New versions of Ubuntu Touch, Mir, and Unity arrive
Various parts of Ubuntu's cancelled desktop/fondleslab convergence project are all still ticking away – some officially and some thanks to user communities.
UBports is edging closer to moving to a different LTS – except on the PinePhone, which is going its own way. It's nearly six months since Ubuntu Touch OTA-23 appeared, and the UBports community have announced the next version, OTA-24. As the Reg noted last year, though, this release is still based on Ubuntu 16.04. We suspect that is because this was the last LTS release before Ubuntu cancelled the fondleslab version the following year, before the next LTS version, 18.04.
As such, UBports is going to skip 18.04. The days of "Bionic Beaver" are numbered anyway: its official end of life is next April. Instead, soon, Ubuntu Touch will switch its base OS to Ubuntu 20.04, whose codename is "Focal Fossa."