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Gnome, KDE, LXDE, IceWM All Working On Android

dooberrymctavish writes "Ghostwalker over at AndroidFanatic has gone and done it again; now he's released clear and concise instructions on how to get X11 server running on your Android device. Not only that, but he has successfully gotten LXDE, and IceWM running at a pace. There is even a photo with the instructions showing the LXDE desktop running right there on the device itself. Apparently, you can also VNC straight onto the phone's new desktop from your PC."

20 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. But does it run... by Elitist_Phoenix · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... wait never mind!

    --
    "I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google"
  2. So much potential by cpicon92 · · Score: 5, Funny

    can you make phone calls with it?

  3. Er, no thanks. by Speare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even the 800x480 of a Nokia N810 is a bit cramped for normal desktop style window managers. I hate to contemplate what it would be like to use anything like them on the 320x480 screen that is the G1. And I really don't think it's worth building up an Android netbook distro just to rip it back down to use desktop window managers-- if you want that, then run Linux on it already and forget about the Android application stack.

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
    1. Re:Er, no thanks. by Microlith · · Score: 5, Informative

      It may not look bad, but I run into situations repeatedly on my Aspire One where the dialog is simply too tall to be usable. Sometimes options, and frequently the Help/Ok/Cancel buttons are below the bottom edge of the screen (even if I set both of the gnome panels to autohide) and cannot be reached.

      Frequently I run into default windows that are larger than 640x480, which while small was typical not long ago, and still common among mobile resolutions. GUI designers need to keep this in mind.

    2. Re:Er, no thanks. by outZider · · Score: 4, Insightful

      .. because he's saying that most window managers can't fit well in the resolution. It doesn't matter how well Android handles sizing if the window manager that you're trying itself is terrible at it.

      --
      - oZ
      // i am here.
  4. Great Combination. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Speed and resolution of a Portable Device, combined with the large size of a Desktop PC.
    Yea you get geek cred points but for the most part it is kinda useless, for most real uses.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:Great Combination. by Icarus1919 · · Score: 4, Funny

      But what about fake uses? Like when your server farm goes down and you need to set up a network of cell phones to get your site up and running again? Did you stop to think about that?

    2. Re:Great Combination. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Whenever somebody says "server farm" I imagine some guy wearing plaid and overalls out in a barnhouse milking servers.

  5. To merge your phone with your PC... by sonamchauhan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/) and X2VNC (http://directory.fsf.org/project/x2vnc/) can be useful to 'merge' your phone and home PC screens. Move your mouse over to your android screen, copy something, paste it onto your PC application.

    From Synergy website:

    Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

    Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all. Learn more about how it works.

  6. Re:Well thats all an good by TinBromide · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There was a slashdot article a month or so ago about how they got android to work on a small pc, but the GUI wasn't all there and they couldn't get it to work. So if they combine the desktop work with this gui combination, android will be a competitor in the netbook market.

    --
    Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
  7. Re:Driver issue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Because we can" the neckbearded Linux dweebs living in their mother's basement will tell you in between LARP sessions and shoving greased up Yoda dolls into their asses, while the adults are running rock-solid proprietary software on their server machines to do things which are actually important. Get the facts, people.

  8. Re:What's not to like? by PrescriptionWarning · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ubuntu Mobile certainly has my ears perked up :)

  9. Re:Rolling our own mobile desktop by sketerpot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Android is already a free software platform where users can write software without being locked out. Isn't that what you're looking for? Sure, it came from Google and is promoted by a consortium of telecom giants, rather than springing straight from the People, but as long as a cat catches mice, does it really matter what color it is?

  10. So if I were to install Skype on it... by lordofwhee · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...I could use it as a mobile phone!

  11. Re:What's not to like? by msuarezalvarez · · Score: 4, Informative

    X is not short for "X11 Window manager". If you do not know that X is not a window manager, you should probably be reading up on what X is instead of trying to makecomments about frame buffers, memory usage and other things you do not know about...

  12. Re:This is heinous by Paradigm_Complex · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, I was far more excited to hear that X was ported than any given desktop because this is exactly where X shines.

    I $ssh -x quite often from my eeepc in class. It's nice to be able to use my desktop computer's far superior processing power for things like compiling LaTeX documents (it's the format I take all my notes - lots of math stuff). Additionally it's nice to be able to take advantage of my computer's superior disk space for all sorts of things. The problem is, this is highly dependent on getting a wifi signal.

    I ssh from my blackberry quite a bit as well. It'd be great if I could ssh some X stuff over it, for all the same reasons it works wonderfully on my eeepc - but when I don't have the eeepc or are lacking wifi. I can manage without it (my command-line-fu is not weak), but it'd be great if I did not have to do things like rip out the text from a PDF before reading it remotely, etc.

    Hopefully I can keep from breaking my blackberry until a viable option for $ssh -x'ing from a new phone will be available.

    --
    "A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
  13. Re:They got VNC backwards.... by amirulbahr · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes you can. Check out the Android VNC Viewer.

  14. Re:What's not to like? by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You have no fucking clue what you are talking about.

    Just thought I'd let you know.

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
  15. Re:Driver issue by slamb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And where do I get this "rock-solid proprietary software"? I've been in the business 20 years, not seen any yet.

    I've never seen any "rock-solid software" of any kind, but at least the Open Source stuff I can fix by myself when needed.

  16. Re:For that matter so is the iPhone by Nursie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Just as open in the end."

    What total bullsh*t.

    Android is open from the kernel upwards, you can develop what you like for it without needing a developer account or a jailbreak. This is massively different from the iPhone, on which you can only make software if you have an account and the stack itself is totally closed.

    This is why android can now be run on multiple devices, some ported by the community.