GNOME Shell is Being Ported to Phones (gnome.org) 15
"As part of the design process for what ended up becoming GNOME 40 the design team worked on a number of experimental concepts," reports a blog post at Gnome.org's shell-dev blog, "a few of which were aimed at better support for tablets and other smaller devices."
"Ever since then, some of us have been thinking about what it would take to fully port GNOME Shell to a phone form factor." It's an intriguing question because post-GNOME 40, there's not that much missing for GNOME Shell to work on phones, even if not perfectly.... On top of that, many of the things we're currently working towards for desktop are also relevant for mobile, including quick settings, the notifications redesign, and an improved on-screen keyboard. Given all of this synergy, we felt this is a great moment to actually give mobile GNOME Shell a try. Thanks to the Prototype Fund, a grant program supporting public interest software by the German Ministry of Education (BMBF), we've been working on mobile support for GNOME Shell for the past few months.
We're not expecting to complete every aspect of making GNOME Shell a daily driveable phone shell as part of this grant project. That would be a much larger effort because it would mean tackling things like calls on the lock screen, PIN code unlock, emergency calls, a flashlight quick toggle, and other small quality-of-life features. However, we think the basics of navigating the shell, launching apps, searching, using the on-screen keyboard, etc. are doable in the context of this project, at least at a prototype stage.
Of course, making a detailed roadmap for this kind of effort is hard and we will keep adjusting it as things progress and become more concrete... There's a lot of work ahead, but going forward progress will be faster and more visible because it will be work on the actual UI, rather than on internal APIs. Now that some of the basics are in place we're also excited to do more testing and development on actual phone hardware, which is especially important for tweaking things like the on-screen keyboard.
Their blog post includes a video showing "what this currently looks like on laptops" and then one showing it running "on actual phone hardware." And someone has also posted a video on Twitter showing it running on a OnePlus 6 smartphone.
"Ever since then, some of us have been thinking about what it would take to fully port GNOME Shell to a phone form factor." It's an intriguing question because post-GNOME 40, there's not that much missing for GNOME Shell to work on phones, even if not perfectly.... On top of that, many of the things we're currently working towards for desktop are also relevant for mobile, including quick settings, the notifications redesign, and an improved on-screen keyboard. Given all of this synergy, we felt this is a great moment to actually give mobile GNOME Shell a try. Thanks to the Prototype Fund, a grant program supporting public interest software by the German Ministry of Education (BMBF), we've been working on mobile support for GNOME Shell for the past few months.
We're not expecting to complete every aspect of making GNOME Shell a daily driveable phone shell as part of this grant project. That would be a much larger effort because it would mean tackling things like calls on the lock screen, PIN code unlock, emergency calls, a flashlight quick toggle, and other small quality-of-life features. However, we think the basics of navigating the shell, launching apps, searching, using the on-screen keyboard, etc. are doable in the context of this project, at least at a prototype stage.
Of course, making a detailed roadmap for this kind of effort is hard and we will keep adjusting it as things progress and become more concrete... There's a lot of work ahead, but going forward progress will be faster and more visible because it will be work on the actual UI, rather than on internal APIs. Now that some of the basics are in place we're also excited to do more testing and development on actual phone hardware, which is especially important for tweaking things like the on-screen keyboard.
Their blog post includes a video showing "what this currently looks like on laptops" and then one showing it running "on actual phone hardware." And someone has also posted a video on Twitter showing it running on a OnePlus 6 smartphone.
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
What we really need on our phones right now is a nimble, lightweight interface like GNOME Shell! I mean, how big can it be - an executable plus 2 or 3 libraries tops, right?
Right?
Re: (Score:2)
No mods, but no kidding. phones are bad enough, now GNOME3.
But this should not surprise anyone, when GNOME3 came out, one of the big complaints was "we do not need a phone UI on a big screen".
Well, a soon as my LG phone bites the dust, I will be off to old style flip phones. So GNOME3 on a phone is not going to be an issue with me.
Re: Finally! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You would think so. Recently, I tried Gnome Shell on a tablet PC and it is extremely underwhelming. The size of interactive elements is across the board, making interacting with some (native Gnome) things impossible. The virtual keyboard is a joke (and not customizable at all without extensions) and was broken in 42.0 until 42.1 rolled out months later.
Clearly, none of the devs actually use it on a tablet or from a touch-only perspective. I was shocked at that seeing that it looks like that is its driving u
Re: Finally! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Given high end phones have screens that have higher resolutions than many monitors, perhaps the GNOME team was preparing for the future they knew was coming.
I mean, most computer monitors are generally of 1080p, 1440p (qHD) or UHD. A lot of phones are sporting 1440p or higher resolution screens nowadays, so you can be carrying more pixels in your pocket than sitting on your de
Port it up your ass if you like (Score:2)
Now that KDE Plasma is very good, I have no reason to care what GNOME does.
I used to care a lot, but that was before GNOME 3.
Unity and Gnome 3 Destroyed the Linux Desktop (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I use Mate, the previous version of GNOME.
Unfortunately, it is tainted by using GTK+3 - which is made by the authors of GNOME, so it contains some irritating "features".
Re: (Score:1)
An appropriate phone (Score:2)
Could someone reply with a phone or phones capable of being unlocked, rooted, etc. and otherwise made usable by the person (not att/verizon/etc)? I know of Pinephone, but I hear it's slower than phones of 2010.
Re: (Score:2)
You could look into the phones from Fairphone or Volla, though I am not sure how far they are with running mainline kernels instead of Android kernels.
Sony Xperia phones can be rooted and unlocked as well, they are often used for Sailfish, a Finnish Linux distro, coming forth out of Nokia Meego.
The Year Of Linux On The Phone is coming! (Score:1)
Good job guys (Score:2)
Cryptocurrency casino (Score:1)