7 ms·

If I understand correctly, this is a user environment. What OS does it run on? A Linux distro? Android? I don't see that detail mentioned on the site. Perhaps

If I understand correctly, this is a user environment. What OS does it run on? A Linux distro? Android? I don't see that detail mentioned on the site. Perhaps people familiar with KDE and Plasma know, but I don't. Or perhaps I'm overlooking something obvious ... EDIT: Wikipedia says that Plasma is a desktop environment, not an OS, and that "Plasma Mobile is a Plasma variant for smartphones". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE_Plasma_5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE_Plasma_5

swiley 10y ago
It's gnu/linux with wayland/KDE for the GUI.
jbob2000 10y ago
No, I'm lost as well. What the hell is this thing? What the hell is a hacking device?
- wierdaaron 10y ago
  I assume you use it to hack streetlights and steam pipes like in Watch Dogs.
- pzone 10y ago
  Basically, Ubuntu Touch with Plasma instead of Unity.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- auganov 10y ago
  Totally need to change that phrasing. I swear I thought it's a Kali Linux on Android sort of thing!
djsumdog 10y ago
I think it's a full OS. Look at the forums and they talk about porting. I don't think it runs on Android, but has a Linux base that has to be ported to different arm platforms.
- hackuser 10y ago
  Their own Linux distro?
  - shmerl 10y ago
    It's based off Kubuntu. It does use Android drivers and libhybris when it has no access to native drivers.
    - hackuser 10y ago
      Thanks! Is it documented somewhere?
      - shmerl 10y ago
        * https://plasma-mobile.org/technology/ https://plasma-mobile.org/technology/ * https://plasma-mobile.org/nexus-5/ https://plasma-mobile.org/nexus-5/ In the second link you can see a reference to KDE Neon, which is development distro based on Kubuntu. See also: https://neon.kde.org https://neon.kde.org
        hackuser 10y ago
        Thanks for responding. I'm still having trouble finding the information: > * https://plasma-mobile.org/technology/ https://plasma-mobile.org/technology/ This page doesn't mention the OS, afaict. > * https://plasma-mobile.org/nexus-5/ https://plasma-mobile.org/nexus-5/ This page seems to describe installing Plasma Mobile on top of Cyanogenmod, a fork of Android. Neon is mentioned only under "OLD INSTRUCTIONS AND ERRATA (no longer needed)".
        shmerl 10y ago
        Old instructions show what it is. The base is the same. See for example: https://kubuntu.org/news/kubuntu-team-launches-plasma-mobile-references-images/ https://kubuntu.org/news/kubuntu-team-launches-plasma-mobile...
sokac 10y ago
Looks like Ubuntu Touch: https://plasma-mobile.org/oneplus-one/ https://plasma-mobile.org/oneplus-one/
reledi 10y ago
The content on the page does a very poor job of explaining what it is and why we should care. It's only until I saw the KDE developers at the bottom that I realised it's a graphical desktop environment but for your mobile phone. It's FOSS so it's hackable, as in you have access to the source code and development is done in the open and contributions are encouraged. The target developer phone seems to be the LG Nexus 5. I guess it's running some Debian-based OS as apt-get is its package manager.
- winter_blue 10y ago
  Yea, the Plasma Mobile home page doesn't really make a strong pitch towards a potential user. For mobile developers, the biggest difference is that they'd be using the Qt framework instead of the Android framework. So the pitch at least for mobile developers, should be why it's a more pleasant and better (and more productive) experience to develop mobile apps with Qt vs the Android frameworks. I'm not how much better Qt is going to be since I haven't used it. But I've been a long-time desktop Linux KDE user, and one of the biggest gripes I have with KDE is that its quite unstable and buggy compared to Mac and Windows. KDE 4 became almost very-stable with 4.13+, but the early version of KDE 4 were horribly unstable. With Plasma 5, from what I hear, things got worse again. This is the biggest problem, I think. To the people who have actually used KDE on deskotp Linux for a long time, how many of you have enough confidence in the stability and reliability of a mobile Qt/KDE environment to use it everyday?
  - codedokode 10y ago
    Actually I don't see much benefits from using Qt. C++ is pretty old language that doesn't have a GC and its syntax for me is worse than Java's.
    - pjmlp 10y ago
      Qt developers are nowadays pushing for JavaScript instead. Qt5 programming model is that C++ Widgets are legacy and you are supposed to do the UI in QML, a JavaScript dialect, while coding in C++ the business logic or the hardware interaction of new widgets you might create.
codedokode 10y ago
The project is about running KDE in a linux container on Cyanogenmod which is a modified build of open source Android OS. But for some reason they use marketing language to make it look like they have invented some new mobile OS. By the way, it doesn't look very secure: - first, you have to unlock the bootloader. It means you can install custom firmware but anyone having physical access to your phone can do it too. - Google did a lot to make Android more secure. For example, every application is run under a separate user account to protect it from other (potentially malicious) applications. Applications' privileges are restricted. KDE doesn't have such features. So if you like KDE or want to run or maybe write KDE applications this project will help you. But you'll have to forget about security and I guess the project is in early development stage now so there can be bugs and something might not work.
hackuser 10y ago
In case anyone reads this later: The dev chimed in later in this discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12861481 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12861481 It turns out it runs Neon, in a container, on top of Cyanogenmod. They formerly used Ubuntu Touch, but no longer.

swiley 10y ago

It's gnu/linux with wayland/KDE for the GUI.

jbob2000 10y ago

No, I'm lost as well. What the hell is this thing? What the hell is a hacking device?

wierdaaron 10y ago
I assume you use it to hack streetlights and steam pipes like in Watch Dogs.
pzone 10y ago
Basically, Ubuntu Touch with Plasma instead of Unity.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
auganov 10y ago
Totally need to change that phrasing. I swear I thought it's a Kali Linux on Android sort of thing!

djsumdog 10y ago

I think it's a full OS. Look at the forums and they talk about porting. I don't think it runs on Android, but has a Linux base that has to be ported to different arm platforms.

hackuser 10y ago
Their own Linux distro?
- shmerl 10y ago
  It's based off Kubuntu. It does use Android drivers and libhybris when it has no access to native drivers.
  - hackuser 10y ago
    Thanks! Is it documented somewhere?
    - shmerl 10y ago
      * https://plasma-mobile.org/technology/ https://plasma-mobile.org/technology/ * https://plasma-mobile.org/nexus-5/ https://plasma-mobile.org/nexus-5/ In the second link you can see a reference to KDE Neon, which is development distro based on Kubuntu. See also: https://neon.kde.org https://neon.kde.org
      - hackuser 10y ago
        Thanks for responding. I'm still having trouble finding the information: > * https://plasma-mobile.org/technology/ https://plasma-mobile.org/technology/ This page doesn't mention the OS, afaict. > * https://plasma-mobile.org/nexus-5/ https://plasma-mobile.org/nexus-5/ This page seems to describe installing Plasma Mobile on top of Cyanogenmod, a fork of Android. Neon is mentioned only under "OLD INSTRUCTIONS AND ERRATA (no longer needed)".
        shmerl 10y ago
        Old instructions show what it is. The base is the same. See for example: https://kubuntu.org/news/kubuntu-team-launches-plasma-mobile-references-images/ https://kubuntu.org/news/kubuntu-team-launches-plasma-mobile...

sokac 10y ago

Looks like Ubuntu Touch: https://plasma-mobile.org/oneplus-one/ https://plasma-mobile.org/oneplus-one/

reledi 10y ago

The content on the page does a very poor job of explaining what it is and why we should care. It's only until I saw the KDE developers at the bottom that I realised it's a graphical desktop environment but for your mobile phone. It's FOSS so it's hackable, as in you have access to the source code and development is done in the open and contributions are encouraged. The target developer phone seems to be the LG Nexus 5. I guess it's running some Debian-based OS as apt-get is its package manager.

winter_blue 10y ago
Yea, the Plasma Mobile home page doesn't really make a strong pitch towards a potential user. For mobile developers, the biggest difference is that they'd be using the Qt framework instead of the Android framework. So the pitch at least for mobile developers, should be why it's a more pleasant and better (and more productive) experience to develop mobile apps with Qt vs the Android frameworks. I'm not how much better Qt is going to be since I haven't used it. But I've been a long-time desktop Linux KDE user, and one of the biggest gripes I have with KDE is that its quite unstable and buggy compared to Mac and Windows. KDE 4 became almost very-stable with 4.13+, but the early version of KDE 4 were horribly unstable. With Plasma 5, from what I hear, things got worse again. This is the biggest problem, I think. To the people who have actually used KDE on deskotp Linux for a long time, how many of you have enough confidence in the stability and reliability of a mobile Qt/KDE environment to use it everyday?
- codedokode 10y ago
  Actually I don't see much benefits from using Qt. C++ is pretty old language that doesn't have a GC and its syntax for me is worse than Java's.
  - pjmlp 10y ago
    Qt developers are nowadays pushing for JavaScript instead. Qt5 programming model is that C++ Widgets are legacy and you are supposed to do the UI in QML, a JavaScript dialect, while coding in C++ the business logic or the hardware interaction of new widgets you might create.

codedokode 10y ago

The project is about running KDE in a linux container on Cyanogenmod which is a modified build of open source Android OS. But for some reason they use marketing language to make it look like they have invented some new mobile OS. By the way, it doesn't look very secure: - first, you have to unlock the bootloader. It means you can install custom firmware but anyone having physical access to your phone can do it too. - Google did a lot to make Android more secure. For example, every application is run under a separate user account to protect it from other (potentially malicious) applications. Applications' privileges are restricted. KDE doesn't have such features. So if you like KDE or want to run or maybe write KDE applications this project will help you. But you'll have to forget about security and I guess the project is in early development stage now so there can be bugs and something might not work.

hackuser 10y ago

In case anyone reads this later: The dev chimed in later in this discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12861481 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12861481 It turns out it runs Neon, in a container, on top of Cyanogenmod. They formerly used Ubuntu Touch, but no longer.