I don't understand why in 2020 ability to dock and connect to K&M and display is not supported by most phones. There were attempts to do just that right before Windows Phone died, but hardly anyone tried this again. You now have enough RAM and CPU to run most desktop applications except maybe high end gaming. Why is it not done more?
It's been tried a few times but so far it hasn't caught on. Maybe with ARM getting more powerful in mobile devices, and with Apple doing ARM on desktop, we'll see some interested in it again. It's really up to the OS running on it and how well the manufacturer can merge mobile and desktop modes. Another issue is people tend to replace phones more frequently than laptops, so ongoing compatibility with new devices would need to be there.
It has never been tried before. There has never been a commercial phone which allowed unmodified desktop apps to run on an external monitor while allowing phone apps on the phone itself. The closest so far is DeX but that is a joke. It does not even support 4K much less multiple monitors. Are there still desktop users who are happy with just one monitor? I prefer four on my desk, not sure how a phone could be a desktop replacement with just one video output. And it should be easy - DP with MST allows multiple monitors to chain off of one connecting port on the phone but nobody implemented it so far!!! DeX does not let you apt get install stuff and run applications locally - a lot of stuff is via cloud only or it just gives you android apps. The GUI is limited. No Gnome, no KDE, no ability to choose whether you run X or Wayland. It's just a joke with no real use. Windows phone promised convergence but running full MS Office locally on the phone was not possible. Getting full Windows with all the fancy custom GUI customizing applications was impossible. It was again a joke. There has never been a commercial phone which gave users full access to boot, CPU, GPU, and memory/storage, as well as ports like USB and made it easy to run any code at will and provided workable drivers which would be either open or had stable and open APIs.
If you're not happy with one monitor, you won't be happy using your phone as a PC either. It won't have enough RAM and the storage won't be fast enough to actually make use of multiple monitors, especially at 4k.
MaruOS works fine on one monitor even on older hardware. There is enough processing power to get 4K out on most phones now. Galaxy phones supposedly can output 4K from USB and 4K out the network and still work well. People have this vision of smartphones as underpowered toys which they were ten years ago. Now - they can do some real work.
Most phones limit out at 4 or 8 GB RAM. I'm about to upgrade my PC to 32GB because 16GB isn't enough to avoid swapping. And swapping to your mobile phone's slowassed storage is going to punch performance right in the nuts. Also, eight mobile cores get their asses kicked by eight desktop cores, and you can build a whole PC system with a mediocre dedicated GPU for about $400 that will shit directly on any cellphone in every department but portability.
YOU might want this functionality, but most people would ra
It is an often observed fact that for most people PCs were powerful enough ten years ago. A lot of people have not upgraded their systems in ages or even downgraded to chromebooks and tablets. Also do not forget that there is now a large class of people who do all their computing via their phones. Corporations are also stretching their upgrade cycles because truth be told Word 95 is still good enough for most office writing tasks. Other than for games or serious content creation work (coding, art, science),
My phone has 6GB o RAM, 8 cores and 128GB of internal storage.
It will *easily* run a full KDE desktop with two screens and all that I need for even mobile game development.
I know, because I did exactly that on a 4GB RAM machine, some years ago, and the only thing that changed in my usage is the bloat and crap thar browsers bring. And the phones already run those modern browsers, so clearly that is not the problem.
But maybe you run a 100 tabs because apparently you types haven't heard of bookmarks yet.
Sure it has. For example Razer tried it, as did Asus. The problem has always been, as I suggested in my reply, that no one has got the mix of mobile and laptop OS correct yet.
DeX is good for what it is. You wouldn't replace your laptop with it but if you need to work on a long email on the go or edit a document it gets the job done. I'd take that over having to lug an extra device around to do those things.
You have to remember that most people don't want to install Gnome, don't even know what KDE is. Supporting all that stuff would be a huge amount of time and effort for the 3 people who would actually use it, and they probably wouldn't buy a Samsung phone anyway because of some
Are there still desktop users who are happy with just one monitor? I prefer four on my desk, not sure how a phone could be a desktop replacement with just one video output.
Yes, almost all PC and laptop users have a single monitor.
I prefer four on my desk
You are really getting this thread.
There has never been a commercial phone which allowed unmodified desktop apps to run on an external monitor while allowing phone apps on the phone itself.
Yes, of course. Yes because a phone is a phone. If you don't like the cost of them now, you're going to love it when they have the graphic prowess to run an external 4k monitor, and the flash speed, RAM speed, and processor speed to run desktop apps, all packed into a phone form factor. And the internal memory to store full desktop application. And a battery the size of laptop battery so it can last >1 hour off c
"Just think of a computer as hardware you can program."
-- Nigel de la Tierre
Docking smartphones (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Docking smartphones (Score:3)
It has never been tried before. There has never been a commercial phone which allowed unmodified desktop apps to run on an external monitor while allowing phone apps on the phone itself. The closest so far is DeX but that is a joke. It does not even support 4K much less multiple monitors. Are there still desktop users who are happy with just one monitor? I prefer four on my desk, not sure how a phone could be a desktop replacement with just one video output. And it should be easy - DP with MST allows multiple monitors to chain off of one connecting port on the phone but nobody implemented it so far!!! DeX does not let you apt get install stuff and run applications locally - a lot of stuff is via cloud only or it just gives you android apps. The GUI is limited. No Gnome, no KDE, no ability to choose whether you run X or Wayland. It's just a joke with no real use. Windows phone promised convergence but running full MS Office locally on the phone was not possible. Getting full Windows with all the fancy custom GUI customizing applications was impossible. It was again a joke. There has never been a commercial phone which gave users full access to boot, CPU, GPU, and memory/storage, as well as ports like USB and made it easy to run any code at will and provided workable drivers which would be either open or had stable and open APIs.
Re: (Score:2)
If you're not happy with one monitor, you won't be happy using your phone as a PC either. It won't have enough RAM and the storage won't be fast enough to actually make use of multiple monitors, especially at 4k.
Re: (Score:2)
MaruOS works fine on one monitor even on older hardware. There is enough processing power to get 4K out on most phones now. Galaxy phones supposedly can output 4K from USB and 4K out the network and still work well. People have this vision of smartphones as underpowered toys which they were ten years ago. Now - they can do some real work.
Re: (Score:2)
Most phones limit out at 4 or 8 GB RAM. I'm about to upgrade my PC to 32GB because 16GB isn't enough to avoid swapping. And swapping to your mobile phone's slowassed storage is going to punch performance right in the nuts. Also, eight mobile cores get their asses kicked by eight desktop cores, and you can build a whole PC system with a mediocre dedicated GPU for about $400 that will shit directly on any cellphone in every department but portability.
YOU might want this functionality, but most people would ra
Re: (Score:2)
It is an often observed fact that for most people PCs were powerful enough ten years ago. A lot of people have not upgraded their systems in ages or even downgraded to chromebooks and tablets. Also do not forget that there is now a large class of people who do all their computing via their phones. Corporations are also stretching their upgrade cycles because truth be told Word 95 is still good enough for most office writing tasks. Other than for games or serious content creation work (coding, art, science),
Re: (Score:2)
Ten years ago that was valid. But now webpages beat a computer of ten years ago like a pinata.
Re: (Score:2)
Cell phones actually do a very good job with web pages today. If that's the intended workload then smartphone-based computing is a great fit.
Re: Docking smartphones (Score:2)
My phone has 6GB o RAM, 8 cores and 128GB of internal storage.
It will *easily* run a full KDE desktop with two screens and all that I need for even mobile game development.
I know, because I did exactly that on a 4GB RAM machine, some years ago, and the only thing that changed in my usage is the bloat and crap thar browsers bring. And the phones already run those modern browsers, so clearly that is not the problem.
But maybe you run a 100 tabs because apparently you types haven't heard of bookmarks yet.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
DeX is good for what it is. You wouldn't replace your laptop with it but if you need to work on a long email on the go or edit a document it gets the job done. I'd take that over having to lug an extra device around to do those things.
You have to remember that most people don't want to install Gnome, don't even know what KDE is. Supporting all that stuff would be a huge amount of time and effort for the 3 people who would actually use it, and they probably wouldn't buy a Samsung phone anyway because of some
Re: (Score:2)
Are there still desktop users who are happy with just one monitor? I prefer four on my desk, not sure how a phone could be a desktop replacement with just one video output.
Yes, almost all PC and laptop users have a single monitor.
I prefer four on my desk
You are really getting this thread.
There has never been a commercial phone which allowed unmodified desktop apps to run on an external monitor while allowing phone apps on the phone itself.
Yes, of course. Yes because a phone is a phone. If you don't like the cost of them now, you're going to love it when they have the graphic prowess to run an external 4k monitor, and the flash speed, RAM speed, and processor speed to run desktop apps, all packed into a phone form factor. And the internal memory to store full desktop application. And a battery the size of laptop battery so it can last >1 hour off c