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RemixOS – Android for the desktop

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Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#141

Post by anon4 »

tagrun wrote: post #110
pjmlp wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it does. For application developers there is a consistent set of APIs that are expected to exist in each version of Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, Windows Phone... On GNU/Linux one needs to bundle the libraries with the application, preferably static linked. But no one is going to do with with GNOME or KDE applications, for example. Then there are the deviations each GNU/Linux distribution does from UNIX daemon…

I thought we're talking about users here, not developers. Steam, Mathematica, Mendeley Desktop etc. have long proven that stable API for GUI toolkit doesn't have to be an issue for users. > For application developers there is a consistent set of APIs that are expected to exist in each version of Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, Windows Phone... This problem you're referring to isn't something inherent in or specific…

Comparing X11 to Win32 is just laughable. X11 is ANCIENT. It also provides no widgets or anything other than windows and drawing primitives (which are ancient). You can't do anti-aliased fonts for example, you have to render then with freetype2 into a pixmap buffer and put that in your window. Practically every GUI toolkit does it that way - allocate window, do the drawing yourself, present final pixmap.

Win32 is more like Qt and if we could just fucking standardise Qt as THE API to target, everyone would be much happier. But of course then the Gnome devs won't be happy. The Linux desktop would be in a much better place if Gnome was dead.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#142

Post by thecupisblue »

frik wrote: post #96
nextos wrote: post #15

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too for…

Isn't RemixOS required to release their source code? It's based on open source Android (incl GNU GPL parts) and yet doesn't publish the code. They shrug off such questions in their official forum.

A huge amount of OEMs in Android does this as well or release late. Let's not jump the gun on a company doing amazing things and give them some time to do it.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#143

Post by thecupisblue »

frik wrote: post #96
nextos wrote: post #15

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too for…

Isn't RemixOS required to release their source code? It's based on open source Android (incl GNU GPL parts) and yet doesn't publish the code. They shrug off such questions in their official forum.

A huge amount of OEMs in Android does this as well or release late. Let's not jump the gun on a company doing amazing things and give them some time to do it.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#144

Post by anon4 »

mkesper wrote: post #119
khedoros wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can build closed and proprietary software on top of GPL software (for certain definitions of "on top of"), as long as any changes to the GPLed software are released as source, and LGPLed software is only linked to dynamically. Example: If I wrote an alternative GUI system to replace X and the open window managers, I wouldn't necessarily be forced to open-source that system. Real-world example: My employer uses Li…

Your users have a right to get the full corresponding source of GPLed software you distribute to them, though.

Only if you've modified it. If not, then it's upstream's responsibility to distribute source. And even if you've modified it, I think distributing patchsets is enough, no?

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#145

Post by thecupisblue »

0xFFC wrote: post #71
RivieraKid wrote: post #49

Well I'm sceptical you can make a good desktop OS by modifying Android. Major desktop OSs (including their ecosystems!) have been developed for decades, there's a lot of depth in their functionality, flexibility, different use cases. Two of the main issues are that apps designed for Android touch devices suck on desktop and that the Android SDK is very limited compared to what deskop OSs offer. Don't get me wrong, I…

About the sdk point I completely agree. Unless you want somewhat shallow os There is no way for Android sdk to compete with real world desktop os. By shallow I mean something which don't have much functionality. This is not absolutely bad thing.yes most of powey users will not use that ,but for people who want to chat, browse, and use Skype this is not a bad this.but the point is these kind of users already leaving d…

It's exactly for those users. Android is easy to maintain and hard to fuck up for the regular user, which is what everyone does with any and all Windows PCs. And you can't just get a grandma to use Linux.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#147

Post by swiley »

anon4 wrote: post #141
tagrun wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought we're talking about users here, not developers. Steam, Mathematica, Mendeley Desktop etc. have long proven that stable API for GUI toolkit doesn't have to be an issue for users. > For application developers there is a consistent set of APIs that are expected to exist in each version of Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, Windows Phone... This problem you're referring to isn't something inherent in or specific…

Comparing X11 to Win32 is just laughable. X11 is ANCIENT. It also provides no widgets or anything other than windows and drawing primitives (which are ancient). You can't do anti-aliased fonts for example, you have to render then with freetype2 into a pixmap buffer and put that in your window. Practically every GUI toolkit does it that way - allocate window, do the drawing yourself, present final pixmap. Win32 is mor…

Or you could just not slap a fucking GUI on everything since most Linux users probably don't care.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#148

Post by wutbrodo »

yohui wrote: post #137
wutbrodo wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know why they're planning to drop Firefox? And why would Chromium never make it on there? I don't know much about F-Droid and its limitations. EDIT: Okay I did the Google search that I should've just done in the first place. Apparently they're not dropping Firefox fully, but rather forking it to "remove the proprietary binaries out of the official builds" (Google Play API, etc). I suppose APIs like that are im…

F-Droid wants to drop Firefox because Google Play is now required to build it (though not to run it). Same reason why Chromium isn't being considered: https://f-droid.org/forums/topic/chromium/page/2/#post-16388 F-Droid has (temporarily?) taken down their Fennec fork, seemingly due to difficulties with development: https://f-droid.org/forums/topic/please-do-not-drop-firefox-... This is presumably why Firefox's remova…

Gotcha, so very roughly speaking the same reason that people sometimes leave Debian for Ubuntu, because they hit the balance between ideological purity and convenience a bit better.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#149

Post by swiley »

tobbyb wrote: post #76

I think the potential for the Android desktop is huge, and can threaten Intel in a serious way. Look at the Amazon Fire TV equipped with a Mediatek 64 bit quad core A72 + A53 SoC. The same SoC is scheduled to be in Chromebooks shortly. This tiny 4 inch by 1 inch box can play 4k at 30fps, provide super fast internet browsing, Facebook, Youtube, Office apps, video conferencing and play Android 3D titles well. And it co…

How on earth does this threaten Intel compared to running a normal Linux distro on any other arm machine? I already have a raspberry pi2 B set up identically to my laptop and synced with syncthing and everything just works. If I wanted to leave Intel today I could and nothing would change at all (no thanks to android)

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#150

Post by Fastidious »

supercoder wrote: post #68

Why would I want this when I can just use OSX on the desktop ?

It will run on hardware other than Apple, for those who do not own an Apple computer. It will be "always on", similar to iOS. If you use Android on your phone, you will feel right at home.
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