Better Communication - Jolla's Top Ten

General
#1

There is a lot of frustration across a lot of threads over things, some pretty basic, that don’t work in Sailfish - either at all or partially. We all know what they are - stuff like network connectivity in Android, GPS on the XA2, backups that won’t upload to cloud services, VoLTE, multiple issues on X10 II and so on.

We also know that Jolla’s resources are limited (err, I think I’ve heard that before - somewhere here :wink:) and they never like to promise the availability of fix, or this or that functionality, etc. I understand that sometimes this is because what can seem like a simple thing turns out to be nowhere near simple.

However …

It would be, I think, a huge step forward in terms of community communication, for Jolla to perhaps publish just a simple list of the top ten things they are focussing on. So that is not a promise of a delivery within any particular timeframe, or even at all (if things don’t pan out as they often don’t) - just a list of their priorities at any given time. There would be no committent that the list wouldn’t change, with things dropping off in favour of others coming on - in business, as in life, things change all the time. This could be monthly quarterly or annually.

This would give us community users (whether we be just phone users like myself, or developers) a huge boost in understanding whether any, some or none of our concerns are being given any sort of focus or priority. It would give us a ‘gentle’ hope that improvements may be coming, at some point, in areas that we need a phone to provide - or not.

Companies publish roadmaps all the time, so I do not think this is unreasonable.

Yes, I’m sure this has been asked for before. OK, I’m proposing it again!

Now I know, and expect, particular forum users to respond to this and say that such a mechanism will only drive disappointment and outrage if something is ‘promised’ on the list and the not delivered - so its a waste of time and effort. To those, please re-read my words above - its just a list of items being focussed on at any given time, not a promise of delivery. And better communication with your user and developer base is never a waste of time.

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#2

Well, they have an NDA like everyone else in the corporate world.

Edit: This post and thread is somewhere similar to your points.

#3

A Non Disclosure Agreement, for those that don’t know, is a legal agreement signed, usually, by two parities agreeing not to disclose something of a confidential or sensitive nature.

I honestly can’t see how, or why, this would need to apply to a simple list, delivered without commitment of any kind, saying, for example:

We are currently focussing on:

  1. Fixing the Android connectivity bug
  2. Improving GPS fix times on the XA2
  3. Fixing the lack of audio in phone calls
  4. Improving Bluetooth compatibility with low energy peripherals
  5. … etc

All of these issues are already in the public domain and much talked about - there is nothing confidential or sensitive about any of them. There would be nothing to be gained by subjecting them to an NDA.

Now if we were talking about Jolla’s strategic plan to, say, exit the mobile phone OS market to fully concentrate on developing Sailfish for vehicle infotainment/connectivity applications, then that is a different matter entirely - but that is not my proposal. I’m really only talking about better communications around stuff that is already out there in the public domain.

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#4

I think @robnas has an excellent point as to why Jolla should engage in this way.

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#5

It goes further than this. Things that don’t work, used to work, either in a prior version of the OS or on older hardware. To experience regression like this is a very frustrating user experience. If you know it doesn’t work beforehand you make your decision whether or not to use the OS based on this prior knowledge. For it to break at a later date without any roadmap to fix the problem, that’s another issue entirely.

Two things that impact me significantly are the GPS on the XA2 and Android connectivity.

We all know that as software evolves some functions get “broken” but the usual process is to acknowledge the problem, advise of an expected fix date then release a fix as soon as possible. What have we heard from Jolla so far on most of the problems? Crickets.

Looking to the future I’d like to know what the progress is on getting access to Bluetooth connectivity for Android apps and VoLTE.

As much as I’d like to be free of Android apps that isn’t possible. A very topical example right now is our Covid Tracer app. It is a requirement to us to use that or have a paper diary. The app works OK on Sailfish BUT the Bluetooth tracing functionality is non existent.

The day of VoLTE only for mobile communications has come over the horizon where I live. I will need a VoLTE capable phone. I have a decision to make on whether I keep sailing on the good ship Sailfish or abandon ship.

I suspect I’m not alone when I say that in order to make a decision on my future with Sailfish I need to know what the road map is both for the “broken” functions and future functions. Without any information people like me will assume the worst and jump ship anyway.

I think most sailors have put up with reduced/impacted functionality with some portion of the Sailfish OS knowing it was a new OS and with the expectation that over time things would improve. Sadly there has been little or no improvement and/or silence on many important issues.

Please Jolla give us some idea on your planned directions on these sorts of issues. As said by someone else “I’d rather read bad news with a sensible explanation instead of having no update at all.”

7 Likes
#6

But the main reason of Sailfish OS is the privacy for most of us… I hope… Corona APP is everything else besides privacy. I do not want that s**t on my phone and for such apps I do not want to be supported.

#7

You don’t know how the app I’m referring to works, other wise you wouldn’t have made the comments you do. This one ensures privacy, you choose to share the data. It is an electronic diary that stays on your phone and only on your phone until you decide to share. The data is completely wiped the minute you delete the app. There are no hidden directories or folders for this app.

Anyway in this case you have the choice whether or not you install.

Also as I have explained your privacy argument is not valid for this app…

I used this app as one example of an Android app. There are plenty of others. I have health app and a sports app that use Bluetooth that I am unable to use or use to their full extent.

1 Like
#8

Sorry if I offended you. But did you developed that App? Did you saw the source code? Otherwise, are just suppositions.

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#9

I do not know if the german one is talked about, but here it is: https://github.com/corona-warn-app

#10

Everything that uses Apple/Google API is not private from my point of view. That is why we are using Sailfish !!! But reading this forum lately it seems that a lot of users still wants Android Apps even though are alternatives.

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#11

Ooops. Another Thread getting out of hand? I personally have a strong opinion on Google and privacy and I love having an alternative to iOS and Android.

But let’s ask ourselves what this thread is really about and what are our intentions here. Constructive arguments on technical issues are fine. But somehow some discussions tend to turn into something poisonous.

Keep calm, smile and sail on!

(And don’t use Google. :wink:)

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#12

I don’t use Sailfish because of the privacy issues you are concerned about. I primarily use it because I used Meego prior to this. Sure privacy is a minor reason for me but it’s not an over riding consideration.

As much as I’d like to not use any Android apps unfortunately there isn’t always an alternative. For example;

Opera browser, the Sailfish browser is seriously deficient
Windy weather app
Fitbit app
Whatsapp, Telegram etc doesn’t work if your friends don’t have it.
Ankidroid
MS Excel
MS Teams
MS Outlook
Canon Camera Connect
Beurer CardioExpert
Zoom
LinkedIn

You might be able to use a Sailfish phone on a daily basis without using any Android apps. I cannot and I suspect a good many Sailors cannot either.

For the time being at least there needs to be good support for Android apps.

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#13

Pls do not get me wrong here. I do use some Android Apps, e.g. Threema and Signal or Fennec. But luckily I get along without microg and a Google account.

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#14

Thank you. My reply was to calinutzzz and the comment that there are alternatives. Sure there are some alternatives but not for many things.

I too get along without MicroG. I do have a Google account for other devices but don’t need it for my Sailfish device.

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#15

Thanks for the reply! It is good to see other opinions, because I got the wrong impression that users of Jolla are searching for privacy and degooglefication. I must admit that I also use the google mail, because I didn’t find anything better yet.

Regarding the topic: I do not know if it is really necessary to have exactly the topics which are in focus for the current development. From my point of view would be nice to see what is the strategy of Jolla. Which is the future direction, will it be automotive (because looks like it is a trend nowadays as the conventional OEMs are dying and everyone is jumping on them), will it be security, or will it be something else? In my opinion an alternative Phone OS to the mainstream is not financial sustainable. With a 49 Euros (one time pay) license you cannot do much. The pool of users is not big and as it was written in some posts, Jolla is doing nothing to attract more users. There are not so many anti-US governments in the world to create a business model around them. If they do not come up with a new product, I am sorry to say it, but I do not see a future for Jolla. Canonical did not succeed with Ubuntu Touch and they have more resources than Jolla, Samsung did not really succeed with Tizen, Harmony OS is not a hit, it is hard for Jolla on this market.

#16

I have to admit, I’m tracking a bunch of regressions. I using 3.4 as a daily driver and trying to do 4.2 testing as I find time.

On the up side, all the apps I maintain work on 4.2 Yipee!
Downside (volla port):
MMS only work with wifi on (probably a combination of things, but works on 3.4)
SIM pin is not always asked for on boot?
Some network foo. For instance, SailHN can’t show all comments (the other hackernews app does). Browser is unable to render some stuff which even works on 3.4 with a more restrictive hosts file!
Restore from Backup crashes after Gallery so no contacts imported. Couldn’t import them manually.

I’m still working on the list. In my case, it’s complicated by the fact that it’s a community port.

I’m guessing here, but insofar as we get these regressions into the bugs threads, they will be attended to, resources given. The bugs are often referenced in the Release notes, so I would guess the rate of progress is constrained by resources, as it always is.

1 Like
#17

may be the backup issue is because the username changed from nemo to defaultuser, creating a symbolic link solves it…

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#18

no, on 3.4 the user was also default user. I also checked the log. Although the backup restore crashes it does get ‘most of the job’ done.

I’m wrong about the MMS on 3.4 though. Have to remark on that in another thread.

#19

This any help?

#20

Not directly. I did try, as one person suggested with notes, removing the Gallery director from the tarball, but that did not help. But it’s always slight variations in the process. I had, as usual, entered Jolla creds by hand before doing the restore and, frankly, didn’t expect accounts to be restored (since that has never worked for me). I need to do something systematic. Maybe I’ll flatten that phone again. It has other issues.