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Didn’t Samsung offer desktop mode at one point? I think it got canned because no one used it, sadly.

by untog 6y ago

sto_hristo 6y ago
Samsung still does it, but they are a third party thing, support is not native. Some apps just don't work well as a window. Such a thing implies you have to have a capable monitor and a bluetooth mice/kbd. Adoption will take significant time, but it will come either from current OSes or a newcomer. Remember how Nokia was the definition of reality and Apple came with their smartphone and turned the industry around overnight? Same thing will happen once someone introduces a true universal and responsive device that can seamlessly adapt to all kinds of use cases. It's just a question of when.
- untog 6y ago
  > It's just a question of when. I’m a lot more sceptical. I’m a tech nerd through and through and I can’t really see why I’d want a truly responsive device like that. The things I do on both phone and computer (email, messaging, maps, etc) are on the cloud so it’s easy to switch devices. The stuff that’s more difficult to move (my coding setup) isn’t something I ever use on mobile. I can see the financial argument in favour of it but a laptop style case with monitor, keyboard and trackpad probably wouldn’t ever be that much cheaper than a Chromebook or the like.
  - sto_hristo 6y ago
    Most of the things one does on a laptop - like media consumption, general browsing, etc. can be done on a smartphone. Why should you be forced to switch devices if all you want is the convenience of a monitor, keyboard, and a windowing environment? It has nothing to do with the financial side of it, it's all about convergence and finally exposing the full capabilities a such a device. Today's smartphones run full desktop OS under the hood, but they are just artificially crippled behind a platform designed to deliver ads. Whether you will use your smartphone or laptop/pc for a particular task should be a matter of whether the hardware setup (mobile vs. full desktop) can handle it or not, not if it's functionally possible at all.
    - untog 6y ago
      > Why should you be forced to switch devices if all you want is the convenience of a monitor, keyboard, and a windowing environment? I don’t think you should be forced to but the things you just listed totally change the way you view and interact with a device, so switching to a different device isn’t really all that different an experience than docking the one you’re currently on. It’s not that it can’t be done, or shouldn’t be done, but to me the benefits feel very minor. If I’m reading an email on my phone and want to answer on my laptop it’s already exceedingly easy to do so. Docking a device instead of using a different one doesn’t really change that equation.
creshal 6y ago
I think it's still supported, as far any software Samsung releases can be counted as "supported" in the first place.
Namidairo 6y ago
No, their "DeX" solution is still around. It's recently expanded to being capable of being used over both USB and Miracast They had to can the part of it that would let you boot an Ubuntu image though, due to restrictions in Android 10.

Didn’t Samsung offer desktop mode at one point? I think it got canned because no one used it, sadly.

by untog 6y ago

Didn’t Samsung offer desktop mode at one point? I think it got canned because no one used it, sadly.

Samsung still does it, but they are a third party thing, support is not native. Some apps just don't work well as a window. Such a thing implies you have to have a capable monitor and a bluetooth mice/kbd. Adoption will take significant time, but it will come either from current OSes or a newcomer. Remember how Nokia was the definition of reality and Apple came with their smartphone and turned the industry around overnight? Same thing will happen once someone introduces a true universal and responsive device that can seamlessly adapt to all kinds of use cases. It's just a question of when.

untog 6y ago
> It's just a question of when. I’m a lot more sceptical. I’m a tech nerd through and through and I can’t really see why I’d want a truly responsive device like that. The things I do on both phone and computer (email, messaging, maps, etc) are on the cloud so it’s easy to switch devices. The stuff that’s more difficult to move (my coding setup) isn’t something I ever use on mobile. I can see the financial argument in favour of it but a laptop style case with monitor, keyboard and trackpad probably wouldn’t ever be that much cheaper than a Chromebook or the like.
- sto_hristo 6y ago
  Most of the things one does on a laptop - like media consumption, general browsing, etc. can be done on a smartphone. Why should you be forced to switch devices if all you want is the convenience of a monitor, keyboard, and a windowing environment? It has nothing to do with the financial side of it, it's all about convergence and finally exposing the full capabilities a such a device. Today's smartphones run full desktop OS under the hood, but they are just artificially crippled behind a platform designed to deliver ads. Whether you will use your smartphone or laptop/pc for a particular task should be a matter of whether the hardware setup (mobile vs. full desktop) can handle it or not, not if it's functionally possible at all.
  - untog 6y ago
    > Why should you be forced to switch devices if all you want is the convenience of a monitor, keyboard, and a windowing environment? I don’t think you should be forced to but the things you just listed totally change the way you view and interact with a device, so switching to a different device isn’t really all that different an experience than docking the one you’re currently on. It’s not that it can’t be done, or shouldn’t be done, but to me the benefits feel very minor. If I’m reading an email on my phone and want to answer on my laptop it’s already exceedingly easy to do so. Docking a device instead of using a different one doesn’t really change that equation.

creshal 6y ago

I think it's still supported, as far any software Samsung releases can be counted as "supported" in the first place.

Namidairo 6y ago

No, their "DeX" solution is still around. It's recently expanded to being capable of being used over both USB and Miracast They had to can the part of it that would let you boot an Ubuntu image though, due to restrictions in Android 10.