Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop • Hacker News Board

Re: Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop

#21

Post by mirimir » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 9:43 PM UTC

jotm wrote: post #16

curryst wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if they are thermally capable of sustaining a high CPU load. Phones strike me as fairly bursty in terms of compute usage; I'm curious if running them hot for a long period of time would damage the phone.

As VR headsets/adapters have proven, yes, most phones will overheat with continuous usage.

They should have tiny fans in them. Or maybe just heat pipes with cooling fins.

Back in the day before SSDs, I used to cool external HDDs with axial fans during TB-scale operations.

Re: Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop

#22

Post by zozbot234 » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 9:45 PM UTC

curryst wrote: post #8

mirimir wrote: post #4

I wonder if VirtualBox would run on this. I see that some phones have 6GB RAM, and that should be enough for at least two or three VMs. And many have lots of CPu cores. But maybe I'm missing something.

I wonder if they are thermally capable of sustaining a high CPU load. Phones strike me as fairly bursty in terms of compute usage; I'm curious if running them hot for a long period of time would damage the phone.

There are phones that are built with better cooling, such as ASUS's ROG series. If not for the substandard (and with unclear guarantees) support period, the ASUS ROG could be a true 'flagship' device, even for non-gamers.

Re: Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop

#23

Post by ChuckNorris89 » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 9:51 PM UTC

IIAOPSW wrote: post #11

This is exactly what I've wanted phones to become for years. It honestly amazes / pisses me off that I can't buy something like this off the shelf. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and piss away a few hours on rom flashing to get /e/ on my phone.

That's just wishful thinking. No manufacturers would release any devices with this OS for the following reasons:

Phones are commodity devices where volumes have to be high and costs low.

The big manufacturers that have the resources to make and sell something like this at scale(i.e. Samsung) want you tied in their ecosystem instead.

Maybe some niche manufacturer could make a device with this via crowdfunding but the price would be too high for such a low volume as the niche of techies this would be aimed at are savvy enough to flash it themselves on an older phone for free.

Re: Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop

#24

Post by lostgame » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 9:51 PM UTC

mirimir wrote: post #17

lostmsu wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video decoding is usually implemented in hardware, so very efficient.

Sure, GPU. But do phones have gaming-level GPU? So what do phones normally do with their CPU?

AFAIK video decoding generally has its own chip, at least for supported codecs, separate from the GPU.

Re: Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop

#25

Post by lern_too_spel » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 9:53 PM UTC

mirimir wrote: post #4

I wonder if VirtualBox would run on this. I see that some phones have 6GB RAM, and that should be enough for at least two or three VMs. And many have lots of CPu cores. But maybe I'm missing something.

VirtualBox doesn't run on ARM. You could use KVM or Xen.

Re: Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop

#26

Post by zozbot234 » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 9:55 PM UTC

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #23

IIAOPSW wrote: post #11

This is exactly what I've wanted phones to become for years. It honestly amazes / pisses me off that I can't buy something like this off the shelf. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and piss away a few hours on rom flashing to get /e/ on my phone.

That's just wishful thinking. No manufacturers would release any devices with this OS for the following reasons: Phones are commodity devices where volumes have to be high and costs low. The big manufacturers that have the resources to make and sell something like this at scale(i.e. Samsung) want you tied in their ecosystem instead. Maybe some niche manufacturer could make a device with this via crowdfunding but the…

> No manufacturers would release any devices with this OS

PinePhone has one-upped /e/ and is releasing a competitively-priced device with mainline Linux support (not just AOSP)! It absolutely is a possibility.

Re: Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop

#27

Post by mekkkkkk » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 9:55 PM UTC

Why has cheap KVM-consoles for phones never taken off? It seems like a great way to get a portable/inexpensive laptop experience. Judging by the relative success of Chromebooks, it would appear to be a ripe segment. And the performance of any mid to high tier phone is more than enough for the casual laptop user.

As mentioned in the article: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andromium/the-superbook...

Re: Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop

#28

Post by ChuckNorris89 » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 9:59 PM UTC

zozbot234 wrote: post #26

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just wishful thinking. No manufacturers would release any devices with this OS for the following reasons: Phones are commodity devices where volumes have to be high and costs low. The big manufacturers that have the resources to make and sell something like this at scale(i.e. Samsung) want you tied in their ecosystem instead. Maybe some niche manufacturer could make a device with this via crowdfunding but the…

> No manufacturers would release any devices with this OS PinePhone has one-upped /e/ and is releasing a competitively-priced device with mainline Linux support (not just AOSP)! It absolutely is a possibility.

How many people do you know who have heard of or will buy a device called PinePhone?

And that's the problem right there.

Hell, even the people who work in cybersecurity don't give two shits about this. I'm in this gig and phones are IOS across the board.

Re: Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop

#29

Post by zozbot234 » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 10:01 PM UTC

mekkkkkk wrote: post #27

Why has cheap KVM-consoles for phones never taken off? It seems like a great way to get a portable/inexpensive laptop experience. Judging by the relative success of Chromebooks, it would appear to be a ripe segment. And the performance of any mid to high tier phone is more than enough for the casual laptop user. As mentioned in the article: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andromium/the-superbook...

What I wonder about is cheap KVM consoles for RaspPi and comparable SBC's. There used to be a few (e.g. a docking station from Motorola which just happened to be compatible with the RaspPi use case) but it's not really an established market.

Re: Using an /e/ phone as a desktop or laptop

#30

Post by zozbot234 » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 10:04 PM UTC

mirimir wrote: post #14

ttsda wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure you'll blow the Knox eFuse which can't be reset.

Which is a good reason not to buy junk like that.

Many phones are somewhat harder to unlock than Samsung models. The Knox efuse is an annoyance, but most of that is security theater anyway. It doesn't gate many useful features that a Lineage user would care about.