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Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

maruos.com

101–110 of 264 posts

Re: Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

#101
post #76

From the FAQ: Is Maru an app or does it replace my current Android OS? Maru is firmware for your device, so yes, it will replace your existing Android OS. I wonder how this works: is Android a virtual machine within the Maru/Debian host? It would be very interesting to be able to use the underlying Linux networking, for example, to control the Android functionality.

More likely it's close to vice versa for driver reasons. Android owns everything, the debian stuff just runs in a chroot and it needs a few custom hacks to make display and input work nicely, which is why it's not the same as just running Termux or Linux Deploy on your phone.

Re: Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

#102

The fact that this spins up a Debian desktop when you're in desktop mode seems to make this a much more viable option than some of the previous attempts at this, which expected you to want to use only android apps on your desktop.

True, however the way this is implemented makes it seem as though the "desktop" and "mobile" states are different computers entirely. What I would like to do is be able to use desktop versions of android apps when plugged into a display. This would have the advantage of allowing me to use, say MS Office in desktop mode if I have the android app installed.

I realize that some may have a strong preference for OSS software, which a debian desktop would be excellent for.

Re: Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

#103

I'm wondering how secure it is.. According to https://github.com/maruos/maruos/wiki/Tips , they start sshd up by default, listening on the local network, with the default user maru and password maru. That seems like a bit of a red flag and makes me wonder if it is the tip of the iceberg.

Default passwords on things that are on by default is "full stop" bad. This is on the same level as passwords in clear text e-mail.

Re: Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

#105

I am really surprised that the "single computing / storage device" idea which can switch between different screens and input methods seamlessly (and maybe support plug-in CPUs) is just is not happening, though the concept here is a small step in that direction. Having everything in the cloud seems to have made this somewhat redundant for most users, though I still hope one day I can carry all my data around, of cours…

I just don't see the use case. For work, most people have a work computer and that's separate from their personal computer. Tons of people no longer have a computer at home, those that do are likely gamers, developers or artists that all have a huge archive of files they work with and require more power than a mobile device can supply. I wish these companies would stop trying and just make an open, mobile, general pu…

"Tons of people no longer have a computer at home"

Sure, and those people are the perfect target market for being able to connect to full keyboard, mouse, and display from their phone without the need to buy another computer.

Re: Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't see the use case. For work, most people have a work computer and that's separate from their personal computer. Tons of people no longer have a computer at home, those that do are likely gamers, developers or artists that all have a huge archive of files they work with and require more power than a mobile device can supply. I wish these companies would stop trying and just make an open, mobile, general pu…

I don't have a separate computer. I only have one single computer for work and personal things. I use it heavily for both. If something happens to my computer and it goes down for a few days, I'm screwed. I personally would love something like this. Just in case I need to get some work done off my phone. I do no want another computer.

Do you not keep old computers as you update?

Have you considered having a cheap chromebook backup or something?

Re: Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

#107
post #17
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s an OS for your phone that becomes a proper desktop OS if you plug in a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc. I don’t think this has been done before, or maybe I’m just hopelessly unaware? Either way, I think it’s quite interesting.

Motorola Atrix, Ubuntu Phone, Windows Phone 10 has Continuum. It's been tried before.

Did Ubuntu Phone ever actually work?

Re: Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

#109

I'm wondering how secure it is.. According to https://github.com/maruos/maruos/wiki/Tips , they start sshd up by default, listening on the local network, with the default user maru and password maru. That seems like a bit of a red flag and makes me wonder if it is the tip of the iceberg.

Man, why'd they have to go and do that. :-(

So many other options: not enabling sshd per default, ask for a password, display a random password on the phone, allow uploading a public key... possibilities are endless.

Re: Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep hearing people say that technology can't solve political problems. This has never been more true than in this case. Instead of contriving ridiculously convoluted solutions to a non-problem we could simply stop electing politicians who propose implementing ludicrous airport security theatre.

I agree, but... which ones would those be again? And are they generally electable based on on other platform planks? THe problem here is that most of the public believes that security theater is real security. Unless that changes, most politicians will espouse their "firm positions on security" in order to help them get elected. THe ones who "get it" tend to be in the independent/libertarian camps (last I looked) - a…

Therein lies the rub, doesn't it? The first thing to do is convince people that voting independent or libertarian (or for that matter for an outsider candidate such as Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party primaries) isn't un-American or unpatriotic or whatever weird notions people have about not voting mainstream but their democratic right and an absolutely reasonable thing to do (perhaps the only reasonable thing in today's political environment).

I think it can be done. If you think of another notorious modern two-party system neither of the UK's dominant parties today existed before the 19th century. Given how fast opinions spread these days it should be possible to bring about significant change in a matter of years rather than decades. Think about how quickly movements like the Pirate Party became successful in some countries. That they declined just as quickly again in most of these countries can be mostly attributed to their own stupidity rather than systems that are inherently averse to change.

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