Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux

#51

Post by g8oz » Sat, May 13, 2023, 2:17 AM UTC

jjbinx007 wrote: post #18

unstuck3958 wrote: post #14

KDE Connect is a great piece of software. Everyone I recommended it to uses it almost daily. It makes me wonder about the state of FOSS software: there are plenty of genuinely good FOSS apps that can, in theory, be a part of a FOSS "ecosystem." But not many people actually know about them or use them. While I am still curious to know why this is, it seems like "advertisement" is still the greater predictor of softwar…

Unfortunately my recent experience with the Windows version was negative. I installed KDE Connect so I could link it with my Steam Deck but the text on the Windows version was completely screwed up to the extent that the UI was completely unusable. After Googling it seems a work around was to disable hardware acceleration but I was reluctant to do that. I wanted to revert back to an earlier version (which apparently…

I had the same experience until I rolled back the Windows display zoom from 150% back to 100%. It does make using the app a chore and I end up using it less than I would otherwise.

Re: Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux

#52

Post by commoner » Sat, May 13, 2023, 2:17 AM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #39

smoldesu wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GSConnect was a rewrite for the GNOME shell, but I think it's been 'depreciated' in favor of Valent. You can try both and see which you prefer: GSConnect: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/ Valent: https://valent.andyholmes.ca/

Have you used Valent? Is it fairly feature comparable to KDE Connect? I use real KDE Connect on Gnome but it's pretty clumsy

I haven't used Valent (since there's no stable release yet), but I can vouch for GSConnect. It's a feature-complete KDE Connect client that seamlessly integrates into GNOME Shell as an extension.

Re: Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux

#53

Post by jasonm23 » Sat, May 13, 2023, 6:47 AM UTC

JohnFen wrote: post #38

donkeybeer wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That a program like kde connect is necessary to communicate between a bunch of general purpose computers is the real funny thing. Its great that this software exists, but the reason it has to exist in the first place is depressing.

It's not necessary to do that, it's just convenient. I haven't tried KDE connect because I assumed that it was cloud-connected and I already do most of that using other tools anyway. But KDE Connect would certainly be a more convenient method. Now that I know (or think?) it doesn't depend on third party servers, I'll give it a try.

The big plus, in immediate terms, is that you can extend it.

Pushbullet gives you similar features, across any 'regular' set of devices. Being closed source though is simply a way to justify a subscription, and datamine their paying customers.

Re: Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux

#54

Post by jasonm23 » Sat, May 13, 2023, 6:51 AM UTC

jrm4 wrote: post #44

JohnFen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not necessary to do that, it's just convenient. I haven't tried KDE connect because I assumed that it was cloud-connected and I already do most of that using other tools anyway. But KDE Connect would certainly be a more convenient method. Now that I know (or think?) it doesn't depend on third party servers, I'll give it a try.

There's a lot of space between "necessary" and "convenient" here. Sure, if you know how to root the phone and program it you can do literally anything. But the bigger and more important point is that Android and Apple (whoever the parties are) have perhaps subconsciously colluded to exclude simple and important functions on our phones -- which are no longer "general purpose computers" -- if ANY of these machines are.…

The "wonderful" thing about the profit motive is no collusion is necessary. There will be natural gravity towards inclusion and exclusion of particular features.

Innovation centers around potential profit.

Re: Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux

#55

Post by jasonm23 » Sat, May 13, 2023, 6:54 AM UTC

donkeybeer wrote: post #42

JohnFen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not necessary to do that, it's just convenient. I haven't tried KDE connect because I assumed that it was cloud-connected and I already do most of that using other tools anyway. But KDE Connect would certainly be a more convenient method. Now that I know (or think?) it doesn't depend on third party servers, I'll give it a try.

The mouse sharing with phones sounds interesting, I would like to try out kde connect for that feature.

it's also nice that you can use speech to text on your phone, directly to the Linux, macOS, Windows, machine.

Re: Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux

#56

Post by jasonm23 » Sat, May 13, 2023, 6:56 AM UTC

klntsky wrote: post #34

unstuck3958 wrote: post #14

KDE Connect is a great piece of software. Everyone I recommended it to uses it almost daily. It makes me wonder about the state of FOSS software: there are plenty of genuinely good FOSS apps that can, in theory, be a part of a FOSS "ecosystem." But not many people actually know about them or use them. While I am still curious to know why this is, it seems like "advertisement" is still the greater predictor of softwar…

> While I am still curious to know why this is No marketing budget. > it seems like "advertisement" is still the greater predictor of software usage than anything else It is not. It's only a blocker if an app doesn't have any presence at all. > FOSS apps get better the more people use them Not true. Only users who report bugs bring value.

Users who fix bugs bring value, users who report bugs, create a workstream. Arguably, a large user base brings more value than average quality bug reports.

Re: Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux

#57

Post by jasonm23 » Sat, May 13, 2023, 6:58 AM UTC

kej wrote: post #10

Worth mentioning that KDE Connect can run on Windows as well.

and macos, it works very well.

Re: Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux

#58

Post by usr1106 » Sat, May 13, 2023, 11:20 AM UTC

Interesting. It even has a native SailfishOS integration.

However, last commit a year ago. Oh, well, I guess that's not a huge surprise.

Re: Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux

#59

Post by jacooper » Sat, May 13, 2023, 12:08 PM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #9

isthisfoss wrote: post #6

Does GNOME have a similar feature? I am not a big fan of how busy KDE is.

GSConnect was a rewrite for the GNOME shell, but I think it's been 'depreciated' in favor of Valent. You can try both and see which you prefer: GSConnect: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/ Valent: https://valent.andyholmes.ca/

Its not deprecated, both are still supported

Re: Things You Can Do with KDE Connect on Linux

#60

Post by argiope » Sat, May 13, 2023, 12:23 PM UTC

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #24

argiope wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was also concerned about having all my clipboard text copied to my mobile, but you can define a keyboard shortcut to do that only deliberately

please share the whole workflow. your comment has me excited

I'm using GSConnect on Ubuntu. I have first disabled "Clipboard Sync" to avoid it transferring every clipboard content. Secondly, there are a number of actions for which keyboard shortcuts can be defined for a device [1]. One of them is Clipboard Push. I assigned Shift+Ctrl+Alt+V to that, so whenever I execute that contrived key combination, the clipboard is synced to my mobile. I suppose the Plasma implementation has a similar feature.

[1] https://github.com/GSConnect/gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect...