Ubuntu abandons Unity desktop - as well as tablets, phones

[popobawa4u]

SO annoying. I was just looking into this as it was announced, and read about it here:

Ubuntu Unity is dead: Desktop will switch back to GNOME next year

Verizon mandates pre-installed spyware for all its Android customers

Does anybody offer a utility for phones which acts as a normal computer firewall? Facilitating the management of what processes can access what ports? I would prefer a regular Linux distro for phones like Ubuntu or Debian which wasn’t deliberately compromised.

So I poked around and found that there was (as of last week) a version of Ubuntu for tablets and phones. But does one access it? There were no .iso images or other easily-obtained distributions. Although there were a few pages blathering about potential partnerships for those who may be interested. So my guess is that it was only low-key released/escaped for a few developers but never given proper distribution generally. If so, their complaints about its lack of adoption sound like they were exclusively banking upon OEM deals instead of building a base of actual users.

[Kimmo]

@popobawa4u

Does anybody offer a utility for phones which acts as a normal computer firewall?

Tried asking at XDA?

XDA Forums

[crenquis]

@popobawa4u

Does anybody offer a utility for phones which acts as a normal computer firewall?

There are several if your phone is rooted – especially if you use the Xposed framework. I think that most just use a version of the linux iptables firewall…
I have used LightningWall on a few devices.
There are other options like AppOpsXposed that perform firewall-like operations as well as many other options.
If you don’t use or don’t want to use xposed, there is DroidWall – I assume that it still works with more modern phones.

Ah, here’s one that is still maintained, AFWall+ (Android Firewall +)

Edit: Plasma Active (KDE) is still being developed (I think) for mobile platforms:

Plasma Mobile

[LapsedPacifist]

Hallelujah! Mainstream Ubuntu is going to become usable again. God, but I hated Unity. Slow, sticky, rubbish interface even when I used to display nothing more onerous than a few web browsers and a dozen terminal windows.

[popobawa4u]

@crenquis

Edit: Plasma Active (KDE) is still being developed (I think) for mobile platforms:https://plasma-mobile.org/

@LapsedPacifist

Hallelujah! Mainstream Ubuntu is going to become usable again. God, but I hated Unity. Slow, sticky, rubbish interface even when I used to display nothing more onerous than a few web browsers and a dozen terminal windows.

I have never tried Unity! But I have noticed that many people are opinionated about it.

I did just try Plasma on one system recently and it seems nice enough. It was an older system and it worked fine without hogging resources. I didn’t have a strong opinion of it.

[crenquis]

I haven’t tried Plasma in the past year or two (perhaps longer) – I came across an ExoPC tablet years ago and ran the early versions of plasma on it. Worked fine for basic stuff.
I need to dig it out and try the newer version on it.

[popobawa4u]

Thanks for the suggestions about Android firewalls. My Android is ancient, so if I can afford mobile service again anytime soon I will almost certainly be using something else. But the security and privacy problems I try to keep track of. If I was going to buy (or build) another phone I would need to do my homework all over again. I might just buy a breakout GSM module and hook it up to a wearable computer with a general-purpose OS instead of buying a phone.

Even still, the trajectory of Android has affected Linux, and other people’s phone security problems can affect me.