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Android’s desktop interface leaks

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Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#31

Post by jakub_g »

monologue6894 wrote: post #11

Some "first look" It's just a slightly different showcase of the same UI shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzDO-GS-Bm8 That UI is available to test on any Pixel 10 (maybe even any Android 16 device?)

I do have it in Pixel 8 after enabling in developer options. It's a bit buggy and low resolution, but does the job when e.g. I want to connect some video I'm already watching on mobile to the external display via USB-C. (You can connect a mouse via Bluetooth to the phone, or via a USB dongle plugged into your monitor, to control it.)

An interesting thing is that you can run apps X and Y on desktop screen while also run app X on mobile screen independently.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#32

Post by LtWorf »

bossyTeacher wrote: post #27
Ronsenshi wrote: post #24

Is it going to be the same future as Fuchsia OS? There were some good ideas in that one, but then one day it sort of disappeared. Not that that was surprising - Google is good at that.

I believe the Google Nest devices ship with Fuchsia

I'm sure they will be discontinued in a few days.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#33

Post by anonymous908213 »

fooqux wrote: post #26
anonymous908213 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how they could have failed that if that was never their goal in the first place. The entire point of Proton is that the Win32 API is infinitely more stable and worthwhile to target than anything Linux distros offer, and that the financial incentives aren't there for developers to 5x their platform distribution effort to reach 1% more users. An approach that relies on developers doing that would never wor…

You're thinking of now. Proton didn't exist yet the first time they tried Steam OS. To be fair to Valve though, back then, there was a lot of movement in direct ports for Linux games. Humble Bundle (before they were bought) was spending real money on it and companies like Feral sprang up to help with titles like Mordor. It looked like there was going to be some real change. But for various reasons the momentum waned.…

Oh, right. I completely forgot SteamOS 1 existed, haha.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#34

Post by Const-me »

flohofwoe wrote: post #21
pjmlp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet they failed to get game devs to natively target SteamOS. As long as they depend on Proton, they haven't fully solved their problem.

Tbh, why bother? kernel32+user32+gdi32+d3d[11|12]+dxgi is a pretty great API abstraction for game development. And unlike Linux desktop APIs the Win32 APIs are actually stable, so those games will also work in 5 years, and most importantly, performance is the same or better than on Windows. It's unlikely that game devs directly targeting Vulkan would do any better, and when using a high level engine, any layering ove…

> run games through a Proton-like shim even on Windows

Already happening, to an extent. Specifically, modern Intel GPUs do not support DirectX 9 in hardware, yet legacy apps run fine. The readme.txt they ship with the drivers contains a paragraph which starts with the following text: “SOFTWARE: dxvk The zlib/libpng License” DXVK is a library which implements Direct3D on top of Vulkan, and an important component of SteamOS.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#35

Post by pjmlp »

flohofwoe wrote: post #28
pjmlp wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cycling speech since Window XP Toy's R US L&F days, unfortunely. Less fragmentation, more focus, OEM support on devices selling on regular stores is needed, otherwise we won't get away from the yearly meme.

> otherwise we won't get away from the yearly meme What's different in the last decade is that Windows is on an undeniable quality downward spiral, it's simply not important anymore for Microsoft. E.g. desktop Linux doesn't even need to improve, it just needs to wait for Windows to become worse ;)

Unless it becomes available for normies to buy laptops with it pre-installed at Saturn, Media Market, FNAC, Cool Blue, and co, it won't matter.

They aren't going to buy them from Tuxedo.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#36

Post by sofixa »

direwolf20 wrote: post #7
Klaster_1 wrote: post #2

I don't want a "PC future" where you can't just install software without OS vendor blessing.

This is why Valve invested so much in Linux. They saw the writing on the wall of Microsoft becoming Apple (but shittier). Now they have an alternative. If Microsoft charges a 30% tax on all Steam transactions and won't let Steam run unless they do that, Valve can heavily push Linux and Steam Machine sales.

> Microsoft becoming Apple (but shittier)

At least Microsoft haven't fallen so low as to fail basic design principles like having transparent on top of transparent buttons, having disappearing controls depending on window size (scrollbars), or having corners so rounded that the click to drag mostly being outside the actual window.

The Windows 11 UI is annoying, but at least it doesn't look like a kid's toy.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#37

Post by flohofwoe »

LtWorf wrote: post #30
flohofwoe wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbh, why bother? kernel32+user32+gdi32+d3d[11|12]+dxgi is a pretty great API abstraction for game development. And unlike Linux desktop APIs the Win32 APIs are actually stable, so those games will also work in 5 years, and most importantly, performance is the same or better than on Windows. It's unlikely that game devs directly targeting Vulkan would do any better, and when using a high level engine, any layering ove…

Try running a directx 5 game and let me know how it goes.

29 years is a lot more than the 5.. years time window I'm talking about. 3 decades is basically "I will need an emulator for that" ;)

But I think even a lot of D3D9 games should still work, and that's 2002 stuff. Also try running a 1997 Linux game binary on a modern Linux distro without recompiling, I doubt that's works all that well...

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#38

Post by palata »

Klaster_1 wrote: post #2

I don't want a "PC future" where you can't just install software without OS vendor blessing.

Same, but my PC runs on Linux so I don't feel threatened.

I feel like at some point normies may end up just using iPadOS or Android as a "convergent" device: a tablet/phone that they can plug into a docking station and use as a computer.

I am sort of hoping that it will work with something like GrapheneOS, so that I will be able to benefit from it on my phone.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#39

Post by pjmlp »

flohofwoe wrote: post #21
pjmlp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet they failed to get game devs to natively target SteamOS. As long as they depend on Proton, they haven't fully solved their problem.

Tbh, why bother? kernel32+user32+gdi32+d3d[11|12]+dxgi is a pretty great API abstraction for game development. And unlike Linux desktop APIs the Win32 APIs are actually stable, so those games will also work in 5 years, and most importantly, performance is the same or better than on Windows. It's unlikely that game devs directly targeting Vulkan would do any better, and when using a high level engine, any layering ove…

With game studios using Windows + Visual Studio, what a win!

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#40

Post by pjmlp »

palata wrote: post #29
pjmlp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet they failed to get game devs to natively target SteamOS. As long as they depend on Proton, they haven't fully solved their problem.

> As long as they depend on Proton, they haven't fully solved their problem. Maybe not, but they fully solved my problem with games, which was that I could not play on Linux. I started playing again just because of the SteamDeck, I think it's a pretty big achievement :-).

Hardly any different than running MAME.
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