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Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

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Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

#141

Post by ElCheapo »

dspillett wrote: post #134
ElCheapo wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your reply is baffling. First you say that with "android" (as if they made hardware) you can't have an integrated keyboard. Then you say that Android phones with a full integrated keyboard actually exist. But then you move the goalpost saying that they aren't open source/hardware. Which is false, by the way, since this device [ https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/pro1 ] runs LineageOS, and phones with completely free…

> But then you move the goalpost Let us be fair here: you moved the goalposts first by going from “it is an absolute fantasy” to, once people pointed out that they already exist, “but I can't see a use for one”.

>Let us be fair here

Why even say this if you immediately proceed by not being fair?

Pocketable computers are not a "fantasy" in the sense that there aren't any devices capable of running a desktop OS while being pocketable. This was never the argument, as also demonstrated by my other replies in the thread. My argument is that using a pocketable device as a desktop or laptop is a fantasy. It's something that sounds very cool on paper and which has a small cult following, but in reality all these people would fare even better if someone wrote an Android app tailored to their use case.

Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

#142

Post by vladvasiliu »

sneak wrote: post #80
protoman3000 wrote: post #77

When will I finally live a life where my work iPhone is plugged into a USB4 dock with mouse, display and keyboard and it makes my whole work desktop? M2 is already here, why can't we do this?

Heat dissipation mostly, phones aren’t designed to shed wall powered thermals. You can do this today with an iPad Pro with keyboard cover. Also, pretty much nobody wants this. Most people who use work computers have them provided by the workplace. The workplace does not want the employee phones running the call center apps with customer data, etc. I for one do not want any work data physically present on any personal…

You could do this on a work provided phone, so the data could be managed the same way they do on a PC. Also, BYOD is still a thing, so there's that.

Regarding heat dissipation, you have a point. But I think it depends on the use case, which is the reason why we also have laptops going from paper-thin under-powered models all the way to models requiring a forklift to move around.

I think many "office jobs" could be done within the dissipation capabilities of a smartphone. Most of my days are spent answering emails and typing away in a terminal over SSH. My geriatric iPhone 7 could probably handle that without issue.

Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

#143

Post by conorcleary »

ElCheapo wrote: post #46

Can we stop with this absolute fantasy about PCs that "fit in your pocket"? The medium is the message, the form is the functionality. Smartphones have been "pocketable PCs" for more than a decade already, but are dumbed down because their inputs and outputs are limited. You can't type effectively, your screen is small, your battery is limited. Would you want a command line interface on your Smart TV using only a remo…

The cellular phone is as 'personal' computer as the masses will ever adopt. It's the ultimate PC.

Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

#144

Post by jstanley »

ElCheapo wrote: post #108
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair but the point is you are trying to solve the problem with the wrong tool. GP adapted the the form factor to his needs. The remote form factor was created for a long gone use case of 'zapping' through channels coming from an analog source. Home theater nowadays has no similarity with the interface needs of cable/satellite TV, so why would you be hung up on using the same remote control interface? Remote controls…

>GP adapted the the form factor to his needs. My point is that drastic I/O adaptation almost always require UI/UX adaptations, which doesn't happen with these enthusiast projects. >Home theater nowadays has no similarity with the interface needs of cable/satellite TV, so why would you be hung up on using the same remote control interface? Because that's what people use. If we went by some "blank slate" argument then…

I use Gnome on my TV, with a Bluetooth keyboard. It works great. I don't see what advantage Kodi's interface has.

Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

#145

Post by causi »

ElCheapo wrote: post #46

Can we stop with this absolute fantasy about PCs that "fit in your pocket"? The medium is the message, the form is the functionality. Smartphones have been "pocketable PCs" for more than a decade already, but are dumbed down because their inputs and outputs are limited. You can't type effectively, your screen is small, your battery is limited. Would you want a command line interface on your Smart TV using only a remo…

Would you want a command line interface on your Smart TV using only a remote?

You're reminding me of how nice it would be if smart TV remotes did come with thumb boards built in.

Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

#146

Post by sien »

est wrote: post #109

There are many 7″ or 8″ x86 pocket computers without brands sold in China for about $200, with qwerty keyboards touch screen and everything.

They can be bought on Amazon too.

Tibuta Masterpad W100 8.9 inch

Unboxing and review :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6RxARPBNZk

on Amazon for $US 150

https://www.amazon.com/Tibuta-Masterpad-Computer-1536%C3%972...

Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

#147

Post by Taywee »

ElCheapo wrote: post #89
badsectoracula wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can we stop with this absolute fantasy about PCs that "fit in your pocket"? No, because it isn't fantasy and i want those PCs that "fit in my pocket" - after all they do exist, see GPD's pocketable PCs. > Smartphones have been "pocketable PCs" for more than a decade already Smartphones have their on OSes, UX, applications, etc. The point of projects like GPD Win or the one linked above is to run the same programs,…

I think you're being extremely vague about the things you are using your GDP for. Nothing you've written strikes me as something that couldn't be achieved with a proper I/O module attached to a smartphone.

I could actually work on it. Good luck getting any reasonable IDE experience, a compiler, a debugger, etc working on Android or iOS. Real image editing, the Godot editor, Blender, web dev tools, LMMS, etc.

The most limiting bit about phones is the OS itself. You could hypothetically get most of these things working on phone OSes, but only for a massive amount of effort to port something for a single-digit number of users. I don't even know how you'd get a compiler going, but I suspect it would be a non-starter on iOS.

Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

#148

Post by vladvasiliu »

jakuboboza wrote: post #120

Steam Deck is perfectly fine mini PC that is reasonably portable it is also a decent console. If You will but 20-30 USD dock that has more than 1 output you can plug power, monitor and mouse/keyboard combo. You can go with portable mouse/keyboard and dock/usb-c-hdmi cable to any place and plug it into a hotel TV and be setup on your portable linux machine that can also...game :)

Could it handle one of those one-wire-to-rule-them-all USB-C docks? I was contemplating this for my gaming needs so I could retire my big-ass desktop. But since I only play at home, and already have the desktop, I figured I wouldn't bother.

But I hadn't thought of this use case, so if it could handle it, it would be a game-changer.

Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

#149

Post by sneak »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #142
sneak wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heat dissipation mostly, phones aren’t designed to shed wall powered thermals. You can do this today with an iPad Pro with keyboard cover. Also, pretty much nobody wants this. Most people who use work computers have them provided by the workplace. The workplace does not want the employee phones running the call center apps with customer data, etc. I for one do not want any work data physically present on any personal…

You could do this on a work provided phone, so the data could be managed the same way they do on a PC. Also, BYOD is still a thing, so there's that. Regarding heat dissipation, you have a point. But I think it depends on the use case, which is the reason why we also have laptops going from paper-thin under-powered models all the way to models requiring a forklift to move around. I think many "office jobs" could be do…

Secure BYOD is mostly unsolved wrt most common/popular Android phones. (Windows is also “a thing” but that didn’t stop Maersk or whoever from getting ransomwared, did it?)

Most serious orgs prohibit BYOD unless you are on Pixel or iPhone where MDM can actually work securely. There is no meaningful way to secure corporate data on an employee-owned Galaxy, for example.

It is the rare corp that can do BYOD securely. The best practice is issuing corporate iPhones to all staff with universal MDM and keeping all corp data physically separate from personal devices.

This also saves your employees’ nudes in a subpoena/discovery situation during a civil action against the corp, which is all too common.

Re: Open Source PC That Fits in Your Pocket

#150

Post by pabs3 »

thanatos519 wrote: post #99
Apocryphon wrote: post #75

Just get a Gemini PDA or another retro-smartphone device from Planet Computers.

The Gemini is amazing except for the bit where I am stuck at Debian Stretch using libhybris for the hardware because of all the Android proprietary binary blobs. It's super awesome, and OpenGL ES works great, but it's not following me into the future. My Sony VGN-P720D was similar: amazing hardware with great Linux support out of the box, and ... the same Linux support 5 years later, because the blobs I got the month…

Which blobs does it need? The Panfrost work means that ARM Mali GPUs should be supported in mainline Linux/mesa these days. Looks like mainline Linux has Mediatek MT6797 support (but not Gemini support) and mainline mesa Panfrost supports Mali-T880. So potentially doable.
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