Ubuntu supports modular smartphone Fairphone 2

Article By : Julien Happich

The Ubuntu Community UBports aims to see Ubuntu on every device, starting with smartphones, through developers' collaborative development.

At the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Ubuntu Community UBports is planning to show how sustainability can be combined with open source by supporting the Fairphone 2.

According to UBports, it chose to put Ubuntu on the Fairphone 2 because the community feels a lot of sympathy for the phone whose mission is to create positive impact across the value chain of electronics. The phone is also modular, which means you can repair it yourself and create a longer lifespan in your device. Next to showing sympathy to an ethical initiative like Fairphone, UBports found it important to show a successfully ported device running on Ubuntu.

This open source operating system forms a strong alternative to Android in the guaranteed security and non-vendor lock-in it offers for its users.

In order to keep UBports productive and draw new projects, its initiator, the 19-year-old Norwegian Marius Gripsgard launched UBports Foundation whose members will be present at MWC '17 in Barcelona.

They will demonstrate how the Fairphone 2 and Ubuntu complement each other in terms of the user experience. With this combination the smartphone becomes a device where the user is in control over his data and can contribute to a better world at the same time. This is in line with Fairphone’s goal to give people more ownership over their smartphone so that they can open it up, keep and maintain it longer, both on hardware and software levels.

UBports Foundation will be showcasing its work at the Canonical booth, the company behind Ubuntu.