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Sure, but most mobile OSes don't support a full desktop experience well, and you're limited to bluetooth peripherals only. Unless you have a rare phone that com

by nwah1 8y ago

Sure, but most mobile OSes don't support a full desktop experience well, and you're limited to bluetooth peripherals only. Unless you have a rare phone that comes with a docking station.

cestith 8y ago
I have an OTG USB hub with Ethernet. Mouse, keyboard, and external drive can plug in all at once, and if I have a place to plug the other end of the cable I get wired network too. It even has power input to drive the peripherals. Add something like GNURoot with the Debian chroot and it's nearly desktop Linux on a tiny screen. It's more of a pain to set up during a meeting than a dedicated docking station would be. It also doesn't currently charge the phone (although there are ways to modify it to do that). It's nice for novelty but a little unwieldy. Using an OTG cable with a keyboard with a built-in hub reduces some of the cable clutter. Some of the Chromebooks and such have no moving parts. I'm probably taking my Pinebook to the next conference I attend.
chrisper 8y ago
>Unless you have a rare phone that comes with a docking station. Can't you just use any USB-C Dockingstation?
- nwah1 8y ago
  Good point. I guess few people use those since phone OSes don't scale well for desktop use.
  - svnsets 8y ago
    The latest MacBook is essentially mobile hardware with desktop peripherals and software. Seems like the right way to go rather than bloating a smartphone with desktop software given that the amount of people who want their smartphone to be their only interface to everything is likely a very small minority.
- snops 8y ago
  Not all phones support all the alternate modes of USB-C, especially display port or HDMI, so display output is often a hurdle.
flukus 8y ago
> Sure, but most mobile OSes don't support a full desktop experience well This is due to the form factor, not the capability of the devices. A high end smart phone is more than capable of producing a good desktop experience.
- nwah1 8y ago
  It's purely a software issue. Microsoft, Ubuntu, and others have come close to building a responsive desktop GUI.

by nwah1 8y ago

Sure, but most mobile OSes don't support a full desktop experience well, and you're limited to bluetooth peripherals only. Unless you have a rare phone that comes with a docking station.

cestith 8y ago

I have an OTG USB hub with Ethernet. Mouse, keyboard, and external drive can plug in all at once, and if I have a place to plug the other end of the cable I get wired network too. It even has power input to drive the peripherals. Add something like GNURoot with the Debian chroot and it's nearly desktop Linux on a tiny screen. It's more of a pain to set up during a meeting than a dedicated docking station would be. It also doesn't currently charge the phone (although there are ways to modify it to do that). It's nice for novelty but a little unwieldy. Using an OTG cable with a keyboard with a built-in hub reduces some of the cable clutter. Some of the Chromebooks and such have no moving parts. I'm probably taking my Pinebook to the next conference I attend.

chrisper 8y ago

>Unless you have a rare phone that comes with a docking station. Can't you just use any USB-C Dockingstation?

nwah1 8y ago
Good point. I guess few people use those since phone OSes don't scale well for desktop use.
- svnsets 8y ago
  The latest MacBook is essentially mobile hardware with desktop peripherals and software. Seems like the right way to go rather than bloating a smartphone with desktop software given that the amount of people who want their smartphone to be their only interface to everything is likely a very small minority.
snops 8y ago
Not all phones support all the alternate modes of USB-C, especially display port or HDMI, so display output is often a hurdle.

flukus 8y ago

> Sure, but most mobile OSes don't support a full desktop experience well This is due to the form factor, not the capability of the devices. A high end smart phone is more than capable of producing a good desktop experience.

nwah1 8y ago
It's purely a software issue. Microsoft, Ubuntu, and others have come close to building a responsive desktop GUI.