a cli app. uApp Explorer has gotten traffic from all over the web including several links from official Ubuntu sites. It grew from a small project to let me see what apps are available to a large scale site with many users. It has let me explore several new technologies over several major refactors and has helped develop my love for NodeJS.

OpenStore

After the “success” of uApp Explorer I was invited to join up with a few other devs to develop the OpenStore. The OpenStore was able to attract many awesome new apps that bent and broke the Ubuntu Touch rules in wonderful ways.

Falcon

As one of my OpenStore entries, Falcon was a way to give users more choice and flexibility to Ubuntu Touch. I didn’t want Ubuntu Touch to feel like an iPhone where you don’t have many choices or customizations. It also led way to a great collaboration to bring customized icons to Ubuntu Touch apps.

Rockwork

Rockwork was a very fun project to work on. It brought together two of my favorite technologies, Pebble and Ubuntu Touch (unfortunately both of which have since had their development halted). It was great to be hacking on the Javascript engine and learning so much in the process of collaborating with friends.

And Others

Thanks to Ubuntu Touch I’ve been able to develop several other projects including clickable, Fishtank, Finger Painting, Indicator Weather, click-parser, Full Circle app, and ownCloud Files Scope. Each of which I have pride in and am glad I have be able to develop.