Convergence, the dream
Apr. 22nd, 2021 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jfredPhone manufacturers have promised convergence for years, but every attempt I've come across in the past has never quite satisfied me:
That's starting to change with the latest batch of Linux phones. I'm posting this now from a Librem 5 connected to an HP Lap Dock, which so far has been a super fun combo to play with!
Since one of the main things I need to be able to do is to SSH to remote systems, and since I use my GPG key via ssh-agent to do so, smartcard support is a must for me. Normally I would just use my Yubikey for this; I carry it everywhere I go for that reason. But the Librem 5 has something interesting that most phones don't: a dedicated smartcard reader! So right off the bat, I loaded my subkeys onto a 3FF smartcard and now can treat the L5 as if my Yubikey were always plugged in.
When plugged into a lapdock, the phone's screen is extended to the lapdock as if the phone were just a small monitor on a typical Linux dual-monitor setup. And, well, that's basically what it is! Phosh/Phoc still have a few bugs that need to be worked out in a docked situation, but nothing that should be catastrophic for most people.
And just as if you were using a Linux laptop, you get all the usual Linux apps you might want! Some of them might not make sense on a phone screen, but they probably do make sense on a lapdock! There's something just incredibly cool about running desktop Linux software on your phone.
While the Librem 5 has been a lot of fun to play with, and I think I can be reasonably productive with it, there are both hardware and software needs holding me back from using it as a daily driver.
I'm confident that many of these will be fixed in time, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to comfortably use this device full-time once they are. Until then, I'll be having a lot of fun playing at least!
- Android with DeX: Available on fast phones, which is a plus, but Android apps often don't scale well to a desktop interface. (Also requires using a Samsung phone with stock firmware, which requires signing in with a Google account, which I'd like to avoid.)
- Ubuntu Touch: Nice interface, generally only available on slower phones thus far (so not many options for convergence), I was never able to get my Yubikey working with it which I need for remote sysadmin work.
That's starting to change with the latest batch of Linux phones. I'm posting this now from a Librem 5 connected to an HP Lap Dock, which so far has been a super fun combo to play with!
What's so special about it?
Since one of the main things I need to be able to do is to SSH to remote systems, and since I use my GPG key via ssh-agent to do so, smartcard support is a must for me. Normally I would just use my Yubikey for this; I carry it everywhere I go for that reason. But the Librem 5 has something interesting that most phones don't: a dedicated smartcard reader! So right off the bat, I loaded my subkeys onto a 3FF smartcard and now can treat the L5 as if my Yubikey were always plugged in.
When plugged into a lapdock, the phone's screen is extended to the lapdock as if the phone were just a small monitor on a typical Linux dual-monitor setup. And, well, that's basically what it is! Phosh/Phoc still have a few bugs that need to be worked out in a docked situation, but nothing that should be catastrophic for most people.
And just as if you were using a Linux laptop, you get all the usual Linux apps you might want! Some of them might not make sense on a phone screen, but they probably do make sense on a lapdock! There's something just incredibly cool about running desktop Linux software on your phone.
Why is it not my daily driver yet?
While the Librem 5 has been a lot of fun to play with, and I think I can be reasonably productive with it, there are both hardware and software needs holding me back from using it as a daily driver.
- Battery life: The phone just doesn't last that long on battery, especially if anything happens to be running in the background. I can't get a full day on a single charge, and it takes long enough to charge that realistically I'd have to leave the phone plugged in whenever at my desk to make sure it's charged when I need it My N900 did this impressively well, so I'm hopeful that it'll be possible to extend the Librem 5's battery life significantly, but it's got a long way to go.
- MMS: Some of my friends use MMS to communicate via group text. I need this in a phone. This is non-negotiable.
- Usable mobile Matrix client with e2e encryption: This is a doozy. Fractal looks nice, but is often too slow on the L5 and doesn't support e2e. Hydrogen is probably the closest, but the best options for running it at the moment are: have Epiphany install the site as an app (at which point you don't get push notifications) or run Hydrogen in Firefox (at which point you have a bunch of browser chrome getting in the way on a small screen). Honestly, an Electron version of Hydrogen with push notifications would help a lot here! I use Matrix to chat with my girlfriend and most of my friends; this is also non-negotiable.
I'm confident that many of these will be fixed in time, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to comfortably use this device full-time once they are. Until then, I'll be having a lot of fun playing at least!
