transactional-update VS ubuntu-touch

/etc/fstab is the only special case, because it needs to be in sync with the overlay IDs. One can see this by looking at Overlay.cpp iand how fstab needs to be handled there.

So the way it would work out in Ansible, is that someone would need to write a module such as this rpm-ostree module: https://gist.github.com/dustymabe/926c0d9bb998b1404b9bc55021977fb7 where instead of calling rpm-ostree, it would call the transactional-update command.

A more efficient and reliable approach is to install the updates in a system snapshot and just boot into that the next time the system is started, which is what transactional-update does. openSUSE MicroOS goes a bit further even and the system volume is mounted read-only to prevent even accidental changes to the running system. The installation DVD comes with a Plasma option which is currently markes as Beta, testers are welcome!

Ubuntu Touch, for example, does not support Full Disk Encryption, when Android has moved on from Full Disk Encryption to File-Based Encryption. Android utilises SELinux in enforcing mode for Mandatory Access Control even for root/superuser processes. Sandboxing with Flatpak cannot compare to the OS-level app sandboxing done on Android and iOS. Permission management on Flatpak is good, but still not as advanced as Android or iOS. On phones, (real) Linux is quite easily outclassed in security when compared to Android.

For those seeking a change https://ubports.com/

It still uses many of the Android components via Halium on traditional Android devices which end up unpatched and for devices not with a mainline kernel use outdated vendor kernels. https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/1566

I'd suggest taking a look at contributing to existing efforts like UBPorts

Ubuntu Touch doesn't even have encryption and ships kernels with many known security issues: https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/178

Fyi, the project isn't dead, it is just not developed by Canonical anymore: https://ubports.com/

There is already Ubport https://ubports.com/ project that is supporting Ubuntu for smartphones and guides you to compile debian with all the phone functionalities. Some parts of modem abstraction layer on the Linux (below radio Interface layer) will still be not openesource and i would say it won't be easy to get this source.