[HN Gopher] Maru OS - Use your phone as your PC
___________________________________________________________________
Maru OS - Use your phone as your PC
Author : fsflover
Score : 152 points
Date : 2025-07-29 19:24 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (maruos.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (maruos.com)
| fsflover wrote:
| Discussion in 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14350293
| dang wrote:
| Thanks! Macroexpanded:
|
| _Maru OS - A complete desktop experience on a smartphone_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14350293 - May 2017 (251
| comments)
|
| _Maru OS becomes an open source project_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12373251 - Aug 2016 (26
| comments)
|
| _Maru OS - Your phone is your PC_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11873444 - June 2016 (2
| comments)
|
| _Maru turns Android smartphones into portable PCs_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11037937 - Feb 2016 (73
| comments)
| doebler wrote:
| > Simply plug your phone into an HDMI screen, connect up a
| keyboard and mouse, and you've got a lightweight desktop
| experience you can take anywhere.
|
| No, I can't take it anywhere, because few places I go to have a
| HDMI screen and keyboard ready for me. And to the ones they do, I
| carry my laptop.
| fsflover wrote:
| You could also use it with Nexdoc, https://nexdock.com
| LoganDark wrote:
| Lapdocks are an amazing concept, but I haven't found a single
| one with my preferred keyboard layout yet. Same problem as
| laptops in general.
| ranger_danger wrote:
| you can always bring a portable screen/keyboard with you
| happyopossum wrote:
| I've yet to find a portable screen and keyboard that can even
| remotely compare in display quality or battery life to a
| MacBook Air, and the 'portable' combination is usually
| heavier and always clunkier to set up.
| shortrounddev2 wrote:
| If I'm doing that, why wouldn't I just bring my laptop
| fsflover wrote:
| Single place for all your data, easier to manage and back
| up. Single device to take with you.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| I don't personally think there's any ease of management
| advantage to be gained, but that depends on whether one
| wants their phone to have the data that's on their
| computer. I don't, personally. But I think there's
| _definitely_ no advantage from a "single device" when
| you have to take something just as big as taking a laptop
| anyway.
| shortrounddev2 wrote:
| I'm not trying to shit on this as a neat tool, but my
| phone is not the single place for all my data, and I find
| it considerably harder to manage. If I'm bringing my
| phone, an external keyboard, and a portable screen (and,
| presumably, a mouse) with me, it's not really a "single
| device", it's more like 4 devices that poorly imitate a
| laptop and don't offer as much functionality
| WorldPeas wrote:
| I've comfortably used a 7 inch tablet as a pocketable phone,
| such a thing with a keyboard would likely be a "complete"
| solution
| szszrk wrote:
| I'm not sure why you neatpick that. I feel the complete
| opposite. HDMI screens are everywhere. Usb-c ones less but
| still present.
|
| I have a screen at work, with keyboard and USB hub. Same at
| home. And at most of my friend's homes. I have a screen (tv) in
| a hotel and flats to rent. I even had one in a cabin recently
| (use them with tv stick for my kid's shows).
|
| I also have an external USB/HDMI screen that is lighter than a
| laptop, that I sometimes carry for multiple reasons.
|
| Keyboard is a bit harder, I won't have it provided in a hotel,
| but there are plenty of small and light models, foldable etc..
|
| I choose current phone specifically for usb-c/HDMI option and a
| full desktop experience and use it often. It's easy, it's fast,
| it's stable. Perfect for mobile gaming with a small BT gamepad
| as well.
|
| I struggle to find a place without a HDMI screen waiting for
| me.
| iAMkenough wrote:
| I feel the opposite of you and not sure why you defend it. I
| can not think of the last time I plugged my phone or tablet
| into an HDMI screen I didn't own.
| etbebl wrote:
| Projectors are what springs to mind for me. Though I guess
| less relevant if you work remotely.
| nemomarx wrote:
| Kinda solved by sharing on teams in a conference room
| now?
| eldaisfish wrote:
| i struggle to see your point.
|
| Your suggestion is that people should carry around four
| devices with them, poorly integrated, clunky, all for the
| experience of plugging to their phone? At that point, what
| advantage is there over a laptop?
| szszrk wrote:
| No. I'm just saying that "there are no HDMI devices near
| me" is weird and hard to achieve.
|
| To use my phone as a desktop all I need is the phone
| itself. USB cable I most often already have to charge it.
| Phone works as a keyboard and mouse and I have large screen
| to browse web, play, watch videos. ZERO new devices, only
| things I already carry and a screen that is already there.
| eldaisfish wrote:
| i disagree entirely.
|
| Think about a poor person. Are they better served by a
| laptop or your proposed solution of four different
| devices?
|
| Even in my own daily life, i struggle to find places
| where your solution is practical.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| > I struggle to find a place without a HDMI screen waiting
| for me.
|
| It seems like this comes down to personal experience. I have
| literally never seen a place I could plug my phone into an
| HDMI display (even if I had cables for that, which I don't).
| As such it strikes me as very impractical, but it sounds like
| your experience has been drastically different so we come to
| different conclusions.
| MisterTea wrote:
| > I also have an external USB/HDMI screen that is lighter
| than a laptop
|
| How much lighter is it than say a Surface Go that can run
| Windows or Linux? If they are about the same then it doesn't
| make sense to fiddle with Linux on a phone. Comes with a
| keyboard too.
| dcminter wrote:
| The use case for me is mostly hotel stays. When travelling for
| fun I don't particularly want the weight (and risk) of packing
| my laptop, but I would like to be able to play movies and music
| on the hotel TV. With a cheap light keyboard I could also do
| email and similar light admin things with the benefit of the
| bigger screen.
|
| Until recently I was also travelling frequently for work with a
| heavy MacBook running a variety of Enterprise malware that
| would prevent me from doing any personal stuff with it - being
| able to use my own phone for light leisure activities that I
| normally do on the personal laptop would have been very useful
| for the boring hotel evenings. Adding another kg+ of laptop to
| the already heavy backpack was too annoying to put up with - my
| cheapo bluetooth keyboard and mouse weigh in at a much more
| acceptable 280 grams.
|
| In short, there's a use case - but most phones are too locked
| down to take full advantage of the possibility.
| jonathanlydall wrote:
| I tend to bring my AppleTV + HDMI cable with me whenever we
| travel.
|
| Its small size makes it largely inconsequential from a
| luggage point of view and it's already fully set up with all
| my streaming apps.
|
| It also doesn't tie up my phone if anyone else wants to watch
| TV.
| dcminter wrote:
| Yeah, I'm considering a pi500 as a similar alternative. I
| need to check the weight, but if it's low enough and they
| release a version with m2 I'll surely try it.
| wishfish wrote:
| This is why my iPad Mini is my main travel device. Small
| enough that it fits in my pockets. But the screen is big
| enough that it's comfortable to use. More comfortable than
| the Pro Max. Have a cheap bluetooth keyboard with integrated
| stand so the mini can be used as a laptop. Take the mini with
| me when I go places and leave the keyboard in the hotel.
| Would make me sad if someone stole the keyboard but it's a
| far smaller loss than if a laptop was stolen. Gives me a more
| peace of mind.
|
| If only the Mini had true 4k output, it would be absolutely
| perfect. But it only does screen mirroring which limits it
| when plugged into a monitor or hotel television.
| m463 wrote:
| There are now ar glasses that do HDMI, and there are lots of
| portable keyboard solutions, with a trackpad or trackpoint or
| just a mouse.
|
| haven't tried it, but I see glasses as an almost practical
| future.
| ryukafalz wrote:
| If phones consistently gave you a useful desktop environment
| when you plugged them into a monitor, I imagine that might
| change.
|
| I think offices are the most likely places to have something
| like this, though. My company has monitors with USB-C dock
| inputs set up at each desk; you grab a desk and plug your
| laptop into it when you get there. But they're just using
| DisplayPort Alt-Mode, and a phone with a desktop mode would
| work with them as well.
|
| I wish I could do that for work; would save me from lugging
| around a rather heavy laptop. :)
| jez wrote:
| I could commute to the office every day with nothing but the
| shirt on my back and the phone in my pocket if my work-provided
| device were my phone. I would not need a backpack or briefcase,
| which means that for any errands or dinner plans after work, I
| don't fumble with a backpack. I already leave my preferred
| keyboard+mouse at my office desk.
|
| If I needed to fly to another office for a business trip, same
| story: I could sit down at any desk, grab a spare bluetooth
| keyboard from IT (if there isn't already one on the bookable
| desk).
|
| If I'm over at a friend's house for dinner and get paged, I
| could just ask to sit down at their desk and plug my phone in.
|
| I would love to not have to carry a laptop around to all the
| places that I do today.
| sudhirb wrote:
| I remember being somewhat sold on this story by the
| PinePhone, but it seems like it might not be possible to buy
| one new nowadays.
|
| Having just looked up the PinePhone again for the first time
| in a while, it does look like the Ubuntu Touch project is
| still alive and kicking, and compatible with some modern
| commercially available phones!
|
| The main thing preventing me from having a non-standard
| Android phone/distribution as a daily driver is access to
| mobile banking apps - I'm yet to check for myself but as I
| understand, having an unlocked bootloader means that banking
| apps will consider the device "compromised" and will not
| work.
| technocrat8080 wrote:
| Why can't the phone itself act as the input device? Sure it's
| not a full-fledged keyboard, but it could work wonderfully in a
| pinch.
| thesuperbigfrog wrote:
| Does Maru OS run on the current generation of devices?
|
| https://maruos.com/downloads/ shows releases dated 2019.
| urbandw311er wrote:
| It does look like either the OS or the website have fallen
| behind.
| jdiff wrote:
| Last release on GitHub was also 2019. Repository's seen
| activity since then, last thing I see is some documentation
| and GitHub actions committed in 2023, and there's dependabot
| activity all the way up to 2 weeks ago.
| esafak wrote:
| No release in years: https://github.com/maruos/builds/releases
|
| It looks like it is on maintenance mode:
| https://github.com/maruos/maruos/commits/master/
| urbandw311er wrote:
| I'd also check out GrapheneOS once the Android 16 QPR1 beta with
| Desktop Mode gets merged in. Likely to be a more up-to-date
| experience.
| LorenDB wrote:
| Yeah, Maru is based on Android 8. Not exactly modern anymore.
| pixelpoet wrote:
| Ooh now this is interesting! I have to start following them I
| guess, been itching to switch since the most recent Android
| update absolutely destroyed the battery life on my brand new
| Pixel 9 Pro XL.
| profsummergig wrote:
| The mouse right-click on a PC.
|
| What's the equivalent of that for a phone? Is it press-and-hold?
| zamadatix wrote:
| If you're going for a native touch-first experience. If you're
| trying to emulate actual PC use (either something like this or
| an RDP-like experience) I've found letting the screen act as a
| traditional touchpad which controls a cursor is a far more
| usable approach. Honestly, better than a lot of actual
| touchpads out there...
|
| In either case the software keyboard popping in and out of
| existence remains the much more frustrating part of the
| experience. Docking or bluetooth keyboard/mouse are often
| required to be practical because of this.
| dizhn wrote:
| Two fingers tap is pretty common on touchpads. Three for scroll
| wheel click. But you'd attach a mouse with a solution like in
| the article.
| n8cpdx wrote:
| Yes, and that's what windows does on touch screens going back a
| long while.
|
| iOS makes pretty heavy use of right click menus (e.g. on the
| Home Screen, in Mail). It used to be Force Touch/3D Touch,
| which is superior, but has more learning curve and doesn't
| scale to iPad.
| ConanRus wrote:
| "Peek under the hood and you'll find rock-stable Debian Linux" I
| LOL'd
| bsimpson wrote:
| It's interesting that in the early 2010s, both halves of the
| ecosystem were talking about "convergence:" Ubuntu wanted to make
| its Linux render a single column on a handset and with floating
| windows on a larger screen. Motorola had a similar project based
| on Android.
|
| A dozen years later, nobody has done that well. Ubuntu gave up.
| Mobile-targeted Linux distributions aren't good (missing
| functionality, mobile UX, or both). The linked distribution is
| running Debian in a container for desktop on top of Android. The
| rumors about the future of ChromeOS are imagining something
| similar.
|
| Recent iterations of iOS are getting closer to being able to
| replace a Mac for a class of tablet-owning users who don't need
| desktop software, but the ecosystems are pretty well separated
| for most.
|
| Adapting desktop Linux to mobile seems to be impossibly hard with
| the amount of resources those distributions have.
| tombert wrote:
| I really wanted the Ubuntu phone to succeed. I backed the
| Indiegogo for their fancy phone, and when that failed I
| installed Ubuntu OS on a Nexus 5 to play with.
|
| I never activated any phone service on it but I think I would
| have enjoyed it if I had. It was kind of neat to have a
| smartphone that didn't hide the fact that it was a computer.
| Even without plugging it in to a monitor or anything, I was
| able to play with the Chrome dev tools on the fly and it was
| pretty fun.
| ryukafalz wrote:
| I used to use Ubuntu Touch on my OnePlus One for quite a
| while and it was very nice! I had to switch away because it
| didn't really support group MMS (still doesn't from what I
| can tell), and then later US carriers started requiring VoLTE
| which it didn't support for a while either. But I still hope
| to switch back someday, that was the most enjoyable phone I'd
| used since the N900.
| fensgrim wrote:
| IMO it comes down to marketing: can't have the kayfabe of
| selling something that is "not a computer"/"new kind of
| computer" and have it act like a "computer" too
| richwater wrote:
| > but the ecosystems are pretty well separated for most
|
| This seems to be a product decision not a limitation. Apple
| cannot implement this without self-cannabalizing sales of the
| other.
| pydry wrote:
| It sounds like a nice idea in theory but I dont think demand is
| that high.
| fsflover wrote:
| Except all those people who don't own a computer and are
| stuck on old Android phones. Debian can allow lifetime
| updates btw.
| bee_rider wrote:
| You can get like 65% of the way there by just using i3wm with
| an onscreen keyboard and really big window borders (so you have
| somewhere to poke to change windows). But you have to contend
| with the fact that it is a basically fine touch window manager
| showing you... applications that were designed without touch in
| mind at all.
| fsflover wrote:
| > A dozen years later, nobody has done that well.
|
| I'm writing this from Librem 5 phone running PureOS based on
| Debian. No Android dependencies and possibility of full desktop
| mode. How is this not a success?
| happyopossum wrote:
| You and several thousand other people see it that way,
| meanwhile the _billions_ of other computer users out here
| don't.
| hgomersall wrote:
| Do they have a choice? I mean, an actual one that doesn't
| take significant technical ability.
| bigyabai wrote:
| Those billions need to accept the facts. They're not
| getting a Windows phone again, and Apple won't likely
| cannibalize Mac demand with the iPhone.
|
| If they want to have their cake and eat it too, they can
| either run Linux in an Android container, or Android in a
| Linux container.
| jklinger410 wrote:
| GNOME is still plugging away at this, making sure their entire
| OS is usable on mobile. Even without a market or audience.
| bsimpson wrote:
| Both impressively and disappointingly, that seems to be
| literally one guy in Germany.
|
| https://gitlab.gnome.org/verdre/gnome-shell-mobile
|
| relevant https://xkcd.com/2347/
| fsflover wrote:
| Purism company contributed a lot to mobile Gnome UI.
| cardanome wrote:
| > Recent iterations of iOS are getting closer to being able to
| replace a Mac for a class of tablet-owning users who don't need
| desktop software, but the ecosystems are pretty well separated
| for most.
|
| Yeah, apple could solve that instantly.
|
| Sadly, they decided to play a cash cow strategy of milking
| existing users instead for trying to grow market share.
|
| Apple is so frustrating. Amazing hardware but then they
| complete shit the bead with the software side of things and act
| actively hostile against their own users.
| bsimpson wrote:
| It's a product decision.
|
| Apple decided when the iPhone first came out to redo the
| whole UI stack to be touch-first. There are hardenings for
| security and battery preservation, but that's arguably the
| biggest difference between iOS and macOS.
|
| Windows and Linux have tried to retrofit their ecosystems to
| also work on touchscreens. It hasn't gone well. Too many apps
| assume a mouse-equivalent pointing system.
|
| Adaptive design has fared best on the web, but it's still not
| settled. See, for instance, the back-and-forth around density
| defaults for web apps like Gmail. Some people really like
| their pointer-friendly dense UIs with hover buttons, and that
| makes them really hard to use on a touchscreen.
|
| Perhaps ironically, Apple is also in the best position to
| bridge the gap. Since they own the UI stack that renders most
| apps on Apple devices, they could do something clever like
| say "a button is 32px tall if there's a trackpad and 56px
| tall otherwise." Rules like that could produce an app that
| truly adapts to the user's primary modality.
|
| The other systems have too many UI frameworks for that to
| work. Apple could only pull it off because ~everyone uses
| their component set (I think it's called UIKit). They also
| have a reputation of declaring the future and making the
| ecosystem catch up (going all the way back to adopting USB
| exclusively on the first iMac).
| LamaOfRuin wrote:
| There are no new native apps, only Electron or similar.
|
| This is only sort of sarcasm.
| fsflover wrote:
| > Windows and Linux have tried to retrofit their ecosystems
| to also work on touchscreens. It hasn't gone well.
|
| Concerning Windows, you're right. Concerning GNU/Linux you
| aren't: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19328085
| bsimpson wrote:
| That post is 6 years old, and yet Linux still sucks by
| default on a touchscreen.
|
| I installed NixOS on a handheld nearly 2 years ago and
| tried a whole bunch of touch-oriented options (including
| tiny ones like Maui). The closest I got to good enough
| was running the mobile fork of GNOME, using someone on
| GitHub's custom flake to pull it in at HEAD. I'm very
| happy that Valve has released SteamOS for other devices
| so I can offload that tinkering.
|
| Steam is very usable on a touchscreen, but the KDE
| desktop mode hasn't impressed me.
| fsflover wrote:
| I'm writing this from Librem 5 phone running PureOS with
| Phosh DE. It's convenient and pretty in my opinion. Also
| it runs desktop Firefox with all plugins you want.
| LtWorf wrote:
| You must use the plasma-mobile stuff, not the plasma
| desktop.
| Telemakhos wrote:
| I know for a fact that many university students are using
| iPad OS instead of macOS now, especially for less typing-
| intensive stuff like chemistry. You might be surprised how
| much of college runs in the browser now.
| bboygravity wrote:
| Linux barely works on a limited set of hardware that it was
| designed for. Indeed I don't think it's reasonable to then also
| make it work on _some_ completely different phone hardware that
| has a operational life of like 2 years + full of closed source
| hardware and drivers.
|
| If you want users, the thing has to be usable. For the thing to
| be usable it needs software with _perfect_ hardware support.
| Google, Android vendors and Apple (and to some extend System
| 76) understand this.
| vimredo wrote:
| For Linux to gain 5% marketshare, I really doubt it "barely
| works" on a "limited set of hardware that it was designed
| for". It can run headless on basically anything better than a
| Pentium, and it mostly just works on average hardware (except
| fingerprint sensors and Nvidia). _I 've_ had no problem with
| Linux on all my hardware, and I have a feeling the last time
| you looked at it was 2013.
| ashishb wrote:
| In the long term markets usually specialize
| https://ashishb.net/tech/the-android-chrome-merger-saga/
| prmoustache wrote:
| I think the true reason is that onny a small fraction of people
| are interested in convergence and most people are fine, or even
| truly desire, to have different devices and experiences.
|
| Millions (billions?) of people are happy to leave their phone
| in another room when working on their computer and vice-versa.
| Sure you could use a do not disturb button but it would be a
| major PITA to have enough granularity to allow or disallow
| certain app/services to notify you and you would be certain to
| forget to activate/deactivate it when you really want.
| outofpaper wrote:
| Billions of users don't have a computer they work on and
| don't realize that this might be an option.
| p1necone wrote:
| Imo trying to make a single UX that just changes a little bit
| to suit different device types is a misguided approach. Using a
| large screen with a mouse and keyboard is a fundamentally
| different thing to using a phone with a touch screen.
|
| Using the same hardware for both would be super useful, but the
| software stack from the desktop environment upwards should be
| entirely different (yes, including most of the applications!)
|
| There are some fuzzy boundaries - e.g. imo Gnome 3 has proven
| that a single experience can feel good on both a tablet and a
| single screen laptop with a good track pad. But I think
| paradoxically you need to take different approaches on
| different use modes if you want to provide true unity.
| LtWorf wrote:
| Try the KDE applications designed for this, like kasts,
| alligator, qrca and see for yourself.
|
| I don't think it can necessarily work for any kind of
| application, but for some simpler ones I think it's
| completely fine.
| LtWorf wrote:
| Plasma mobile is not flawless but it's very good. I use a
| tablet daily to do tablet stuff: read news or play sokoban
| while pooping, watching cartoons...
| mcv wrote:
| There's ideas like this every couple of years, and I love the
| idea, but they never seem to go anywhere. I think Nokia's
| Maemo/Meego was the first, and it keeps popping up, but it never
| seems to go anywhere. I understand this one has been dead for a
| couple of years now too.
| adamors wrote:
| Would be a good HN convention to add (dead) after a project
| like older posts get tagged with the year.
| fsflover wrote:
| It's probably the same as adding (2019) to the title about an
| OS, isn't it?
| altairprime wrote:
| Everywhere I might hook up my phone to a monitor there is
| already either a preexisting computer hooked up, my laptop with
| its ultra flat keyboard trackpad combo to hook up, and/or
| lacking the appropriate back support and table height for me
| for me to ergonomically use a keyboard and mouse there. This
| might make sense for someone who travels a lot and wants to
| work in odd places but the assumption that people can Find A
| Monitor That Has A Keyboard Flatspace In The Wild is what's
| broken.
|
| This product would have been wildly successful if they just
| released it as a laptop case for a phone, Framework-style. Dock
| your phone into the PCMCIA slot to activate the laptop, etc.
| fsflover wrote:
| > This product would have been wildly successful if they just
| released it as a laptop case for a phone
|
| You mean, this? https://nexdock.com/
| eggsandbeer wrote:
| How does this really old stuff make it to the top of hacker news
| some times? What is going on here?
| politelemon wrote:
| What's wrong with that?
| WorldPeas wrote:
| There's likely agreement with the sentiment of the project
| despite it never going anywhere
| hdb385 wrote:
| Is the device encrypted at rest?
| amelius wrote:
| Does it run my banking app which is Android/iOS based?
|
| (Running through an emulator is ok.)
| fsflover wrote:
| Waydroid can probably make it run.
| WorldPeas wrote:
| I think at this point the niche would be well-served if one could
| have a competent clamp-on landscape keyboard (so close, clicks
| keyboard) for their phone they could use to RDP into a better
| machine that could run while the phone is off. Additionally nice
| would be if the phone had a fully functional usb-c port that
| could do DP and usb for docking. At that point I'd have serious
| thoughts about retiring my backpack or nanote next. It frustrates
| me how close we are, if such a keyboard existed for $80 or so
| filleokus wrote:
| I've been occasionally using Microsoft's RDP Client [0] on my
| iPhone with external keyboard + mouse with a usb-c cable into
| my external monitor (with a Logitech RF dongle connected to the
| back of it).
|
| It worked okay, the mouse support is somewhat of a hack, but
| keyboard works awesome.
|
| The biggest annoyance was actually getting RDP to work
| satisfactory on a linux box with no external monitor plugged in
| to it (hetzner box).
|
| I thought someone would have created an app to run browser on
| the external screen in full resolution, so I could skip RDP and
| use vscode server via the browser. But the only option seems to
| be infinitex2p which is not available in the EU :(.
|
| [0]: Which in typical Microsoft idiotic fashion semi recently
| got renamed to "Windows app"... [1]: https://x.com/infinitex2p
| WorldPeas wrote:
| I've run vscode over ssh via tailscale before and it was
| pretty good, I'm mostly connecting to a remote using rustdesk
| however, that also requires a "dummy" hdmi to operate. The
| only thing it needs to make it perfect would be if there were
| officially supported forwarded web browsing windows in
| vscode. I wish apple would actually let us use "our" usb-c
| as.. usb-c
| pkoird wrote:
| One of the things I love about my Samsung device is precisely
| this feature, i.e. DeX
| stego-tech wrote:
| Bill Gates spoke of this context-aware OS at a lecture in the
| mid-00s. He specifically called out future phones (this was pre-
| iPhone era) that would have location context (work/home/mobile)
| and load secure, sandboxed datastores and profiles depending on
| that context. He also spoke at length about how desktop computers
| would transform into accelerators, like your gaming GPU at home
| or your additional processors and memory at your workstation. It
| was a grand vision of ultimate portability, with clear lines
| between work and personal lives enabled through technology.
|
| Then he showed off the Fossil MSN watch, and suggested future
| iterations may do away with phones entirely and act as methods of
| identification for digital systems.
|
| And then, like all things Microsoft, they abandoned the concepts
| entirely. Apple and Google cribbed most of the ideas for
| themselves in some form or another and saw wild success with
| them, though to date nobody major has really attempted to create
| that mobile vision Gates spoke of - other than Maru, and for a
| time, Google on Android.
|
| It's a shame, really. I like the idea of validating my public key
| via NFC from my Apple Watch to login to work machines or my home
| boxes (a la SSH). Seems like it'd be easier to wrangle in the
| long run, especially with job hopping being the norm.
| SlowTao wrote:
| One step ahead is innovation, two steps ahead is a martyr.
| Microsoft is a lot of the time two steps ahead, but the
| technology and/or the people are not ready for it.
|
| Hasnt harmed their product Microsoft Profit (TM) too much
| however.
| Terr_ wrote:
| > One step ahead is innovation, two steps ahead is a martyr.
|
| IMO people constantly mischaracterize progress as Great New
| Inventions By an Innovative Figure, when it's almost always
| something people already tried (and failed at) years before,
| and the difference is luck or some surrounding context
| improves.
| Almondsetat wrote:
| Man, that would be great. Imagine going out for a walk with
| just your smartwatch. Then you go back home and you insert the
| watch into a phone case and it gives it more RAM and CPU power
| and it becomes your phone and you go out again. Then when you
| come back you put it inside your big box and now you have a
| computer. All with the same accounts, OS, apps.
| crazygringo wrote:
| I mean, we already basically have that but even more
| convenient -- you don't need to have a watch-shaped hole in
| your phone, or a phone-shaped slot in your computer.
|
| I already use all the same accounts and apps and data across
| my watch, phone, and computer. I don't particularly want to
| take my watch off to use my phone, or put my phone away to
| use my computer though.
| supportengineer wrote:
| I have an idea for a ring you can wear on one of your fingers
| and this ring actually runs Java [1]
|
| [1] https://www.ebay.com/itm/300495374337
| zorrn wrote:
| I think Apple would actually be in a position capable of doing
| this. Slap an M1-4 into an iPhone Case with MacOS. Normally you
| have an interface like iOS, which shouldn't be hard because iOS
| is based on MacOS, and when you connect it to a monitor you have
| normal MacOS. Normal iOS applications need to run on MacOS which
| I think they already could.
|
| You would just have to allow apps to transform the interface
| between desktop and mobile or allow both interfaces to access the
| same data. And for apps that aren't working just show a small
| windows on the desktop and either disallow opening only-desktop
| apps on iOS or make everything small and allow zooming.
|
| You could also make something MacBook-like where you connect your
| phone or slide it into the side.
|
| I think one of the problems here is that Apple then could only
| sell 1 device to everyone and not potentially three (iPhone,
| iPad, Mac).
| rramon wrote:
| They could sell MacOS as a mobile app subscription like logic
| Pro for iPads or for one time fee somewhere between $99 - $199,
| and many would switch from MacMinis I guess.
|
| Pair this with some nice "Vision Air" glasses as a screen
| replacement..
| FlyingSnake wrote:
| This seems like an abandoned project with no updates since 2019
| (!!)
|
| Those looking for a more active and stable project: ubports is
| carrying the torch forward on the convergence front. I have
| personally used it on my old OnePlus device and it was quite
| usable.
|
| 1: https://ubports.com/
|
| 2: https://lomiri.com/
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| "Maru is built on the latest Android Oreo." That's Android 8.0,
| from 2017.
| fsflover wrote:
| Also Mobian, postmarketOS, PureOS.
| nashashmi wrote:
| This project could achieve this via the following. Project up an
| alternate screen. Put an "app" on the screen called maruOS
| projected at external screen resolution. Then get access to your
| phone storage and maybe to your phone hardware like mic.
|
| Then pretend there is a huge possibility of apps that can run on
| Maru OS.
|
| But it is Too little too late. Samsung DEX did this. Google is
| supposed to invent this (again). Everyone has failed. All apps
| need separate desktop versions to do this work. Essentially they
| need a second desktop app. This means more ram and more storage
| and more power.
| PlunderBunny wrote:
| One advantage of having 'everything on the phone' is that you
| wouldn't need a cloud provider to sync between your laptop and
| your phone - it's a 'stand alone' experience.
| _Algernon_ wrote:
| You'd still want an offsite backup somewhere. Doesn't have to
| be cloud, but it is the most accessible to most people.
| mistyvales wrote:
| I remember doing this with my Windows 10 phone back in 2015 (with
| a dock). Kinda slow and clunky, but mostly worked for a lot of
| the basic stuff I was doing with it. I think Motorolla had a
| similar thing?
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Display_Dock
| Hotbasil wrote:
| Nice idea. Also an abandoned project. Samsung also does it.
| gt0 wrote:
| For me these efforts feel like a solution to a problem very few
| people have. People who want a portable computer have settled on
| laptops. The people who want a portable computer, which needs
| access to a screen, keyboard, mouse and desk, just seems like a
| very small niche. Even when you get that computer set up, you end
| up with something quite slow with limited RAM and storage, unless
| you've bought a real flagship phone which is more expensive than
| a good laptop anyway.
|
| I tried this with DeX, it's cool, but it's just really hard to
| see where I'd use it. Some sort of trip where for some reason I
| can't bring my laptop, but I _do_ have access to the various
| peripherals required to make a desktop setup.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| > People who want a portable computer have settled on laptops
|
| Especially now with laptops like the Apple Silicon macbook air,
| with more than enough power and battery life.
|
| I used to want a beefy phone that could run a full Linux
| desktop when plugged into a monitor, but that was a long time
| ago (ironically, Google is getting there with some of the
| Android 16 stuff...too bad the switching cost from Apple for me
| is too high at this point).
|
| But then the M1 air came out, and that was pretty much game
| over for me. I've since upgraded to my M4 pro but it's still
| small and light enough to go everywhere, I have no need for an
| all-in-one phone.
| red369 wrote:
| Just a rather long thought regarding the switching cost from
| Apple to Android - I rebooted my iPhone yesterday (not
| unusual for me) and my Safari was empty - no open tabs, no
| tab groups, no reading list, no history, nothing! I don't use
| iCloud for Safari so there wasn't much I could do. After
| trying a few suggestions I found online involving toggling
| iCloud on and off, I rebooted again, and got back the reading
| list and the tabs in tab groups, but no history or any open
| tabs which weren't in a group.
|
| If my phone had died completely I'd have restored from a
| backup, but this isn't worth that. Realising how easily
| everything can vanish, and that there are almost no options
| to go digging around to find the underlying files made me
| rethink how much I trust the OS. And that made me look at
| exporting.
|
| The export options from Safari are fairly complete (in the
| settings App, in the App section under Safari), and Apple
| have something similar to Google Takeout. The notes app can
| apparently work well with any IMAP server.
|
| I wouldn't normally bother, but now I feel I can't trust the
| OS to manage this stuff I'm motivated.
|
| Anyway, my thought is that once you have this stuff setup
| robustly without completely trusting the phone or iCloud to
| just handle everything, that's one aspect of switching
| completely taken care of.
|
| I would never normally bother, but now I feel I can't rely on
| the OS to handle things I'm more motivated.
|
| I realise that it must seem like I could have solved this
| (and still can) by just using iCloud backup/sync. I
| intentionally chose not to use that for reasons that I'm not
| convinced really stack up, so I won't go into (vendor lock-
| in, flakiness, stories of vanishing data, etc.).
|
| Anyway, just thought I'd point out that exporting might be
| able to take care of the data side a lot better than you
| might be expecting, and you might be able to just slowly
| transition, e.g. export all notes, import into another
| location, tick one off the list.
|
| iCloud export: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108306
|
| Edit: Ah, just thinking more about it now, I realise now that
| while there is a Mail export option, there is nothing for
| messages in either Download Your Data, or direct from the
| phone. That's rough.
| andybak wrote:
| I sometimes use a VR headset instead of a monitor but I do
| end up using a laptop because of the keyboard and touchpad.
|
| I can conceive of using maybe a phone, an ultra light headset
| and a compact keyboard and TouchPad combined?
|
| I'm usually connecting to a real computer over remote desktop
| however!
| Ray20 wrote:
| On the contrary, I think that this problem has such a simple
| and obvious solution that you even have to wonder why it hasn't
| been solved yet.
|
| In essence, the hardware completely allows you to have a device
| that can connect to a monitor via USB, connect to a keyboard
| via Bluetooth and function as a full-fledged computer.
| fsflover wrote:
| > a problem very few people have
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44727972
| gxonatano wrote:
| Have they invented anything at all? You've already been able to
| do this with basically any mobile linux distro, as far as I can
| tell. At least, on the best-supported devices. You don't need a
| custom OS for it.
| fmajid wrote:
| Funny, Google just announced the Linux Terminal now supports
| graphical Linux apps. It's closer to WSL2 than a regular app,
| implementing a fully vrtualized environment.
|
| https://www.androidauthority.com/android-linux-terminal-futu...
|
| Unfortunately, even the text-mode-only Android Terminal is
| incredibly buggy and crashes on GrapheneOS if you have the
| audacity of typing Ctrl-D to close your session, requiring a full
| reset (and losing your data in the process). I am not brave
| enough to try a non-degoogled Android.
| blattus wrote:
| As a consumer I'm excited by the vision these convergent
| solutions sell, in a futuristic "I just carry one device" way,
| but I think the reason they haven't kicked off is that in reality
| you don't just have monitors and keyboards and mice lying around
| wherever you go.
|
| A significant part of the value prop of the "mobile" desktop is
| that you can "just plug in", but if you have to carry a keyboard
| and mouse well you might as well also carry the incredibly thin
| screen it's attached to on a laptop.
| gleenn wrote:
| My friend has a foldable screen phone and carries a cute
| foldable keyboard with touchpad. He can plug in when available
| or just do light stuff at cafes with the keyboard in his bag
| Eji1700 wrote:
| I've been diving towards this outcome for awhile now.
|
| I have a gpd pocket 4 for my machine, but carry a chiri CE 5x3
| and the MS arc mouse (and am looking for a second screen).
|
| It's an extremely small footprint in my bag, and i'm not sure
| it can get much smaller. You could remove the keyboard and the
| mouse from the Pocket 4, but given they're on top of the
| hardware it wouldn't save that much space.
|
| I can, in theory, do the same setup with my phone instead of
| the pocket though. I'm yet to really hook it all up and test (I
| expect several points of failure given past experiments), but
| the idea really is intriguing.
|
| It does however require people to get more comfortable with
| smaller keyboards/mice (please for the love of god, if nothing
| else, swap left control with caps lock), or at least more
| portable ones.
|
| And as for the ideal of "carry a drive, hook up to hardware as
| needed", that'll always run into the common issue of who is
| maintaining the hardware. We need cheap and easy to fix/replace
| hardware for that to ever really be a thing.
| p_ing wrote:
| Reminds me of Windows Continuum [0] (2015) which either via an
| adapter (Microsoft Display Dock) or wirelessly cast your phone to
| a display, giving you a more desktop-like experience.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Continuum
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