17 ms·

Linux on Dex

376 points by MikusR 8y ago

akhilcacharya 8y ago
I'm curious as to how well ARM64 Chrome/VS Code/Node.js will perform on this
gcbw2 8y ago
This (and the internet in general) is pretty anemic on details. Is this a VM on top of dalvik? I assumed DEX was deprecated in favour of ART https://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/gc-debug.html https://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/gc-debug.html I mean it is still compatible bytecode (i think) but who knows anything about android roadmap anymore?
- Jonnax 8y ago
  DeX is Samsung's brand for connecting their phones to a monitor and having a desktop mode. It's not related to dex/art of Dalvik.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- mshockwave 8y ago
  And also dex is the bytecode format, which is still be used by ART(for compatibility reason I guess)
- adrianmonk 8y ago
  Apparently it has no connection, even though they're both technologies for running things on Android. Presumably someone in branding at Samsung thinks this makes sense. They might not even be wrong considering this is end user focused whereas .dex files are something only developers see.
deleted 8y ago
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whydoineedthis 8y ago
that's cool, but no way I'm giving up the projector on my indestructible Moto Force for this particular phone.
xutopia 8y ago
I'm pretty sure that 90% of computer usage could be handled by the computers in our pockets.
- nine_k 8y ago
  ...Except for the tiny screen and barely-usable keyboard. Desktops and even laptops make sense exactly where phones don't: large screens, large keyboards, a lot of CPU and battery. This can't fit in a pocket.
  - zeppelin101 8y ago
    This is why Samsung created the DeX docks. You connect your phone to the DeX device and then connect all the peripherals to the DeX pad: monitor (via HDMI), and mouse + kb.
    - ekianjo 8y ago
      it means you need to have your monitor and keyboard ready in several locations. at some point if you work on the go it does not make sense anymore.
      - zeppelin101 8y ago
        You could connect to a TV, as well. Honestly, for actual IT/programming persons, such a set up is unlikely to be be exceptionally useful, but I could see using Ubuntu Linux on the phone in more modest ways. You could play a native Linux game (perhaps one you coded yourself), while using a Bluetooth controller. I'm kind of grasping for straws here, actually, but I'd say that the dex pad is pretty cool more broadly speaking. For example, you could use your phone's unlimited data to play back netflix or YouTube videos while connected to a TV. You could use the Samsung dex mode (which predates this Ubuntu mode by several years), while relying on only the touch screen to launch the playback of said video. For me this seems uniquely useful because my mobile carrier, T-mobile, limits tethering to several GBs (and bypassing it hasn't worked in the last few years) and it would be unwise to spend them quickly just to provide a data connection to the smart TV or another intermediary device.
Jonnax 8y ago
I wonder what container technology they use. Also whether there'll be GPU acceleration or just framebuffer. Can we play a 4k YouTube video out of the box in Firefox? Also there's two SoCs. In most of the world there's a Samsung Exynos and in USA there's a Snapdragon. There's surely going to be differences here. Especially GPU-wise.
- gshulegaard 8y ago
  Since the partner is Canonical, I would speculate it's LXC based. Also since they are looking to put a whole OS experience in a container it probably wouldn't be a good fit for Docker which really wants to push single process containers with no init systems.
SeriousM 8y ago
UserLAnd is doing the same as open source and on any device. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tech.ula https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tech.ula
- nine_k 8y ago
  Did anybody compare the performance of this and UserLAnd? The latter is not a speed demon, for obvious reasons.
- maelito 8y ago
  It's a very cool project, unfortunately for now running sudo apt install inkscape on a S8 takes forever.
LeonM 8y ago
What is the reason this works on the note 9, and not the S9/S9+? The S9 seems to have Dex support as well, can anyone explain?
- AdmiralAsshat 8y ago
  So does the S8/S8+.
  - LeonM 8y ago
    But that's a different generation of hardware, I can understand why the project currently focuses on current gen hardware. The S9+ and note9 share the same processor and amount of RAM, so that's why I asked.
- izacus 8y ago
  Might be that S9s just have older version of Dex right now - they still need the special Dex dock while Note 9 works with any USB-C dongle. I'm guessing they'll get the support with Android Pie where Samsung also promises that Dex will be usable without their special dock.
nunodonato 8y ago
I just want a tab like the S4 with that keyboard and mouse to ship with a proper linux distro, customized and optimized to it. Would buy it in a flash
- izacus 8y ago
  Something like the Google Pixel Slate, which can run Linux apps?
  - nathanasmith 8y ago
    As someone who's been looking for a first-class Linux experience on a mobile tablet for a while and been very underwhelmed by everything on offer, I'm pretty excited about this and am very curious how it compares with running Linux on the upcoming Slate. That said, the S4 is quite a bit smaller and lighter than the Slate and more what I'm in the market for though I expect the Snapdragon to be quite a bit slower than the x86 in Google's product.
  - petecox 8y ago
    That's a Chrome OS device. So what is preventing OEMs from releasing a Chrome OS phone which runs both Android apps and desktop Linux apps out of the box without this Dex/Canonical vendor-specific solution?
    - snazz 8y ago
      As far as I know, the compatibility layer for running Android apps on Chrome OS is closed-source, which means that any OEM wanting to do this would need Google’s blessing and access to their source code. However, if there were a phone that did this, I’d buy it for sure.
tinyvm 8y ago
This is really cool. I've been looking for such thing for a long time now. If you have a corporate Job like consulting or something equivalent it's very likely you are packing an awful laptop with you everywhere you go, a DELL or a Lenovo or something like that. DEX opens a door for next generation Mobile Desktop , where you SmartPhone is also your Desktop Computer. I really hope Apple does something similar in this area , the new iPad can be connected to a screen, but the real deal would be using the iPhone with as a laptop...
- soperj 8y ago
  oh yeah, I'd hate to be stuck on a Thinkpad or and XPS machine, the 2 best laptops on the market.
  - tinyvm 8y ago
    > oh yeah, I'd hate to be stuck on a Thinkpad or and XPS machine, the 2 best laptops on the market. Even when Excel , Chrome , Gmail take 30-50 seconds to open up ? And your laptop freezes when you are dealing with more than 10000 rows ? That's your opinion i guess.
    - nine_k 8y ago
      I won't hope that a phone would handle 10000 rows much better. But that "Excel" thing might be an answer: the laptop must be running Windows, and Windows users often run an antivirus, and some Windows antivirus software is known to be terrible. (The MS-provided basic antivirus was always fine in this regard, though.)
      - tinyvm 8y ago
        >I won't hope that a phone would handle 10000 rows much better. Galaxy S9 has 2 X 4 Core @ 2GHZ , my corporate laptop has an i5 from 2015 with 2 @ 2GHZ. I'll go with the Galaxy.
        8y ago
MrMember 8y ago
Depending on how well this works it could single handedly convince me to buy a Note 9. I've been wanting something like this for years.
- cylinder714 8y ago
  Be sure to look up Purism's Librem 5 phone, coming out next year.
- MikusR 8y ago
  As this project (then called Linux on Galaxy) was first shown on Note 8, but now turns out Note 8 is not supported, I'd wait for them to officially release it and then get a device that explicitly supports it.
j45 8y ago
I was about to get rid of my superbook by sentio and this may have changed my mind. Having owned the note 1, 2, 4 and now a pixel 2, I left because of the poor history of timely and current updates by Samsung. If Samsung could provide the option of running native Android like LG is, this would be a compelling option.
colobas 8y ago
I was hoping this would allow me to ssh into my phone to make/take calls and send/receive texts. Does anyone knows if that's possible?
- colobas 8y ago
  This seems to suggest that at least the audio can't be relayed. Sad. https://www.samsung.com/hk_en/support/mobile-devices/how-can-i-receive-a-call-while-using-samsung-dex/ https://www.samsung.com/hk_en/support/mobile-devices/how-can...
- rsync 8y ago
  "I was hoping this would allow me to ssh into my phone to make/take calls and send/receive texts. Does anyone knows if that's possible?" I send SMS from the command line by curl'ing twilio ... curl -X POST -d "Body=Hi" -d "From=3032221111" -d "To=4151112222" "https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/${account_sid}/Messages" -u "${account_sid}:${auth_token}" I do at least half of my testing this way, from inside my terminal that I am already working in (I wrote a little sms script in /bin/sh). Of course this means that your phone number has to be at twilio (either source the number from them or port it to them).
  - colobas 8y ago
    Yeah I'm aware of this, but my use case is different. I'm often abroad, but I also often need to contact numbers from my home country, so I wanted to have a phone I could ssh into from abroad and serve as a gateway
    - voltagex_ 8y ago
      You used to be able to do this with chan_bluetooth on Asterisk, but I would not recommend it.
      - colobas 8y ago
        Why not?
camelNotation 8y ago
I want a laptop with a hole where the mouse pad should be. I want to be able to put my phone into that slot, dock it, and use the screen of my phone as the mouse pad for the laptop. I want my phone to do all the processing and work. I want the laptop dock to be an extension of my phone, running something like DEX to make the laptop experience work. The only thing I want this laptop dock to do is give me a screen, a keyboard, and maybe extra battery and ports. Please, someone make this happen. I could use my phone for all computing at that point.
- solox3 8y ago
  Something like Project Linda then? https://www.razer.com/projectlinda https://www.razer.com/projectlinda It is still a concept, but Razer's two phones have been the same size, so it remains a possibility.
  - 52-6F-62 8y ago
    That's very cool as a concept. I'd like to see Apple get all over something like this as well. Is it just me or would something like that sell like wild?
    - icebraining 8y ago
      I very much doubt it. It doesn't run Windows stuff, so it's more of a competitor to Chromebooks, and those haven't sold like wild (less than 5% of new sales in 2016). Coupled with the fact that it restricts you in the choice of phone, and I think it's basically DOA.
      - yellowapple 8y ago
        "less than 5% of new sales in 2016" Given how saturated the laptop market is, that's actually not terrible.
        icebraining 8y ago
deleted 8y ago
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i_phish_cats 8y ago
For those of us who don't have a supported device, there's an android app called [Termux](https://termux.com/ https://termux.com/) which provides a surprisingly linux-y experience. I sometimes code on my 10" tablet with a small (60%) keyboard.
- Jim_Heckler 8y ago
  Termux is incredible. You can even run Arch on it https://github.com/sdrausty/termux-archlinux https://github.com/sdrausty/termux-archlinux
  - angelsl 8y ago
    PRoot's overhead is very significant though. Especially the moment you have more than one thread running..
- ObsoleteNerd 8y ago
  I do lots of work on my phone thanks to Termux and a 60% bluetooth mechanical keyboard. It's one of my most essential apps on Android. Either using it directly or using it to SSH into servers, raspberry pis, etc.
  - esotericn 8y ago
    I'd really appreciate knowing which keyboard you're using!
    - swiley 8y ago
      He probably meant hardware keyboard. <strike>I don’t think anyone makes Bluetooth mechanical keyboards.</strike> Ok I’m apparently totally wrong about that last thing and possibly the first as well.
      - Uberphallus 8y ago
        Actually there are many. I've been using this one [0] for around 2 years, with blue switches. Despite some bad reviews, I don't have any issue with it. It can be paired with up to 3 devices + wired USB, so I can swap from phone to desktop to media center with 2 keypresses. [0] https://www.amazon.com/DREVO-Wireless-Bluetooth-Mechanical-Switch-Black/dp/B01N6GBIOI https://www.amazon.com/DREVO-Wireless-Bluetooth-Mechanical-S...
owaislone 8y ago
I wish they partnered with Canonical to continue their work on Unity8. Would be great if they could adopt the project and build on top of it.
andrey_utkin 8y ago
With all the ugliness of Android-first computing, I percieve it as a good thing that major brands are waking up for the public request of native GNU/Linux UX on mobile computing devices.
pi-victor 8y ago
woha, ubuntu edge flashback! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge#/
fiatjaf 8y ago
What is Dex? I've read a lot on that page but still don't get it.
- Jonnax 8y ago
  When you plug a hdmi cable into a Samsung phone you can either use screen mirroring or go into a desktop mode thats designed for keyboard and mouse.
  - bepvte 8y ago
    Specific samsung phones, with special docks (I tried it )
mr_overalls 8y ago
> Samsung DeX is supported on Galaxy S8/S8+, Note8, S9/S9+, Note9, and Tab S4. > * Phones should be connected to an external display to use Samsung DeX. > * Selected Samsung HDMI adapter/cable is recommended to use Samsung DeX. > * Samsung DeX using a HDMI adapter or cable is only available on Note9 and Tab S4. ------ So really, DeX only works well (with HDMI cable) on Note9 and Tab S4?
- wvenable 8y ago
  Older phones require the Dex Dock or Pad (which adds HDMI and other ports). With the Note9, you can plug a USB-C to HDMI cable right into it.
  - esotericn 8y ago
    Hm. I can already plug a USB-C to HDMI cable into my Note8. Does it work if you do that + use Bluetooth peripherals?
  - voltagex_ 8y ago
    There was/is a "C-Force" branded hub that was smaller and (slightly) cheaper than the DeX dock that put the S8/+ into DeX mode just fine.
- pmx 8y ago
  It works well on the other devices too, you just need the dex station.
wanderfowl 8y ago
I love this idea. With insane mobile processors, terabyte storage on phones, external GPUs, and USB-C docking, we're tantalizingly close to "I do my computing on this device. It's in my pocket with a phone interface right now. But once I plug it in at my desk with the GPU dock, it's my computer. And later, I'll throw it in the tablet and use it on my couch." Backups will need to be good and easy if your main computing device can fall out of your pocket on the subway, and an OS which is happy doing this will need to exist. But for many people, this could be a beautiful world.
jcelerier 8y ago
they didn't even bother set up a GTK+2 theme for geany in their screenshot :p
shmerl 8y ago
Is it running on the hardware with upstream drivers, or it's libhybris based?
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  It's a chroot. (I think)
- binomialxenon 8y ago
  It's a container using the same non-upstream kernel and proprietary drivers from the Android OS.
  - shmerl 8y ago
    Too bad then.
sigmonsays 8y ago
Linux on DeX currently supports one customized Ubuntu image (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS version provided by Canonical) which only operates on selected Samsung devices. (Note9 and Tab S4). :(
- 24gttghh 8y ago
  It also says just before that: "Only use authorized images provided directly through Linux on DeX. Other versions or unauthorized images may not operate properly." Seems to imply, to me, that it is not impossible to run other images in this container.
bubblethink 8y ago
I find the terminology used by all these similar projects (linux on chromeos too) amusing. Both, Android and ChromeOS run the linux kernel. So it's like that Yo Dawg meme. On the other hand, MS is even more creative. What could be a legitimate use of "linux on windows" is called windows subsystem for linux. Marketing these days.
- danans 8y ago
  You might find the whole business of VMs and containers amusing also, as they are often running aLinux kernel and up (VMs) or a Linux app in a sandboxed Linux environment (containers) on top of ... Linux. So the names are pretty much true.
esotericn 8y ago
I'd love to use this, but my 8 month old Note 8 is apparently unsupported. Has anyone tried it? Does it work anyway, but just "unsupported"? Or do you get gated at the registration step?
- jdhawk 8y ago
  I have a s9+ and want the same. I signed up - have yet to get any more info.
- ReverseCold 8y ago
  I was able to register but haven't received an email (yet). Hopefully it works on the Note 8 as well, but given that it is mentioned a grand total of 0 times on that website - I'm not holding my breath.
amelius 8y ago
Questions: Will Samsung have access to my data? Does this have a SaaS cost model? Will I have root access? Can I apt-get install any package, or only selected packages?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
voltagex_ 8y ago
Hah - I thought this was originally going to run on the S8/S8+ but they've bumped the requirements up to the Note 9/Tab S4.
deleted 8y ago
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j45 8y ago
Owning the Note 1, 2 and 4, I ultimately left because Samsung is very poor at updating phones regularly with current patch levels. I was forced to get a Pixel 2 which, minus the stylus I've been happy with. It still wouldn't hold a candle to a Note with bare Android. If Samsung could adopt native android installation, like some LG devices are, this is an exciting possibility.
- kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
  Why not just put bare Android on a Note then?
  - voltagex_ 8y ago
    I'm pretty sure a QFuse gets blown when you OEM-unlock a recent Samsung. Also, I don't think "bare Android" (AOSP or Lineage) supports the S-Pen.
z3t4 8y ago
The galaxy note, and other "note" phones have a "touch" layer ontop the screen, which make it possible to use a high precision stylus. And the screen has a lot of pixels already, so you could already use it as a PC. Typing with a stylus is pretty fast.
danans 8y ago
2011 is back! Meet the Motorola Atrix + Lapdock https://www.cnet.com/news/how-does-the-motorola-atrix-4g-lapdock-compare-with-a-laptop/ https://www.cnet.com/news/how-does-the-motorola-atrix-4g-lap...
- codezero 8y ago
  Didn’t that and the Samsung Ativ Q get destroyed by some patent?
qwerty456127 8y ago
Looks cool essentially but... > Linux on DeX currently supports one customized Ubuntu image (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS version provided by Canonical) which only operates on selected Samsung devices. (Note9 and Tab S4). What a waste. Hardware vendors can never produce a really good piece of software. If something as humble as RaspberryPi can run fully up-to-date unmodified Arch I'm pretty sure my Note3 has all the hardware power to run it too yet they require a super-duper-recent device produced exclusively by themselves and would only let us run an almost 3-yr-old distro they have modified.
raihansaputra 8y ago
Honestly, if this works well I might migrate to this. I've always thought the laptop is an ergonomical nightmare; moving the central processing bit to the phone always makes sense yet not always possible. There has been mentions of Project Linda here, but I'd be far more interested in having a portable, ergonomic, computing solution. I have not found it. The closest one is having a laptop on a roost stand (which still needs an extra mouse and keyboard). I think modern smartphones are powerful enough, what they need is a sensible display.
elipsey 8y ago
I have pretty much given up on the prospect of running a full fledged FOSS OS on devices that don’t give access to the bootloader’s root of trust, or give you a userland that works with a kernel you can’t control (eg Crouton). It all sounds great until you start trying to do actuall work. As soon as you need anything that’s not provided by the manufacturer software image you start to notice all the foundational things you’re not allowed to do with your system. Need a kernel option or module not provided? Nope, can’t build/sign it. Remember, not all modules are for new hardware (no VMs for you!). Current version of OS? Distro security updates for kernel? Um maybe if they get around to it lol. It kind of reminds me of Doctorow’s thing about war on general purpose computing.* Like how is it in the interest of handset manufacturers to let you have a general purpose computer that could run unsigned (by them) code? To have a real linux distro, you would have to be able to run unsigned privileged code, but that would make it possible to do all sorts of naughty things like unauthorized disk encryption, subverting DRM, mucking around with the radios, etc. You can’t really have have one without the other. * http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/coming-war-general-computation/ http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/coming-war-general-com...
- ryukafalz 8y ago
  UBports is pretty close: https://ubports.com/ https://ubports.com/ It uses libhybris, so they're limited to the original kernel or something close to it because of proprietary drivers. But it's a community project since Canonical stopped Ubuntu Touch development, and it's had a desktop mode like this for years! The PostmarketOS project is similar, with an explicit goal of mainline support where possible: https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/ But yes, I would be much happier if devices had support in the mainline kernel and could run any distro you wanted right out of the box. (And some devices just straight up lock you out - I try to avoid those whenever possible.)
  - chupasaurus 8y ago
    DKMS is out there for a long time, but it might be useless with closed bootloader. You and the author of parent comment should read about Librem 5 (it is supported by UBports as well as GNOME and KDE).
craftyguy 8y ago
> Linux on DeX currently supports one customized Ubuntu image (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS version provided by Canonical) which only operates on selected Samsung devices. (Note9 and Tab S4). A crappy distro on a couple of old devices? No thanks. I'll just wait for the Librem 5 [0] 0) https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ Edit: Misread "Note9" as "Note7" (don't ask). Ooops. My conclusion still stands.
- tehduder9 8y ago
  Note 9 is an old device? What world are you living in? Note 9 will probably be years ahead of that Librem smartphone
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    Oops, for some strange reason I read that as "Note 7". In any case, in terms of what you are capable of doing to your device (e.g. running Linux distros, controlling radios, etc), the Librem smartphone is years ahead of anything else in the market.
    - throw2016 8y ago
      This is not about running Linux distros on your phone. This is about your phone doubling up as a Linux PC and being able to use your phone as a PC seamlessly when required by simply connecting it to a monitor. This can be super useful for a lot of users. Current 8 core SOCs with 4 to 8 GB RAM should be more than usable and its great Samsung has been trying to make this happen. And there is nothing 'crappy' about Ubuntu 16.04 especially given all distros are the same underneath. Why this name calling against Ubuntu?
      - craftyguy 8y ago
        > This is about your phone doubling up as a Linux PC and being able to use your phone as a PC seamlessly when required by simply connecting it to a monitor. This can be super useful for a lot of users. Something a phone that supports running arbitrary Linux distros will naturally do without having to depend on random projects like this one which try to give similar functionality by shoehorning a Linux distro on top of a mobile OS. You're also at the whim of mobile OS 'manufacturers', who may make changes to the OS which then break the shoehorning effort. > And there is nothing 'crappy' about Ubuntu 16.04 especially given all distros are the same underneath. This isn't even remotely true. Here's a few ways distros differentiate from other distros: custom kernel patches (or not), custom patches (or not) for applications they distribute, package management (!!!), response time to security issues, support they offer (official, community, etc), upgrade model (rolling release vs big crap dump of updates every X months). > Why this name calling against Ubuntu? Ubuntu does a lot of the above differentiation stuff wrong, IMHO.
jake_the_third 8y ago
Unless they allow the same kind of control a user can get with normal x86 machines or better, I can't see this being taken seriously by developers. I can't see developers jumping on a closed, locked-down platform other than apple's (and even those folks are starting to get tired).
progdown 8y ago
I'm confused--is this really running a VM on your device, or is it somehow cloud run or cloud accelerated?
- binomialxenon 8y ago
  It's on the device. I assume there must be some overhead, but devices like the S9 are several times more powerful than the RasPi, which can already handle software pretty decently.
mark_l_watson 8y ago
As other people here mentioned, something like this for iOS would be nice: an Apple app that ran Linux in a secure sandbox. I find using Prompt for multiple SSH shells to remote servers, Raskell (Haskell) and Pythonista (Python) IDEs to be very cool and somewhat useful - but, having an option for a sandboxed Linux would be better.
mousecorkkey 8y ago
I just use an external SSD and take that with me. It's rare that I'll find a monitor and keyboard, but no PC. I do look forward to the day when we all have phones that we can dock into terminals, but until that day comes my portable drive does the job pretty well.
profalseidol 8y ago
Don't we have foldable monitors and keyboard yet?
nickpsecurity 8y ago
Reminds me of Nirvana phone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_Phone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_Phone
voycey 8y ago
I would love for the time to arrive where I can just walk to work with my phone in my pocket, dock it and run everything I need to in one place on one device - unfortunately as someone said above the restrictions manufacturers put on the devices are too hardcore.
pankajdoharey 8y ago
I hope eventually Apple produces something of this sort, atleast on the surface it seems they are onto something with Marzipan. Someone should solve this problem completely.
rzr 8y ago
Has anyone been able to test it on his/her own devices ? I only touched it in a showcase...
1023bytes 8y ago
Why Ubuntu 16.04 when 18.04 LTS is already out for a while
jyriand 8y ago
I guess I'm missing something here but I'm failing to understand why would anyone want to set up work environment using their phone? As I understand you would also need a monitor, keyboard and a mouse? Isn't it easier to just use your laptop?
eletious 8y ago
Would you like to know what I'm not doing? I'm not spending $700 on a locked-down linux tablet with 4GB RAM. Unfortunately I don't think I will ever be at a point where a tablet is worth more to me than 440 double cheeseburgers.
sammorrowdrums 8y ago
I'm excited by this if I can do basic dev work from just my phone with a couple of accessories. It might mean for example, I don't need to bring my laptop home from work, in case of an urgent issue.
- sammorrowdrums 8y ago
  Full disclosure though - I am party of the incredibly small population who have the compatible phone. I really hope the amount of device support increases significantly if this works out.
luckymerlin 8y ago
I wonder how long it would take intellij to index my 1GB project on my phone...
reacweb 8y ago
"4GB RAM is required in your device for downloading a Linux image". This remind me the requirements when I was student: 4MB RAM were required for Linux kernel compilation from command line, 8MB if X server was running. My PC had 120MB of hard disk. Other times ...
xte 8y ago
DeX, WSL, Crostini, all experiments for a simple purpose: steal users freedom and offer FOSS code in a proprietary jail to avoid direct competition against FOSS. IOW be prepared to find in the next 5/8 years PCs with Windows kernel and basic userland as a UEFI fw and "Linux" (GNU actually) software available and offered via Microsoft store. Also be prepared to find mobile devices dockable with the same offer from Samsung etc. The end of freedom. That's is a clear demonstration of the need of mandate by law free software and open hardware: having free software is not enough if we do not have hw to run it directly.
pdsouza 8y ago
Happy to see more efforts to make your phone a PC! Another option is Maru: https://maruos.com https://maruos.com https://github.com/maruos/maruos https://github.com/maruos/maruos Maru is an open-source project and has been well-tested for nearly three years now. We've also been featured on HN quite a few times actually. Speaking of Samsung, Maru already has early builds available for the Samsung S9: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os-dev/YVkUiwuKMRQ/fOQYRB9cAgAJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os-dev/YVkUiwuKMRQ/fOQY... I'm the creator btw.

376 points by MikusR 8y ago

I'm curious as to how well ARM64 Chrome/VS Code/Node.js will perform on this

This (and the internet in general) is pretty anemic on details. Is this a VM on top of dalvik? I assumed DEX was deprecated in favour of ART https://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/gc-debug.html https://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/gc-debug.html I mean it is still compatible bytecode (i think) but who knows anything about android roadmap anymore?

Jonnax 8y ago
DeX is Samsung's brand for connecting their phones to a monitor and having a desktop mode. It's not related to dex/art of Dalvik.
deleted 8y ago
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mshockwave 8y ago
And also dex is the bytecode format, which is still be used by ART(for compatibility reason I guess)
adrianmonk 8y ago
Apparently it has no connection, even though they're both technologies for running things on Android. Presumably someone in branding at Samsung thinks this makes sense. They might not even be wrong considering this is end user focused whereas .dex files are something only developers see.

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whydoineedthis 8y ago

that's cool, but no way I'm giving up the projector on my indestructible Moto Force for this particular phone.

xutopia 8y ago

I'm pretty sure that 90% of computer usage could be handled by the computers in our pockets.

nine_k 8y ago
...Except for the tiny screen and barely-usable keyboard. Desktops and even laptops make sense exactly where phones don't: large screens, large keyboards, a lot of CPU and battery. This can't fit in a pocket.
- zeppelin101 8y ago
  This is why Samsung created the DeX docks. You connect your phone to the DeX device and then connect all the peripherals to the DeX pad: monitor (via HDMI), and mouse + kb.
  - ekianjo 8y ago
    it means you need to have your monitor and keyboard ready in several locations. at some point if you work on the go it does not make sense anymore.
    - zeppelin101 8y ago
      You could connect to a TV, as well. Honestly, for actual IT/programming persons, such a set up is unlikely to be be exceptionally useful, but I could see using Ubuntu Linux on the phone in more modest ways. You could play a native Linux game (perhaps one you coded yourself), while using a Bluetooth controller. I'm kind of grasping for straws here, actually, but I'd say that the dex pad is pretty cool more broadly speaking. For example, you could use your phone's unlimited data to play back netflix or YouTube videos while connected to a TV. You could use the Samsung dex mode (which predates this Ubuntu mode by several years), while relying on only the touch screen to launch the playback of said video. For me this seems uniquely useful because my mobile carrier, T-mobile, limits tethering to several GBs (and bypassing it hasn't worked in the last few years) and it would be unwise to spend them quickly just to provide a data connection to the smart TV or another intermediary device.

Jonnax 8y ago

I wonder what container technology they use. Also whether there'll be GPU acceleration or just framebuffer. Can we play a 4k YouTube video out of the box in Firefox? Also there's two SoCs. In most of the world there's a Samsung Exynos and in USA there's a Snapdragon. There's surely going to be differences here. Especially GPU-wise.

gshulegaard 8y ago
Since the partner is Canonical, I would speculate it's LXC based. Also since they are looking to put a whole OS experience in a container it probably wouldn't be a good fit for Docker which really wants to push single process containers with no init systems.

SeriousM 8y ago

UserLAnd is doing the same as open source and on any device. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tech.ula https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tech.ula

nine_k 8y ago
Did anybody compare the performance of this and UserLAnd? The latter is not a speed demon, for obvious reasons.
maelito 8y ago
It's a very cool project, unfortunately for now running sudo apt install inkscape on a S8 takes forever.

LeonM 8y ago

What is the reason this works on the note 9, and not the S9/S9+? The S9 seems to have Dex support as well, can anyone explain?

AdmiralAsshat 8y ago
So does the S8/S8+.
- LeonM 8y ago
  But that's a different generation of hardware, I can understand why the project currently focuses on current gen hardware. The S9+ and note9 share the same processor and amount of RAM, so that's why I asked.
izacus 8y ago
Might be that S9s just have older version of Dex right now - they still need the special Dex dock while Note 9 works with any USB-C dongle. I'm guessing they'll get the support with Android Pie where Samsung also promises that Dex will be usable without their special dock.

nunodonato 8y ago

I just want a tab like the S4 with that keyboard and mouse to ship with a proper linux distro, customized and optimized to it. Would buy it in a flash

izacus 8y ago
Something like the Google Pixel Slate, which can run Linux apps?
- nathanasmith 8y ago
  As someone who's been looking for a first-class Linux experience on a mobile tablet for a while and been very underwhelmed by everything on offer, I'm pretty excited about this and am very curious how it compares with running Linux on the upcoming Slate. That said, the S4 is quite a bit smaller and lighter than the Slate and more what I'm in the market for though I expect the Snapdragon to be quite a bit slower than the x86 in Google's product.
- petecox 8y ago
  That's a Chrome OS device. So what is preventing OEMs from releasing a Chrome OS phone which runs both Android apps and desktop Linux apps out of the box without this Dex/Canonical vendor-specific solution?
  - snazz 8y ago
    As far as I know, the compatibility layer for running Android apps on Chrome OS is closed-source, which means that any OEM wanting to do this would need Google’s blessing and access to their source code. However, if there were a phone that did this, I’d buy it for sure.

tinyvm 8y ago

This is really cool. I've been looking for such thing for a long time now. If you have a corporate Job like consulting or something equivalent it's very likely you are packing an awful laptop with you everywhere you go, a DELL or a Lenovo or something like that. DEX opens a door for next generation Mobile Desktop , where you SmartPhone is also your Desktop Computer. I really hope Apple does something similar in this area , the new iPad can be connected to a screen, but the real deal would be using the iPhone with as a laptop...

soperj 8y ago
oh yeah, I'd hate to be stuck on a Thinkpad or and XPS machine, the 2 best laptops on the market.
- tinyvm 8y ago
  > oh yeah, I'd hate to be stuck on a Thinkpad or and XPS machine, the 2 best laptops on the market. Even when Excel , Chrome , Gmail take 30-50 seconds to open up ? And your laptop freezes when you are dealing with more than 10000 rows ? That's your opinion i guess.
  - nine_k 8y ago
    I won't hope that a phone would handle 10000 rows much better. But that "Excel" thing might be an answer: the laptop must be running Windows, and Windows users often run an antivirus, and some Windows antivirus software is known to be terrible. (The MS-provided basic antivirus was always fine in this regard, though.)
    - tinyvm 8y ago
      >I won't hope that a phone would handle 10000 rows much better. Galaxy S9 has 2 X 4 Core @ 2GHZ , my corporate laptop has an i5 from 2015 with 2 @ 2GHZ. I'll go with the Galaxy.
      - 8y ago

MrMember 8y ago

Depending on how well this works it could single handedly convince me to buy a Note 9. I've been wanting something like this for years.

cylinder714 8y ago
Be sure to look up Purism's Librem 5 phone, coming out next year.
MikusR 8y ago
As this project (then called Linux on Galaxy) was first shown on Note 8, but now turns out Note 8 is not supported, I'd wait for them to officially release it and then get a device that explicitly supports it.

j45 8y ago

I was about to get rid of my superbook by sentio and this may have changed my mind. Having owned the note 1, 2, 4 and now a pixel 2, I left because of the poor history of timely and current updates by Samsung. If Samsung could provide the option of running native Android like LG is, this would be a compelling option.

colobas 8y ago

I was hoping this would allow me to ssh into my phone to make/take calls and send/receive texts. Does anyone knows if that's possible?

colobas 8y ago
This seems to suggest that at least the audio can't be relayed. Sad. https://www.samsung.com/hk_en/support/mobile-devices/how-can-i-receive-a-call-while-using-samsung-dex/ https://www.samsung.com/hk_en/support/mobile-devices/how-can...
rsync 8y ago
"I was hoping this would allow me to ssh into my phone to make/take calls and send/receive texts. Does anyone knows if that's possible?" I send SMS from the command line by curl'ing twilio ... curl -X POST -d "Body=Hi" -d "From=3032221111" -d "To=4151112222" "https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/${account_sid}/Messages" -u "${account_sid}:${auth_token}" I do at least half of my testing this way, from inside my terminal that I am already working in (I wrote a little sms script in /bin/sh). Of course this means that your phone number has to be at twilio (either source the number from them or port it to them).
- colobas 8y ago
  Yeah I'm aware of this, but my use case is different. I'm often abroad, but I also often need to contact numbers from my home country, so I wanted to have a phone I could ssh into from abroad and serve as a gateway
  - voltagex_ 8y ago
    You used to be able to do this with chan_bluetooth on Asterisk, but I would not recommend it.
    - colobas 8y ago
      Why not?

camelNotation 8y ago

I want a laptop with a hole where the mouse pad should be. I want to be able to put my phone into that slot, dock it, and use the screen of my phone as the mouse pad for the laptop. I want my phone to do all the processing and work. I want the laptop dock to be an extension of my phone, running something like DEX to make the laptop experience work. The only thing I want this laptop dock to do is give me a screen, a keyboard, and maybe extra battery and ports. Please, someone make this happen. I could use my phone for all computing at that point.

solox3 8y ago
Something like Project Linda then? https://www.razer.com/projectlinda https://www.razer.com/projectlinda It is still a concept, but Razer's two phones have been the same size, so it remains a possibility.
- 52-6F-62 8y ago
  That's very cool as a concept. I'd like to see Apple get all over something like this as well. Is it just me or would something like that sell like wild?
  - icebraining 8y ago
    I very much doubt it. It doesn't run Windows stuff, so it's more of a competitor to Chromebooks, and those haven't sold like wild (less than 5% of new sales in 2016). Coupled with the fact that it restricts you in the choice of phone, and I think it's basically DOA.
    - yellowapple 8y ago
      "less than 5% of new sales in 2016" Given how saturated the laptop market is, that's actually not terrible.
      - icebraining 8y ago

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i_phish_cats 8y ago

For those of us who don't have a supported device, there's an android app called [Termux](https://termux.com/ https://termux.com/) which provides a surprisingly linux-y experience. I sometimes code on my 10" tablet with a small (60%) keyboard.

Jim_Heckler 8y ago
Termux is incredible. You can even run Arch on it https://github.com/sdrausty/termux-archlinux https://github.com/sdrausty/termux-archlinux
- angelsl 8y ago
  PRoot's overhead is very significant though. Especially the moment you have more than one thread running..
ObsoleteNerd 8y ago
I do lots of work on my phone thanks to Termux and a 60% bluetooth mechanical keyboard. It's one of my most essential apps on Android. Either using it directly or using it to SSH into servers, raspberry pis, etc.
- esotericn 8y ago
  I'd really appreciate knowing which keyboard you're using!
  - swiley 8y ago
    He probably meant hardware keyboard. <strike>I don’t think anyone makes Bluetooth mechanical keyboards.</strike> Ok I’m apparently totally wrong about that last thing and possibly the first as well.
    - Uberphallus 8y ago
      Actually there are many. I've been using this one [0] for around 2 years, with blue switches. Despite some bad reviews, I don't have any issue with it. It can be paired with up to 3 devices + wired USB, so I can swap from phone to desktop to media center with 2 keypresses. [0] https://www.amazon.com/DREVO-Wireless-Bluetooth-Mechanical-Switch-Black/dp/B01N6GBIOI https://www.amazon.com/DREVO-Wireless-Bluetooth-Mechanical-S...

owaislone 8y ago

I wish they partnered with Canonical to continue their work on Unity8. Would be great if they could adopt the project and build on top of it.

andrey_utkin 8y ago

With all the ugliness of Android-first computing, I percieve it as a good thing that major brands are waking up for the public request of native GNU/Linux UX on mobile computing devices.

pi-victor 8y ago

woha, ubuntu edge flashback! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge#/

fiatjaf 8y ago

What is Dex? I've read a lot on that page but still don't get it.

Jonnax 8y ago
When you plug a hdmi cable into a Samsung phone you can either use screen mirroring or go into a desktop mode thats designed for keyboard and mouse.
- bepvte 8y ago
  Specific samsung phones, with special docks (I tried it )

mr_overalls 8y ago

> Samsung DeX is supported on Galaxy S8/S8+, Note8, S9/S9+, Note9, and Tab S4. > * Phones should be connected to an external display to use Samsung DeX. > * Selected Samsung HDMI adapter/cable is recommended to use Samsung DeX. > * Samsung DeX using a HDMI adapter or cable is only available on Note9 and Tab S4. ------ So really, DeX only works well (with HDMI cable) on Note9 and Tab S4?

wvenable 8y ago
Older phones require the Dex Dock or Pad (which adds HDMI and other ports). With the Note9, you can plug a USB-C to HDMI cable right into it.
- esotericn 8y ago
  Hm. I can already plug a USB-C to HDMI cable into my Note8. Does it work if you do that + use Bluetooth peripherals?
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  There was/is a "C-Force" branded hub that was smaller and (slightly) cheaper than the DeX dock that put the S8/+ into DeX mode just fine.
pmx 8y ago
It works well on the other devices too, you just need the dex station.

wanderfowl 8y ago

I love this idea. With insane mobile processors, terabyte storage on phones, external GPUs, and USB-C docking, we're tantalizingly close to "I do my computing on this device. It's in my pocket with a phone interface right now. But once I plug it in at my desk with the GPU dock, it's my computer. And later, I'll throw it in the tablet and use it on my couch." Backups will need to be good and easy if your main computing device can fall out of your pocket on the subway, and an OS which is happy doing this will need to exist. But for many people, this could be a beautiful world.

jcelerier 8y ago

they didn't even bother set up a GTK+2 theme for geany in their screenshot :p

shmerl 8y ago

Is it running on the hardware with upstream drivers, or it's libhybris based?

voltagex_ 8y ago
It's a chroot. (I think)
binomialxenon 8y ago
It's a container using the same non-upstream kernel and proprietary drivers from the Android OS.
- shmerl 8y ago
  Too bad then.

sigmonsays 8y ago

Linux on DeX currently supports one customized Ubuntu image (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS version provided by Canonical) which only operates on selected Samsung devices. (Note9 and Tab S4). :(

24gttghh 8y ago
It also says just before that: "Only use authorized images provided directly through Linux on DeX. Other versions or unauthorized images may not operate properly." Seems to imply, to me, that it is not impossible to run other images in this container.

bubblethink 8y ago

I find the terminology used by all these similar projects (linux on chromeos too) amusing. Both, Android and ChromeOS run the linux kernel. So it's like that Yo Dawg meme. On the other hand, MS is even more creative. What could be a legitimate use of "linux on windows" is called windows subsystem for linux. Marketing these days.

danans 8y ago
You might find the whole business of VMs and containers amusing also, as they are often running aLinux kernel and up (VMs) or a Linux app in a sandboxed Linux environment (containers) on top of ... Linux. So the names are pretty much true.

esotericn 8y ago

I'd love to use this, but my 8 month old Note 8 is apparently unsupported. Has anyone tried it? Does it work anyway, but just "unsupported"? Or do you get gated at the registration step?

jdhawk 8y ago
I have a s9+ and want the same. I signed up - have yet to get any more info.
ReverseCold 8y ago
I was able to register but haven't received an email (yet). Hopefully it works on the Note 8 as well, but given that it is mentioned a grand total of 0 times on that website - I'm not holding my breath.

amelius 8y ago

Questions: Will Samsung have access to my data? Does this have a SaaS cost model? Will I have root access? Can I apt-get install any package, or only selected packages?

deleted 8y ago
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voltagex_ 8y ago

Hah - I thought this was originally going to run on the S8/S8+ but they've bumped the requirements up to the Note 9/Tab S4.

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j45 8y ago

Owning the Note 1, 2 and 4, I ultimately left because Samsung is very poor at updating phones regularly with current patch levels. I was forced to get a Pixel 2 which, minus the stylus I've been happy with. It still wouldn't hold a candle to a Note with bare Android. If Samsung could adopt native android installation, like some LG devices are, this is an exciting possibility.

kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
Why not just put bare Android on a Note then?
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure a QFuse gets blown when you OEM-unlock a recent Samsung. Also, I don't think "bare Android" (AOSP or Lineage) supports the S-Pen.

z3t4 8y ago

The galaxy note, and other "note" phones have a "touch" layer ontop the screen, which make it possible to use a high precision stylus. And the screen has a lot of pixels already, so you could already use it as a PC. Typing with a stylus is pretty fast.

danans 8y ago

2011 is back! Meet the Motorola Atrix + Lapdock https://www.cnet.com/news/how-does-the-motorola-atrix-4g-lapdock-compare-with-a-laptop/ https://www.cnet.com/news/how-does-the-motorola-atrix-4g-lap...

codezero 8y ago
Didn’t that and the Samsung Ativ Q get destroyed by some patent?

qwerty456127 8y ago

Looks cool essentially but... > Linux on DeX currently supports one customized Ubuntu image (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS version provided by Canonical) which only operates on selected Samsung devices. (Note9 and Tab S4). What a waste. Hardware vendors can never produce a really good piece of software. If something as humble as RaspberryPi can run fully up-to-date unmodified Arch I'm pretty sure my Note3 has all the hardware power to run it too yet they require a super-duper-recent device produced exclusively by themselves and would only let us run an almost 3-yr-old distro they have modified.

raihansaputra 8y ago

Honestly, if this works well I might migrate to this. I've always thought the laptop is an ergonomical nightmare; moving the central processing bit to the phone always makes sense yet not always possible. There has been mentions of Project Linda here, but I'd be far more interested in having a portable, ergonomic, computing solution. I have not found it. The closest one is having a laptop on a roost stand (which still needs an extra mouse and keyboard). I think modern smartphones are powerful enough, what they need is a sensible display.

elipsey 8y ago

I have pretty much given up on the prospect of running a full fledged FOSS OS on devices that don’t give access to the bootloader’s root of trust, or give you a userland that works with a kernel you can’t control (eg Crouton). It all sounds great until you start trying to do actuall work. As soon as you need anything that’s not provided by the manufacturer software image you start to notice all the foundational things you’re not allowed to do with your system. Need a kernel option or module not provided? Nope, can’t build/sign it. Remember, not all modules are for new hardware (no VMs for you!). Current version of OS? Distro security updates for kernel? Um maybe if they get around to it lol. It kind of reminds me of Doctorow’s thing about war on general purpose computing.* Like how is it in the interest of handset manufacturers to let you have a general purpose computer that could run unsigned (by them) code? To have a real linux distro, you would have to be able to run unsigned privileged code, but that would make it possible to do all sorts of naughty things like unauthorized disk encryption, subverting DRM, mucking around with the radios, etc. You can’t really have have one without the other. * http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/coming-war-general-computation/ http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/coming-war-general-com...

ryukafalz 8y ago
UBports is pretty close: https://ubports.com/ https://ubports.com/ It uses libhybris, so they're limited to the original kernel or something close to it because of proprietary drivers. But it's a community project since Canonical stopped Ubuntu Touch development, and it's had a desktop mode like this for years! The PostmarketOS project is similar, with an explicit goal of mainline support where possible: https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/ But yes, I would be much happier if devices had support in the mainline kernel and could run any distro you wanted right out of the box. (And some devices just straight up lock you out - I try to avoid those whenever possible.)
- chupasaurus 8y ago
  DKMS is out there for a long time, but it might be useless with closed bootloader. You and the author of parent comment should read about Librem 5 (it is supported by UBports as well as GNOME and KDE).

craftyguy 8y ago

> Linux on DeX currently supports one customized Ubuntu image (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS version provided by Canonical) which only operates on selected Samsung devices. (Note9 and Tab S4). A crappy distro on a couple of old devices? No thanks. I'll just wait for the Librem 5 [0] 0) https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ Edit: Misread "Note9" as "Note7" (don't ask). Ooops. My conclusion still stands.

tehduder9 8y ago
Note 9 is an old device? What world are you living in? Note 9 will probably be years ahead of that Librem smartphone
- craftyguy 8y ago
  Oops, for some strange reason I read that as "Note 7". In any case, in terms of what you are capable of doing to your device (e.g. running Linux distros, controlling radios, etc), the Librem smartphone is years ahead of anything else in the market.
  - throw2016 8y ago
    This is not about running Linux distros on your phone. This is about your phone doubling up as a Linux PC and being able to use your phone as a PC seamlessly when required by simply connecting it to a monitor. This can be super useful for a lot of users. Current 8 core SOCs with 4 to 8 GB RAM should be more than usable and its great Samsung has been trying to make this happen. And there is nothing 'crappy' about Ubuntu 16.04 especially given all distros are the same underneath. Why this name calling against Ubuntu?
    - craftyguy 8y ago
      > This is about your phone doubling up as a Linux PC and being able to use your phone as a PC seamlessly when required by simply connecting it to a monitor. This can be super useful for a lot of users. Something a phone that supports running arbitrary Linux distros will naturally do without having to depend on random projects like this one which try to give similar functionality by shoehorning a Linux distro on top of a mobile OS. You're also at the whim of mobile OS 'manufacturers', who may make changes to the OS which then break the shoehorning effort. > And there is nothing 'crappy' about Ubuntu 16.04 especially given all distros are the same underneath. This isn't even remotely true. Here's a few ways distros differentiate from other distros: custom kernel patches (or not), custom patches (or not) for applications they distribute, package management (!!!), response time to security issues, support they offer (official, community, etc), upgrade model (rolling release vs big crap dump of updates every X months). > Why this name calling against Ubuntu? Ubuntu does a lot of the above differentiation stuff wrong, IMHO.

jake_the_third 8y ago

Unless they allow the same kind of control a user can get with normal x86 machines or better, I can't see this being taken seriously by developers. I can't see developers jumping on a closed, locked-down platform other than apple's (and even those folks are starting to get tired).

progdown 8y ago

I'm confused--is this really running a VM on your device, or is it somehow cloud run or cloud accelerated?

binomialxenon 8y ago
It's on the device. I assume there must be some overhead, but devices like the S9 are several times more powerful than the RasPi, which can already handle software pretty decently.

mark_l_watson 8y ago

As other people here mentioned, something like this for iOS would be nice: an Apple app that ran Linux in a secure sandbox. I find using Prompt for multiple SSH shells to remote servers, Raskell (Haskell) and Pythonista (Python) IDEs to be very cool and somewhat useful - but, having an option for a sandboxed Linux would be better.

mousecorkkey 8y ago

I just use an external SSD and take that with me. It's rare that I'll find a monitor and keyboard, but no PC. I do look forward to the day when we all have phones that we can dock into terminals, but until that day comes my portable drive does the job pretty well.

profalseidol 8y ago

Don't we have foldable monitors and keyboard yet?

nickpsecurity 8y ago

Reminds me of Nirvana phone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_Phone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_Phone

voycey 8y ago

I would love for the time to arrive where I can just walk to work with my phone in my pocket, dock it and run everything I need to in one place on one device - unfortunately as someone said above the restrictions manufacturers put on the devices are too hardcore.

pankajdoharey 8y ago

I hope eventually Apple produces something of this sort, atleast on the surface it seems they are onto something with Marzipan. Someone should solve this problem completely.

rzr 8y ago

Has anyone been able to test it on his/her own devices ? I only touched it in a showcase...

1023bytes 8y ago

Why Ubuntu 16.04 when 18.04 LTS is already out for a while

jyriand 8y ago

I guess I'm missing something here but I'm failing to understand why would anyone want to set up work environment using their phone? As I understand you would also need a monitor, keyboard and a mouse? Isn't it easier to just use your laptop?

eletious 8y ago

Would you like to know what I'm not doing? I'm not spending $700 on a locked-down linux tablet with 4GB RAM. Unfortunately I don't think I will ever be at a point where a tablet is worth more to me than 440 double cheeseburgers.

sammorrowdrums 8y ago

I'm excited by this if I can do basic dev work from just my phone with a couple of accessories. It might mean for example, I don't need to bring my laptop home from work, in case of an urgent issue.

sammorrowdrums 8y ago
Full disclosure though - I am party of the incredibly small population who have the compatible phone. I really hope the amount of device support increases significantly if this works out.

luckymerlin 8y ago

I wonder how long it would take intellij to index my 1GB project on my phone...

reacweb 8y ago

"4GB RAM is required in your device for downloading a Linux image". This remind me the requirements when I was student: 4MB RAM were required for Linux kernel compilation from command line, 8MB if X server was running. My PC had 120MB of hard disk. Other times ...

xte 8y ago

DeX, WSL, Crostini, all experiments for a simple purpose: steal users freedom and offer FOSS code in a proprietary jail to avoid direct competition against FOSS. IOW be prepared to find in the next 5/8 years PCs with Windows kernel and basic userland as a UEFI fw and "Linux" (GNU actually) software available and offered via Microsoft store. Also be prepared to find mobile devices dockable with the same offer from Samsung etc. The end of freedom. That's is a clear demonstration of the need of mandate by law free software and open hardware: having free software is not enough if we do not have hw to run it directly.

pdsouza 8y ago

Happy to see more efforts to make your phone a PC! Another option is Maru: https://maruos.com https://maruos.com https://github.com/maruos/maruos https://github.com/maruos/maruos Maru is an open-source project and has been well-tested for nearly three years now. We've also been featured on HN quite a few times actually. Speaking of Samsung, Maru already has early builds available for the Samsung S9: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os-dev/YVkUiwuKMRQ/fOQYRB9cAgAJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maru-os-dev/YVkUiwuKMRQ/fOQY... I'm the creator btw.