PureOS is convergent • Hacker News Board

Re: PureOS is convergent

#111

Post by doctoboggan » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 5:33 PM UTC

tomc1985 wrote: post #98

bhauer wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some folks, myself included, reel at the conventional wisdom that a small screen necessarily means reduced functionality. While I agree that it can be difficult to design information-dense UIs for small displays or provide navigability to a large feature set, I strongly applaud efforts to unify computing and work through these challenges. I very much want all of my computing devices to be unified. In fact, I want a m…

I feel like the only computer user in the world who wants his computers to act like computers and mobile devices to act like mobile devices and to maintain a firm line in the sand between them. "Convergence" is a pipe dream because of the differing and mutually exclusive expectations of those different user types, and "one size fits all" programming ends up underserving both segments. The only thing I would change is…

You are not the only user who feels that way. Apply very explicitly said they do not think their users want iOS and macOS convergence. This needs to be taken in the context of apple recently providing tools for devs to port iOS apps to macOS. Here is the full quote from Tim Cook:

"We don't believe in sort of watering down one for the other. Both [The Mac and iPad] are incredible. One of the reasons that both of them are incredible is because we pushed them to do what they do well. And if you begin to merge the two ... you begin to make trade offs and compromises.

"So maybe the company would be more efficient at the end of the day. But that's not what it's about. You know it's about giving people things that they can then use to help them change the world or express their passion or express their creativity. So this merger thing that some folks are fixated on, I don't think that's what users want."

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/users-don-t-want-ios-to-me...

Re: PureOS is convergent

#112

Post by jlg23 » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 5:39 PM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

My primary concern with this is that different applications are inherently optimized for the platform on which they were originally designed. There are some applications that have a very dense UI because there's simply alot of functionality that the program handles (think of a video editor, an IDE, etc). Trying to slim down those applications to make them reactive so that they will scale onto a phone or tablet just s…

The idea is not about having the same apps but the same environment.

Convergence also means selection of default applications for the target device or, if apps are actually this configurable, selection of appropriate compile time flags.

Re: PureOS is convergent

#113

Post by meruru » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 5:41 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #95

meruru wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does so more directly by being a PC without Microsoft Windows pre-installed or proprietary BIOS. Almost always, a majority of PCs for sale have Microsoft Windows pre-installed. In the rare cases that they come with a GNU/Linux operating system or no operating system at all, the drivers and BIOS may be proprietary. Ubuntu helped enable Purism to exist and they are great for that too.

> It does so more directly by being a PC without Microsoft Windows pre-installed or proprietary BIOS. Ah, so it does so by redefining the inconvenient bits completely out of bug #1.

I don't understand what you're saying and to be honest I don't care. All I wanted to say is that people should support Purism because they value FOSS principles. Sorry if I was too obtuse.

Re: PureOS is convergent

#114

Post by orblivion » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 5:42 PM UTC

rossdavidh wrote: post #59

This reminds me of the idea of "wouldn't it be great if we could use the same programming language for frontend, backend, and database queries". Well, maybe, but in practice not really. They are doing different kinds of things, you will have to use them differently, it doesn't really help all that much to have the same language. It SOUNDS like this would be really helpful, until you get it, and then discover that it…

Just for myself, I will say that I know how to do some amount of management on Linux. That the same sort of thing is available on the phone, and that I could use that knowledge out of the box, is exciting to me.

For example: SSH clients and servers. I've tried playing with various apps from F-Droid to make it happen, with varying success. If I have just Linux, I know what should work. Another one is backups. I have a better sense of what I need to back up on a common Linux system than an Android-like one.

Re: PureOS is convergent

#115

Post by jlg23 » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 5:44 PM UTC

squarefoot wrote: post #81

tombert wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the GPD Win that I bought a couple years ago, which is more or a less a Nintendo-DS-Sized computer running "real" Windows, and I love it. I can do programming on the train, even while standing up, as well as use all the tooling that I like, including Vim actually. The only limitation for me has honestly been Windows, since I'm more of a Unixey guy. Something that has always bothered me is that smartphones are…

"but I feel incredibly limited in what I can actually do with my iPhone" That's because they're intended to work as media consumption devices rather than productivity ones. If someone feels productive on a phone, he or she has very likely adapted herself to the device than the other way around. I had to struggle yesterday with my GF new phone because her lawyer sent her a paper in .doc format using Whatsapp (no kiddi…

Privacy concerns, oh please? Around here (Southern Morocco) we send a photo of the filled out tourist card to the Gendarmerie with WhatsApp! Name, Date of Birth, Passport Number, Profession....

Just in case you thought it could not get any worse...

Re: PureOS is convergent

#116

Post by dahfizz » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 5:45 PM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

My primary concern with this is that different applications are inherently optimized for the platform on which they were originally designed. There are some applications that have a very dense UI because there's simply alot of functionality that the program handles (think of a video editor, an IDE, etc). Trying to slim down those applications to make them reactive so that they will scale onto a phone or tablet just s…

You're cherry picking the few counter examples. Many apps do already maintain code for multiple platforms, and many more want to but are resource constrained. Having one codebase work everywhere is going to be beneficial to a large number of projects. If your only concern is how an IDE would look on your phone, then don't run an IDE on your phone.

Re: PureOS is convergent

#117

Post by cwyers » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 5:50 PM UTC

wanderfowl wrote: post #77

The exciting part of this to me is not the ability to run the same software on two devices, but the potential to run two 'kinds' of software on one single device. This unlocks what is for me the most appealing computing fantasy: I have exactly one device to compute with. At home or work, I plug it into my dock, where it pairs to an eGPU/monitor, external storage, keyboard, and mouse, and is my desktop computer. There…

If you look at the bill of materials for a smartphone, the SoC is like... $20? Making the sort of interconnects you'd need and making them reliable enough probably costs about that much. For most people this need can be solved with software (Dropbox/OneDrive/iCloud), not hardware.

Re: PureOS is convergent

#118

Post by cridenour » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 5:51 PM UTC

I'm really excited about the software side of Purism but I can't justify buying a 2 year old processor on the laptop at a price still more expensive than alternatives, especially since that refresh happened in the last few months.

Re: PureOS is convergent

#119

Post by HeWhoLurksLate » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 5:53 PM UTC

bildung wrote: post #74

rinchik wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

linux natively on Mac? Why? whats the point?? the experience will be just horrible and 60% of the hardware will be idle, unused or just incompatible. You'll get an overpriced Thinkpad wrapped in gorgeous Mac's case. The amount of details, little "sprinkles" that average Mac and MacOS users take for granted is greatly underrated. When you look at the stats from all native available hardware, sensors etc, it really fee…

> The amount of details, little "sprinkles" that average Mac and MacOS users take for granted is greatly underrated. Especially those sprinkles that get stuck under the keys ;)

> Especially those sprinkles that get stuck under the keys ;)

Excuse me, wouldn't the sprinkles be the things that PC users take for granted?

Re: PureOS is convergent

#120

Post by amdelamar » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 5:53 PM UTC

Its neat, but doesn't make sense for a majority of apps/programs. Why would I run GIMP/Photoshop or any Graphics-heavy program on my phone? Why run any GPS-enabled app on my Desktop?