I used to think the idea of a phone that is also my desktop would be really cool. But then I got to thinking just how locked down iOS and to a lesser extent Android are compared to Linux/Windows/MacOS, and decided I wouldn’t use my Pixel as a replacement for my desktop or laptop even if the feature was there.
On a serious note, what can’t you do with your Pixel? The only issues I’ve had is I can’t access networking functions. Beyond that, not much limits in most things I do. And with Android 16 allowing for installing Linux apps (not just terminal ones, but full graphical ones like VS Code, Blender 3D, etc), there is little I can’t see it not being able to do. (No Wireshark though, but that’s networking, the only painful point for me).
TLDR: I don’t like the philosophy behind how Android and iOS devices are created and managed by their OEMs nearly enough to give them near total control over what I can do today or in the future with my primary computing platforms.
Its not a specific thing I can’t do that I want to do that stops me from liking it.
Its that it is a specific OS image bound to a specific hardware model that is very limited in what options or upgrades or changes are available to me.
With a Framework laptop (or most other generic models) or a generic ATX desktop tower I can replace whatever internal component if need be and then put whatever base OS on it, just because I want to do that.
With a Pixel, or Galaxy, or iPhone it runs the OS it came with and is blessed by the OEM on the hardware they compiled it to run on. Unless I am willing to accept large inconveniences in functionality and usability.
If I replace my desktop/laptop with a Pixel running Debian for desktop mode, now Google has vastly more control over what my desktop experience is going to be via their control of the hardware and host OS layer than they do today. If they decide they don’t want something being done in that Debian container in the future for some reason, then they can stop me from doing it with little recourse for me as a user.
Yes and no. I absolutely understand what you mean. And I was the same.
But then my tech-autism caused me to dig into cybersecurity and now I actually disagree with you.
I.E. have I completely stopped doing any type of banking on a device that isn’t running a completely locked down iOS or Android.
It is not a security thing to me. It is a “I want to do what I want to do with the things I paid for” thing.
I know full well something so locked down is technically more secure, but using those platforms as my primary devices would cause a lose of device flexibility I have no interest in taking part in for the use cases of a desktop or laptop.
Those platforms have their place, just like my video game consoles. But I am not interested in making anything I consider important contingent on something that is more at the whims of the company that made it than me.
Locked down means a power imbalance. The users are then just serf and will be abused. I want users empowered and the right to repair, repurposed and upgrade. Locked down devices mean short lived disposable devices, built as ewaste, that hoover up user data when used. It’s dystopian.
Let alone where are tomorrow’s developers coming from when they are growing up in such nutrient poor environment.
I rage against this dark serfdom future, but it’s on law makers to regulate to keep consumers/user free. So I’ve monthly donated to OpenRightsGroup for over a decade and always telling people to read some Cory Doctorow.
I.E. have I completely stopped doing any type of banking on a device that isn’t running a completely locked down iOS or Android.
In my case, I never do any financial transactions (including Google Pay) on my phone. The way I’ve got it configured, my Linux laptop is much more secure and auditable. If someone gets access to my phone, even when it’s logged in, the blast radius is small.
To the best of my knowledge they give you a full Debian Linux in a container. Combine this with AOSP, and IMHO this is totally cool. Especially since my Netbook has worse specs than my current smartphone! :-)
If networking and GUI gets added then we’re talking
I really like using Dex on my work laptop so I don’t have to mess with logging into personal accounts on them. Too bad Samsung is removing this specific version of Dex in One UI 7.
I swear they’ve been writing the same article for a year.
Much longer than that. But that’s probably because Google keeps picking it up and then dropping it again.
Ability to recognize non-ASCII characters in the dialer? Nope… Ability to skip auto connect to the Bluetooth device? Nope, never again… Record phone calls? No, fuck you, we don’t like it in US so it is banned to the whole world. Here you are a feature nobody asks for and shut up…
The auto connect for bluethooth is really infuriating. Windows and android both don’t have options for disabling auto connect.
On linux you can only select between trust and no tust which effectively means auto connect. BUT WHY DONT THEY JUST CALL IT AUTO CONNECT.
It’s a real bummer.
You mean they’re going to turn Androids into Chromebooks.
Honestly, it sounds horrible, but for people who don’t have a PC, I guess it could be a benefit.
It’s great. We need to consider how many people live in 3rd world countries that only have access to Android phones.
If they can hook up a keyboard, mouse, and a monitor to those phones then it empowers these people to have more opportunities to compete and contribute to the digital space.
Giving them access to the tools of developers could be a godsend.
No, I’m not arguing that it’s horrible from any other viewpoint than my own. And I’m super privileged enough to be able to both afford and have access to better options.
You mean they’re going to turn Androids into Chromebooks
android is getting ‘desktop’ features so it can replace chrome os, and to keep pace with apple–who’s doing similar things with ios
This will make Android tablets a lot more appealing I guess, the ones that come with light keyboards coupled with the cover.
The major uses for me would be reading (web pages, pdfs) and code review or even some light coding. Not saying I will buy one for this but definitely something I would keep in mind for the future.
It might save me from carrying my laptop around when I travel for work. I only ever need to do zoom calls, browsing, and text editing, so just the extra real estate alone would be helpful. But then TVs are hung on angles that are not optimal for working and the ones in hotels have shitty resolutions so I’d probably have to carry my external monitor. In which case, I may as well just bring my laptop instead (or both the laptop and screen).
I think your usecase — for those who don’t have PCs — makes a lot more sense.
Dex was kind of nifty if you had a monitor laying around. I’m guessing this is the non-Samsung version feature.
or they we’re forced to give
Didn’t canonical try this years ago?
I thought it was part of their justification for Mir like a decade ago.
This paired with virtualization features (hopefully with working sommelier) potentially enable running desktop wayland apps on phone.
To run waydroid on it
You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if this starts a trend of ultra-cheap “laptops” that are just hardware extensions for phones with no processing capabilities of their own.
“Lapdock” seems to be the popular term. They’ve been around more than 10 years but never gone mainstream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapdock
Really fricking cool!
Thank you for sharing this.
Hopefully this means I can have a GraphineOS laptop (whenever google makes a new Pixel Laptop)
If you want deskktop version of Firefox or Chromium on your phone, you can get them using Termux. But yeah they will be slow.
Can we bring back PalmTops ?
Sweet that it’s all of android now. I’ve had it on my note 20 ultra for the past 5 years.
My old note9 did it too. Handy in a pinch and great when I forget my laptop but still wanted to pretend to work at work
And they chose to highlight as a feature making it like a pC, “you also get Windows PC–like abilities such as snapping windows to the left and right of the screen.”
Reminds me of just a few months ago when they sold the Samsung Galaxy S20-something using all the features that come with either Google Gemini 1.5-2.0 or Android 15. All features that my phone has. Nothing unique but the homegrown app store nobody likes
PureOS on Purism Librem 5 let you plug-in phone to display and wa-la… actual desktop experience from just phone.
What BS!
