# Ubuntu Touch 35 Hacker News commenters recommended Ubuntu Touch and 18 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 7 years (5 owners). **Verdict:** People recommend its open Linux freedom, root access, clean interface and stable daily use. Common caveat: few apps, and volunteers now maintain it after Canonical defunded it. ## Why people recommend it - Stable, reliable daily use (5 comments): "daily-driving Ubuntu Touch since 2019 ... it is working like a charm" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49339011)) "Ubuntu Touch has a really active community and it's very stable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46752666)) "Last time I run it also seemed fairly stable/bug-free" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48758259)) - Good hardware support (5 comments): "Even if community ports, they all seem to have high hardware support, and is all very clearly documented." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48763920)) "Ubuntu Touch so far has the best hardware compatibility for things like camera and battery life." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46753080)) "I was under the impression that Ubuntu Touch worked just fine with the Fairphone 5" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46755622)) - Active, welcoming community (4 comments): "really nice ecosystem and community, you can run many Android apks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45918121)) "Ubuntu Touch has a really active community and it's very stable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46752666)) "it's a great OS with massive potential and active community" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687614)) - Full root access and freedom (3 comments): "Ubuntu Touch (or any Linux distro for that matter) offers drastically more freedom than GrapheneOS or any other Android distribution." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48568405)) "You'd have full root access, sideloading etc and none of that corporate control" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47368785)) "gives you the freedom of Linux with full root access" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49631849)) ## What people warn about - Few apps and no app development (4 comments): "no apps for just basic things renders it useless" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47222833)) "The lack of available apps, the lack of app development in general for the platform was pretty eye opening." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47937137)) "you can't really run any Linux app, it has to be written to support their specific display manager" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46755312)) - Development stalled after funding ended (2 comments): "Ubuntu Touch did seem like it had a future, but it was a massive sink for Canonical so it was defunded as well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47094818)) "their gitlab repo seems abandoned since way before the latest release and all "how to get involved" articles eventually point to 404 pages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48161840)) - Weaker privacy and control than alternatives (3 comments): "How do they let the user control the tech if they don't offer users a proper fine-grained run-time permission model" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50268756)) "Ubuntu Touch is drastically less private and secure than AOSP let alone GrapheneOS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48567473)) "Both Ubuntu and GrapheneOS don't allow you to fully control you phone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49322651)) - Rough experience compared to native phones (3 comments): "I found Ubuntu Touch/ubports to be disappointing so I wouldn't bother with that either." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49050938)) "it had very bad and poor experience compared to native experience of that mobile" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48566372)) "Freedom to get a stroke from an incomplete toy OS?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48569158)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Android](https://hackerapproved.com/p/android.md): 372 recommend - [Apple iOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ios.md): 308 recommend - [LineageOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lineageos.md): 186 recommend - [/e/OS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/e-os.md): 89 recommend - [Sailfish OS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sailfish-os.md): 80 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Ubuntu Touch", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ubuntu-touch/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).