The Plasma Mobile team is happy to present the Plasma Mobile updates from the month of September. This month’s update includes various improvements and bugfixes in file dialogs, the virtual keyboard, lockscreen, various applications, and updates from KDE’s annual conference, Akademy.
It sucks that it’s so difficult to test open source mobile operating systems like this. The ARM world is such a messy patch work of slightly incompatible hardware and closed and open bits and pieces, making it very hard to just install this on a phone you have lying around.
Thom Holwerda,
+1
We’re extremely fortunate that PCs evolved to be as interchangeable as they are. This is largely because the hardware manufacturers didn’t control the software and visa versa, so it become imperative that standards were developed and followed for the sake of compatibility. While these weren’t the greatest standards, it did make 3rd party innovation practical.
If we’re lucky, this will remain a feature of x86 PCs going far into the future. Some developments like secure boot do pose new risks to ubiquitous access and I’ve already encountered vendor-locked x86 hardware, but I’m crossing my fingers it doesn’t become a norm.
For ARM platforms, I’m afraid it’s probably a pipe dream because there’s very little incentive for incumbents to make hardware easily interchangable, it makes is easier for consumers to try competing platforms. After all, I learned linux by trying it out on a “windows pc”. They may not say it in public, but manufacturers would prefer we decomission our old devices every couple years rather than give them new life with alternatives.
More like we were lucky that Compaq was clever and IBM could not sue them, nor regain control via PS/2 architecture.
Given that it helped killing the Amigas and Ataris, I don’t consider it that fortunate.
moondevil,
I don’t like monopolies and duopolies any more than anyone else, heck I’m often disappointed that more people aren’t alarmed by all the consolidation of market power in technology. Had regulators taken their antitrust duties more seriously we probably would have more viable PC competition today.
However, I still say we’re extremely fortunate that x86 PCs evolved as largely interchangeable commodity hardware. Just imagine how much worse things are for both users and developers with the problems that Thom is talking about. There’s no technical reason ARM has to be that way, we’re just unfortunate that it evolved this way and it practically guaranties that most of us don’t get to try alternative mobile platforms without having to buy new hardware. While I’d concede that many don’t have the inclination to try alternatives anyways, those of us who do can’t always justify buying new dedicated hardware just to try an alternative. It is a shame when we’ve got old unsupported phones going in the trash. It saddens me, but without any kind of intervention it is the future of mobile technology, highly vendor locked and under corporate control. Both apple and microsoft are pushing ARM PCs into this camp as well 🙁
Well, i tested it on x86 on my gpd pocket, so …
https://files.kde.org/neon/images/mobile/current/
As for ARM, you have now at least 2 phones where this can be developed and tested, the Purism Librem 5 and the Pine64 PinePhone. I agree ARM platforms are a mess but it’s mostly the licencees’ fault. not just ARM. I hope Risc-V will evolve fast enough so we will have another open platform in the near future.
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