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KDE Community Announces Fully Open Source Plasma Mobile

Posted by timothy on from the big-tent-takes-all-comers dept.

sfcrazy writes: Today, during the Akademy event, the KDE Community announced Plasma Mobile project. It's a Free (as in Freedom and beer), user-friendly, privacy-enabling and customizable platform for mobile devices. Plasma Mobile claims to be developed in an open process, and considering the community behind it, I don't doubt it. A great line: "Plasma Mobile is designed as an ‘inclusive’ platform and will support all kinds of apps. In addition to native apps written in Qt, it also supports GTK apps, Android apps, Ubuntu apps, and many others." And if you have a Nexus 5, you can download and play with a prototype now.

44 comments

  1. Not good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One thing I noticed during the presentation was that there were womyn developers involved in the project. I am really tired of the misogyny displayed by the community members. I demand that womyn be included. Or cows. Because cows say mooooo, right sexconker?

    1. Re: Not good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some women are cows, ergo you already included chicks in your Hurd. Big bags of win ensue.

    2. Re:Not good by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Sexconker is, I think, a goober at times. However, they posted one comment that was a parody of the moo troll. I am not sure how we concluded that they are the actual moo troll based on such limited data. I think they are more likely to be the GNAA guy. Maybe the goatse guy? Speaking of which, that goatse guy has been here for a very long time. That is some serious dedication.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    3. Re:Not good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's hardly a complex project that would require a coordinated group. It looks very much like the work one person, and that one person forgot to click the AC box when posting so we all know it's sexconcker:

      http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    4. Re:Not good by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Someone postulated that it was a group of trolls who made posts to see who could get the highest response count. They seemed to indicate some higher knowledge but, frankly, they could just be conspiratorially inclined. Anyhow, the posts seem to show up fairly quick and at all hours of the day. I suspect it is a bot. Faking a CAPTCHA is not too hard to do once you have enough samples.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. So, uh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    What is it?

    Distinctly left out of the summary...

    1. Re:So, uh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's a platform, obviously.

    2. Re: So, uh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is an Ubuntu phone install with Mir and Unity8 replaced by Wayland and KDE

  3. Re: Plasma is for cows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow. Imagine that. Someone actually figured out that "smartphones" (cough) can actually and truly be so. I am impressed.

    The hurdle here is in the encryption adoption process as if but a tiny fraction of users use encryption it is moot (just the way those pos in our govt like-faggots all).

  4. mobile needs *something*. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I haven't used Plasma Mobile, but the current mobile ecosystem is a mess, so we badly need an alternative even if it is niche.

    Right now we have these choices:

    iOS - Huge app ecosystem, but a non-starter for anyone who doesn't consider it acceptable for Apple maintain control over everybody's device, able to censor what apps you can run, etc. It is not an open platform, it's a control-freak company deciding what you can and can't do.

    Android - Huge app ecosystem, but a non-starter for anyone who doesn't consider it acceptable for mass scale harvesting of personal data by an advertising company. It's a "half open" platform, but the app ecosystem is a clusterfuck of crapware.

    FirefoxOS - "web apps". Meh.

    I don't know if Plasma is the answer, but today we don't have an answer for people who want a good mobile platform that is beholden to the device's actual owner. If this thing can be on the side of its owners, and enough apps are developed and ported to be useful (it doesn't have to get anywhere near the iOS or Android level - even a few % of that is fine as long as it covers the major bases), maybe it is an interesting project.

    1. Re:mobile needs *something*. by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      Android - Huge app ecosystem, but a non-starter for anyone who doesn't consider it acceptable for mass scale harvesting of personal data by an advertising company. It's a "half open" platform, but the app ecosystem is a clusterfuck of crapware.

      The crapware really isn't a problem. No one is forcing you to install crapware on your phone from the app store (undeletable crapware pre-loaded by the carrier and mfgr is another matter). If you're picky about what apps you install, you shouldn't have a problem. It's really no different from Windows that way: there's all kinds of crapware out there, but no one is forcing you to install, say, McAfee or PeopleSoft or some random toolbar on your Windows PC. Just stick to Firefox and MS or LibreOffice and you'll be fine. Now the danger of platforms like this is that you can easily install crapware, and you have to be a bit savvy and not completely naive and trusting that everything out there is OK. With (relative) freedom comes responsibility. So if you're a gullible fool, then you better stick with iOS and Apple iDevices, so that Apple can hold your hand and make sure you don't do anything you're not supposed to.

      Unfortunately, you're right about the mass harvesting of personal data part. This (and Apple's approach too) is a consequence of having a non-open platform, where you don't have access to the source code, nor can you easily change the software. Whoever controls the platform can do whatever they want with it. With Google, they mass-harvest personal data. With Apple, they control everything you do. With MS, they give you a shitty, broken UI.

    2. Re:mobile needs *something*. by lucm · · Score: 1, Funny

      the current mobile ecosystem is a mess, so we badly need an alternative

      Good idea. There's too many competing platforms that try to be the standard, so we need a new one that will really be the standard.

      https://xkcd.com/927/

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    3. Re: mobile needs *something*. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If being spied upon bothers you just DO NOT INSTALL GAPPS. Obvious innit?

    4. Re: mobile needs *something*. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is necessary but nowhere NEAR sufficient.

      Also, the gapps come pre-installed on most devices and can't be removed by the common person who isn't going to follow a page of jailbreaking instructions.

    5. Re:mobile needs *something*. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, I don't think the point was about "standard".

    6. Re:mobile needs *something*. by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Try not to laugh but there are Windows phone options as well. Ironically, from a practical standpoint - not from an idealistic view, they are really pretty open. The source is not open, of course. However, you can install and do anything you want on them and install things from any source you want to use. From a practical standpoint that makes them a viable option even if they are underused. I do not own one but I understand that they are actually quite good these days when viewed objectively.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  5. Re:Plasma is for cows by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 3, Funny

    My cows are from France.
    They go "Moi".
    They are very self centered...

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  6. What's its base? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What does it use? X11? Wayland? Mir? A new Qtish framebuffer?

    1. Re:What's its base? by Carewolf · · Score: 2

      Wayland.

    2. Re:What's its base? by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      why not read the article and view the video to find out?

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    3. Re:What's its base? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I haven't read TFA, but as this is for mobile devices, most likely it's a framebuffer.

    4. Re:What's its base? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      You have been here long enough to know that such behavior is not tolerated around here. You should feel bad for even suggesting such a thing. RTFA? No... We do not even read the summary half the time. We do not even read the comment we are replying to half the time. It is how we roll.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    5. Re:What's its base? by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      i know but i feel the need to occasionally encourage the lazy ones, i may get a convert one day but i'm not holding my breath.

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  7. Yawn ... Why mobile? by kbrannen · · Score: 0

    Why does everything have to be done for mobile, especially a framework that I see as fairly heavy? I run KDE on my desktop and it's fine. But on my phone? Why should I care about Plasma there? Not everything on my desktop needs to be on mobile.

    1. Re:Yawn ... Why mobile? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why does everything have to be done for mobile... I run KDE on my desktop and it's fine

      Your second sentence shows your first to be untrue. If you are running kDE on your desktop, then by definition everything is NOT being done for mobile. If you don't like mobile, then don't use it. Problem solved. If developers want to target the majority of the public, which these days means targeting mobile, that is their prerogative.

    2. Re:Yawn ... Why mobile? by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Informative

      This isn't the same KDE that runs on your desktop, this is a different version made for mobile platforms. Some of the underlying code (the "framework") is the same, but the UI is different. KDE is the only group out there, it seems, that thinks we should have different interfaces on different devices.

    3. Re:Yawn ... Why mobile? by iampiti · · Score: 1

      Since it seems that mobile is where the growth is. Therefore, if you're not there you'll miss on the millions of users who will use mobile devices as their primary (or only) computing devices. Of course, for commercial software (Windows) that's the difference from making a lot of money or just get much less from only the desktop market. For open source what you risk is irrelevance.
      At least I hope, this adapting of Plasma to mobile didn't involve fucking up the UI for desktop use as it happened with Windows 8/10.

    4. Re:Yawn ... Why mobile? by lucm · · Score: 3, Funny

      KDE is the only group out there, it seems, that thinks we should have different interfaces on different devices.

      KDE is also the only group out there that thinks we should have different interfaces on the same device.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    5. Re:Yawn ... Why mobile? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And they're right. I'm looking forward to setting up Plasma Mobile to automatically replace Plasma Desktop when I switch my Yoga 2 Pro into tablet mode.

  8. What about the RIL? by Chozabu · · Score: 1

    Do we get an open radio? is that outside the scope of this project?

    I'd really love to be able to call someone a mile away when we are both near each other but not a mast!

    1. Re:What about the RIL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very unlikely. For legal reasons the user is not allowed to have direct control over the radio.

  9. Re:Plasma is for cows by secretsquirel · · Score: 0

    mooooooooooooooooo!

  10. Seems like everybody has to have one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "KDE Announces Open Source Plasma Mobile"

    What is with this self-driving car craze?

    1. Re:Seems like everybody has to have one by lucm · · Score: 1

      Your script failed the Turing test.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
  11. KDE = My way or the highway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Note to the KDE developers: KDE is not supposed to be the star of the show. It's supposed to be there, unnoticed in the background, ready to do what I tell it to do, not what it thinks that I should be doing.

    1. Re:KDE = My way or the highway by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      I think you are confusing KDE with either GNOME or Unity. KDE is the desktop that allows you to configure it to work however you want it, the others are the ones that do not.

  12. That's great polish for an early demo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In fact, it already looks way more polished than Plasma on the desktop.

  13. Beer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Beer is usually not free

  14. Re:Plasma is for cows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My cows are from France.
    They go "Moi".
    They are very self centered...

    Mine go "shaaaazooooo!"

  15. Free by the_almighty_gooby · · Score: 1

    I am free. Phones are "free"; Software is "free"; When will we loose the quotation marks?

    1. Re:Free by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      "Free. . . . . . . . . . "

      Sorry for all the extra space there; my quotation mark got loose.

  16. Re:Plasma is for cows by KGIII · · Score: 2

    You did not turn it into a haiku.

    My cows are from France.
    They are very self-centered.
    They go Moi Moi Moi.

    I admit it is not as good as the gay sex haiku that has been popping up lately. But your post was so very close that it had to be done.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  17. KDE - disappointing by udippel · · Score: 2

    As a KDE person, I find the demo clip rather disappointing. So I have nothing against KDE, to the contrary.
    But what we see is totally off the shelf, a phone applet being pretty blunt, other apps, very much skeleton apps. I believe it does what it should do, but there was no visible refinement to a staple diet, basic interface.
    It looks as if the underlying software was the standard KDE software, so that would be fine, if we had an ecosystem that works on 32" as well as on 4.5". Does it? Thanks to Qt it ought to.
    So we see something of a rather academic interest?