Jolla 3.0.0.8 - was it really worth increasing the Major version number?

sailfishos-3.0

asked 2018-11-13 23:34:07 +0300

cfgardiner

2468 ●21 ●28 ●32

updated 2018-11-14 10:19:22 +0300

jiit

2678 ●32 ●58 ●59

admin

To be honest, I don't think so. The colours are maybe brighter but the same issues have now been here for years.

Top of list, mediocre to nearly unusable browser. It takes simply ages to load pages like www.spiegel.de/schlagzeilen or www.post.de, that is if they load at all. A simple mostly text only page like Wikipedia loads OK but that is about all. And unfortunately webcat isn't really any better.
Entries like hotels from contacts don't show up at all when the phone is connected to an automotive infotainment over bluetooth. What is so difficult about sorting by surname and first name or if neither is present by company and treating company name as a surname in this case?
Calender and Email client are as basic as ever. Even the N9 was better here
VPN : OK it's new but I have never been able to get it working with a Lancom router. I'll try again with 3.x. A good tutorial or guide would be a great help.

And from the update experience, tendency is worse than for any previous ones. I have three Jolla 1 and 1 tablet. The tablet is an improvement worked first time but the Jolla 1, two out of three updated OK but the third one needed about five attempts including at least two power/volume resets and one battery removal.

All in all, a bit of a disappointment.

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4

personally I was waiting for the device encryption :(

lolek ( 2018-11-13 23:46:00 +0300 )edit

4

In the original plans (early 2018) towards 3.0, there was one more 2.x version than was actually released. (I faintly remember in one thread here a Jolla employee said they 'might' skip that one but it wasn't yet decided. That was only weeks before they released 3.0.)

I'm convinced that what they call 3.0 now is basically the missing 2.x they had originally planned - plus some additional ambience images.

Most likely one of the managers' bonus depends on the release of 3.0 within a certain timeframe. That's how it works in my company. That's how we 'finish' projects.

ossi1967 ( 2018-11-14 09:55:44 +0300 )edit

3

I appreciate some improvements but what was broken is still broken and there is no new major features like encryption and cloud integration :(

Marzanna ( 2018-11-14 11:36:32 +0300 )edit

Like said from the beginning Sailfish 3 will be rolled out in phases. Sailfish 3 is not over yet, there are still many improvements to come. And any way we have gone a long way from the original Sailfish 2.0 release so a version bump was long due.

Joona Petrell ( 2018-11-14 20:16:05 +0300 )edit

9

answered 2018-11-13 23:50:17 +0300

Yo
2799 ●40 ●56 ●69

Yes, it's worth it.

Not so much because of new features but because of marketing. No tech news site would have written about a minor version upgrade.

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7

Wait a minute - so according to you, it's better to have media exposure earlier (when you have nothing to show except for a number) than a little later (when you have real new features and a new version number)?

ossi1967 ( 2018-11-14 13:11:22 +0300 )edit

@ossi1967 I'm with Jolla 1 since the beginning. All sailfish OS updates have been small steps regardless of if it was a point release (e.g. 1.0.1→1.0.2) or a new main version (e.g. 1.1.9→2.0.0). You could say that Sailfish OS is quite close to a rolling release cycle. Features are added to the OS when they are ready and not kept back until a new major release is planned.

From what the user can see the step from 1 to 2 was the change of some UI paradigms - mainly gestures. The step from 2 to 3 is new design (light ambiances) and the new top menu. Jolla could have easily introduced these features as stop releases (2.2.1→2.3) but IMO Sailfish OS needs such major version jumps so it will be mentioned in the press. Ever read that a new version of arch linux has been released? No? That's because arch linux is true rolling release. You just can't write a news article about that.

And - as others already stated - there have been big updates under the hood. From a developers point of view this clearly justifies a new major version number.

Jolla promised some new features for Sailfish 3 and these will come. In time. I would have been unhappy if Jolla would have waited until all of these features are ready and THEN release Sailfish 3. Because this would probably would have lasted at least a year.

Yo ( 2018-11-17 01:03:00 +0300 )edit

24

answered 2018-11-14 00:28:19 +0300

melg01
6069 ●57 ●75 ●68

updated 2018-11-14 01:11:23 +0300

I agree with all of the above comments and issues... and besides all the elsewhere mentioned bugs and issues, I am additionally disappointed about:

no roadmap for upgrade of aliendalvik/android support >= Vers 5. This highly critical!
many basic apps that look and are completely outdated, lacking nowadays basic functionality, including no system wide copy/paste.
still no store for commercial apps. No wonder the ecosystem is so small.
no privacy and security configuration for apps and other security tools (in user space, and not only encryption, which is also highly important). Jolla claimed to be about security - well, still waiting to see this...
lack of basic kernel functionality like cifs/smb support
and many more...

But hey! we got this here:

a major release number. Wow!
a bad copy of android top pull menu. Not even capable to have transparent background with old ambiances.
a bad evolution in GUI design towards clicking instead of the original and simple swiping

My reference is the official announcement here: https://jolla.com/sailfish3/ Of course, this is a roadmap for one year, but I don't really see enough of these features that would entitle a major version number jump by now.

All in all very disappointed :-(

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2

"lack of basic kernel functionality like cifs/smb support"

How many sailors need those features? I don't even know what is these. And anyways Xperia x get also newer android version even when there is no roadmap for that. But Jolla, Jolla c, turing phone and jolla tablet will not get new android support version.

https://jolla.com/sailfish3/

This site mentioned "Android support version upgrade". So actually there is "roadmap". Also some folks asked directly from Jolla's employees that will xperia x get also newer android.

Jk ( 2018-11-14 14:44:46 +0300 )edit

1

@Jk Imho there will be no upgrade of Android. Because there's no Dalvik for 5.x. So Jolla should allow adding paid apps to the harbour, otherwise it will be dead like Ubuntu Touch or Firefox OS.

lolek ( 2018-11-14 20:27:34 +0300 )edit

4

answered 2018-11-14 13:01:28 +0300

Kopekenscheich

758 ●6 ●19 ●26

I can see why the marketing spin elevated expectations and why, after some time, one can get frustrated over the perceived lack of progress.

After some research I knew what I was getting myself into. And I am confident the Jolla Team will work out all the bugs and shortcomings until the commercial release for the XAs. I would love to see fingerprint enabled as well as the Bluetooth Connection to my car being possible. And yeah, the native browser sucks.

As to the lack of native apps: The Sailfish ecosystem suffers from the curse of the small number. To gather an amount of money reasonably high to be an incentive for a developer to start coding, you'll need to ask high prices compared to the Google Play or iOS app store.

What we can agree on is that the apps provided with Sailfish on install, should be more than just generic.

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jolla is missing some critical points. First of all, the browser which is outdated and a security hole. I am honestly wondering to move to another platform due to that lacking of interested in those critical areas.

itdoesntmatt ( 2018-11-16 09:26:39 +0300 )edit

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answered 2018-11-14 15:13:01 +0300

Spark
4216 ●67 ●91 ●99

updated 2018-11-14 15:16:01 +0300

I guess we have to accept, that we are not the main customers anymore. We are the part called "community project", connected to the "Sailfish X" package.

The main part in the meantime is the corporate part which is being developed for Russian, Chinese and further customers. There are aspects of SF3 which SailfishX users don't notice, namely MDM and Corporate API. This together with the new AlienDalvik version and the new top menu (possibly also a wish of these customers) is probably the package Jolla can start to license to the corporate customers - and that's why we have a new full version.

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1

Yes, very true. And hey, that's not as bad as it sounds. These corporate customers have very reallife needs. I really like Jolla but they never seemed to have a real focus on where to go but enterprise customers know what they want. That's why we have VPN and MDM now. We might not use it, but they demanded it and there it is.

Once the integration of the devices into their enterprise environment works they will demand a better browser, a better mailclient. Hell, they might even write them and include them in a future release. This is how Linux works. Today it's only seldom a single hobbyist developer including something new. Rather it's the enterprise. Look who makes Linux strong these days, the main kernel contributors are Samsung, Google, Intel and the like. As long as it stays open I see this as a good thing.

Just look at the performance gains in the 3.0 release. This is a real win. And I bet it was driven by the same coporate customers.

lispy ( 2018-11-15 09:53:20 +0300 )edit

9

answered 2018-11-14 15:30:48 +0300

L_A_G
1410 ●19 ●20 ●26

While the update may not have been that big when it comes to new features and UI changes, the initial 3.0 release definitely has a lot of under-the-hood updates necessary for the feature updates and additions in the pipeline. There definitely should be at least some kind of roadmap for the feature and UI changes in the pipeline, but at least the necessary foundations for those are in place. Particularly the somewhat iffy answer on if they're going to update Android support for the Xperia X was genuinely aggravating.

If the job listings at Jolla that I've seen earlier this year are anything to go by it seems like Jolla has been somewhat understaffed, which would explain why Sailfish 3 released behind the initially promised schedule and missing many of the promised additions. Not sure if those positions have since then been filled, but if they have, then Jolla will probably start picking up the pace as the new hires have gotten the hang of things.

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Jolla 3.0.0.8 - was it really worth increasing the Major version number?

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