Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Plasma Mobile

plasma-mobile.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 141 posts

Re: Plasma Mobile

#71

Post by tdkl »

0xFFC wrote: post #70
legulere wrote: post #63

Too little and too late. Even if the GUI would be perfect and much better than android or iOS (which I greatly doubt, simply because of the man hours that went into those projects) there are two big things missing. An ecosystem of apps+apis and IMO even more important: sandboxing. Applications having access to basically everything just doesn't fit anymore today. It would have made much more sense to concentrate on th…

I think they are smarter than what you think , They know this is not for everybody , and this is not going to replace android/iOS ever. They targeting people like me who are sick of android/iOS because of closeness of platform.Even canonical with its huge budget admits they don't have plan to replace iOS/android (which as you told is too late for such product , even for Microsoft which have shitload of money ) but th…

There is no money in targeting the couple %. Hell, there's almost no money in Android either unless you're Samsung.

Re: Plasma Mobile

#72

Post by fit2rule »

jbk wrote: post #25
fit2rule wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be very interested in porting MOAI to this - do you know if it supports SDL, or OpenGL ES apps?

Technically, you should be able to support both.

Cool, I'm going to look into doing the port in the near future then ..

Re: Plasma Mobile

#73

Post by Qwertious »

jbk wrote: post #26
RivieraKid wrote: post #12

Yeah... new mobile platform is a really hard thing to do - and without a designer (whom they clearly don't have), it's impossible. Nobody will use this.

Why are you so negative? Why do you say they don't have a designer? Did you ask? This is a technology preview, and for a new development platform, it's quite nice already.

As a technology preview, it sucks. Not many technical details at all.

So it's a full stack, and you can run apps from a variety of (Qt-based) sources on it. It also has a few phrases like

ENJOY NEW USER EXPERIENCE

ADAPTABLE USER INTERFACE

Focus on mobile devices.

FREE OS FOR YOUR PHONE

Uhh, okay? Oh, and the video shows that the phone is basically an Android clone. Great.

I can't talk about the other person, but if I'm being negative it's because this has a really hype-ey 6-minute trailer advertising nothing of interest. Rule of thumb: Your trailer should never be more than two minutes, because otherwise it's probably really damn slow, and frankly a minute is pushing it.

Re: Plasma Mobile

#74

Post by 0xFFC »

tdkl wrote: post #71
0xFFC wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they are smarter than what you think , They know this is not for everybody , and this is not going to replace android/iOS ever. They targeting people like me who are sick of android/iOS because of closeness of platform.Even canonical with its huge budget admits they don't have plan to replace iOS/android (which as you told is too late for such product , even for Microsoft which have shitload of money ) but th…

There is no money in targeting the couple %. Hell, there's almost no money in Android either unless you're Samsung.

There is no money in android ? That is one of the funniest thing I ever heard in my entire life ! Just calculate how much android brought people to the internet , Then multiple it by some rate , it will be the money google make from advertising on android platform . How much internet going to grow , Google income will be grow also. Every search , Every app which you download from google play , It is direct money which goes into google's pocket, Put aside Google play income which it will get from every transaction _ 30% I think , I am not sure _ (which is huge but let assume google spend all of it on android ecosystem and maintaining).

p.s. Targeting does not only imply earning money.

Re: Plasma Mobile

#76

Post by wvh »

legulere wrote: post #63

Too little and too late. Even if the GUI would be perfect and much better than android or iOS (which I greatly doubt, simply because of the man hours that went into those projects) there are two big things missing. An ecosystem of apps+apis and IMO even more important: sandboxing. Applications having access to basically everything just doesn't fit anymore today. It would have made much more sense to concentrate on th…

I see where you're coming from but being able to leverage open-source software written in (at least) Qt as well as existing and upcoming Linux security features should alleviate some of those concerns. An Apple app store approach surely isn't the only way to distribute apps and "create a community".

One way or the other, open-source software should run on mobile to remain relevant in the future, and I think we should be supportive to those projects and people who try to build some momentum, often with minimal resources.

Re: Plasma Mobile

#77

Post by RivieraKid »

shadeslayer wrote: post #59
joshuapants wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest, even if they did have a talented team of designers nobody would use this.

>Let's be honest, even if they did have a talented team of designers nobody would use this. Why?

Because it has very few advantages over it's competitors and tons of drawbacks.

Re: Plasma Mobile

#78

Post by wvh »

Qwertious wrote: post #73
jbk wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you so negative? Why do you say they don't have a designer? Did you ask? This is a technology preview, and for a new development platform, it's quite nice already.

As a technology preview, it sucks. Not many technical details at all. So it's a full stack, and you can run apps from a variety of (Qt-based) sources on it. It also has a few phrases like ENJOY NEW USER EXPERIENCE ADAPTABLE USER INTERFACE Focus on mobile devices. FREE OS FOR YOUR PHONE Uhh, okay? Oh, and the video shows that the phone is basically an Android clone. Great. I can't talk about the other person, but if I…

This is not a marketing video. It mostly shows how Qt apps work with little or no modification, and that it is possible to use existing software with minimal adaptation. I think it is interesting because if a few people can make a usable prototype with some effort, there is hope that some more people and effort can actually produce a reasonably nice open-source mobile system to build on; that a phone running on open-source software is not an impossible or far-fetched idea.

Re: Plasma Mobile

#79

Post by RivieraKid »

wz1000 wrote: post #33
RivieraKid wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard several years ago that their UI philosophy is to target advanced users. No problem with that specifically (although one could argue that you can target casual and advanced users at the same time without much compromises). But their implementation of this philosophy seems to be - "don't think whether it's a good idea to put this button here, just make it an option in the settings". Which is clearly wrong.

> "don't think whether it's a good idea to put this button here, just make it an option in the settings". Which is clearly wrong. Why is that?

Users don't want to design their user interface, it's not their job. This approach is like - here are some musical notes, compose the song that is perfect for you!

Re: Plasma Mobile

#80

Post by RivieraKid »

wz1000 wrote: post #31
chestnut-tree wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main problem is that the open source model of software development doesn't really work when it comes to visual or interaction design. We've all heard that phrase 'design by commitee' but that's what you get when everyone wants a say in the way the UI works. I can understand why this happens even though the outcome is often an unfriendly UI. Imagine you're a developer who's spent time and effort contributi…

What do you find 'unfriendly' about Plasma 5 and Breeze?

I've left KDE a long time ago but looking at the current screenshots, I find it really ugly.
Post reply on HN