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Maru OS – A complete desktop experience on a smartphone

maruos.com

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

#231

Post by arjie »

josephg wrote: post #227
pdsouza wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Preetam here, founder and lead developer of Maru. Thank you for all the critical feedback on security in this thread. Maru used to ship with sshd disabled [0] but it was enabled because of all the requests I was getting from users who wanted to run the system headless without needing an HDMI display and BT keyboard/mouse around to set sshd up. I assumed that users would change the default password after the initial l…

There's is a fundamental issue here that comes up with lots of small organizations around security: If your process for prioritizing work is based on which issues people complain about the most, you will never prioritize security issues until its too late. Security problems are never obvious until the horse bolts. It is very easy to accidentally add egregious security vulnerabilities to products if you don't know wha…

Well, if you see the issue where this was enabled, the author had it originally disabled for security reasons so it's not that he's unfamiliar with the reasons why one shouldn't have it enabled. He did it on request from a user while knowing the security risk so that means it's less likely that he's made mistakes so much as yielded to users. And the latter thing is a lot easier to solve.

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

#232

Post by Piskvorrr »

komali2 wrote: post #106
kilroy123 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

What for, dust collection? I refurbish them and give them away - by the time I upgrade, the machines are still comparable to mid-low current ones.

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

#233

Post by piyush_soni »

throwaway91111 wrote: post #164
ams6110 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This isn't exactly a hardened product Bolting on security later seldom works well.

It's a POC.

I think it's totally fine to be a POC unless you market it as a finished product (e.g. on your website).

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

#235

Post by vanderZwan »

omribahumi wrote: post #222
X-Cubed wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's version 0.4, so it's a pre-release build.

Putty is 18 years old and only reached 0.69

Fair enough, but this project is slightly less than a year old[0], so let's give it the benefit of doubt.

[0] https://github.com/maruos/maruos/commits/master

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

#236

Post by squarefoot »

drewg123 wrote: post #39

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.

Based on Android, which unless I missed something huge, translates into all device drivers and most apps being closed source and requiring full access to anything, that is, the best place to put malware into. To me it can appear more secure if compared to the usual bloatware ridden smartphone, but a Linux PC with all software, including most drivers, being OSS, is a different story.

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

#237

Post by anotheryou »

What is the real benefit?

- If I use it on the go, I need an external screen and keyboard. I'd rather carry a laptop or just the keyboard und use the tiny screen (possible with stock android already). And if you are somewhere with a screen, there is probably also a machine at which you could boot some live distro.

- files are "in sync" between desktop and mobile. But the few file-types I open on my phone can just as well be synced over the internet (mostly just txt and a pdf every now and than).

- less expensive (but a desktop that beats a phone is probably also cheap to get)

If there was a really cheap laptop dock for it it might make sense for me, otherwise I don't get it.

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

#238

Post by antman »

pdsouza wrote: post #189
drewg123 wrote: post #39

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.

Preetam here, founder and lead developer of Maru. Thank you for all the critical feedback on security in this thread. Maru used to ship with sshd disabled [0] but it was enabled because of all the requests I was getting from users who wanted to run the system headless without needing an HDMI display and BT keyboard/mouse around to set sshd up. I assumed that users would change the default password after the initial l…

Raspbian had the exact same problem and decided to have it disabled by default and:

"Now it's very simple.If you want to enable SSH, all you need to do is to put a file called ssh in the /boot/ directory.Thats all. And don't forget to change the password"

So how about 'touch sdcard/boot/ssh' to enable ssh ?

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

#239

Post by 72deluxe »

xmatos wrote: post #88

I love it! I owned an Atrix with a lapdock, which was the first device to embrace this concept. Unfortunately, it was poorly handled by Motorola in the sense that you had to hack it to enable a full linux desktop, instead of what was basically a Chromebook. What really made me give up on it was the fact that it never got updated, so you were stuck with Android 2. It was pretty useful even as a workstation and saved m…

I too had the Atrix, the Lapdock and the multimedia dock. It was a good device, just hampered by the lack of RAM, the dual core processor (which was a bit sluggish), and the hampered Linux desktop; I too hacked around with it to be able to install all manner of useful tools (compilers, editors, office packages) and it was useful. The Lapdock had a good screen and was conveniently incredibly thin. I did miss a backlit keyboard though.

In any case it was years ahead of its time.

Sold all the components individually though - I think someone used the Lapdock with a Raspberry Pi in the end.

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