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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.

8 of 44 comments (clear)

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

    Wayland.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.
  6. 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."
  7. 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?