Jolla Company The release of the Sailfish OS 3.3. Builds have been prepared for devices Jolla 1, Jolla C, Jolla Tablet, Sony Xperia X, Xperia XA2, Gemini, Sony Xperia 10, and are already available as an OTA update. Sailfish uses a graphical stack based on Wayland and Qt5 libraries, and the system environment is built on Mer, which since April as part of Sailfish, and packages from the Mer distribution Nemo. The user interface, core mobile applications, QML components for building graphical interfaces with Silica, the layer for running Android applications, smart text input engine, and data synchronization system are proprietary, but their code was planned to be open-sourced back in 2017.
In :
- The build tools and system libraries have been updated, including the upgrade of GCC from 4.9.4 to version 8.3, glibc from 2.28 to 2.30 and
glib2 from 2.56 to 2.62, Gstreamer 1.16.1, QEMU 4.2 (used when building for other platforms). System packages have been updated, including expat, file, e2fsprogs, libgrypt, libsoup, augeas, wpa_supplicant, fribidi, glib2, nss and nspr. Instead of coreutils, tar, and vi, alternatives from the busybox set have been utilized, which allowed reducing the system size by 7.2 MB. The functionality of statefs has been replaced by obtaining status information through the libqofono API. Python, used in the build infrastructure, has been updated to release 3.8.1. The code has not yet been completely freed from bindings to Python 2, so the package with Python 2.7.17 is still supported, but work is underway to remove it and fully transition to Python 3. - The migration to the new GCC was carried out by the developers of the mobile operating system 'Aurora' (a localized version of Sailfish OS from Rostelecom), who also added the following improvements:
- A service based on the platform and the possibility of using it for sharing photos (Nextcloud albums automatically appear in the Gallery app), documents, and notes, as well as for backing up and syncing the address book and calendar scheduler;
- Support for WPA-EAP (TTLS and TLS) authentication has been added for wireless connections. Authentication using Exchange accounts (EAS) has been improved, and the ability for authentication using personal SSL certificates has been introduced;
- The email client has been enhanced with support for searching in the Global Address List (GAL) provided in Exchange Active Sync. Support for synchronizing settings is ensured;
- The stack for determining location via Wi-Fi and base stations (without GPS) has been adapted to work with other providers. Previously, Mozilla Location Service was used, but its support in Sailfish has been discontinued due to Mozilla Location Service has been accused of violating patents from Skyhook Holdings, and as part of an out-of-court settlement, Mozilla has set a limit of 100,000 API requests per day for commercial projects.
- The 'Settings > Backup' menu has been updated with 'Mount' and 'Unlock' buttons for mounting or unlocking memory cards.
- Errors in the calendar-planner, camera, and document viewer have been fixed (issues when viewing CSV and RTF have been resolved).
- MDM API for ActiveSync and account management has been implemented.
- The address book now supports field auto-completion and search functionality.
- Improvements have been made to call history management and the dialer interface.
- The VPN management API has been enhanced.
- A service based on the platform and the possibility of using it for sharing photos (Nextcloud albums automatically appear in the Gallery app), documents, and notes, as well as for backing up and syncing the address book and calendar scheduler;
- System service isolation has been enabled through sandbox mode in systemd. Future plans include ensuring application launch isolation (experiments are currently ongoing with ). Work is also being done to support packaging in Flatpak format in future releases — libseccomp and json-glib, which are necessary for Flatpak toolchain, have already been integrated into the system.
- Icons have been added showing various weather conditions. Icons for Google accounts have been updated.
- The layout of application interface elements has been optimized for smartphones with large screens.
- The compatibility layer for Android has been updated to platform Android 8.1.0_r73. Problems with adding contacts and watching videos in WhatsApp have been resolved. Support for accessing the SD card has been provided for many applications.
- The system lock screen now shows Bluetooth icons and location service indicators, as well as the name of the mobile carrier.
Source: opennet.ru
