As far I know Gnome 4 constraint-based layout [1] is still in planning phase. So how devs are going to build responsive UIs for different screen sizes? PS. I work on a Ubuntu laptop.
PureOS is convergent
271–280 of 299 posts
Re: PureOS is convergent
#272Looks like somebody found a new buzzword.
Re: PureOS is convergent
#273I've become unenthused about this software "dream". Having spent years designing and building UIs on the web, what I've learned is that: 1) Convergence works great for "casual" apps - messaging, stores, content feeds, etc.; anything where the amount of stuff you need to see on screen at once doesn't need to be especially large. But the web already does a great job of making this type of application both responsive an…
I used to dream about hyper genericity for UIs .. deeply. Now I don't really care. odd.
Re: PureOS is convergent
#274The exciting part of this to me is not the ability to run the same software on two devices, but the potential to run two 'kinds' of software on one single device. This unlocks what is for me the most appealing computing fantasy: I have exactly one device to compute with. At home or work, I plug it into my dock, where it pairs to an eGPU/monitor, external storage, keyboard, and mouse, and is my desktop computer. There…
This was the dream to me that Samsung's "Linux on Galaxy" system would get close to.
They already have DeX which provides a large screen UI for your Android device. The next step which they have trialled, but AFAIK not release was to use a separate Linux Distro for the DeX component. Maybe not quite fully converged, but pretty close.
Re: PureOS is convergent
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
It never works out that way though. Clojure for the frontend? What about native APIs that you need to use on, say, iOS or Android? What about graphics libraries and APIs? What about browser APIs? I'm sure you can write your own wrapper or bindings for whatever you need, but it's an ongoing effort/pain that isn't worth it for most people. Every platform, backend or frontend, supports specific languages that are suitab…
In my experience, it works just fine. Clojure for the frontend is the best-in-class frontend dev environment that I've worked with. Instant hot code reloading, a browser-connected repl, great debugging tools, and a really nice collection of libraries for getting stuff done. I've never had to use native APIs for iOS and Android, so I can't speak to that from experience, but I know that there's some really nice machine…
In that land, what are you doing about UI? Still falling back on Java?
Re: PureOS is convergent
#276This is just a Linux distro, right? Not a new operating system.
Yes, but you can get a long way tailoring a Linux distro in a particular way. In an extreme example, Android is a Linux distro.
This is closer to conventional in that it's still Debian and Gnome, but if they are putting development work into making that a cross-platform system then everyone benefits.
Re: PureOS is convergent
#277Slightly off-topic, is anyone using Librem laptops? What has your experience been? They look nice. I've always wanted a nice secure Linux laptop to work on but I'm not eager to waste hours upon hours getting the drivers to behave (my experience with Linux on the desktop is a bit dated).
I bought Thinkpads for work, installed Fedora on them and everything worked out of the box, right down to the keyboard backlight dimming.
The things you have to watch out for are: * Use an up to date distro with an up to date kernel (e.g. Fedora) * Graphics are the only real driver issue. Easiest solution is to buy something with integrated Intel, but some cards are well supported, you just need to check * Battery life will be worse compared to Windows on a machine normally sold for Windows. This situation may be better on things designed for Linux, like Dell Sputnik stuff and Purism, but I have less experience with them
Re: PureOS is convergent
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
"but I feel incredibly limited in what I can actually do with my iPhone" That's because they're intended to work as media consumption devices rather than productivity ones. If someone feels productive on a phone, he or she has very likely adapted herself to the device than the other way around. I had to struggle yesterday with my GF new phone because her lawyer sent her a paper in .doc format using Whatsapp (no kiddi…
> sent her a paper in .doc format using Whatsapp If this happens again in the future it might be easier to connect to web.whatsapp.com in a desktop computer.
Especially that connecting to the web version is so brilliantly simple (just scan the QR code on the computer screen with your phone). Maybe OP didn't have a computer at hand?
Re: PureOS is convergent
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no doubt you can create lots of stuff, and I would not say otherwise; the iPhone has a nice camera and the tools for media production on the iPhone are actually pretty ok. All that being said, I don't do any of that stuff; I write software and write the occasional blog post. For me, I need a compiler, text editor, git, a good terminal etc. In this regard, my old Packard Bell is honestly more powerful, and des…
Funny. I do all of those things on my iPhone XS these days. Not that I do any heavy work on but it works on the go if I have to. Blink Shell and mosh = terminal, vim, git, etc.
Well, that's kind of cheating; that's not using the "phone" to do any of the real work, you're offsetting the work to a server. I've used my iPhone for that stuff too, but that really doesn't require all the horsepower that modern iPhones give you.
Re: PureOS is convergent
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you considered getting a bluetooth keyboard/mouse? It makes text editing on tablets/phones much more tolerable for me.
I have tried a bluetooth keyboard and at least for text editing it helps immensely. (Does a mouse do anything iOS?) In the end the iPad plus keyboard is clunky enough that i end up preferring a small laptop. Admittedly, I am not a typical user.
Not sure about iOS. On Android I've found a mouse is helpful about 50% of the time and still resort to just poking at the screen sometimes.
Using a keyboard has been absolutely wonderful though. It's even saved me a few times when I didn't have my laptop with me and had to ssh into work servers for issues.