Desktop mode on /e/OS

/e/OS Smartphone Operating System Development Updates
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Do you think /e/OS should add a Desktop Mode user interface?

Imagine connecting your smartphone or tablet to an external screen and seamlessly picking up right where you left off—effortless productivity on a bigger screen, with keyboard and mouse connected if you want.

We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this idea!

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the deGoogled mobile OS and online servicesphone

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I think this would be a very welcome addition and something I would use.

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Yes! My question to add desktop mode was my very first post I made in this forum even years before I bought my Murena FP5. Thank you so much for considering it!

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Instead of Desktop Mode / external monitor, I’d prefer something like VNC / Remote Desktop to access my phone.
Of course, it would be nice to use the full screen and full resolution of the host monitor.

Would miracast be an alternative to VNC / Remote Desktop?

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Maybe run droidVNC-NG on your phone? It’s a VNC server available from the usual places.

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I don’t really see the great benefit.

  1. As a replacement for a laptop? You still need a display, keyboard and mouse. Then you can buy a used laptop…
  2. As an addition to a laptop? You can use all the messaging and other stuff directly on the laptop without switching.
  3. Perhaps as an addition to a business laptop with a KVM switch, so you can do your private stuff on your phone while “working”. :wink:

Is reason (3) really enough wasting so much space on the smartphone?

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for a long time i like to use scrcpy

.

  • video can be displayed in flandscape quite full screen
  • second screen can be your TV via the PC HDMI output
  • now copy/paste is allowed in both direction
  • can works wireless through WiFi
    .

This GitHub repo GitHub - Genymobile/scrcpy: Display and control your Android device
is the only official source for the project.
Do not download releases from random websites, even if their name contains scrcpy.

scrcpy (v3.1)

scrcpy

pronounced “screen copy”

This application mirrors Android devices (video and audio) connected via USB or TCP/IP and allows control using the computer’s keyboard and mouse. It does not require root access or an app installed on the device. It works on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

screenshot

Its features include:

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No, it sounds like a nice gimmick, but it would be regularly used by a small fraction of users. I think resources could be spent better on other features

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I agree on the sentiment that it’s a nice gimmick.

Longstanding bugs on devices Murena is selling today get the response of “there’s limited bandwidth”, while this niche feature will introduce bugs on most likely many more devices.

I don’t mind new features but either there is no dev time for new niche features or there is no dev energy for fixing bugs. But new features will introduce new bugs. There are many USB-C to HDMI / DisplayPort / USB-C DP Alt-mode cables, many different USB-C hubs and combinations of hardware that will be difficult to troubleshoot.

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Eh, that’s the main concern. Dev time should be invested for device updates and solving bugs. I’m afraid things like a desktop mode, or an AI whatever, are a waste of energy at the expense of credibility and stability. Let Samsung or Google waste time on that, and focus on providing us with the best degoogled experience.

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Murena interrest can vary than e.foundation needs or lineage task.

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Yes desktop mode should be IMO a high priority feature :

I’ve opened the Meta issue 2 years ago [Meta] Propose a desktop mode (#5661) · Issues · e / Backlog · GitLab

  • Would save people from buying useless desktop or even laptops
  • would be a first step to then add linux desktop as an option and use real desktop apps like libre office and firefox on linux.
  • Some manufacturers have implemented it with success , the most advanced are samsung and Crosscall https://www.crosscall.com/en_FR/x-space.html
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I think a desktop mode is a good idea. On my end I’d be looking forward to use it by installing /e/OS on my OrangePi Android TV box.

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It is not entirely useless, but should be at the bottom of priority lists.
I do feel some bugs are unreported due to the fact that some issues have been hanging around for a long time due to limited resource.
Top priority for me would be to make /e/ recognizable as not a “custom ROM”, but established system, which hopefully would increase number of (banking) apps working correctly.
I’d love to see MS Intune working well some way. In my work IT is relatively flexible and dont mind /e/ and all goes well, but newly created work profile does not have an app store, so there is no way of using it. Making AppLounge pretend to be Play Store better would be lovely.

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I hate to go against my fellow forum-poster who requested this…but here’s what I would say…

But ultimately, I’m going with ‘no’. Here is my case…

  1. Samsung tried this with Dex, and it withered on the vine. Motorola tried this with their own variant, though I forget what it was called. If these companies couldn’t find a niche, I don’t think /e/ is going to be the one to be a trendsetter.
  2. Desktop Mode involves some sort of hardware connectivity…so, like, a USB-C dock with display, or a USB-C display with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse…by time you’ve gotten the hardware together for it, you’ve spent as much money as one would on a Chromebook or a refurbished laptop. There’s no savings here over getting two devices, in practice. Thus, the utility would be in accessing the data and apps.
  3. Perhaps this is my own ignorance here, but under those circumstances, I’m hard to find a worthwhile use case that isn’t already solved. If one already has a desktop or laptop, one can use some of the VNC programs listed here to do screen mirroring. I’m forever a fan of MyPhoneExplorer, that allows for file transfers, text messaging, keyboard passthrough, contact and log syncing, and plenty more. Many apps have websites that can be used on a desktop/laptop, including the Murena cloud. Those that don’t can be emulated through Bluestacks or something similar. I’m open to a use case that isn’t reasonably solved by VNC, MyPhone, Bluestacks, or native websites, but I’m hard pressed to think of one, so I welcome such a use case.
  4. Conversely, very few apps work well with a multi-window interface or tiling, because they’re typically not in a place where they can do so. Even on Galaxy Fold phones with custom software, multiple concurrent windows are more challenging to manage than they are on desktop OSes, simply because very few apps can assume them. The first party Samsung ones are pretty good at this, naturally, but that’s because Samsung had incentive to make it worth owning a $2,000 phone. Murena isn’t selling $2,000 phones, and I’ve never once seen anyone with a Galaxy Fold use the Fold with multi-window, because few of the third party apps can do so seamlessly.
  5. As has already been said in this thread, Murena already has a pretty full plate, I’d imagine. We’re nearing six months since ‘the data event’, and the echoes of it are still showing up on Manoj’s weekly updates. Only three phones released in 2024 have official /e/OS releases, and half the 2023 phones are Google Pixels. I applaud the team for the continual increase in phone support, but I’m sure Ronnie would appreciate a bit more help in getting at least some of his unofficial builds to move to official releases. Cue my broken record, but the Murena Cloud is based on a version of Nextcloud that is several versions out of date, and the self-hosted iteration is three more releases older than that (and lacks the option for OnlyOffice integration). I say all of this because…
  6. It sounds like a support nightmare. With phone-to-display technology still nascent, there are a number of phones that don’t have that kind of support, or only have it due to some sort of software shim akin to DisplayLink, that /e/OS is unlikely to reproduce consistently. Unless the plan is to either partner with Fairphone/Nothing/Whoever to make a very specific /e/DeskPhone that has this functionality on a particular handset who’s selling point is an officially-supported Desktop mode, I see baking it into the main line image as being a support nightmare for reasons beyond their control, which the amazing Murena staff doesn’t need.

So, I really am very sorry to toggiburger, who requests the functionality. I don’t like going against my fellow forum-lurkers in feature requests, because I do think there is a need for community to stick together. I really hope that toggi and I can find some common ground elsewhere; toggi has been nothing but respectful and I am grateful that the request was made. This highly specific case, which seems like a very niche use with specific hardware requirements and support needs, is someplace where we unfortunately diverge.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

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Something like https://maruos.com/

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YES. My trust device - I always carry with me. I do not carry a notebook all the time… so i’d like to work on itmobile and connect anywhere monitor und keyborad for a real work environment

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My idea made it into consideration let’s goooooo

I think it would be a really good idea, especially if Android’s built-in Debian installer becomes a thing. Combine it with /e/OS Desktop Mode and Cinnamon and we’ve got a perfect desktop replacement for 99% of peeps, myself included

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In 2015 I bought a Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition, mostly because it ran Linux (well, sort of, actually Ubuntu Touch on top of Android) but also with the hope that Canonical’s ‘Convergence’ efforts would succeed. Unfortunately, Canonical cancelled the project just before it seemed ready to launch. Despite commendable efforts by UBports, the work seems to have slowed down considerably.

Next, I decided to back the Librem 5 effort by Purism. Unfortunately, that phone was delayed and when it finally came out the hardware was outdated. It sort of works as a tolerable desktop but it is not really a viable phone due to its limited battery capacity (or perhaps its power consumption) and dysfunctional wifi card.

I’m now using /e/OS on an FP4 and would be willing to upgrade the hardware if that would make it a usable desktop. I wouldn’t expect desktop mode to rival a regular laptop, but I’d find it useful when traveling. I’d bring a small keyboard and small display (but bigger than the phone’s screen) and use it for some light image editing and image transfer from SD cards to USB drives, as well as for typing longer texts than I’d be willing to type on a small touch screen.

So yes, I would really like a desktop mode and I would use it (even now I sometimes attach a keyboard, mouse and monitor through a USB-C hub). But I do understand that it could be problematic to spread resources too thinly. Perhaps this will become easier in the next couple of years if Google goes ahead and includes some Linux functionality in Android:

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Similar situation here, running a stripped down Android TV OS on raspberry pi for streaming TV services.

Would love, love, love to run e/OS on that with its privacy features.

But must also admit, in my use case, I do not foresee I would use desktop mode on my phone. But I also do no work functions on phone, which may be helpful to others.