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If I read that correctly, they are just ignoring the problem and share files on the phone between Android apps and programs running on Debian, which seems like it could work most of the time. (No idea if there is Blender for Android, but I am pretty sure there are .doc readers for Android.)
Maybe this is the answer to the impending cabin baggage laptop ban. Carry a keyboard and screen in your hold bag, the phone with your data and applications in your pocket.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Motorola Atrix, Ubuntu Phone, Windows Phone 10 has Continuum. It's been tried before.
Continuum is arguably a successful implementation of this idea, with the unfortunate handicap of being on a platform nobody wants.
I have a windows phone with continuum and tried it, and while it is executed quite well, it wasn't very useful due to the lack of apps. You can use any windows 10 device as a screen/keyboard/mouse, but usually the laptops I have near me are mine, so they already have everything I need. If it had an ability to carry a self-contained programming environment I might have played around with it more.
It does make a fine fallback presenting device. You put your powerpoint slides on the phone, and if all else fails you can project your slides to any w10 laptop that's near.
The fact that this spins up a Debian desktop when you're in desktop mode seems to make this a much more viable option than some of the previous attempts at this, which expected you to want to use only android apps on your desktop.
I'd love to have both, though. Debian apps for productivity, android apps for communications/games, side by side on the same screen with shared storage and maybe synchronized state. As it is, I have to manually sync state between the two devices which results in missed messages and inconsistent state.
If the UIs supported a seamless mode, that would be icing.
If a cable has to be used, i'd prefer it to be a single USB-C, which also charges the phone while plugged in and being a desktop. Possibly to a dock with a keyboard/mouse/monitor and other ports.
ARM processors have made some insane progress over the recent years, maybe in another 4-6 from now they will actually be quick enough to really make this a solid experience.
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But if you think about it, the use case for almost 80% of the people out there that use laptops or desktops is for web browsing and office work (text editing etc) which phones should be able to handle well.
Think of any task that has ever caused your laptop fans to spin up, and cross that task off of what is possible on a phone-as-desktop list. No high definition video calls. No 1080p gaming. No fully functional IDEs (intellisense and interactive linting/compiling is computationally expensive). No high definition movies. Video/batch photo conversions are probably out, though may be possible at 1/10th speed. The most suc…
This is with a mid-range phone from a couple years ago. I think you're being overly pessimistic.
Windows mobile has had a similar feature for a while, but you know, windows. I've thought for a while that this is ultimately the way computing is moving - single device that fits in your pocket. I love my laptop, but there is no substituting the portability of a smart phone that seamlessly syncs with panels at home and at work.
On the other hand, although I love my phone's portability, there's no substituting a few hundred watts of processing power and a few terabytes of storage in a decent desktop.
Maybe this is the answer to the impending cabin baggage laptop ban. Carry a keyboard and screen in your hold bag, the phone with your data and applications in your pocket.
Instead of contriving ridiculously convoluted solutions to a non-problem we could simply stop electing politicians who propose implementing ludicrous airport security theatre.