Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linux on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

seap.samsung.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 255 posts

Re: Linux on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

#61

Post by K0SM0S »

camillomiller wrote: post #8

Maybe 2018 is finally the year of the Linux desktop. Wait... :) Jokes aside, I can see how this would be useful for sysadmin and devs - bring along your smartphone and you're set - but this would never fly for a general, even if geeky, public. Very nice approach though, curious to see where this ends up going.

I tend to agree with your sentiment, but

> this would never

From experience, I now pause and consider twice any statement I make using never. You know, I thought Facebook would never become dominant using such a one-size-fits-all interface where I can't even choose a theme or even my color, let alone which elements to be displayed and in which order (I keep thinking their UI is ugly to this day, if this was our 'home' it feels it looks like a housing project on internet to me). Or back in 2010 when I bought an iPhone 4 and later an iPad 2, I thought Apple would never keep iOS so dumbed down compared to OSX (e.g. "Smart" features, a great first step into intuitive automation, the real graal of computers imho, lest one thinks it's OK to become a robot and click/tap thirty times to perform thirty times the same operation).

So... yeah, I don't know. Everything says you're right today, but with just the right tools/apps, a good Linux distro tailored to popular phones could reach the same level of popularity than, say, iPhones (currently ~10% of the market, roughly one in ten Android phones).

Re: Linux on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

#62

Post by digi_owl »

ansible wrote: post #39
5h wrote: post #20

I've been using termux and a fold out bluetooth keyboard for django development & code review for quite a while on my pixel XL. I absolutely love having my dev work on my phone, being able to hack away or do code review for 5 minutes wherever is incredible. At home using a chrome-cast and have it on a big screen. It would be nice to have a window manager I suppose - but i'll probably end up in a full screen terminal…

If you're going to carry a tablet and a BT keyboard, you might as well just get a light Chromebook instead. While I can run Linux locally via crouton, I mostly just SSH into my workstation and resume my screen sessions.

Depends a bit on how small you can get a chromebook. After all, the smallest tablets are in the 7-8" screen range, while most chromebooks i have seen are 10"+.

Re: Linux on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

#63

Post by saagarjha »

simonh wrote: post #59
saagarjha wrote: post #55

> Linux on Galaxy allows the latest Samsung Galaxy smartphone users to run their preferred Linux distribution on their smartphones utilizing the same Linux kernel that powers the Android OS to ensure the best possible performance. (emphasis mine) I knew there was a catch somewhere. I seriously doubt there's a technical reason why older Galaxy models can't support running Linux as well. I don't understand why it's so…

We're all used to having desktop computers with generic x86 compatible processors and highly standardized internal interfaces and components, and compiling our software and installing it on any x86 computer we want. Smartphones with ARM SOCs aren't like that because they aren't just a CPU, they also include a crapload of additional system components. Even SOCs like the Snapdragon within a specific model will offer ma…

In a perfect world manufacturers would give out this information, but it's understandable that they wouldn't (this doesn't mean that I don't think they should, but I know why they wouldn't). The issue is with "locked" bootloaders–the manufacturer is going through extra effort to make sure you can't run another operating system on your phone. This is inexcusable since it's not just a passive lack of helpfulness, it's an intent to make sure you can't have full control of your phone.

Re: Linux on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

#64

Post by gambiting »

saagarjha wrote: post #55

> Linux on Galaxy allows the latest Samsung Galaxy smartphone users to run their preferred Linux distribution on their smartphones utilizing the same Linux kernel that powers the Android OS to ensure the best possible performance. (emphasis mine) I knew there was a catch somewhere. I seriously doubt there's a technical reason why older Galaxy models can't support running Linux as well. I don't understand why it's so…

Because the effort to make it possible is non-zero, while the userbase which would actually use it is close to zero. In my experience of enterprise software development, anything that costs more than 0 and is not essential is just not getting done, because....well, why would it be?

Re: Linux on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

#65

Post by userbinator »

simonh wrote: post #59
saagarjha wrote: post #55

> Linux on Galaxy allows the latest Samsung Galaxy smartphone users to run their preferred Linux distribution on their smartphones utilizing the same Linux kernel that powers the Android OS to ensure the best possible performance. (emphasis mine) I knew there was a catch somewhere. I seriously doubt there's a technical reason why older Galaxy models can't support running Linux as well. I don't understand why it's so…

We're all used to having desktop computers with generic x86 compatible processors and highly standardized internal interfaces and components, and compiling our software and installing it on any x86 computer we want. Smartphones with ARM SOCs aren't like that because they aren't just a CPU, they also include a crapload of additional system components. Even SOCs like the Snapdragon within a specific model will offer ma…

The closest to a "generic" smartphone is probably the Mediatek reference platform(s), indeed found in various Chinese smartphones. Except for presence/absence of certain peripherals like sensors, those tend to be almost identical in hardware and software. Source is unfortunately not officially available but occasionally leaked along with (extensive) documentation, and there's a small community of developers who work on these cheap devices. As a bonus, they also tend to have a completely unlocked-by-default bootloader.

https://www.slashdata.co/blog/2013/05/the-mediatek-phenomeno...

Re: Linux on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

#66

Post by eat_veggies »

padraic7a wrote: post #16

This is definitely interesting and I would be curious to see where it goes in the future. In the meantime however anyone who wants to use Linux on their phone today should check out https://ubports.com/ It works now!

Does it still maintain phone functionality (sms, calling, data)?

Re: Linux on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

#67

Post by reustle »

saagarjha wrote: post #55

> Linux on Galaxy allows the latest Samsung Galaxy smartphone users to run their preferred Linux distribution on their smartphones utilizing the same Linux kernel that powers the Android OS to ensure the best possible performance. (emphasis mine) I knew there was a catch somewhere. I seriously doubt there's a technical reason why older Galaxy models can't support running Linux as well. I don't understand why it's so…

Jeez man. They want to do something extra cool and you shit on them for not openly supporting old devices. Nobody is stopping you from rooting your device and installing whatever you want on it.

Re: Linux on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

#69

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

digi_owl wrote: post #17
nickcw wrote: post #12

I think termux ( https://termux.com/ ) does most of what I need when I need a bit of emergency Linux on my phone. Termux provides a recompiled debian distro which runs as a android App. It doesn't chroot or need root and it works amazingly well. No desktop apps though.

I do believe you can actually get a desktop going by installing https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=x.org.server and setting the display environment variable in termux.

Yeah, but you need the actual programs, and when I last looked termux didn't build packages that use X and didn't include the libraries to compile them yourself (or at least I couldn't find them)

Re: Linux on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

#70

Post by pjc50 »

sametmax wrote: post #33
pjc50 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was: the Apple 30-pin connector. It was revolutionary and got built into plenty of hotels where you can still see them. And where it acts as a warning to not build tech into your furniture again. People keep building phone dock systems and they just don't really seem to take off. Maybe the best one available today is the HP Elite X3 .. running the discontinued Windows Phone.

How was it revolutionary ? USB worked pretty well.

Until USB-C it doesn't carry analog audio.

Like the iPod itself, it's not a question of new functionality, but better usability/popularity of existing functionality. The revolutionary aspect was that you could just drop an iPod into the dock and it would start playing your music through the dock's speakers, while also charging. This didn't require the dock to be "smart", it was analog audio.

Post reply on HN