0: https://www.androidauthority.com/android-desktop-mode-leak-3550321/source for planned integration: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/392521081?utm_source=...
The first modern thing like this that I can recall is the 2011 Android-based Motorola Atrix phone[1] that presented a DeX-like desktop (well before DeX!).
It used an Ubuntu-based desktop. It was really, really good, but never got traction.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/de...
> This happens all the time where stories get flagged for no reason.
It's not for no reason—it just feels that way when you see flags on an article that you think is a good one for HN.
Judging from what else the same users have flagged, along with the responses you got in this thread, my guess is that they thought the submitted article (https://www.squaredtech.co/googles-desktop-view-android-phon...) wasn't good enough for HN. Indeed, it has the markings of blogspam (content lifted from other sources).
Normally we'd leave the flags alone on a post like this, but the comments in this thread are surprisingly good, so I've turned off the flags and replaced the URL with an earlier article which has the same material and which in fact, it (almost?) looks like the other article was cribbed from.
There have been multiple attempts at this over the years.
https://liliputing.com/5-laptop-docks-that-let-you-use-a-sma...
https://www.androidpolice.com/android-15-linux-terminal-app/
As linked somewhere else in the thread, Google wants to extend it to run (non-Android) Linux desktop apps besides Android apps. So once this is refined, plugging in an Android phone will give you a general-purpose desktop.
Exciting times!
Just one example article, using a chroot environment:
https://www.nextpit.com/turn-your-android-device-into-a-linu...
But Ubuntu touch, and other native linux phone installs have touted desktop mode over the years.
The h/w 10 years ago was marginal at performing this task, and the non-corporate OSes were, and are, actively suppressed by goggle and the rest of the corporate "phone" development industry. This is an almost identical scenario as M$ dominating the PC manufacturing business, even though they didn't make the h/w.
But this serves as another typical example of how long ago this type of feature could have been available if every new innovation didn't have to be vetted from the perspective of vendor benefit, instead of advancing on the basis of user benefit.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-dex-first-impre...
Still in the "smart" era, but the Motorola Atrix allowed that, but with its own laptop form factor dock.
https://www.cnet.com/culture/how-does-the-motorola-atrix-4g-...
One part I find hard to reconcile with all of that is that even just looking at public facing stuff alone it seems to be under VERY active development.
I count 100 commits in just the past 24 hrs here: https://fuchsia.googlesource.com/fuchsia/+log and it’s been at that pace for a LONG time.
Which leads me to ask… what is up with it in your opinion because that’s hard to match up with DOA
Also I wasn’t making up the idea that they were in the process of bringing in this “microfuchsia” VM into Android although it’s purpose is unclear.
What's strange is that vanilla OS does show a taskbar (tablet mode) if you increase DPI to 600+. Theoretically you can get a taskbar now only if tablet mode taskbar could show up in secondary virtual displays.
https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/master/doc/virtual...
https://www.theverge.com/2015/10/6/9464639/microsoft-windows...
https://9to5google.com/2018/11/09/samsung-linux-on-dex-andro...
It was the Ubuntu 16.04 desktop running in a LXD container. It crashed when the tablet went in out of memory, so I had to be careful with what I was running.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6
Weight 239 g (8.43 oz)
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Weight 227 g (8.01 oz)
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-suppo...
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-library/guide...
Note specially the parts of WIP, missing features, to be yet done, and so on.
But wireless the lag is so bad that it's not really usable. Like Wireless DeX. Definitely not good enough for processor-less VR glasses (even the wireless VR streaming from meta does require significant processing power on the glasses end).
With ubuntu's try a decade ago, https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge#/ it was obvious there is a market for this. But the ecosystem chain beats it all. Everyone will wait for their favorite OS to catchup.
There can be a lot of reasons for that, like the duopoly forces preventing the competition (>>21656355 ) or insufficient PR.
> Even the best of them would be mediocre at best at any specific event competing against athletes who have trained for that specific event.
In computing, if you have a general-purpose device, it usually can do most tasks sufficiently well.
https://www.amazon.com/iClever-Bluetooth-Keyboard-Foldable-S...
Wouldn't recommend for extended typing though.
https://forums.puri.sm/t/nine-months-librem-5-as-my-only-pho...
https://forums.puri.sm/t/a-l5-review-1-week-to-my-ready-to-s...
There was also a Motorola Ready mode which I experienced briefly on a Moto G that I bought but returned because the screen was horrid mush! (Not all Moto G, some had nice screens, but that particular one was a lower resolution, slow LCD screen with a lot of ghosting.)
But if I remember, Ready isn't really a standalone thing. It's more like what Microsoft Phone Link does - e.g. running your phone "desktop" but on another computer. But I think I'm remembering wrong... so maybe newer ones are a bit more like this - https://www.tomsguide.com/news/i-spent-a-few-days-with-motor...
Here's hoping they hook it up so we can use it.
[0]: https://www.androidpolice.com/android-15-linux-terminal-app/
Also, it looks like Good Lock is now also available on the Google Play Store, and there it lists Samsung Electronics as the developer [2].
I guess this does make it less sketchy of an app to use, but it still feel wrong to have to do so many weird steps to get a menu option working.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Lock [1] https://news.samsung.com/global/make-your-galaxy-smartphone-... [2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samsung.an...
Linux Plumbers Conference 2025 | Adding Third-Party Hypervisor to Android Virtualization Framework
https://lpc.events/event/17/contributions/1447/attachments/1... https://youtu.be/hLdUCrlheKg
So you start the 'server' on eg your desktop, and that registers with eg GitHub or Microsoft (or perhaps another service, not sure how open the system is), and then you can use any other computer to connect to your system via GitHub or Microsoft (as a proxy, I think). The other computer can either run just a browser, or can run a vscode (which is basically also a browser in the end).
See https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/tunnels
Yes, the nice thing about the tunnels is that the computer you want to develop on doesn't have to be reachable from the internet. It only has to be able to reach the internet. GitHub (or Microsoft) play the man-in-the-middle.
It's really convenient. I often use it to develop from my laptop on my desktop, even when they are on the same local network: because it's basically just as fast, but I don't have to worry about which network I'm on, it just always works (as long as I have Internet access on both machines. But if that ever stops, I'm not really going to develop much anyway.)
Except there is a notification for the USB mode.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...
And it is this way since 2+ for sure.
> in every app. it's a feature of the system, just like you can swipe from the side of the screen in almost every app on iOS. why on earth would I have said it if it was just in one app? again, this should have been very obvious to you
No, it's not obvious for me. None of my Android phones behaved so and I don't think I can remember such behaviour on any other I saw or used.
> I literally chose to buy an Android phone when I could have bought an iPhone, and somehow I'm biased?
Yes, you are. You somehow equate your personal experience with the one unknown model and make to all Android phones ever. And despite people telling you what you are clearly missing something - you stubbornly insist it's not you but the Android.
> you're 2 versions of Android behind what I have and you expect to speak as an authority on this?
And my daily driver is Moto G54, Android 14. Any other pathetic excuses?
