This paired with virtualization features (hopefully with working sommelier) potentially enable running desktop wayland apps on phone.
To run waydroid on it
I used to think the idea of a phone that is also my desktop would be really cool. But then I got to thinking just how locked down iOS and to a lesser extent Android are compared to Linux/Windows/MacOS, and decided I wouldn’t use my Pixel as a replacement for my desktop or laptop even if the feature was there.
I really like using Dex on my work laptop so I don’t have to mess with logging into personal accounts on them. Too bad Samsung is removing this specific version of Dex in One UI 7.
To the best of my knowledge they give you a full Debian Linux in a container. Combine this with AOSP, and IMHO this is totally cool. Especially since my Netbook has worse specs than my current smartphone! :-)
If networking and GUI gets added then we’re talking
You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if this starts a trend of ultra-cheap “laptops” that are just hardware extensions for phones with no processing capabilities of their own.
I swear they’ve been writing the same article for a year.
Cool. Now let me legally record my phone calls without rooting my phone.
OneUI 7.0.
OneUI 7 actually downgrades the Dex experience by removing the feature to launch it in Windows, so we gain some features and lose some.
For users with a Samsung Flagship phone, if you have the “One UI 7” update, they just recently added this feature.
Do you have such a phone? What CSC does it have?
You used be able to run Linux apps too, but they pulled it all back because they are only good at creating bloatware.
A beta build of Android 16 contains an early version of Google’s new Android Desktop Mode that, in the future, could let users simply plug their smartphone into a monitor and use it like a laptop or desktop computer.
It seems this is an instance where the headline tells the full story
Didn’t canonical try this years ago?
I thought it was part of their justification for Mir like a decade ago.
Now the question is if people will be stupid enough to replace all the freedoms their desktop OS still gives them with the vendor controlled shit show that is mobile OS.
And I thought the year of linux desktop was coming…
Narrator: They did.
My guess is that people who would use DEX is also people who are satisfied with ChromeOS. Which is just as closed down.
Hopefully, when Android does this, they will be under same gatekeeper restrictions in the EU as Windows.
I use DEX (not directly to the monitor, but the desktop app) to have easier access to my personal Firefox and messenger apps when I’m at work. I don’t want to run any of my personal stuff on the work laptop (not even in a VM) and I hate typing on the phone’s tiny touch keyboard, so DEX is a great alternative.
It’s great that we’re losing this feature in OneUI 7. Makes me never want to buy another Samsung phone ever again.
Dude I tired DEX once, I saw I couldn’t rotate the monitor or even find some type of settings and I never tried it again.
100% they will and want this. I’m a power user and even I see this as the future.
Have you worked in a non-tech field with people? Modern OSs and office apps are not intuitive to them. Hell, a lot have problems with just their phones as is.
I suppose you mean the same effect I have noticed with our younger apprentices who know very little about the way computers work anymore since they grew up with phones only, they don’t even know what a file system is any more.
Some older, some younger, yeah.
i‘m hyped for a graphene desktop mode. that wouldn’t be a replacement for my laptop/ desktop computers but still very much sick. and if i can run a terminal with neovim and tmux or ssh into other machines it would be a dope backup/ micro setup. probably not very useful, but fun i think
Unless you invested a lot of money and time, you are certainly already running an OS with a lot of BLOBs at the most important parts (WIFI driver, etc).
Given AOSP and a decent smartphone, I am basically at exactly the same level I am with running Linux on my desktop. Actually, the smartphone could be better, if it is a Pixel, because at least I’ll have 100% hardware support. … and again, AFAIK one will be able to run Debian in a virtual environment.
Long story short: I would never buy hardware with vendor lock in, but middle to high class Android smartphones are actually standardized hardware which run excellent with Linux. Total win for me.
The times when you couldn’t get PCs with 100% hardware support on Linux were 15+ years ago. You can still find the occasional one today that doesn’t have it but it is not hard to get 100% support.
do you think I am masochist or what, better give me gnu/linux on mobile ;)
Hopefully this means I can have a GraphineOS laptop (whenever google makes a new Pixel Laptop)
Cool. Samsung did this a decade ago though.
Everyone is abandoning Android with a passion thanks to Google’s bullshit.
But yeah. Fuck Google
The Motorola Atrix 4G had a Desktop Mode (Webtop was its name and it was Ubuntu based) in 2011 before Samsung. They even released a cradle dock, that you could connect to a tv or monitor, and a laptop dock for it and the source code on Sourceforge (my guess is to be GPL compliant).
I got that phone specifically for the desktop mode. It had a full blown Firefox browser installed and you could run your apps along side it.
I was blown away and thought, “This is the future for computers” but I was incredibly wrong. After the short honeymoon period i found it to be sluggish and clunky when using an android app. The hardware although phenomenal for a phone couldn’t provide an optimal experience for a desktop.
Ubuntu did this a decade ago too
If you want deskktop version of Firefox or Chromium on your phone, you can get them using Termux. But yeah they will be slow.
And they chose to highlight as a feature making it like a pC, “you also get Windows PC–like abilities such as snapping windows to the left and right of the screen.”
Reminds me of just a few months ago when they sold the Samsung Galaxy S20-something using all the features that come with either Google Gemini 1.5-2.0 or Android 15. All features that my phone has. Nothing unique but the homegrown app store nobody likes
I’m excited to see how this will pair with android XR to potentially have a good desktop experience on the go. Just have to carry the headset wich i already do and mouse and keyboard for better controls.
