New Samsung Video Demos Linux on Galaxy Smartphones (liliputing.com)

Slashdot reader boudie2 tipped us off to some Linux news. Liliputing reports: Samsung's DeX dock lets you connect one of the company's recent phones to an external display, mouse, and keyboard to use your phone like a desktop PC... assuming you're comfortable with a desktop PC that runs Android. But soon you may also be able to use your Android phone as a Linux PC [and] the company has released a brief video that provides more details. One of those details? At least one of the Linux environments in question seems to be Ubuntu 16.04... While that's the only option shown, the fact that it does seem to be an option suggests you may be able to run different Linux environments as well.

Once Ubuntu is loaded, the video shows a user opening Eclipse, an integrated development environment that's used to create Java (and Android apps). In other words, you can develop apps for Android phones with ARM-based processors on an Android phone with an ARM-based processor.
Samsung promised in October that its Linux on Galaxy app will ultimately let users "run their preferred Linux distribution on their smartphones utilizing the same Linux kernel that powers the Android OS."

Comments

Isn't this already possible?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have GNURoot Debian on my Galaxy Note 4. I already have a Linux environment. What's the benefit to this versus what I already have? I can run most Linux software packages already by installing them with apt, including stuff like Eclipse, Octave, and LibreOffice.

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[slashrio]

How did you do that?

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[vux984]

"What's the benefit to this versus what I already have?"

Presumably it's available out of the box and ready to go with a few touches of a button, with official support from the vendor.

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[ShanghaiBill]

What's the benefit to this versus what I already have?

The benefit is that you don't have to be a basement-dwelling geek to get it to work. You just plug it in and turn it on. This is for normal people to use their phone with a large display and a nice keyboard, to edit docs, work with spreadsheets, tweak images, etc. For many people, their phone is their computer, and this will make that easier and more common.

Re: Isn't this already possible?

[Anonymous Coward]

Normal people donâ(TM)t run Linux!

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[Anonymous Coward]

++ ARROGANCE

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[Anonymous Coward]

The benefit is that Samsung gets more money by selling "DeX", the absolutely necessary thingy for using Linux on their selected unnecessarily expensive models. For user the benefit is less than 0. Meaning it is something less than rooted and well managed phone.

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[thegarbz]

I would also add that this isn't some kind of trade-off. It works without changing anything from the phone function of the phone OS while using it as a smartphone.

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[geekmux]

...For many people, their phone is their computer, and this will make that easier and more common.

Yeah, these are the same people who would label a fucking Roku stick a "computer".

Sorry, but I'd prefer to not have the masses redefine what sits on my desk. At this rate, our future computer will be a dumb terminal driven to market by mindless idiots who think SaaS addiction is hip and cool. That $19.99 computer will "only" cost you $149.99/month to operate. Gee, what a fucking bargain.

I swear, common sense is dying faster that the concept of ownership.

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[Anonymous Coward]

As the man said when asked what use was a telephone "What use is a newborn baby?"

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[Holi]

Like the Motorola Atrix? Because vendor support is only a good thing if it actually supports the product. The Atrix had one update before it was relegated to the trash bin of history along with Webtop.

Re: Isn't this already possible?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey look it's bitztream the autism-hating, custom EpiPen-hating, Musk-hating, Qualcomm-hating, Firefox tabs-hating, Slashdot editors-hating Slashdot troll!

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[FuegoFuerte]

Of course it is... I've been doing it on my Windows Phone for several years.

Re: Isn't this already possible?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this modded -1? He/she disputes OPs points and goes into detail. Just because you disagree with what he/she said doesn't make it a -1. That's the problem with slashdot.

In the age where Russian troll posters and creimers quick one liners get modded up, but post that have no business being modded to -1 are. Fuck YOu slashdot.

Re: Isn't this already possible?

[Rakarra]

Why is this modded -1? He/she disputes OPs points and goes into detail. Just because you disagree with what he/she said doesn't make it a -1. That's the problem with slashdot.

I'd say that his repeated assertion is that everyone who isn't a giant nerd-lord (I might be a giant nerd-lord...) not be allowed to touch a computer is, by this point, flamebait.

Re: Isn't this already possible?

[Rakarra]

Thanks, AC! I couldn't tell by looking at the comment bar who wrote this. I'm glad I had a social-skills-challenged AC to help me figure it out.

Re:Isn't this already possible?

[vux984]

No. Like the Samsung Galaxy series since this is what this actually *IS*.

Video Link

[boudie2]

Here's the Samsung demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Video Link

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's the Samsung demo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

"Video" is right! But thanks for the link. : )

Re:Video Link

[Hal_Porter]

Eclipse is sluggish on an a fast x64 chip. Running it on a Snapdragon 835 is likely to be painful

http://weborus.com/snapdragon-...

Geekbench is a admittedly a bit bogus but I can't find anyone doing a decent benchmark like SpecInt comparisons between x64 and ARM.

Re:Video Link

[boudie2]

I have an android phone, but am not impressed. One fault of android is that you can't do development on it, you need a proper X86 box for the SDK. Its nice to see samsung doing something with linux. Perhaps it will lead to something more useful.

Re:Video Link

[Hal_Porter]

I've got a three year old Samsung Galaxy S5 which is fine as a phone. I haven't upgraded it because they won't sell me anything faster with a removable battery, water seals, an SD card and a headphone socket.

Now one problem they've got is that I'm not the only one who's not upgrading their phone every two years like people used to do.

I reckon things like this are a way to push that. Eclipse or even LibreOffice on a Snapdragon 835 will work but it will be a painful experience. If you bought the next S9 or S10 with a faster CPU it would be less so - maybe even comparable your aging x64 development machine, but still not as fast as a new development machine.

I..e. it's a proof of concept but I think it's only really useful if you had a CPU that was 2-4 times faster. Which of course Samsung will be happy to sell you in two to four years time. And hey, in two years time the non removable battery in your S8 will have lost half its capacity and Android will have started to run hotter and slower.

I.e. Samsung are trying to get people back on the upgrade treadmill.

Re:Video Link

[MrL0G1C]

Second that. Things that stops me from upgrading from my (over 5 years old) Galaxy Note 2 are, it has quad core, it works fine still, it takes great pic's, it has a replaceable battery which is very cheap even for the Samsung branded battery. OTOH The new Galaxy Note cost is absurd and it doesn't have a replaceable battery.

Re:Video Link

[chapstercni]

Still using and enjoying my Note 4 here. Recently replaced with a like new for $130 bucks and does so much....

How is this new?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ubuntu was onto this years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzc0uMXGFBY

Still proprietary

[Gravis Zero]

The big advantage of Linux is that you can customize it to do what you want. "Linux on Galaxy" is a half-assed measure to win over... somebody. Not sure who they think they are winning over but it's not the people who want to run Linux on their phones because it's still a proprietary system just with a sandbox. However, if they didn't do this properly, then you can expect to see this phone model get rooted upon it's release.

Re:Still proprietary

[DontBeAMoran]

Intel ME
AMD PSP

Re:Still proprietary

[rtb61]

The big advantage is long term development. So the next logical step a Samsung Linux phone, why bother with Android if well, you can get all the Linux apps you want from the Samsung store and from a Samsung point of view, they are no longer reliant up Google or subject to Google's control. So looking to drop Android on a range of Linux specific phones?

Re:Still proprietary

[Tough Love]

Sounds like whining. Remember when Linux was available on PS3? I did not personally use it, but - surprise - I ran into people who did, and never would have been exposed to Linux except for that. And they got pretty pissed when Sony took it away, to the extent that one just stopped accepting PS3 updates, but that's another story. I expect, a whole bunch of people are going to meet the real Linux for the first time because of this, and some of them are going to go on to be active community members. See, just one of those is worth more to the world than 1000 whiners.

Re:Still proprietary

[Anonymous Coward]

The big advantage of Linux is that you can customize it to do what you want. "Linux on Galaxy" is a half-assed measure to win over... somebody.

I'm thinking the common Windows developer.
Someone who isn't really used enough to the Linux ecosystem to root his phone and set this up by himself but that still would love to have a really portable desktop environment.
Laptops are great but you have to plan for them. You typically won't bring them with you unless you intend to do something with them.

If you already have your code checked out on your phone then it is easy to look at the code if you have an epiphany while on the crapper or on the bus. Even if it is impractical to enter any code without a proper keyboard you can at least see if everything is as you remembered it.

The one thing talking against it is that you still need the equivalent of a docking station for it to be really usable. That is something you have at home and at work and nowhere else.

Re:Still proprietary

[Gravis Zero]

Sounds like whining.

Seems like posting that is just an easy way to be dismissive of other people's views. Honestly, couldn't I just claim that your post what's truly whiny in this situation?

Re:Still proprietary

[Tough Love]

Seems like posting that is just an easy way to be dismissive of other people's views. Honestly, couldn't I just claim that your post what's truly whiny in this situation?

Please fee free, and I will dismiss you as a whiner, as is right, good and just :)

Re:Still proprietary

[Rakarra]

Sounds like whining. Remember when Linux was available on PS3? I did not personally use it, but - surprise - I ran into people who did, and never would have been exposed to Linux except for that. And they got pretty pissed when Sony took it away, to the extent that one just stopped accepting PS3 updates

I was super-excited to install Linux on my PS3. Was I pissed that Sony remove the feature? Eh, only a little. The thing is that I had already made my peace with Linux on the Playstation -- it was crappy experience and I was long over it. It was that thing that you repartitioned your drive for (I upgraded the PS3 drive) to install Yellow Dog, played with a few hours, and never touched again. You were not given access to all the cell processors' resources, and the GPU was mostly locked away. All of this is presumably so that the platform couldn't be used for game piracy (or emulators). Those limitations imposed by the hypervisor made PS3 Linux not terribly useful for most people. If you were hyped up thinking of the things you could do with it, imagining it'd be like Linux installed on your PC... oh, that was some brutal disappointment.

YDL on PS3 got some short term attention when people clustered them for scientific number crunching, but it was quickly passed by the PC market.

Welcome to the history 5 years ago

[Anonymous Coward]

Already on Xperia (Acro) S Ubuntu could be ran. Yeah, was slow but still, phone had direct mini HDMI out and with BT mouse, keyboard road warriors dream.

with your logic, every computer is proprietary

[Anonymous Coward]

Every computer has proprietary stuff, every computer has limitations, your argument is meaningless babble. The point is that you can boot up a linux kernel and run linux apps.

Re:with your logic, every computer is proprietary

[cyba]

(...) The point is that you can boot up a linux kernel and run linux apps.

Most probably it's running different userspace on top of existing (Android) Linux kernel.

Re:with your logic, every computer is proprietary

[Anonymous Coward]

Most probably it's running different userspace on top of existing (Android) Linux kernel.

If userspace programs run without modification, then who cares?

Re:with your logic, every computer is proprietary

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody?

As in, anyone who cares are already running a chrooted Debian userspace on top of the existing (Android) Linux kernel.

Re:with your logic, every computer is proprietary

[Rakarra]

I could do that on a Playstation 3 as well, but it was pointless since the hypervisor locked you out out of many of the hardware resources that you would need to really do useful things... or create any application that would compete with Sony's core games business.

"Linux" on a Galaxy means nothing. "Linux" on a Galaxy with full access to the hardware, able to run Android programs and connect to AT&T / Verizon / et all just like an AT&T-branded phone... now that might be something.

Re:Linux is communism

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux is communism

Yeah Amazon and google make billions of dollars in profit because they are communists.

Re:prediction:

[Anonymous Coward]

This will be DOA because Linux fucking suuuucks as a desktop. Always has, always will.

and yet linux desktops outnumber mac desktops, even just counting chromebooks

Samsung is so unoriginal

[OrangeTide]

Motorola Atrix from 2011 was an Android phone that would run a Linux desktop (X11) when you plugged it into an external monitor. And there was a dock for the Atrix that gives you keyboard, display and extra battery. The Atrix dock did not sell well and a lot of hobbyists picked them up at a discount and rewired them for their own projects, mostly into Raspberry Pi laptops.

Re:Samsung is so unoriginal

[Cyberax]

I played with it at the time. It was awkward and slow - there was just 1Gb of RAM and 3D acceleration didn't work with X11. IO was also painfully slow.

Samsung S8 has 4Gb RAM and a far faster CPU and storage. It's still on a low end for desktops, but it's at least starting to look feasible.

Re:Samsung is so unoriginal

[OrangeTide]

Oh I know, I made that device. It wasn't very good.

People use 700 MHz Raspberry Pi as their "desktop". Not a lot of people, but some are using it. Having huge specs doesn't really make something a desktop or not. (all of these are still more powerful than my first desktop computer)

Re:Samsung is so unoriginal

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish I know about it back then ... Then I would have gotten it... Same as the asus transformer phone that could be a tablet or a phone... This kind of tech is not yet full explored

Re:Samsung is so unoriginal

[Tough Love]

Everybody who installs, uses or provides Linux is unoriginal. By that measure, unoriginal is fine.

You gotta keep 'em separated

[Stormwatch]

I think this is a pointless effort. You can't just take a desktop operating system and cram it into a mobile device. They don't work the same way.

Even if you tweak the system itself, create a new interface that works acceptably with a tiny touch screen - you still have a whole ecosystem, thousands of programs designed for big screen and physical peripheral. So using them becomes a painful, clumsy chore - sometimes literally impossible. (Trust me, I had a Win10 tablet. Big mistake.)

But wait, there's that dock. You can connect the phone to an external display, mouse, and keyboard to use it like a PC. That means you have to carry an external display, mouse, and keyboard with you. Or hope they will have a spare external display, mouse, and keyboard wherever you go. You know what's better in pretty much every way? A goddamn laptop.

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[ShanghaiBill]

That means you have to carry an external display, mouse, and keyboard with you.

Or you could have an external display and keyboard at home, and another setup at the office, like millions of people already do with their laptops.

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[Kjella]

I think this is a pointless effort. You can't just take a desktop operating system and cram it into a mobile device.

Except they're doing the opposite. Maybe it's not an efficient use of screen space, but scaling up a small screen works. A keyboard obviously works fine. And you got no problem using the mouse to hit an UI element made for sausage fingers. As long as you don't need multi-finger gestures other than pinch and zoom which map great to the mouse wheel you're doing okay.

That means you have to carry an external display, mouse, and keyboard with you. Or hope they will have a spare external display, mouse, and keyboard wherever you go.

It's not for people who need a laptop, quite the opposite. It's for people that only occasionally need something bigger than a smartphone, most likely at home where external display = TV with HDMI. You already have the phone (sunk cost), you already have a TV (sunk cost), buy a little dock and keyboard/mouse and you can write that letter and do that spreadsheet without the laptop.

Granted, right now it only exists on super expensive Galaxy S8s and the dock itself was not cheap but if they can bring it to cheaper phones and bring the price of the dock down - it already went from a launch price of $150 to $90 - there's hundreds of millions of people who have just a smartphone and nothing else. Who don't have a ton of Windows applications they miss. Who are not gamers (or at least Candy Crush-type gamers), who don't need workstations, who sometimes just needs a big screen and better input.

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[Stormwatch]

At home and at the office, where you surely can use an actual PC anyway. So, again, what's the point?

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[Anonymous Coward]

If hundreds of millions of people just have a smartphone and nothing else, why would you believe they have a monitor and keyboard/mouse sitting around waiting for this.

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[ShanghaiBill]

At home and at the office, where you surely can use an actual PC anyway. So, again, what's the point?

The point is that you don't need to buy a PC, or a laptop. Your phone is your computer. For 90% of people, a phone has plenty of computing power.

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[MangoCats]

The trick of developing apps on the target hardware is a nice one, and phone processors are up to the task.

With bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and WiDi projection (that one's probably not ready, yet), you could literally walk up to a $300 "workstation" with your device and sit down and use it like a desktop without even taking it out of your pocket. Then walk away and all of what you've been doing is still there in your pocket.

Or, you could store everything "on the cloud," and access it from your phone or desktops - because that works so well.

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[Tough Love]

Oh, you mean, like a laptop?

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[thegarbz]

That means you have to carry an external display, mouse, and keyboard with you.

I spend most of my life moving between fixed docks. I don't carry anything with me except the device doing the work. When I'm on the go I don't expect to use something like this. It's when I reach where I'm getting to that this becomes useful.

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[itsme1234]

This has been tried with Microsoft Continuum and Samsung DeX but for whatever reason it just isn't popular (to say the least). There were dreams about having docking stations in the offices/homes/hotels/etc. but they went for now at least the way of the flying car.

A PC isn't the huge investment that used to be 20 years ago and one that would perform as a desktop for light browsing/youtube/document editing or whatever you want to do with a phone can be found literally in the trash. People just aren't setting up a desktop environment with monitor/keyboard/mouse and skip the PC. Using the phone as a desktop is way less flexible and "strange", you tie your phone to the desk, it just isn't something that anybody seem to want.

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[Anonymous Coward]

A $20 Bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo plus a $50 dock would be less than a PC, and no management of a new device. The TV they have. In many places a mobile data plan for web and light document writing is relatively cheap, so if you stick with terrestrial or satellite TV you can skip a phone connection entirely, whilst having a better way to apply for jobs, etc.

Re:You gotta keep 'em separated

[edtice1559]

The reason to do this isn't about cost. It's about reducing context-switching time.

FINAL!

[n329619]

2017 Year of the Linux on Desktop!

oh wait it's actually on a phone?...

2017 Year of the Linux on top of Desk!

close enough.

Depends on Samsung's OS customisation

[slincolne]

I ditched my Samsung phone because of the horrible software they jammed into Android - bloatware of the first order that ruined it compared to Google's phones.

If their Linux implementations have the same stuff stuck in and are dependant on Samsung support for ongoing updates then count me out.

Finally a Professional OS?

[Anonymous Coward]

Had to be said. Java is not a good OS foundation.

Re:Finally a Professional OS?

[Tough Love]

Had to be said. Java is not a good OS foundation.

Java is not the foundation of Android, it is just the language that (most) apps are written in. The Android libs are written in C and C++.

Re:prediction:

[DontBeAMoran]

First of all you are cherry-picking your statistics to believe your own lies.

1. Apple sells a lot more laptops than desktops. Only counting Mac desktops is sure to lower their numbers.

2. Chromebooks are not Linux, they're Chrome OS, dependent on Google and online applications. A real Linux system does not depend on Google for anything.

3. Without Chromebooks Linux is far from outnumbering Macs on the desktop.

Of course, Linux has more installs if you count servers, but you're talking about desktops so you can't include servers.

Developing Java apps on ARM?

[darthsilun]

Seems to be missing the point IMO

Java is fine as far as that goes, but native apps would be much more interesting in this context.

Run a virtual desktop instead

[Anonymous Coward]

I ran a Note 8 recently in a Dex dock. USB mouse & KB, wired ethernet, HDMI out to a 4k screen.
Dock would only output at 1080p which was disappointing, though being HDMI 2.0 is supposed to be fixed by firmware update.

Other than that it ran flawlessly, setup email and the usual basics, then ran a virtual desktop for our internal apps. Definitely has potential in that space to replace a lot of basic PCs + mobile phones to a single device.

Lingo

[markdavis]

>"Samsung's DeX dock lets you connect one of the company's recent phones to an external display, mouse, and keyboard to use your phone like a desktop PC... assuming you're comfortable with a desktop PC that runs Android. "

So if you're not comfortable with Android, you can't connect it to use as desktop?

nuance needed

[Anonymous Coward]

2. Chromebooks are not Linux, they're Chrome OS, dependent on Google and online applications. A real Linux system does not depend on Google for anything.

'real'? You are doing some serious narrative pushing here. The way people should look at the issue is- what is the user experience of installing and using an alternate linux os such as the mainstream most popular, debian/ubuntu/fedora. In my book, if you are choosing to run a linux-kernel based distro, even one that is distributed by and heavily dependent on google, as long as you have a realistic alternative of running one or two fairly popular mainstream non-google-dependent options, then it absolutely counts as a 'real Linux system', even in the non-literal way you mean it (or mapped to my personal emphatic feelings on why the statement could matter seriously).

Honestly I don't know the answer, maybe some slashdotter could summarize the real viability of spending an hour installing a mainstream linux distro on a chromebook. I presume there might be some dark binary firmware blob corners, and those should be mentioned in the summary along with variously degraded functionality (some of which I and many or most others might not care about much, some of which I might).

Re:nuance needed

[DontBeAMoran]

Being able to "installing Linux on a Chromebook" doesn't make all Chromebooks Linux systems.

Your argument is flawed from the start.

Meh

[XSportSeeker]

Let's see... Ubuntu running on top of Android provided that you have a Galaxy S8 or Note 8, and that you buy an expensive docking station to make it work. Ok then.

Re:Meh

[Tough Love]

...you buy an expensive docking station to make it work...

Is $93 expensive? (Checkout price on amazon.)

open systems don't use emulation

[Anonymous Coward]

I used a program called crouton on the Chromebook to swap between kernels. The ability to entirely load/unload Linux is something powerful that can only come from open source technology and gives yield to better coding practices.

"video shows a user opening Eclipse"

[Anonymous Coward]

must be a reeeeallllllllllllly long video.

Re:Linux is communism

[ShanghaiBill]

There is nothing inherently wrong with communism. It just doesn't work with physical goods. But it seems to work fine with software and other intellectual property, by eliminating the need for artificial scarcity.

There are more than two billion computers running some form of Linux. Normal economics doesn't reflect all that value because it is "free", but it is a tremendous amount of goodness available to each according to their need.

Linux is so awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

By boyfriend luvs it!

Develop apps for Android ... on an Android phone

[mnemotronic]

... you can develop apps for Android phones with ARM-based processors on an Android phone ...

What a great idea. Using EMACS?

Ubuntu ARM

[Anonymous Coward]

It's Ubuntu, so I don't know where you got that from.

I run Ubuntu on a bunch of devices now, usually these octa core TV boxes (8 core but about the performance of Core i3 on mobile):

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/T95R-Pro-Android-6-0-Smart-TV-Box-Amlogic-S912-Octa-Core-2GB-16GB-Kodi-16/32803669665.html

By the looks of it, I can leave the Android running on the box, and run Linux over the Android, which would make installing Linux less of a PITA on these boxes. That's a good thing I think, Libre Office on a neat box costing $55.

This wins my business

[EmperorOfCanada]

I love my iPhone, it mostly works and doesn't endlessly make me angry like my Sony Android did.

This phone would cause me to switch in a heartbeat. The key though is that I am a programmer, embedded and otherwise. Seemingly a pretty niche market. But I am an influencer. Not that I can tell the entire world to switch but I work with businesses and could make a far more compelling reason to use Samsung. Super custom security or whatever. This is a very very smart thing for them to cater to the many but small percentage of people like me.

Old News

[Jane Q. Public]

If you don't mind a bit of DIY setup, it has been possible to do this for a long time.

I installed plain old KDE linux in a virtual machine in my Android tablet over 2 years ago.

It was a recent, full version, had full access to WiFi and Bluetooth.

Obviously "disk" space is limited to whatever you have on your SD card.

I had both Ruby and Elixir installed and running in a console under KDE. They both worked just fine, as did the native KDE desktop and apps.

Re:Linux is communism

[Anonymous Coward]

There is nothing inherently wrong with communism. It just doesn't work with physical goods. But it seems to work fine with software and other intellectual property, by eliminating the need for artificial scarcity.

But artificial scarcity isn't capitalism either, is it?
In a free market anything that can be copied at no cost should be free, or next to it. The only thing preventing that are artificial inhibitors like copyright.

Not saying that either communism or free market capitalism would work well for commercial software, but let's not pretend that the legislation we have now isn't bought.

bye bye apple

[Anonymous Coward]

As soon as I can run desktop Linux on my phone, it is bye bye Apple for me.

Re:Windows is Fascism

[Anonymous Coward]

MacOS X is Nazism

Eeeeek!

[Anonymous Coward]

Booting Linux... to splash Eclipse on top of that. It's like ordering a Tournedos Rossini [1]... to splash ketchup on top of that.

You owe me a keyboard.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Normal people and computing requirements

[DrYak]

Normal people don't run Linux!

Normal people usually run a browser, officially to use their workplace's outlook webmail and some google docks (but in practice even more to surf on Facebook and/or Youtube).
Which such a phone will provide.

Normal people might also need from time to time to open some MS Word document. To which the recent enough version of LibreOffice provided is compatible enough.

The only thing that is going to be hard to pull off with this kind of "smartphone as a desktop's CPU" is the typesetting dumpster fire that is PowerPoint (not two different version of Microsoft's official product are compatible with each other. Don't keep your hopes to high regarding pixel-perfect import to LibreOffice).
But on the other hand, the fact that this device has an HDMI out, kind of indirectly solves the problem, by making sure that the same device and software used to write the presentation can also be used to show it.

Also, this Ubuntu-based desktop is 100% compatible with Youporn which probably solves the needs of 99% of internet use.

Qualcom

[DrYak]

...which you're now replacing with the "Runs as the chipset's northbridge" proprietary blob on the smartphone's baseband modem by Qualcom.

(Haven't checked in detail, but I would be prepared to think that the Exynos variants aren't any better.
Discreet baseband modems haven't been in fashion anymore since the days of TI OMAP).

like a VM

[DrYak]

You can't just take a desktop operating system and cram it into a mobile device. They don't work the same way.
Even if you tweak the system itself, create a new interface that works acceptably with a tiny touch screen - you still have a whole ecosystem, thousands of programs designed for big screen and physical peripheral.

That's not how DeX works at all.

The idea is : you keep Android (or Tizen) working on your phone just as before.

But whenever the phone is connected to the DeX dock, instead of blowing up the Android interface on the lot-of-inches monitor, you start a separate Ubuntu VM and display that on the screen and control it through the USB/Mouse.
(A little bit like having your USB Bootstick with you, except you don't even need a desktop to boot it, you run it on the smartphone's CPU).

And because all the above mentioned systems all run on the Linux kernel : Android (and Tizen) and Ubuntu. ...you can simply use a chroot or a container to spin up very quickly your desktop linux whenever docked.
(Instead of booting a whole VM).

SHARK JUMPED

[drinkypoo]

Holy Shit, Samsung. "Our new feature is something you've been able to get from the Play Store for free for years!" (Users might also try Gnuroot Debian but I have successfully used the other app in the past.)

Shark jumped.

Still waiting for an x86 WindowsXP/7/Linux "phone"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's curious one has never been made. OQO is as small as we've gotten, there are x86 phones that are locked to android. I think there is an effort being made to keep such a device from the market. It would put at risk the inferior Android/iphone walled garden markets.

Everything today is re-inventing the wheel and making things worse(garden/insecurity').

I have my $1500 here waiting for a legacy bios capable x86 computer in a Motorola Droid 3 form factor with an extra USB port, and a couple of microsd slots(either can be booted to). Intel M-5y71(or one with lower idle power state) chip.

It know it can be done, I mean the hardware exists in those CompuSticks/hdmi PC's.(except for legacy bios being enabled/isntalled).

Oh and I've used Linux On Android, and through VNC pinch zoom connections full Windows/Linux desktops are perfectly usable on a phone size screen. Even in multi-window function.

Re:Develop apps for Android ... on an Android phon

[Anonymous Coward]

No, using Eclipse--part of what you cut out.

This has been possible since the HTC Magic

[Varka]

It's great that Samsung is making this user-friendly, but people have been installing chrooted Linux on rooted Android phones for many years, at least as far back as the HTC Magic in 2009. I haven't tried since my old Motorola Cliq, performance was EXTREMELY poor back then...

Re:prediction:

[Anonymous Coward]

Chromebooks are not Linux

I'm pretty sure they run Android. So, which kernels other than Linux does Android work on?

In other words, you can develop apps for Android

[aurasdoom]

Not native android apps, you can't.

Android only has compilers for x86 and x64 but not arm.

Keep SystemD off my fucking phone!

[Anonymous Coward]

Do

Not

WANT!

Need I say more?

Re:Develop apps for Android ... on an Android phon

[mnemotronic]

It was a joke. EMACS uses a lot of CONTROL / ALT / FN / WHATEVER combinations. Personally I'd have a hard time doing that on a tiny little android keyboard. Eclipse does have an EMACS plugin if you dont want to use VIM, which also depends on key combinations.

What? You mean Android?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this news? A smart phone can now the same OS as the majority of smart phones!

Re: Linux is communism

[Brockmire]

I just started watching Comrade Detective on Amazon last night. Looks good so far.

Water IS Wet

[giggles778]

android IS Linux. has been since kernel 2.4. but unlike Linux, android's kernel does not get updated nearly as much. I wouldn't trust that