Desktop Jolla
 

With the Jolla tablet coming in May. I was wondering if Jolla is planning on making a version of Sailfish that would also work as a desktop distribution. It would be nice if one could have all the software like Libre Office and maxima, gimp and so forth available and also have access to android and jolla specifc apps on one platform. Thanks!

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

I suggested some (possibly) ideal partners for this in a meeting once, they & others present didn't seem terribly interested at the time though.
I don't think they should do it entirely on their own, they should use a distro that's ideologically & logically very similar, & just get Sailfish & it working seamlessly together.
Get something going that's roughly akin to what Ubuntu's trying to do... Apologies if I don't respond to any responses, not sub'd to this thread.

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

sailfish has the chances to stand out unlike the crowd of gazzilion distros ;)

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

I've got a touchscreen netbook, and it's always been a dream of mine to be able to run a distro with separate DEs for tablet and laptop mode...

I know smeegol gave it a go, and both KDE and Enlightenment have looked like they might get there at various points, but it never quite came together.

Isn't it mostly a case of porting Lipstick to another Wayland distro? (though obviously that wouldn't get you Alien Dalvik or anything...)

eta - or, of course, porting other DEs to Sailfish.

edit again - turns out I think I mean Lipstick, not Silica. The UI, anyway - whatever that's called :)

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

Why would I use closed source desktop system if there are great fully open options around? The main problem on mobile is that all open options are rather handicapped at present, but desktop doesn't have this issue.

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

I think the point is 'convergence devices' currently have 0 decent choices (as far as I know anyway), beyond dual-booting. Let Android / IOS / MS take that market, and you might look back on the idea of having Sailfish / Lipstick there rather fondly...

A Linux with a closed source UI for tablet type behaviour, with the rest open, would be a perfectly acceptable compromise for many for now. Especially as the long term goal seems to be to open as much as possible.

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

Yep, on mobile you can still kinda argue about the closed source GUI (but I still think it is wrong & actually hurting Jolla) but on desktop, there is just no excuse for a distribution with a closed source UI!

Also, I think quite a lot of people massively underestimate the amount of resources needed to run a real desktop/general purpose desktop. :)

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

Desktop Jolla... Not sure I'd be a fan of that. A touch screen tablet makes sense. But a mouse and keyboard combination doesn't. Not in my head around the gestures. But I'd like to see it done just because it could be done. Who knows, it might catch on.

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

Ha. Ha. I would definately fall under that category! How about the possibility of compiling a set of commonly used software like libre office to run on Jolla Tablet. Seems almost ironic that I would run an Android app that mimics office like Office Suite when libre office exists. Could couple the Jolla Tablet with a bluetooth keyboard and I'm good to go. I know there is difficulty in adopting software for any new distribution, hoops to jump through or hardware related issues. So for this case is it massively difficult? Thanks!

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

True, I think rumours of the imminent demise of desktops are exaggerated. But increasingly a tablet with a keyboard / mouse is going to work for a lot of light users, and the OS space for that is relatively empty.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/4GB-R...y-2015_id64077

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

Like, err, 1 GB RAM?

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...67#post1446567

I am typing this reply on a phone with the same amount.

EDIT:
I nearly forgot. 300 MB of those 1 GB were used by the anti-virus program. Even so, the machine never used more than 500 MB, no matter how hard I tried stressing it.

Back to the topic. What would be the point? You already have a massive choice of real desktop systems running on the desktop. In fact, I see very little point running any OS designed for the phone use (Android being the most common) even on a tablet, let alone a desktop.

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

The thing is the way you interact with a touchscreen vs. keyboard and mouse is pretty fundamentally different. Some think keyboard and mouse is going to die out - probably one day, but not yet. Others think you can design an interface that suits both modes, but it'll always have compromises.

So if you've got a device that you use in both modes (like a tablet with bluetooth keyboard and mouse, or a convertible laptop), what are your options? Dual-booting isn't ideal. Probably better to have a single OS with two distinct interfaces.

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

Doesn't have to be different interfaces. Just drop the silly preconception that a mouse and a touch screen are the same thing and treat them as two different input devices that they are.

For example, a single tap on the touch screen = a double click with the mouse. Or a long tap = a right click. Or tap, hold and drag scrolls the screen, but click, hold and drag selects a block of text. As one would expect.

Re: Desktop Jolla
 

The interfaces don't necessarily have to diverge wildly, but they do optimise differently. Many swipes and gestures can only be used effectively on a touchscreen, complex menus and arrays of small buttons need a mouse.

A good example is window management - how you handle that depends very much on your input devices. You could probably come up with a hybrid that added window decorations if you started moving the mouse around or something, but I guess it's simpler to just have two modes, and it's often possible to change window managers / configurations without even logging out of your session.