3 ms·

So cool. Imagine having a portable computer you could program and take with you in your pocket. The iPhone future we have is disappointing compared to how I th

So cool. Imagine having a portable computer you could program and take with you in your pocket. The iPhone future we have is disappointing compared to how I thought things would turn out.

WhyNotHugo 3y ago
Linux on Mobile was pretty much that. The movement kinda died when Nokia died, but has been seeing a lot of activity again the last couple of years. It's mostly community-maintained projects like postmarketOS. I find a few things are missing for such an OS to be a daily driver, but there's definitely hope, and there's definitely a place where anyone interested can contribute.
inconceivable 3y ago
you can do this already. look up rpi based cyberdecks.
eddieroger 3y ago
I don't follow - there are apps on my iPhone right now that I wrote and put there. What am I missing? This functionality could probably be done with an iPhone or iPad and MFi today, if not a small form factor computer of some sort, or a Pi or Arduino.
- codetrotter 3y ago
  The disappointing thing about my iPhone is that I cannot locally author and compile apps for iOS on iOS itself.
  - dbcurtis 3y ago
    True enough. I have Pythonista installed on my iPhone, but to be honest I don’t play with it a lot.
  - admax88qqq 3y ago
    I don't think you could do that on PalmPilots either. You're taking a cool story about use and history of the PalmPilot and turning it into Yet Another iPhone Complaint Thread.
    - codetrotter 3y ago
      Not trying to start an iPhone complaint thread. iPhone has been my preferred phone for many years, and continues to be so. I am still disappointed at having such a powerful piece of hardware in my pocket and not being able to write and run a native application for the device, on the device. Many years ago, when smartphones first became a thing, I had certain expectations about what would be possible and yet here we are over a decade later and it’s still not possible to do that thing, simply because Apple doesn’t want us to be able to do it. I think we should continue to talk about this until the day comes where it becomes possible.
      - admax88qqq 3y ago
        I too am disappointed at having a computer in my pocket I don't truly own. But I'm also disappointed at how HN seems to only have like 5 topics people want to discuss and the comments on every submission find their way back to those topics no matter how tenuous.
        doublerabbit 3y ago
        Sometimes I wish teddy bears would just invade, silence all humans and fix the world already. By any means necessary.
        doubled112 3y ago
        You were watching Care Bears as if it were a documentary?
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
  - gunapologist99 3y ago
    You bought it. You could have bought literally almost any other device.
    - cramjabsyn 3y ago
      The google garden isn’t much better
      - perryizgr8 3y ago
        Actually it is a lot better in this regard. You can write and compile code on the device. You can compile apks on any other device and install it on the phone. You never have to go thru google, unlike in Iphone.
    - wiseowise 3y ago
      Oh yeah, literally almost any other device is Google joke or Linux phone so hideous that I wouldn’t dare to buy it to even just experiment with it.
      - gunapologist99 3y ago
        I'm a mobile dev, so I have both an iPhone 13 Pro Max that I rarely use, and a Pixel 6 Pro that runs GrapheneOS, which is what I prefer. Diffr't strokes.
zymhan 3y ago
Just jailbreak it any be done. Yes, it's potentially less secure. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
- layer8 3y ago
  Banking apps will refuse to work on a jailbroken device.
  - ultrarunner 3y ago
    You can often tweak those apps to stub the jailbreak detection (if you're jailbroken)
    - layer8 3y ago
      The workarounds often lag months if not years behind new versions, and sometimes no workaround is available. It’s just not practical.
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
  I'm enjoying eating my own cake on my non-rooted GrapheneOS mobile.
Saris 3y ago
You pretty much can with android devices since you can pull up a shell and install packages, and you have access to a filesystem.
necubi 3y ago
Back in the day if you wanted to develop for PalmOS you had to pay Metroworks (IIRC) $~300 for their CodeWarrior C++ compiler, so the fact that XCode is free is a pretty big improvement.
- gigel82 3y ago
  XCode is free? Where can I download it for my Linux PC? XCode is not free, just like macOS is not free; you just pay for them when you (over)pay for your mac hardware.
  - TylerE 3y ago
    Then Linux isn’t free either, since you have to buy hardware to run it on.
  - wiseowise 3y ago
    Where do I download Linux binaries on Mac?
    - miniBill 3y ago
      Docker
- donio 3y ago
  We also had prc-tools, a free GCC based toolchain. I used it to build a tweaked version of pssh and some other stuff. It was a lot more straightforward than modern Android or iOS development. https://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/ https://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/
- ornornor 3y ago
  Doesn’t it cost 99/year to have a special apple account that lets you develop for iOS?
  - reverius42 3y ago
    Only to put things on the App Store.
fsflover 3y ago
> portable computer you could program and take with you in your pocket This is exactly what Librem 5 is. It runs desktop an FSF-endorsed OS (Debian-based). My daily driver btw.

So cool. Imagine having a portable computer you could program and take with you in your pocket. The iPhone future we have is disappointing compared to how I thought things would turn out.

WhyNotHugo 3y ago

Linux on Mobile was pretty much that. The movement kinda died when Nokia died, but has been seeing a lot of activity again the last couple of years. It's mostly community-maintained projects like postmarketOS. I find a few things are missing for such an OS to be a daily driver, but there's definitely hope, and there's definitely a place where anyone interested can contribute.

inconceivable 3y ago

you can do this already. look up rpi based cyberdecks.

eddieroger 3y ago

I don't follow - there are apps on my iPhone right now that I wrote and put there. What am I missing? This functionality could probably be done with an iPhone or iPad and MFi today, if not a small form factor computer of some sort, or a Pi or Arduino.

codetrotter 3y ago
The disappointing thing about my iPhone is that I cannot locally author and compile apps for iOS on iOS itself.
- dbcurtis 3y ago
  True enough. I have Pythonista installed on my iPhone, but to be honest I don’t play with it a lot.
- admax88qqq 3y ago
  I don't think you could do that on PalmPilots either. You're taking a cool story about use and history of the PalmPilot and turning it into Yet Another iPhone Complaint Thread.
  - codetrotter 3y ago
    Not trying to start an iPhone complaint thread. iPhone has been my preferred phone for many years, and continues to be so. I am still disappointed at having such a powerful piece of hardware in my pocket and not being able to write and run a native application for the device, on the device. Many years ago, when smartphones first became a thing, I had certain expectations about what would be possible and yet here we are over a decade later and it’s still not possible to do that thing, simply because Apple doesn’t want us to be able to do it. I think we should continue to talk about this until the day comes where it becomes possible.
    - admax88qqq 3y ago
      I too am disappointed at having a computer in my pocket I don't truly own. But I'm also disappointed at how HN seems to only have like 5 topics people want to discuss and the comments on every submission find their way back to those topics no matter how tenuous.
      - doublerabbit 3y ago
        Sometimes I wish teddy bears would just invade, silence all humans and fix the world already. By any means necessary.
        doubled112 3y ago
        You were watching Care Bears as if it were a documentary?
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
- gunapologist99 3y ago
  You bought it. You could have bought literally almost any other device.
  - cramjabsyn 3y ago
    The google garden isn’t much better
    - perryizgr8 3y ago
      Actually it is a lot better in this regard. You can write and compile code on the device. You can compile apks on any other device and install it on the phone. You never have to go thru google, unlike in Iphone.
  - wiseowise 3y ago
    Oh yeah, literally almost any other device is Google joke or Linux phone so hideous that I wouldn’t dare to buy it to even just experiment with it.
    - gunapologist99 3y ago
      I'm a mobile dev, so I have both an iPhone 13 Pro Max that I rarely use, and a Pixel 6 Pro that runs GrapheneOS, which is what I prefer. Diffr't strokes.

zymhan 3y ago

Just jailbreak it any be done. Yes, it's potentially less secure. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

layer8 3y ago
Banking apps will refuse to work on a jailbroken device.
- ultrarunner 3y ago
  You can often tweak those apps to stub the jailbreak detection (if you're jailbroken)
  - layer8 3y ago
    The workarounds often lag months if not years behind new versions, and sometimes no workaround is available. It’s just not practical.
ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
I'm enjoying eating my own cake on my non-rooted GrapheneOS mobile.

Saris 3y ago

You pretty much can with android devices since you can pull up a shell and install packages, and you have access to a filesystem.

necubi 3y ago

Back in the day if you wanted to develop for PalmOS you had to pay Metroworks (IIRC) $~300 for their CodeWarrior C++ compiler, so the fact that XCode is free is a pretty big improvement.

gigel82 3y ago
XCode is free? Where can I download it for my Linux PC? XCode is not free, just like macOS is not free; you just pay for them when you (over)pay for your mac hardware.
- TylerE 3y ago
  Then Linux isn’t free either, since you have to buy hardware to run it on.
- wiseowise 3y ago
  Where do I download Linux binaries on Mac?
  - miniBill 3y ago
    Docker
donio 3y ago
We also had prc-tools, a free GCC based toolchain. I used it to build a tweaked version of pssh and some other stuff. It was a lot more straightforward than modern Android or iOS development. https://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/ https://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/
ornornor 3y ago
Doesn’t it cost 99/year to have a special apple account that lets you develop for iOS?
- reverius42 3y ago
  Only to put things on the App Store.

fsflover 3y ago

> portable computer you could program and take with you in your pocket This is exactly what Librem 5 is. It runs desktop an FSF-endorsed OS (Debian-based). My daily driver btw.