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Will Linux phones stay around this time?

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Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#251

Post by [deleted] »

swiley wrote: post #229
AussieWog93 wrote: post #139

I'd be shocked if it took off. The FOSS development paradigm seems to be allergic to good UI design, and this is far more important for people on mobile than desktop.

Two things: 1) The GNU utilities have pretty good CLI UI design and there are plenty of us who are perfectly happy with just that and a decent WM like FVWM even on a phone 2) It's not like closed mobile stuff has a great UI either. My favorite example is Apple's camera app. Did you know you can do manual focus with it? It's absolutely impossible to discover but I think it involves a "reverse three finger pinch." I've…

[deleted]

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#252

Post by slver »

sergeykish wrote: post #242
AussieWog93 wrote: post #139

I'd be shocked if it took off. The FOSS development paradigm seems to be allergic to good UI design, and this is far more important for people on mobile than desktop.

You judge from subjective view. Should we all? I do not like macOS and Windows experience. It is full of distractions. http://sergeykish.com/side-by-side-no-decorations.png

The macOS/Windows term for those distractions is "applications".

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#253

Post by EvilEy3 »

swiley wrote: post #229
AussieWog93 wrote: post #139

I'd be shocked if it took off. The FOSS development paradigm seems to be allergic to good UI design, and this is far more important for people on mobile than desktop.

Two things: 1) The GNU utilities have pretty good CLI UI design and there are plenty of us who are perfectly happy with just that and a decent WM like FVWM even on a phone 2) It's not like closed mobile stuff has a great UI either. My favorite example is Apple's camera app. Did you know you can do manual focus with it? It's absolutely impossible to discover but I think it involves a "reverse three finger pinch." I've…

> plenty of us

Which is a soooo tiny minority that it won't even show up on charts.

> It's absolutely impossible to discover but I think it involves a "reverse three finger pinch."

That's a shitty UX, not UI.

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#254

Post by orf »

jacquesm wrote: post #240
orf wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool, but not relevant to the point being made. Without Linux Facebook wouldn’t have got off the ground either. That doesn’t mean Facebook is a Linux service, their use of Linux (like Android) is entirely an implementation detail.

At their scale today it could have worked, but the question is if they would have gotten there in the first place. All these companies making untold billions off the back of FOSS could at least be kind enough to acknowledge that fact, rather than to bury it.

They all do, through kernel patches, funding, open-source releases, talks and a lot more. Google especially has done a lot.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the operating system Facebook, Google or Android uses is an implementation detail of the main service they offer.

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#255

Post by slver »

Valmar wrote: post #184
AussieWog93 wrote: post #139

I'd be shocked if it took off. The FOSS development paradigm seems to be allergic to good UI design, and this is far more important for people on mobile than desktop.

It's a case of developer UI. Has nothing to being "allergic" to "good UI design". Being able to design something friendly to the average user, yet powerful enough to be friendly to power users, is a very difficult task to accomplish. Developers understand the latter quite well, I think, as they themselves are power user-types. The former... well, that requires having dedicated designers who know how the average user…

Often it feels like "developer UI" is just "slap some buttons around and hook them to the handlers, call it a day". At least that's how Gimp feels to this day.

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#256

Post by zibzab »

izacus wrote: post #196
zibzab wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a simple but wonderful idea! Hope more vendors follow. Google changing permission model to allow any app internet access was the stupidest decision made by a company in this millennium

Is there ANY OS out there that doesn't allow apps to the internet by default? Seriously, you throw around things like "sociopaths" for a pretty standard and expected user behaviour in all OSes out there?

Wait, why is this a controversial stand?

Is it really that bad to not wanting a random torch app to not use all your monthly data on God knows what?

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#257

Post by jacquesm »

orf wrote: post #254
jacquesm wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At their scale today it could have worked, but the question is if they would have gotten there in the first place. All these companies making untold billions off the back of FOSS could at least be kind enough to acknowledge that fact, rather than to bury it.

They all do, through kernel patches, funding, open-source releases, talks and a lot more. Google especially has done a lot. But that doesn’t change the fact that the operating system Facebook, Google or Android uses is an implementation detail of the main service they offer.

If Google or Facebook would have had to pay the full license fees for one of the major Unix distributions they would have simply never gotten off the ground in the first place. One of those 'uncomfortable truths' I guess that people simply don't want to acknowledge.

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#258

Post by EvilEy3 »

sergeykish wrote: post #242
AussieWog93 wrote: post #139

I'd be shocked if it took off. The FOSS development paradigm seems to be allergic to good UI design, and this is far more important for people on mobile than desktop.

You judge from subjective view. Should we all? I do not like macOS and Windows experience. It is full of distractions. http://sergeykish.com/side-by-side-no-decorations.png

> It is full of distractions

Define distraction in terms of computing first.

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#259

Post by qayxc »

sergeykish wrote: post #242
AussieWog93 wrote: post #139

I'd be shocked if it took off. The FOSS development paradigm seems to be allergic to good UI design, and this is far more important for people on mobile than desktop.

You judge from subjective view. Should we all? I do not like macOS and Windows experience. It is full of distractions. http://sergeykish.com/side-by-side-no-decorations.png

> You judge from subjective view. Should we all? I do not like macOS and Windows experience. It is full of distractions.

You judge from a subjective view. There's no discoverability in the screenshot you shared.

It's all subjective and a product for the mass market looks different from a product that serves a very specific niche.

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#260

Post by EvilEy3 »

strzibny wrote: post #193
AussieWog93 wrote: post #139

I'd be shocked if it took off. The FOSS development paradigm seems to be allergic to good UI design, and this is far more important for people on mobile than desktop.

We have GNOME 40 now which is beautiful. I can imagine it would be beautiful on mobile pretty soon as well.

> We have GNOME 40 now which is beautiful.

Don't know about that, chief. Looks like a same old Gnome.

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