24 ms·

Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

652 points by type0 9y ago

LeoNatan25 9y ago
“Maru is a new kind of computing experience.” Is it? This type of “All Your PC Are Belong To Phone” type of fads have been attempted (and so far, miserably failed) for many, many years now. Looking at the website, I see little reason why this should succeed where others have failed.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- slobotron 9y ago
  Motorola webtop on Atrix was too early - phones were just too slow for even basic browsing in Firefox in laptop mode. Perhaps Maru is smooth enough on new hardware? (Still have the lapdock lying around, now hooked into RPi.)
  - strozykowski 9y ago
    In your experience, how well does the lapdock run with an RPi? I have a lapdock lying around, and never thought of this for some reason.
    - jtuente 9y ago
      Not the person you replied to but I have the same setup. The only real issue is getting the adapters so they can be connected (plenty available on a variety of websites, but of questionable quality).
    - slobotron 9y ago
      For me it's mostly a novelty - I put RiscOS on it to try it out, and it seems snappy enough. But it's a mess of cables - I never got around to making it as pretty as some [1] [0] https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/raspberry-pi https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/raspberry-pi [1] https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/27081 https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/27081
      - strozykowski 9y ago
        Thanks! This looks like a pretty simple solution to me.
- xrisk 9y ago
  It’s an OS for your phone that becomes a proper desktop OS if you plug in a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc. I don’t think this has been done before, or maybe I’m just hopelessly unaware? Either way, I think it’s quite interesting.
  - cwyers 9y ago
    Motorola Atrix, Ubuntu Phone, Windows Phone 10 has Continuum. It's been tried before.
    - xrisk 9y ago
      I stand corrected then.
    - ruleabidinguser 9y ago
      I don't think this makes sense until phones are basically as fast as current laptops.
      - thatcat 9y ago
        The flagship phone for this OS is the nexus 5 which uses a 2.26 Ghz quad core qualcomm chip and has 2 gb ram. The hw limitation seems to be the low ram limiting the number of memory heavy desktop apps you can run. Definitely not a video editing rig and vbox doesn't work on arm hosts, but this is good for spread sheets / typing up papers / scanning things with your camera and quickly editing them on a desktop with out any data transfer hassles.
        petecox 9y ago
        Exactly, the complaint of power users is that "it'll never be as powerful as my Core i7 desktop". Were a phone solution seamless enough to dock into my kvm switch, I'd power up my 'workstation' far less often.
        ksk 9y ago
        The CPU speed for all mobile devices is deceptive. You can't actually run the CPU at that speed for anything but the tiniest amount of time, without immediately running into the throttling brick wall.
- jjrh 9y ago
  Well this probably isn't going to succeed where others failed, but the idea is good. I'm glad someone is trying to move forward with the idea of using the very capable computer in your pocket as more than a phone. I mean my current phone has more ram than my last laptop....
falcolas 9y ago
I really wish this was a viable option, but the lack of active cooling (and mediocre passive cooling) for phones really makes the phone-as-desktop a non-starter for anything but light web browsing or text editing.
- ksubedi 9y ago
  But if you think about it, the use case for almost 80% of the people out there that use laptops or desktops is for web browsing and office work (text editing etc) which phones should be able to handle well.
  - falcolas 9y ago
    Think of any task that has ever caused your laptop fans to spin up, and cross that task off of what is possible on a phone-as-desktop list. No high definition video calls. No 1080p gaming. No fully functional IDEs (intellisense and interactive linting/compiling is computationally expensive). No high definition movies. Video/batch photo conversions are probably out, though may be possible at 1/10th speed. The most successful tablet-laptop attempt thus far has active cooling simply so they don't have to throttle back performance. It's possible that more energy efficient processors will come about and prove me wrong, but they've been working on the heat dissipation problem for decades now (yes, even in desktops/servers).
    - my123 9y ago
      You are over-exaggerating quite a lot to say the least. Microsoft Continuum currently works on Windows 10 Mobile with passive cooling just fine. Samsung DeX has active cooling in the dock though, to be able to handle even heavier loads with SoCs as close to thermal limits as possible, without headroom.
    - khedoros1 9y ago
      I can do hi-def video calls and video playback on my phone already; the video encode+decode is handled by dedicated hardware. Ditto for certain types of video conversions. Gaming is at 1080p, equivalent to PC games from perhaps 10 years ago. This is with a mid-range phone from a couple years ago. I think you're being overly pessimistic.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Callmenorm 9y ago
I think it might succeed because it's built on Android with Android apps.
AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
Shared storage SD card data like camera photos and downloads are shared so you can coordinate your work seamlessly. This might be confusing for some, given that the only devices supported right now are Nexus devices, which famously lack an SD slot.
- wvenable 9y ago
  It's confusing because Android phones have a SD card mount for the internal storage (and external SD cards are yet another SD card mount).
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  Why ... the fuck ... is that?
garou 9y ago
Is it running a Debian with XFCE when Desktop? If not, is it able to use the Nix package manager or something like this?
- sprokolopolis 9y ago
  Yes, it comes with Xfce and apt-get.
graycoder 9y ago
If you like this you might like: sentio.com
- franciscop 9y ago
  Small tip: add the https:// https:// to make it a full link
- whitethief 9y ago
  First time hearing about Sentio, very cool, thanks!
- geniium 9y ago
  Web site currently down?
  - koopuluri 9y ago
    Hey, were you able to access? Site doesn't seem to be down from what I can tell. I'm part of the team at Sentio. Feel free to message me if you have any issues :)
- djaychela 9y ago
  Was coming on here to post exactly the same; backed it on Kickstarter but still waiting for the device to arrive; they changed the name from Andromium to Sentio (negative change, IMO, sounds like an age-related medical product now), but it's a similar concept. However, I've not looked into the technicalities of Sentio in terms of the issues raised elsewhere on this page, so hopefully they don't have them...
- test9753 9y ago
  Sentio CEO demoing the "SuperBook": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFVRw0xWVAo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFVRw0xWVAo
graycoder 9y ago
If you like this you might like: sentio.com
djrogers 9y ago
The fact that this spins up a Debian desktop when you're in desktop mode seems to make this a much more viable option than some of the previous attempts at this, which expected you to want to use only android apps on your desktop.
- fps 9y ago
  I'd love to have both, though. Debian apps for productivity, android apps for communications/games, side by side on the same screen with shared storage and maybe synchronized state. As it is, I have to manually sync state between the two devices which results in missed messages and inconsistent state.
  - JustSomeNobody 9y ago
    So, it would be cool to have Debian as the base OS and Android running in a container. When in Phone mode, Android is front and center and when in Desktop mode, the base Debian host is. Could then still access the Android container. If the UIs supported a seamless mode, that would be icing.
    - my123 9y ago
      I'm concerned about driver support in Debian. It's Android devices after all...
      - kbenson 9y ago
        In the worst case you might have to run a kernel built for Android instead of the default debian kernel (e.g. lifted off the android OS for that type of device), depending on how it was packaged up. Hopefully those aren't built with certain useful features turned off. For devices that support a vanilla android, I imagine the driver issue is already worked out and there would be no problem getting them to work in a kernel that you can compile yourself, even if not the default debian kernel.
        9y ago
bhauer 9y ago
Looks like Windows 10 Mobile Continuum. Even the types of apps being used in the screenshots echo Office being used in Continuum screenshots. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum
- MrMember 9y ago
  The difference to me is that Continuum is still just a mobile OS that is scaled up. They even point that out in their promo material, it's a "desktop-like experience." Maru, while it looks very early in development, isn't a desktop-like experience. It's a desktop experience because it's running a desktop operating system.
  - kairuku 9y ago
    Well, so is Continuum, technically. Windows Phone is its own SKU of Windows 10 but it's still Windows 10.
    - bhauer 9y ago
      Yes. And with Windows 10 on ARM's x86 emulation functionality, I would not be surprised to see broader application support in future buildf of Continuum.
      - TazeTSchnitzel 9y ago
        I hope that can revive Windows Phone, or it'll be a wasted effort.
AltDelete 9y ago
Windows mobile has had a similar feature for a while, but you know, windows. I've thought for a while that this is ultimately the way computing is moving - single device that fits in your pocket. I love my laptop, but there is no substituting the portability of a smart phone that seamlessly syncs with panels at home and at work.
- khedoros1 9y ago
  On the other hand, although I love my phone's portability, there's no substituting a few hundred watts of processing power and a few terabytes of storage in a decent desktop.
  - Piskvorrr 9y ago
    Sure. But I have my phone anywhere, and peripherals are ubiquitous. My beefy silicone devices...not.
    - khedoros1 9y ago
      I guess that's my point, in a way. I've got my phone everywhere, but its utility is inherently limited by its power. My beefier machines are powerful, but inherently mobility-limited by their form factors. Plugging the phone into a dock or something increases its I/O abilities, but doesn't give it the extra benefits that make the non-portable computers useful. > and peripherals are ubiquitous. I'm not sure what you're specifically thinking of, with that. I know that I've got many more PC peripherals than phone ones.
      - Piskvorrr 9y ago
        I mean "I can take my phone most places and expect to find both a HDMI-capable display and Bluetooth input devices." Of course, I don't expect massive computing power - but even as a thin client to more powerful machines, this would suffice; and always having a netbook in your pocket is also useful.
reiichiroh 9y ago
I never asked for this.
- devopsproject 9y ago
  we only wake you up for the important meetings
janwillemb 9y ago
I think this may be the future of computing, but not yet. A high-end phone may have the computing power to replace simple desktop systems, but connectors to the peripherals haven't been standardized yet.
- moojah 9y ago
  With USB-C this shouldn't be a problem whatsoever. In fact, the peripherals largely already exist. Given the driver support, these should just work "out of the box" with an up-to-date linux kernel.
cwyers 9y ago
If you have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard, you may was well have a computer. Seriously, if you have a laptop-like enclosure for all those things to make them portable, adding a SoC to make it a PC is what, $20-$40 to be on par with this in terms of compute? And last I checked, it's still not The Year Of The Linux Desktop. This is gonna crash and burn.
- gouggoug 9y ago
  But, besides that, don't you think it's pretty cool?
- fps 9y ago
  You don't get the value proposition. This isn't for cost saving, it's for time saving and organization. Here's where we are today: If I spend any significant amount of time away from one of my devices (phone, laptop, desktop), it piles up with dozens of notifications. Even with cloud based apps, there's no shared state. So when I get back to a device, I have to clear away all the notifications, assuming that they must have appeared on the other device at some point. And if I change a password on my laptop, because of one of the dozens of data breaches that have happened this month, I have to retrieve my new password out of my password manager and re-login on my phone. At any given point, 2 or 3 apps on my phone are in a "logged out" state because I use them primarily on one of my computers, so i'm actually not getting all my notifications everywhere, and I miss some of them. Also, even with google drive, not every file on my computer is immediately available on my phone and vice versa. So if I need access to a file on the go, there's a good chance it won't be there. I don't expect this to solve all these problems, but I'm looking forward to a day when I don't have to carry my laptop everywhere I go.
  - cwyers 9y ago
    You can get shared notifications. I have Cortana on my Android phone pretty much exactly for this reason.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - 9y ago
tyingq 9y ago
"What is the default sudo password in Maru Desktop? "maru" is the default sudo password. When installing debian packages, you may need to enter "root" as a password" Oy.
- noja 9y ago
  Similar to Chromium OS, right?
  - tyingq 9y ago
    Not when combined with "they start sshd up by default, listening on the local network, with the default user maru and password maru."
zeotroph 9y ago
I am really surprised that the "single computing / storage device" idea which can switch between different screens and input methods seamlessly (and maybe support plug-in CPUs) is just is not happening, though the concept here is a small step in that direction. Having everything in the cloud seems to have made this somewhat redundant for most users, though I still hope one day I can carry all my data around, of course given proper encryption and backups and the ability to distinguish between safe and possibly monitored (public) displays/inputs. Or maybe wireless displays are missing so that decision to quickly do a task with a mouse and keyboard leaves out the cable plugging aspect.
- garou 9y ago
  I prefer the idea of a phone that can be plugged on a better hardware (desktop) and quickly boot on it... without the need of turn of the phone and the changes on desktop appearing on phone...
  - cujo 9y ago
    I always thought this was going to be the direction of the original iPod. Any day now...
- Rudism 9y ago
  I think all the walled-garden ecosystems of apps and device interoperability are also contributing to the slow progress on this front. Nobody with the resources to do so wants to develop open protocols that would enable easy collaboration on this kind of thing. We may get there one day, but you'll need to pick Google, Apple, or Amazon and buy your device, monitor, peripherals, and cloud services from just that one company.
- mafuyu 9y ago
  I think it's a neat idea, but computing is cheap nowadays. When you have a nice screen, battery, and enclosure, throwing in some compute isn't a huge deal. As you mentioned, I think this makes it redundant with the cloud when you can make thin-ish clients for everything, like Chromebooks, or Apple and Microsoft's initiatives to seamlessly transfer your workflow from one device to another.
DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
I find it amusing the promo shot shows it running on an Apple Thunderbolt display - which famously does not support HDMI input, only Thunderbolt - for which there is no MHL adapter.
- jasonlotito 9y ago
  Pretty sure this is incorrect, as I had an old DisplayPort Apple Display that I used with HDMI input, and from what I understand, the Thunderbolt displays also supported DisplayPort. Granted, the adapter was not cheap, but it did work.
  - DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
    The Thunderbolt displays do not work with Mini-DP connections despite sharing the same physical connector. The DisplayPort signals still need to be encapsulated in a true Thunderbolt connection, so they don't even work with pre-Thunderbolt (but still DisplayPort) Apple Macs.
  - BHSPitMonkey 9y ago
    The Thunderbolt displays use the same connector type as Mini Displayport, but only a Thunderbolt handshake turns them on. There's no power switch, so it doesn't work.
- LeonM 9y ago
  I was thinking the same thing. Apple mirrors... err.. I mean displays only have a thunderbolt connection, you couldn't connect your phone to it. Yes, you could use some HDMI to DisplayPort adapter and in theory the thunderbolt display should support that, but you'd lose the webcam, ethernet, firewire, USB, microphone, speakers and daisy chaining support as DP does not support the data pipeline.
- goeric 9y ago
  Could theoretically be the older model (Cinema Display) which is Display Port. Then it would be HDMI > DP and should work ;).
drewg123 9y ago
I'm wondering how secure it is.. According to https://github.com/maruos/maruos/wiki/Tips https://github.com/maruos/maruos/wiki/Tips, they start sshd up by default, listening on the local network, with the default user maru and password maru. That seems like a bit of a red flag and makes me wonder if it is the tip of the iceberg.
- stcredzero 9y ago
  That seems like a bit of a red flag A basic and egregious security blunder is more than a bit of a red flag. and makes me wonder if it is the tip of the iceberg. If you already see that the tip sticking out has a mine on it, the tons of iceberg only give you the difference in the degree of egregiously bad.
  - throwaway91111 9y ago
    I mean, don't install it on anything with data you care about. This isn't exactly a hardened product.
    - dredmorbius 9y ago
      Escallation attacks are a thing.
    - HenryBemis 9y ago
      +1! The way I see it, this is a "toy" (for the time being). The "2013 devices" makes me thing that this is a "toy" for people like "us" that have a Nexus rotting away somewhere and "it would be cool to fool around on your 30-inch screen and nothing more! It would be better if they would up-front say "this is not secure", "this is a demo", "this is a toy", "this is not the OS you're looking for". Imaginary CEO-CTO dialog: CEO: hey! I just read that we can throw away the PCs and replace them with some old phones that we can buy for $50 on ebay! START!!! CTO: but.. let me explain.. I quit!!
      - sangnoir 9y ago
sudosteph 9y ago
As one of the backers for the doomed "Ubuntu Phone" kickstarter, this really looks like a great alternative. I will have to play around with it this weekend for sure.
- notspanishflu 9y ago
  Another interesting project is UBports. https://ubports.com/ https://ubports.com/
rhodysurf 9y ago
Why is it built on Marshmallow instead of Nougat?
- koopuluri 9y ago
  Something like this takes a while to build. They likely started before Nougat was released.
  - pdsouza 9y ago
    Preetam, lead dev here: Correct! Maru started on Lollipop actually and moved to Marshmallow with the 0.3 release. It can be a PITA to port upwards to a new Android version if there are significant changes in the internal system APIs (these are open to rapid change between major versions of Android, unlike the stable app-facing framework APIs). Anyways, hoping to move to Nougat before too long...
JustSomeNobody 9y ago
I really hope all phone OSs go this direction. I love my laptop(s) and they're great for doing serious work, but sometime when I'm, say, composing an email on my phone and it starts getting long, I'd love to be able to plug in to a monitor and keyboard and keep going.
edward 9y ago
Maybe this is the answer to the impending cabin baggage laptop ban. Carry a keyboard and screen in your hold bag, the phone with your data and applications in your pocket.
- Antrikshy 9y ago
  And a power source for the screen...
- BjoernKW 9y ago
  I keep hearing people say that technology can't solve political problems. This has never been more true than in this case. Instead of contriving ridiculously convoluted solutions to a non-problem we could simply stop electing politicians who propose implementing ludicrous airport security theatre.
  - GrinningFool 9y ago
    I agree, but... which ones would those be again? And are they generally electable based on on other platform planks? THe problem here is that most of the public believes that security theater is real security. Unless that changes, most politicians will espouse their "firm positions on security" in order to help them get elected. THe ones who "get it" tend to be in the independent/libertarian camps (last I looked) - and they don't get a whole lot of public support.
    - BjoernKW 9y ago
      Therein lies the rub, doesn't it? The first thing to do is convince people that voting independent or libertarian (or for that matter for an outsider candidate such as Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party primaries) isn't un-American or unpatriotic or whatever weird notions people have about not voting mainstream but their democratic right and an absolutely reasonable thing to do (perhaps the only reasonable thing in today's political environment). I think it can be done. If you think of another notorious modern two-party system neither of the UK's dominant parties today existed before the 19th century. Given how fast opinions spread these days it should be possible to bring about significant change in a matter of years rather than decades. Think about how quickly movements like the Pirate Party became successful in some countries. That they declined just as quickly again in most of these countries can be mostly attributed to their own stupidity rather than systems that are inherently averse to change.
jasonlotito 9y ago
So, with the recent discussion about banning laptops on flights form Europe into the US, I was wondering about something like this. A way to still have a computer but in something the size of your phone. Not just a phone OS, but a full desktop OS. Obviously the small screen size is an issue, but I wonder how that could be handled. Possibly from the airlines with some form of display input for a screen on the back of the seat? Not sure, really. Either way, interesting stuff.
pramodxyle 9y ago
Maru == (Windows Continuum || Google Fuchsia)
yk 9y ago
I think the most interesting question is, how do they handle the different interfaces between phone and desktop. A touchscreen needs a very different UI than a desktop with mouse and keyboard. If I read that correctly, they are just ignoring the problem and share files on the phone between Android apps and programs running on Debian, which seems like it could work most of the time. (No idea if there is Blender for Android, but I am pretty sure there are .doc readers for Android.)
- djhworld 9y ago
  It looks like they run android when you are in "phone" mode, then when you connect it up to a monitor it boots Debian
pramodzion 9y ago
Maru == (Windows Continuum || Google Fuchsia)
jumpkickhit 9y ago
Cool idea, I just don't think we're ready yet. If a cable has to be used, i'd prefer it to be a single USB-C, which also charges the phone while plugged in and being a desktop. Possibly to a dock with a keyboard/mouse/monitor and other ports. ARM processors have made some insane progress over the recent years, maybe in another 4-6 from now they will actually be quick enough to really make this a solid experience.
yeldarb 9y ago
I want this on my iPhone so badly. iOS when standalone, Mac OS when plugged into a display.
nkkollaw 9y ago
I always embrace change and appreciate all kinds of experiments, but I don't think you want the same thing on your phone and desktop. I want different files on my desktop that I don't want on my phone—like accounting and tax stuff. I might want Skype on my PC, but not on my phone (because I can just call people), etc. etc. iCloud and similar are a good balance, allowing you to have a shared virtual folder that you can browse on both your phone and desktop and is kept synchronized automatically. Google apps are great to keep things syncronized, too: contacts, passwords (iCloud or Google Chrome), etc. I use macOS as a desktop OS and Android as a mobile OS, and I'm perfectly happy with using the right tool for the job which works well for what you need to do, instead of a security-nightmare OS and complicated mobile OS. Just my two cents.
- thinkling 9y ago
  It's not the same thing -- the phone runs Android for phone-mode use, and "Peek under the hood and you'll find rock-stable Debian Linux" for the desktop mode.
  - nkkollaw 9y ago
    I assume it's the same files and app..? Otherwise I don't get the point.
atomical 9y ago
I have a portable air conditioner that I throw my Z5 compact into when I'm tethering. I assume you would need to do the same with this to get good performance.
hartator 9y ago
I don't get the negativity in the comments. Maru might be early and probably won't be the one, but this is definitely the future.
- FussyZeus 9y ago
  No, it isn't. These kinds of devices cover a very small but very vocal component of the computer user population, mostly bloggers, writers, i.e. people who's computers don't need shit in terms of power or storage. We hear from them constantly about how tablets are ending computers, laptops are ending desktops, phones are ending computers and it's all now and previously been nonsense. For as many tasks that newer phones could likely take on, you are not drafting graphical work on an iPad Pro, you are not building 3D models for print or media on a frickin Samsung Galaxy and you are not simulating weather patterns and doing storm calculations on a goddamn Windows Phone. The desktop PC is not going anywhere and I don't mean to sound so angry but this constant narrative that is produced by tech media AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN that somehow these little, for lack of a better word, toys are going to replace the actual machinery behind the products so many consume is demonstrably false and irritating to read over and over.
  - firmgently 9y ago
    Pretty sure users doing 3D modelling or storm calculations are the smaller group, far more people use office apps and a browser.. one producer serves multiple consumers. Your bubble may be skewed (easily done in Photoshop).
  - vorg 9y ago
    > that somehow these little, for lack of a better word, toys are going to replace the actual machinery behind the products so many consume is demonstrably false How old are you? I thought similar in the 1980's whenever I saw people tinkering with their toy PC's running DOS and Windows 3. They weren't going to replace MVS on an IBM mainframe, or VMS on a DEC, or VME on an ICL. The 'V' in those names stood for "virtual" -- how could PC's replace that?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
zfnb 9y ago
From the FAQ: Is Maru an app or does it replace my current Android OS? Maru is firmware for your device, so yes, it will replace your existing Android OS. I wonder how this works: is Android a virtual machine within the Maru/Debian host? It would be very interesting to be able to use the underlying Linux networking, for example, to control the Android functionality.
- problems 9y ago
  More likely it's close to vice versa for driver reasons. Android owns everything, the debian stuff just runs in a chroot and it needs a few custom hacks to make display and input work nicely, which is why it's not the same as just running Termux or Linux Deploy on your phone.
zwieback 9y ago
We are trying to do a similar thing with the Elite X3, not sure whether it's one of our big sellers...
- komali2 9y ago
  Who is "we" and what's stopping you from asking your sales team for the numbers?
  - throwanem 9y ago
    Per GP's profile, HP; internal siloing and bureaucracy, would be my bet.
  - zwieback 9y ago
    I'm at HP but not in the PC division.
- 24gttghh 9y ago
  Well to be fair it runs Windows 10 mobile...so it's not a big seller and is shrinking rapidly. [0] Worldwide Q4 2016 sales are 1/4 that of Q4 2015. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#By_operating_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#By_ope...
- efibdn 9y ago
  Is it possible to connect hdmi device (mini/micro) to the Elite lap dock ?
excalibur 9y ago
> Maru Mobile is built on the latest Android Marshmallow. Should we tell them?
- holtalanm 9y ago
  Don't you dare. :)
- ddalex 9y ago
  It's factually correct though - it's not built on the latest version of Android, but the latest version of Marshmallow.
- pdsouza 9y ago
  Preetam, founder / lead dev here: Yeah, yeah, I know. We really need to move our asses over to Nougat already, but its a PITA when we port upwards and there are major changes in the internal framework APIs, forcing us to thoroughly test the whole system again...but we'll get there!
xmatos 9y ago
I love it! I owned an Atrix with a lapdock, which was the first device to embrace this concept. Unfortunately, it was poorly handled by Motorola in the sense that you had to hack it to enable a full linux desktop, instead of what was basically a Chromebook. What really made me give up on it was the fact that it never got updated, so you were stuck with Android 2. It was pretty useful even as a workstation and saved me as I used it exclusively for a couple of weeks, while my laptop needed repair. I was already thinking about trying something like that again, by getting a phone that had hdmi output and i'll definetely take a shot on that! good luck to them!
- LaikaF 9y ago
  I was one of the other Atrix people. Never got the full dock because I didn't think they'd ever continue with the concept. A shame they didn't, having more then one port on a phone might be nice.
- rtkwe 9y ago
  Or you could do the same thing with a USB-C phone. C was meant to act as a single cord (charging,video,peripherals) solution for phones and laptops already.
- djsumdog 9y ago
  Woah I remember the Atrix! Man I had totally forgotten about that.
- em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
  I still have my atrix. I remember hacking it to run a full linux desktop via the dock instead of Motorola's official limited selection. Motorola was truly ahead of their time...it is unfortunate for them that the smartphones weren't quite fast enough then to run the firefox desktop browser, though.
- 72deluxe 9y ago
  I too had the Atrix, the Lapdock and the multimedia dock. It was a good device, just hampered by the lack of RAM, the dual core processor (which was a bit sluggish), and the hampered Linux desktop; I too hacked around with it to be able to install all manner of useful tools (compilers, editors, office packages) and it was useful. The Lapdock had a good screen and was conveniently incredibly thin. I did miss a backlit keyboard though. In any case it was years ahead of its time. Sold all the components individually though - I think someone used the Lapdock with a Raspberry Pi in the end.
hackjam600 9y ago
+ University grades changing + Facebook hack + Email interception hack + Email accounts hack + Grade Changes hack + Website crashed hack + Word Press Blogs hack + Retrieval of lost file/documents + Erase criminal records hack + Databases hack + Sales of Dumps cards of all kinds + Untraceable Ip + Bank accounts hack + Individual computers hack + Websites hack + Control devices remotely hack + Burner Numbers hack + Verified Paypal Accounts hack + Any social media account hack + Android & iPhone Hack + server crashed hack + Text message interception hack + Twitters hack + Skype hack + Credit cards hacker + We can drop money into bank accounts. + credit score hack + blank credit card sale + Hack and use Credit Card to shop online + Monitor any phone and email address + Tap into anybody's call and monitor their conversation CONTACT:hackjam600@gmail.com
ausjke 9y ago
OK, Android is very close to a phone, Google might be able to support wireless keyboard/mouse plus a hdmi-screen out of box easily one day? Replacing the whole firmware is a bit intrusive for me at the moment.
- ausjke 9y ago
  I mean very close to a PC...
deleted 9y ago
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unixhero 9y ago
So is it still only for Nexus 5x? This can now be achieved on the Samsung Galaxy S8 with the accompanying dock. It's global, rolled out to anywhere you can buy a Samsung S8.
- floatboth 9y ago
  Nexus 5, sadly not 5X
  - pdsouza 9y ago
    Very early alpha available for the 5X on the forum: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os-dev/U9EpPQ0SFb0/4MIelzz9FwAJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os-dev/U9EpPQ0SFb0/4MIe...
    - voltagex_ 9y ago
      The 5X doesn't have HDMI out, does it?
      - Fletch137 9y ago
        Nope, it doesn't. No hardware video out support at all AFAIK.
deleted 9y ago
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a_b_c_d 9y ago
A single board computer e.g. RaspberryPi is a "phone" and a "PC". No need for baseband, a computer that the user does not control. RPi: Boot a variety of OS.
omot 9y ago
This is an amazing idea. Right now my laptop is my PC, I want my phone to be my PC, but I don't want to use android. I want MacOS
intrasight 9y ago
Put it in a Cardboard with some type of virtual keyboard, and you've solved the looming laptop airplane ban.
- dschep 9y ago
  Have keyboards been banned from the cabin too? If not, cardboard + a physical keyboard would do :)
flyweight 9y ago
I don't get the fuzz but i have a galaxy s3 with omnirom and usb keyboard and mouse work out of the box. Also bootstrapping debian is easely done. Connect it to a monitor and your good to go.
sayurichick 9y ago
the future, once smartphones become a lot more powerful.
pier25 9y ago
Why aren't Apple or Google doing something like this?
- limeblack 9y ago
  My guess is that Apple doesn't want it to impead on desktop sales. An all in one device wouldn't be a good idea from a sales stand point. Ubuntu attempted this and I have gathered that it isn't exactly easy to support it. Some apps are built specifically for touch screens and making them work on a desktop computer with out for thought could be difficult.
corbet 9y ago
I did a review of Maru OS last year: https://lwn.net/Articles/684010/ https://lwn.net/Articles/684010/
rweichler 9y ago
> See title Looks cool. > Android Pass.
- voltagex_ 9y ago
  What would you base it on? Mainline Linux is possible on the 2013 Nexus 7, but you might fry your flash if one of the parameters is wrong.
  - deleted 9y ago
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  - deleted 9y ago
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  - rweichler 9y ago
    Idk, but Android isn't the way to go Probably would need to make a custom OS. I'd probably base it on BSD
jccalhoun 9y ago
Every time one of these is announced you know the people who worked on the Palm Foleo feel vindicated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Foleo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Foleo
mikejmoffitt 9y ago
Can this be used with a wired keyboard and mouse on most phones?
- pdsouza 9y ago
  Right now no, since Maru uses SlimPort for streaming the desktop to your display. SlimPort eats up the USB pins that you would need for connecting up a wired keyboard/mouse via USB-OTG [0]. Wired keyboard/mouse will become possible when we support other methods for display streaming in the future like wireless. [0] https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os/rsSpHZ0DIJA/mEfp_J9MCwAJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os/rsSpHZ0DIJA/mEfp_J9M...
JoeRess 9y ago
We spoke to the developer of Maru OS on yesterday's Late Night Linux podcast. http://latenightlinux.com/late-night-linux-episode-11/ http://latenightlinux.com/late-night-linux-episode-11/
tmsldd 9y ago
Hey, that's cool ;) IMO, this approach is the most innovative idea on how to merge mobile and desktop experiences. I expect other companies following the same approach.
jczhang 9y ago
Support for Pixel anytime?
drusepth 9y ago
This looks cool, but I'm wondering who the target market is for this. To properly use it, you need: 1) An Android phone (easy to satisfy) that you're comfortable enough installing another OS on (so... a more technical user) 2) An HDMI monitor (which could actually be a TV) 3) A SlimPort USB-to-HDMI cable 4) A bluetooth mouse and bluetooth keyboard 5) No desktop (since using it and this seem to be mutually exclusive for most casual setups) Most people don't have a bluetooth keyboard/mouse lying around, so the time/cost investment to set this up is not only just installing a new OS on your phone, but also buying hardware (keyboard, mouse, and potentially monitor if you don't already have a computer) [and potentially also waiting for it to arrive if you buy online]. And, after this investment, the target market seems to be people that'd be comfortable doing the above while _not_ also buying a desktop to go with it. So... either technical hobbyists/tinkerers and/or people that want a $50-100 machine (and are savvy enough to set it up). I would _love_ to use something like this, but I move enough that it doesn't make sense to have a desktop (and, therefore, the same mostly applies to monitor+keyboard), and if I were to live in one place long enough to have a desktop, I'd just buy a desktop (because I likely wouldn't use it _and_ this). Am I just not the target market for something like this (even though it legitimately excites me)?
- kovek 9y ago
  I was thinking that you do not necessarily need a mouse if you know your keyboard-fu well, but then realized that you could use the phone screen as a trackpad in place of a mouse.
ibic 9y ago
Is it fair to call it an OS? My feeling it's simply Android with some customization and/or apps.
Schwolop 9y ago
I have a nexdock; an HDMI screen, bluetooth keyboard + trackpad, webcam, USB hub, and battery - with no CPU. It's intended to work with continuum/handover compatible phones, compute sticks, or raspberry pi like devices. Something like MaruOS would be an even better option in my mind. And yet, then I think why would I bother carrying a laptop-minus-cpu plus a phone with desktop ability when I could just do what I currently do and carry a phone and a full laptop? I can see this brings a bit of flexibility, and my files/config would always be on my person, etc. But we have global and close-enough-to ubiquitous internet now - isn't that sufficient or even better? I guess I just don't get the use case. Or maybe I get the use case(s) but not the business case.
dingo_bat 9y ago
Does anybody know what's the difference between this and Samsung dex?
catmanjan 9y ago
I like the idea, the biggest benefit is of course the "all in one" deal - seems a waste to have to tether your phone to your laptop, or get a laptop with a SIM slot (and all the costs that go with it) I'd like to see: 1. The source code 2. Support for newer devices (might go hand in hand with 1) 3. Support for wireless HDMI adapters, having to carry no cables at all would be very neat, although I guess this needs a power supply to last for any useful amount of time
thewhitetulip 9y ago
I'd love this if it worked on my phone, but it seems like it doesn't work on any device other than Nexus
qwtel 9y ago
Too bad my Nexus 5 just bit the dust a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised that this only works with the Nexus 5 though, since it's a pretty old phone. I was primarily using it to performance-test stuff on a low end phone. Maybe maruos does it for the same reason?
chuckdries 9y ago
I've always wondered about this. I love the portability but limiting myself to the power of something that has to fit in my pocket feels... limiting. What if we just carried around our software and files and popped them into whatever computer we have on hand? I know they're pricey but M.2 SSDs are tiny, fast, and high in capacity. I can imagine a desktop (maybe even a big laptop) with an sd-card-reader-like slit where you pop the SSD in and boot in mere seconds. Your computing environment travels with you but can take advantage of whatever hardware you have. It's not like you can use these phone-desktop solutions without a keyboard, mouse, dock, display, etc. anyway. You still need hardware. As a proof of concept, I've been itching to get a few of those USB SATA toaster things and set them up at my desks. The only hitch is finding a laptop these days with a 2.5" bay that's easy to get to. Would you use something like this?
- andai 9y ago
  I like your "just take the data with you" idea. I did something similar with a tiny (about the size of my thumbnail) USB stick about ten years ago, running Linux everywhere I could (and wasn't really supposed to!). It was pretty slow though. These days though, read and write speeds (on USB 3) are over 10x faster. So even without the hardware changes you describe, it's already more than feasible :)
peteretep 9y ago
Gotta wonder if this is the end game for Apple. MacBook Air that's basically a battery, screen and peripherals holster for the 2020 iPhone 12, all running via USB-C. I'd buy it.
nonsince 9y ago
I don't use a smartphone, and the only smartphone-ish device I have (iPod touch) I only even bought because some things won't even run on PC anymore. This is successfully selling me on getting a high-end android phone, something I never thought I would do. I'm always looking for ways to reduce the amount of space my office setup takes.
hammondOfTexas 9y ago
So this is kind of like Microsoft's Continuum for Android
- nedp 9y ago
  ...And kind of Samsung DeX.
anotheryou 9y ago
What is the real benefit? - If I use it on the go, I need an external screen and keyboard. I'd rather carry a laptop or just the keyboard und use the tiny screen (possible with stock android already). And if you are somewhere with a screen, there is probably also a machine at which you could boot some live distro. - files are "in sync" between desktop and mobile. But the few file-types I open on my phone can just as well be synced over the internet (mostly just txt and a pdf every now and than). - less expensive (but a desktop that beats a phone is probably also cheap to get) If there was a really cheap laptop dock for it it might make sense for me, otherwise I don't get it.
dagi3d 9y ago
I truly believe personal computing will evolve in this direction
real-hacker 9y ago
I was interested in the merging of desktop and mobile OS many years ago. I don't understand why Apple/MS/Google didn't pursue this, is it technically challenging? or is this just not "something people want"?
- Epskampie 9y ago
  Well, Microsoft did try really hard, it was called "continuum", but the fall of windows mobile brought that dream to an end. The other company that tried was Ubuntu, their effort was called Unity if I'm correct. That was axed recently as they needed to focus on profit-making parts of the company. Also, I don't think any mainstream ubuntu phone with unity was ever released. Finally, Apple's strategy is clearly different, they see iOS and macOS as clearly different beasts, and will probably never try to directly merge the two. Data-sharing is the way to go for them.
  - andai 9y ago
    I had a dream once where I was holding an iPhone, and every time I looked away and back again, it would be one form factor bigger (iPhone -> iPad -> MacBook). That was a really cool dream.
znpy 9y ago
I am honestly disappointed this is not a thing yet. Years ago Canonical demoed Ubuntu for Android (http://musho.tk/l/666778c3 http://musho.tk/l/666778c3) which was freaking cool. Most phones nowadays have means to connect to displays and keyboard/mices. We have cores, speed and ram. WHY ISN'T THIS A THING YET? I have seen banks hand out expensive ThinkPads to people to basically use Internet Explorer and Outlook, plus company phones and stuff. My speculation is that whomever gets this thing right first is going to make a metric futon of money.
methodin 9y ago
What's the reason all of these start with very specific phones? Assuming you have a rooted phone running recent Android, what is the blocker for having something like this running? Why only Nexus devices?
jquip 9y ago

652 points by type0 9y ago

“Maru is a new kind of computing experience.” Is it? This type of “All Your PC Are Belong To Phone” type of fads have been attempted (and so far, miserably failed) for many, many years now. Looking at the website, I see little reason why this should succeed where others have failed.

deleted 9y ago
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slobotron 9y ago
Motorola webtop on Atrix was too early - phones were just too slow for even basic browsing in Firefox in laptop mode. Perhaps Maru is smooth enough on new hardware? (Still have the lapdock lying around, now hooked into RPi.)
- strozykowski 9y ago
  In your experience, how well does the lapdock run with an RPi? I have a lapdock lying around, and never thought of this for some reason.
  - jtuente 9y ago
    Not the person you replied to but I have the same setup. The only real issue is getting the adapters so they can be connected (plenty available on a variety of websites, but of questionable quality).
  - slobotron 9y ago
    For me it's mostly a novelty - I put RiscOS on it to try it out, and it seems snappy enough. But it's a mess of cables - I never got around to making it as pretty as some [1] [0] https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/raspberry-pi https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/raspberry-pi [1] https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/27081 https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/27081
    - strozykowski 9y ago
      Thanks! This looks like a pretty simple solution to me.
xrisk 9y ago
It’s an OS for your phone that becomes a proper desktop OS if you plug in a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc. I don’t think this has been done before, or maybe I’m just hopelessly unaware? Either way, I think it’s quite interesting.
- cwyers 9y ago
  Motorola Atrix, Ubuntu Phone, Windows Phone 10 has Continuum. It's been tried before.
  - xrisk 9y ago
    I stand corrected then.
  - ruleabidinguser 9y ago
    I don't think this makes sense until phones are basically as fast as current laptops.
    - thatcat 9y ago
      The flagship phone for this OS is the nexus 5 which uses a 2.26 Ghz quad core qualcomm chip and has 2 gb ram. The hw limitation seems to be the low ram limiting the number of memory heavy desktop apps you can run. Definitely not a video editing rig and vbox doesn't work on arm hosts, but this is good for spread sheets / typing up papers / scanning things with your camera and quickly editing them on a desktop with out any data transfer hassles.
      - petecox 9y ago
        Exactly, the complaint of power users is that "it'll never be as powerful as my Core i7 desktop". Were a phone solution seamless enough to dock into my kvm switch, I'd power up my 'workstation' far less often.
      - ksk 9y ago
        The CPU speed for all mobile devices is deceptive. You can't actually run the CPU at that speed for anything but the tiniest amount of time, without immediately running into the throttling brick wall.
jjrh 9y ago
Well this probably isn't going to succeed where others failed, but the idea is good. I'm glad someone is trying to move forward with the idea of using the very capable computer in your pocket as more than a phone. I mean my current phone has more ram than my last laptop....

falcolas 9y ago

I really wish this was a viable option, but the lack of active cooling (and mediocre passive cooling) for phones really makes the phone-as-desktop a non-starter for anything but light web browsing or text editing.

ksubedi 9y ago
But if you think about it, the use case for almost 80% of the people out there that use laptops or desktops is for web browsing and office work (text editing etc) which phones should be able to handle well.
- falcolas 9y ago
  Think of any task that has ever caused your laptop fans to spin up, and cross that task off of what is possible on a phone-as-desktop list. No high definition video calls. No 1080p gaming. No fully functional IDEs (intellisense and interactive linting/compiling is computationally expensive). No high definition movies. Video/batch photo conversions are probably out, though may be possible at 1/10th speed. The most successful tablet-laptop attempt thus far has active cooling simply so they don't have to throttle back performance. It's possible that more energy efficient processors will come about and prove me wrong, but they've been working on the heat dissipation problem for decades now (yes, even in desktops/servers).
  - my123 9y ago
    You are over-exaggerating quite a lot to say the least. Microsoft Continuum currently works on Windows 10 Mobile with passive cooling just fine. Samsung DeX has active cooling in the dock though, to be able to handle even heavier loads with SoCs as close to thermal limits as possible, without headroom.
  - khedoros1 9y ago
    I can do hi-def video calls and video playback on my phone already; the video encode+decode is handled by dedicated hardware. Ditto for certain types of video conversions. Gaming is at 1080p, equivalent to PC games from perhaps 10 years ago. This is with a mid-range phone from a couple years ago. I think you're being overly pessimistic.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

Callmenorm 9y ago

I think it might succeed because it's built on Android with Android apps.

AdmiralAsshat 9y ago

Shared storage SD card data like camera photos and downloads are shared so you can coordinate your work seamlessly. This might be confusing for some, given that the only devices supported right now are Nexus devices, which famously lack an SD slot.

wvenable 9y ago
It's confusing because Android phones have a SD card mount for the internal storage (and external SD cards are yet another SD card mount).
dredmorbius 9y ago
Why ... the fuck ... is that?

garou 9y ago

Is it running a Debian with XFCE when Desktop? If not, is it able to use the Nix package manager or something like this?

sprokolopolis 9y ago
Yes, it comes with Xfce and apt-get.

graycoder 9y ago

If you like this you might like: sentio.com

franciscop 9y ago
Small tip: add the https:// https:// to make it a full link
whitethief 9y ago
First time hearing about Sentio, very cool, thanks!
geniium 9y ago
Web site currently down?
- koopuluri 9y ago
  Hey, were you able to access? Site doesn't seem to be down from what I can tell. I'm part of the team at Sentio. Feel free to message me if you have any issues :)
djaychela 9y ago
Was coming on here to post exactly the same; backed it on Kickstarter but still waiting for the device to arrive; they changed the name from Andromium to Sentio (negative change, IMO, sounds like an age-related medical product now), but it's a similar concept. However, I've not looked into the technicalities of Sentio in terms of the issues raised elsewhere on this page, so hopefully they don't have them...
test9753 9y ago
Sentio CEO demoing the "SuperBook": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFVRw0xWVAo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFVRw0xWVAo

graycoder 9y ago

If you like this you might like: sentio.com

djrogers 9y ago

The fact that this spins up a Debian desktop when you're in desktop mode seems to make this a much more viable option than some of the previous attempts at this, which expected you to want to use only android apps on your desktop.

fps 9y ago
I'd love to have both, though. Debian apps for productivity, android apps for communications/games, side by side on the same screen with shared storage and maybe synchronized state. As it is, I have to manually sync state between the two devices which results in missed messages and inconsistent state.
- JustSomeNobody 9y ago
  So, it would be cool to have Debian as the base OS and Android running in a container. When in Phone mode, Android is front and center and when in Desktop mode, the base Debian host is. Could then still access the Android container. If the UIs supported a seamless mode, that would be icing.
  - my123 9y ago
    I'm concerned about driver support in Debian. It's Android devices after all...
    - kbenson 9y ago
      In the worst case you might have to run a kernel built for Android instead of the default debian kernel (e.g. lifted off the android OS for that type of device), depending on how it was packaged up. Hopefully those aren't built with certain useful features turned off. For devices that support a vanilla android, I imagine the driver issue is already worked out and there would be no problem getting them to work in a kernel that you can compile yourself, even if not the default debian kernel.
      - 9y ago

bhauer 9y ago

Looks like Windows 10 Mobile Continuum. Even the types of apps being used in the screenshots echo Office being used in Continuum screenshots. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum

MrMember 9y ago
The difference to me is that Continuum is still just a mobile OS that is scaled up. They even point that out in their promo material, it's a "desktop-like experience." Maru, while it looks very early in development, isn't a desktop-like experience. It's a desktop experience because it's running a desktop operating system.
- kairuku 9y ago
  Well, so is Continuum, technically. Windows Phone is its own SKU of Windows 10 but it's still Windows 10.
  - bhauer 9y ago
    Yes. And with Windows 10 on ARM's x86 emulation functionality, I would not be surprised to see broader application support in future buildf of Continuum.
    - TazeTSchnitzel 9y ago
      I hope that can revive Windows Phone, or it'll be a wasted effort.

AltDelete 9y ago

Windows mobile has had a similar feature for a while, but you know, windows. I've thought for a while that this is ultimately the way computing is moving - single device that fits in your pocket. I love my laptop, but there is no substituting the portability of a smart phone that seamlessly syncs with panels at home and at work.

khedoros1 9y ago
On the other hand, although I love my phone's portability, there's no substituting a few hundred watts of processing power and a few terabytes of storage in a decent desktop.
- Piskvorrr 9y ago
  Sure. But I have my phone anywhere, and peripherals are ubiquitous. My beefy silicone devices...not.
  - khedoros1 9y ago
    I guess that's my point, in a way. I've got my phone everywhere, but its utility is inherently limited by its power. My beefier machines are powerful, but inherently mobility-limited by their form factors. Plugging the phone into a dock or something increases its I/O abilities, but doesn't give it the extra benefits that make the non-portable computers useful. > and peripherals are ubiquitous. I'm not sure what you're specifically thinking of, with that. I know that I've got many more PC peripherals than phone ones.
    - Piskvorrr 9y ago
      I mean "I can take my phone most places and expect to find both a HDMI-capable display and Bluetooth input devices." Of course, I don't expect massive computing power - but even as a thin client to more powerful machines, this would suffice; and always having a netbook in your pocket is also useful.

reiichiroh 9y ago

I never asked for this.

devopsproject 9y ago
we only wake you up for the important meetings

janwillemb 9y ago

I think this may be the future of computing, but not yet. A high-end phone may have the computing power to replace simple desktop systems, but connectors to the peripherals haven't been standardized yet.

moojah 9y ago
With USB-C this shouldn't be a problem whatsoever. In fact, the peripherals largely already exist. Given the driver support, these should just work "out of the box" with an up-to-date linux kernel.

cwyers 9y ago

If you have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard, you may was well have a computer. Seriously, if you have a laptop-like enclosure for all those things to make them portable, adding a SoC to make it a PC is what, $20-$40 to be on par with this in terms of compute? And last I checked, it's still not The Year Of The Linux Desktop. This is gonna crash and burn.

gouggoug 9y ago
But, besides that, don't you think it's pretty cool?
fps 9y ago
You don't get the value proposition. This isn't for cost saving, it's for time saving and organization. Here's where we are today: If I spend any significant amount of time away from one of my devices (phone, laptop, desktop), it piles up with dozens of notifications. Even with cloud based apps, there's no shared state. So when I get back to a device, I have to clear away all the notifications, assuming that they must have appeared on the other device at some point. And if I change a password on my laptop, because of one of the dozens of data breaches that have happened this month, I have to retrieve my new password out of my password manager and re-login on my phone. At any given point, 2 or 3 apps on my phone are in a "logged out" state because I use them primarily on one of my computers, so i'm actually not getting all my notifications everywhere, and I miss some of them. Also, even with google drive, not every file on my computer is immediately available on my phone and vice versa. So if I need access to a file on the go, there's a good chance it won't be there. I don't expect this to solve all these problems, but I'm looking forward to a day when I don't have to carry my laptop everywhere I go.
- cwyers 9y ago
  You can get shared notifications. I have Cortana on my Android phone pretty much exactly for this reason.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- 9y ago

tyingq 9y ago

"What is the default sudo password in Maru Desktop? "maru" is the default sudo password. When installing debian packages, you may need to enter "root" as a password" Oy.

noja 9y ago
Similar to Chromium OS, right?
- tyingq 9y ago
  Not when combined with "they start sshd up by default, listening on the local network, with the default user maru and password maru."

zeotroph 9y ago

I am really surprised that the "single computing / storage device" idea which can switch between different screens and input methods seamlessly (and maybe support plug-in CPUs) is just is not happening, though the concept here is a small step in that direction. Having everything in the cloud seems to have made this somewhat redundant for most users, though I still hope one day I can carry all my data around, of course given proper encryption and backups and the ability to distinguish between safe and possibly monitored (public) displays/inputs. Or maybe wireless displays are missing so that decision to quickly do a task with a mouse and keyboard leaves out the cable plugging aspect.

garou 9y ago
I prefer the idea of a phone that can be plugged on a better hardware (desktop) and quickly boot on it... without the need of turn of the phone and the changes on desktop appearing on phone...
- cujo 9y ago
  I always thought this was going to be the direction of the original iPod. Any day now...
Rudism 9y ago
I think all the walled-garden ecosystems of apps and device interoperability are also contributing to the slow progress on this front. Nobody with the resources to do so wants to develop open protocols that would enable easy collaboration on this kind of thing. We may get there one day, but you'll need to pick Google, Apple, or Amazon and buy your device, monitor, peripherals, and cloud services from just that one company.
mafuyu 9y ago
I think it's a neat idea, but computing is cheap nowadays. When you have a nice screen, battery, and enclosure, throwing in some compute isn't a huge deal. As you mentioned, I think this makes it redundant with the cloud when you can make thin-ish clients for everything, like Chromebooks, or Apple and Microsoft's initiatives to seamlessly transfer your workflow from one device to another.

DaiPlusPlus 9y ago

I find it amusing the promo shot shows it running on an Apple Thunderbolt display - which famously does not support HDMI input, only Thunderbolt - for which there is no MHL adapter.

jasonlotito 9y ago
Pretty sure this is incorrect, as I had an old DisplayPort Apple Display that I used with HDMI input, and from what I understand, the Thunderbolt displays also supported DisplayPort. Granted, the adapter was not cheap, but it did work.
- DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
  The Thunderbolt displays do not work with Mini-DP connections despite sharing the same physical connector. The DisplayPort signals still need to be encapsulated in a true Thunderbolt connection, so they don't even work with pre-Thunderbolt (but still DisplayPort) Apple Macs.
- BHSPitMonkey 9y ago
  The Thunderbolt displays use the same connector type as Mini Displayport, but only a Thunderbolt handshake turns them on. There's no power switch, so it doesn't work.
LeonM 9y ago
I was thinking the same thing. Apple mirrors... err.. I mean displays only have a thunderbolt connection, you couldn't connect your phone to it. Yes, you could use some HDMI to DisplayPort adapter and in theory the thunderbolt display should support that, but you'd lose the webcam, ethernet, firewire, USB, microphone, speakers and daisy chaining support as DP does not support the data pipeline.
goeric 9y ago
Could theoretically be the older model (Cinema Display) which is Display Port. Then it would be HDMI > DP and should work ;).

drewg123 9y ago

I'm wondering how secure it is.. According to https://github.com/maruos/maruos/wiki/Tips https://github.com/maruos/maruos/wiki/Tips, they start sshd up by default, listening on the local network, with the default user maru and password maru. That seems like a bit of a red flag and makes me wonder if it is the tip of the iceberg.

stcredzero 9y ago
That seems like a bit of a red flag A basic and egregious security blunder is more than a bit of a red flag. and makes me wonder if it is the tip of the iceberg. If you already see that the tip sticking out has a mine on it, the tons of iceberg only give you the difference in the degree of egregiously bad.
- throwaway91111 9y ago
  I mean, don't install it on anything with data you care about. This isn't exactly a hardened product.
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    Escallation attacks are a thing.
  - HenryBemis 9y ago
    +1! The way I see it, this is a "toy" (for the time being). The "2013 devices" makes me thing that this is a "toy" for people like "us" that have a Nexus rotting away somewhere and "it would be cool to fool around on your 30-inch screen and nothing more! It would be better if they would up-front say "this is not secure", "this is a demo", "this is a toy", "this is not the OS you're looking for". Imaginary CEO-CTO dialog: CEO: hey! I just read that we can throw away the PCs and replace them with some old phones that we can buy for $50 on ebay! START!!! CTO: but.. let me explain.. I quit!!
    - sangnoir 9y ago

sudosteph 9y ago

As one of the backers for the doomed "Ubuntu Phone" kickstarter, this really looks like a great alternative. I will have to play around with it this weekend for sure.

notspanishflu 9y ago
Another interesting project is UBports. https://ubports.com/ https://ubports.com/

rhodysurf 9y ago

Why is it built on Marshmallow instead of Nougat?

koopuluri 9y ago
Something like this takes a while to build. They likely started before Nougat was released.
- pdsouza 9y ago
  Preetam, lead dev here: Correct! Maru started on Lollipop actually and moved to Marshmallow with the 0.3 release. It can be a PITA to port upwards to a new Android version if there are significant changes in the internal system APIs (these are open to rapid change between major versions of Android, unlike the stable app-facing framework APIs). Anyways, hoping to move to Nougat before too long...

JustSomeNobody 9y ago

I really hope all phone OSs go this direction. I love my laptop(s) and they're great for doing serious work, but sometime when I'm, say, composing an email on my phone and it starts getting long, I'd love to be able to plug in to a monitor and keyboard and keep going.

edward 9y ago

Maybe this is the answer to the impending cabin baggage laptop ban. Carry a keyboard and screen in your hold bag, the phone with your data and applications in your pocket.

Antrikshy 9y ago
And a power source for the screen...
BjoernKW 9y ago
I keep hearing people say that technology can't solve political problems. This has never been more true than in this case. Instead of contriving ridiculously convoluted solutions to a non-problem we could simply stop electing politicians who propose implementing ludicrous airport security theatre.
- GrinningFool 9y ago
  I agree, but... which ones would those be again? And are they generally electable based on on other platform planks? THe problem here is that most of the public believes that security theater is real security. Unless that changes, most politicians will espouse their "firm positions on security" in order to help them get elected. THe ones who "get it" tend to be in the independent/libertarian camps (last I looked) - and they don't get a whole lot of public support.
  - BjoernKW 9y ago
    Therein lies the rub, doesn't it? The first thing to do is convince people that voting independent or libertarian (or for that matter for an outsider candidate such as Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party primaries) isn't un-American or unpatriotic or whatever weird notions people have about not voting mainstream but their democratic right and an absolutely reasonable thing to do (perhaps the only reasonable thing in today's political environment). I think it can be done. If you think of another notorious modern two-party system neither of the UK's dominant parties today existed before the 19th century. Given how fast opinions spread these days it should be possible to bring about significant change in a matter of years rather than decades. Think about how quickly movements like the Pirate Party became successful in some countries. That they declined just as quickly again in most of these countries can be mostly attributed to their own stupidity rather than systems that are inherently averse to change.

jasonlotito 9y ago

So, with the recent discussion about banning laptops on flights form Europe into the US, I was wondering about something like this. A way to still have a computer but in something the size of your phone. Not just a phone OS, but a full desktop OS. Obviously the small screen size is an issue, but I wonder how that could be handled. Possibly from the airlines with some form of display input for a screen on the back of the seat? Not sure, really. Either way, interesting stuff.

pramodxyle 9y ago

Maru == (Windows Continuum || Google Fuchsia)

yk 9y ago

I think the most interesting question is, how do they handle the different interfaces between phone and desktop. A touchscreen needs a very different UI than a desktop with mouse and keyboard. If I read that correctly, they are just ignoring the problem and share files on the phone between Android apps and programs running on Debian, which seems like it could work most of the time. (No idea if there is Blender for Android, but I am pretty sure there are .doc readers for Android.)

djhworld 9y ago
It looks like they run android when you are in "phone" mode, then when you connect it up to a monitor it boots Debian

pramodzion 9y ago

Maru == (Windows Continuum || Google Fuchsia)

jumpkickhit 9y ago

Cool idea, I just don't think we're ready yet. If a cable has to be used, i'd prefer it to be a single USB-C, which also charges the phone while plugged in and being a desktop. Possibly to a dock with a keyboard/mouse/monitor and other ports. ARM processors have made some insane progress over the recent years, maybe in another 4-6 from now they will actually be quick enough to really make this a solid experience.

yeldarb 9y ago

I want this on my iPhone so badly. iOS when standalone, Mac OS when plugged into a display.

nkkollaw 9y ago

I always embrace change and appreciate all kinds of experiments, but I don't think you want the same thing on your phone and desktop. I want different files on my desktop that I don't want on my phone—like accounting and tax stuff. I might want Skype on my PC, but not on my phone (because I can just call people), etc. etc. iCloud and similar are a good balance, allowing you to have a shared virtual folder that you can browse on both your phone and desktop and is kept synchronized automatically. Google apps are great to keep things syncronized, too: contacts, passwords (iCloud or Google Chrome), etc. I use macOS as a desktop OS and Android as a mobile OS, and I'm perfectly happy with using the right tool for the job which works well for what you need to do, instead of a security-nightmare OS and complicated mobile OS. Just my two cents.

thinkling 9y ago
It's not the same thing -- the phone runs Android for phone-mode use, and "Peek under the hood and you'll find rock-stable Debian Linux" for the desktop mode.
- nkkollaw 9y ago
  I assume it's the same files and app..? Otherwise I don't get the point.

atomical 9y ago

I have a portable air conditioner that I throw my Z5 compact into when I'm tethering. I assume you would need to do the same with this to get good performance.

hartator 9y ago

I don't get the negativity in the comments. Maru might be early and probably won't be the one, but this is definitely the future.

FussyZeus 9y ago
No, it isn't. These kinds of devices cover a very small but very vocal component of the computer user population, mostly bloggers, writers, i.e. people who's computers don't need shit in terms of power or storage. We hear from them constantly about how tablets are ending computers, laptops are ending desktops, phones are ending computers and it's all now and previously been nonsense. For as many tasks that newer phones could likely take on, you are not drafting graphical work on an iPad Pro, you are not building 3D models for print or media on a frickin Samsung Galaxy and you are not simulating weather patterns and doing storm calculations on a goddamn Windows Phone. The desktop PC is not going anywhere and I don't mean to sound so angry but this constant narrative that is produced by tech media AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN that somehow these little, for lack of a better word, toys are going to replace the actual machinery behind the products so many consume is demonstrably false and irritating to read over and over.
- firmgently 9y ago
  Pretty sure users doing 3D modelling or storm calculations are the smaller group, far more people use office apps and a browser.. one producer serves multiple consumers. Your bubble may be skewed (easily done in Photoshop).
- vorg 9y ago
  > that somehow these little, for lack of a better word, toys are going to replace the actual machinery behind the products so many consume is demonstrably false How old are you? I thought similar in the 1980's whenever I saw people tinkering with their toy PC's running DOS and Windows 3. They weren't going to replace MVS on an IBM mainframe, or VMS on a DEC, or VME on an ICL. The 'V' in those names stood for "virtual" -- how could PC's replace that?
deleted 9y ago
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zfnb 9y ago

From the FAQ: Is Maru an app or does it replace my current Android OS? Maru is firmware for your device, so yes, it will replace your existing Android OS. I wonder how this works: is Android a virtual machine within the Maru/Debian host? It would be very interesting to be able to use the underlying Linux networking, for example, to control the Android functionality.

problems 9y ago
More likely it's close to vice versa for driver reasons. Android owns everything, the debian stuff just runs in a chroot and it needs a few custom hacks to make display and input work nicely, which is why it's not the same as just running Termux or Linux Deploy on your phone.

zwieback 9y ago

We are trying to do a similar thing with the Elite X3, not sure whether it's one of our big sellers...

komali2 9y ago
Who is "we" and what's stopping you from asking your sales team for the numbers?
- throwanem 9y ago
  Per GP's profile, HP; internal siloing and bureaucracy, would be my bet.
- zwieback 9y ago
  I'm at HP but not in the PC division.
24gttghh 9y ago
Well to be fair it runs Windows 10 mobile...so it's not a big seller and is shrinking rapidly. [0] Worldwide Q4 2016 sales are 1/4 that of Q4 2015. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#By_operating_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system#By_ope...
efibdn 9y ago
Is it possible to connect hdmi device (mini/micro) to the Elite lap dock ?

excalibur 9y ago

> Maru Mobile is built on the latest Android Marshmallow. Should we tell them?

holtalanm 9y ago
Don't you dare. :)
ddalex 9y ago
It's factually correct though - it's not built on the latest version of Android, but the latest version of Marshmallow.
pdsouza 9y ago
Preetam, founder / lead dev here: Yeah, yeah, I know. We really need to move our asses over to Nougat already, but its a PITA when we port upwards and there are major changes in the internal framework APIs, forcing us to thoroughly test the whole system again...but we'll get there!

xmatos 9y ago

I love it! I owned an Atrix with a lapdock, which was the first device to embrace this concept. Unfortunately, it was poorly handled by Motorola in the sense that you had to hack it to enable a full linux desktop, instead of what was basically a Chromebook. What really made me give up on it was the fact that it never got updated, so you were stuck with Android 2. It was pretty useful even as a workstation and saved me as I used it exclusively for a couple of weeks, while my laptop needed repair. I was already thinking about trying something like that again, by getting a phone that had hdmi output and i'll definetely take a shot on that! good luck to them!

LaikaF 9y ago
I was one of the other Atrix people. Never got the full dock because I didn't think they'd ever continue with the concept. A shame they didn't, having more then one port on a phone might be nice.
rtkwe 9y ago
Or you could do the same thing with a USB-C phone. C was meant to act as a single cord (charging,video,peripherals) solution for phones and laptops already.
djsumdog 9y ago
Woah I remember the Atrix! Man I had totally forgotten about that.
em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
I still have my atrix. I remember hacking it to run a full linux desktop via the dock instead of Motorola's official limited selection. Motorola was truly ahead of their time...it is unfortunate for them that the smartphones weren't quite fast enough then to run the firefox desktop browser, though.
72deluxe 9y ago
I too had the Atrix, the Lapdock and the multimedia dock. It was a good device, just hampered by the lack of RAM, the dual core processor (which was a bit sluggish), and the hampered Linux desktop; I too hacked around with it to be able to install all manner of useful tools (compilers, editors, office packages) and it was useful. The Lapdock had a good screen and was conveniently incredibly thin. I did miss a backlit keyboard though. In any case it was years ahead of its time. Sold all the components individually though - I think someone used the Lapdock with a Raspberry Pi in the end.

hackjam600 9y ago

+ University grades changing + Facebook hack + Email interception hack + Email accounts hack + Grade Changes hack + Website crashed hack + Word Press Blogs hack + Retrieval of lost file/documents + Erase criminal records hack + Databases hack + Sales of Dumps cards of all kinds + Untraceable Ip + Bank accounts hack + Individual computers hack + Websites hack + Control devices remotely hack + Burner Numbers hack + Verified Paypal Accounts hack + Any social media account hack + Android & iPhone Hack + server crashed hack + Text message interception hack + Twitters hack + Skype hack + Credit cards hacker + We can drop money into bank accounts. + credit score hack + blank credit card sale + Hack and use Credit Card to shop online + Monitor any phone and email address + Tap into anybody's call and monitor their conversation CONTACT:hackjam600@gmail.com

ausjke 9y ago

OK, Android is very close to a phone, Google might be able to support wireless keyboard/mouse plus a hdmi-screen out of box easily one day? Replacing the whole firmware is a bit intrusive for me at the moment.

ausjke 9y ago
I mean very close to a PC...

deleted 9y ago

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unixhero 9y ago

So is it still only for Nexus 5x? This can now be achieved on the Samsung Galaxy S8 with the accompanying dock. It's global, rolled out to anywhere you can buy a Samsung S8.

floatboth 9y ago
Nexus 5, sadly not 5X
- pdsouza 9y ago
  Very early alpha available for the 5X on the forum: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os-dev/U9EpPQ0SFb0/4MIelzz9FwAJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os-dev/U9EpPQ0SFb0/4MIe...
  - voltagex_ 9y ago
    The 5X doesn't have HDMI out, does it?
    - Fletch137 9y ago
      Nope, it doesn't. No hardware video out support at all AFAIK.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

a_b_c_d 9y ago

A single board computer e.g. RaspberryPi is a "phone" and a "PC". No need for baseband, a computer that the user does not control. RPi: Boot a variety of OS.

omot 9y ago

This is an amazing idea. Right now my laptop is my PC, I want my phone to be my PC, but I don't want to use android. I want MacOS

intrasight 9y ago

Put it in a Cardboard with some type of virtual keyboard, and you've solved the looming laptop airplane ban.

dschep 9y ago
Have keyboards been banned from the cabin too? If not, cardboard + a physical keyboard would do :)

flyweight 9y ago

I don't get the fuzz but i have a galaxy s3 with omnirom and usb keyboard and mouse work out of the box. Also bootstrapping debian is easely done. Connect it to a monitor and your good to go.

sayurichick 9y ago

the future, once smartphones become a lot more powerful.

pier25 9y ago

Why aren't Apple or Google doing something like this?

limeblack 9y ago
My guess is that Apple doesn't want it to impead on desktop sales. An all in one device wouldn't be a good idea from a sales stand point. Ubuntu attempted this and I have gathered that it isn't exactly easy to support it. Some apps are built specifically for touch screens and making them work on a desktop computer with out for thought could be difficult.

corbet 9y ago

I did a review of Maru OS last year: https://lwn.net/Articles/684010/ https://lwn.net/Articles/684010/

rweichler 9y ago

> See title Looks cool. > Android Pass.

voltagex_ 9y ago
What would you base it on? Mainline Linux is possible on the 2013 Nexus 7, but you might fry your flash if one of the parameters is wrong.
- deleted 9y ago
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- deleted 9y ago
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- rweichler 9y ago
  Idk, but Android isn't the way to go Probably would need to make a custom OS. I'd probably base it on BSD

jccalhoun 9y ago

Every time one of these is announced you know the people who worked on the Palm Foleo feel vindicated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Foleo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Foleo

mikejmoffitt 9y ago

Can this be used with a wired keyboard and mouse on most phones?

pdsouza 9y ago
Right now no, since Maru uses SlimPort for streaming the desktop to your display. SlimPort eats up the USB pins that you would need for connecting up a wired keyboard/mouse via USB-OTG [0]. Wired keyboard/mouse will become possible when we support other methods for display streaming in the future like wireless. [0] https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os/rsSpHZ0DIJA/mEfp_J9MCwAJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os/rsSpHZ0DIJA/mEfp_J9M...

JoeRess 9y ago

We spoke to the developer of Maru OS on yesterday's Late Night Linux podcast. http://latenightlinux.com/late-night-linux-episode-11/ http://latenightlinux.com/late-night-linux-episode-11/

tmsldd 9y ago

Hey, that's cool ;) IMO, this approach is the most innovative idea on how to merge mobile and desktop experiences. I expect other companies following the same approach.

jczhang 9y ago

Support for Pixel anytime?

drusepth 9y ago

This looks cool, but I'm wondering who the target market is for this. To properly use it, you need: 1) An Android phone (easy to satisfy) that you're comfortable enough installing another OS on (so... a more technical user) 2) An HDMI monitor (which could actually be a TV) 3) A SlimPort USB-to-HDMI cable 4) A bluetooth mouse and bluetooth keyboard 5) No desktop (since using it and this seem to be mutually exclusive for most casual setups) Most people don't have a bluetooth keyboard/mouse lying around, so the time/cost investment to set this up is not only just installing a new OS on your phone, but also buying hardware (keyboard, mouse, and potentially monitor if you don't already have a computer) [and potentially also waiting for it to arrive if you buy online]. And, after this investment, the target market seems to be people that'd be comfortable doing the above while _not_ also buying a desktop to go with it. So... either technical hobbyists/tinkerers and/or people that want a $50-100 machine (and are savvy enough to set it up). I would _love_ to use something like this, but I move enough that it doesn't make sense to have a desktop (and, therefore, the same mostly applies to monitor+keyboard), and if I were to live in one place long enough to have a desktop, I'd just buy a desktop (because I likely wouldn't use it _and_ this). Am I just not the target market for something like this (even though it legitimately excites me)?

kovek 9y ago
I was thinking that you do not necessarily need a mouse if you know your keyboard-fu well, but then realized that you could use the phone screen as a trackpad in place of a mouse.

ibic 9y ago

Is it fair to call it an OS? My feeling it's simply Android with some customization and/or apps.

Schwolop 9y ago

I have a nexdock; an HDMI screen, bluetooth keyboard + trackpad, webcam, USB hub, and battery - with no CPU. It's intended to work with continuum/handover compatible phones, compute sticks, or raspberry pi like devices. Something like MaruOS would be an even better option in my mind. And yet, then I think why would I bother carrying a laptop-minus-cpu plus a phone with desktop ability when I could just do what I currently do and carry a phone and a full laptop? I can see this brings a bit of flexibility, and my files/config would always be on my person, etc. But we have global and close-enough-to ubiquitous internet now - isn't that sufficient or even better? I guess I just don't get the use case. Or maybe I get the use case(s) but not the business case.

dingo_bat 9y ago

Does anybody know what's the difference between this and Samsung dex?

catmanjan 9y ago

I like the idea, the biggest benefit is of course the "all in one" deal - seems a waste to have to tether your phone to your laptop, or get a laptop with a SIM slot (and all the costs that go with it) I'd like to see: 1. The source code 2. Support for newer devices (might go hand in hand with 1) 3. Support for wireless HDMI adapters, having to carry no cables at all would be very neat, although I guess this needs a power supply to last for any useful amount of time

thewhitetulip 9y ago

I'd love this if it worked on my phone, but it seems like it doesn't work on any device other than Nexus

qwtel 9y ago

Too bad my Nexus 5 just bit the dust a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised that this only works with the Nexus 5 though, since it's a pretty old phone. I was primarily using it to performance-test stuff on a low end phone. Maybe maruos does it for the same reason?

chuckdries 9y ago

I've always wondered about this. I love the portability but limiting myself to the power of something that has to fit in my pocket feels... limiting. What if we just carried around our software and files and popped them into whatever computer we have on hand? I know they're pricey but M.2 SSDs are tiny, fast, and high in capacity. I can imagine a desktop (maybe even a big laptop) with an sd-card-reader-like slit where you pop the SSD in and boot in mere seconds. Your computing environment travels with you but can take advantage of whatever hardware you have. It's not like you can use these phone-desktop solutions without a keyboard, mouse, dock, display, etc. anyway. You still need hardware. As a proof of concept, I've been itching to get a few of those USB SATA toaster things and set them up at my desks. The only hitch is finding a laptop these days with a 2.5" bay that's easy to get to. Would you use something like this?

andai 9y ago
I like your "just take the data with you" idea. I did something similar with a tiny (about the size of my thumbnail) USB stick about ten years ago, running Linux everywhere I could (and wasn't really supposed to!). It was pretty slow though. These days though, read and write speeds (on USB 3) are over 10x faster. So even without the hardware changes you describe, it's already more than feasible :)

peteretep 9y ago

Gotta wonder if this is the end game for Apple. MacBook Air that's basically a battery, screen and peripherals holster for the 2020 iPhone 12, all running via USB-C. I'd buy it.

nonsince 9y ago

I don't use a smartphone, and the only smartphone-ish device I have (iPod touch) I only even bought because some things won't even run on PC anymore. This is successfully selling me on getting a high-end android phone, something I never thought I would do. I'm always looking for ways to reduce the amount of space my office setup takes.

hammondOfTexas 9y ago

So this is kind of like Microsoft's Continuum for Android

nedp 9y ago
...And kind of Samsung DeX.

anotheryou 9y ago

What is the real benefit? - If I use it on the go, I need an external screen and keyboard. I'd rather carry a laptop or just the keyboard und use the tiny screen (possible with stock android already). And if you are somewhere with a screen, there is probably also a machine at which you could boot some live distro. - files are "in sync" between desktop and mobile. But the few file-types I open on my phone can just as well be synced over the internet (mostly just txt and a pdf every now and than). - less expensive (but a desktop that beats a phone is probably also cheap to get) If there was a really cheap laptop dock for it it might make sense for me, otherwise I don't get it.

dagi3d 9y ago

I truly believe personal computing will evolve in this direction

real-hacker 9y ago

I was interested in the merging of desktop and mobile OS many years ago. I don't understand why Apple/MS/Google didn't pursue this, is it technically challenging? or is this just not "something people want"?

Epskampie 9y ago
Well, Microsoft did try really hard, it was called "continuum", but the fall of windows mobile brought that dream to an end. The other company that tried was Ubuntu, their effort was called Unity if I'm correct. That was axed recently as they needed to focus on profit-making parts of the company. Also, I don't think any mainstream ubuntu phone with unity was ever released. Finally, Apple's strategy is clearly different, they see iOS and macOS as clearly different beasts, and will probably never try to directly merge the two. Data-sharing is the way to go for them.
- andai 9y ago
  I had a dream once where I was holding an iPhone, and every time I looked away and back again, it would be one form factor bigger (iPhone -> iPad -> MacBook). That was a really cool dream.

znpy 9y ago

I am honestly disappointed this is not a thing yet. Years ago Canonical demoed Ubuntu for Android (http://musho.tk/l/666778c3 http://musho.tk/l/666778c3) which was freaking cool. Most phones nowadays have means to connect to displays and keyboard/mices. We have cores, speed and ram. WHY ISN'T THIS A THING YET? I have seen banks hand out expensive ThinkPads to people to basically use Internet Explorer and Outlook, plus company phones and stuff. My speculation is that whomever gets this thing right first is going to make a metric futon of money.

methodin 9y ago

What's the reason all of these start with very specific phones? Assuming you have a rooted phone running recent Android, what is the blocker for having something like this running? Why only Nexus devices?

jquip 9y ago