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Comment by zeotroph | Hacker News Reader

I am really surprised that the "single computing / storage device" idea which can switch between different screens and input methods seamlessly (and maybe support plug-in CPUs) is just is not happening, though the concept here is a small step in that direction.

Having everything in the cloud seems to have made this somewhat redundant for most users, though I still hope one day I can carry all my data around, of course given proper encryption and backups and the ability to distinguish between safe and possibly monitored (public) displays/inputs.

Or maybe wireless displays are missing so that decision to quickly do a task with a mouse and keyboard leaves out the cable plugging aspect.

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The problem with phone computing is that it's still the weakest option:

Phone < Laptop < Desktop

I used to have a Sony Vaio that I would hookup to big screens at each work space.

Now I use dropbox to sync desktops. My main machine has a GTX 1070 running a 4K @ 60Hz with an m2 SSD, and it was half the price of my laptop (I had to build it, but I had fun doing it). It's ten times as fast. And no more laptop hugging.

I think the key is working with the premise that any Maru user will have a main laptop or desktop. For example, if I could work with my phone in a window on my desktop, that would be amazing. And where I don't have a more powerful machine, I would just connect my phone directly to the monitor. Also dropbox is a must.

I'm surprised my Android doesn't do this already though... How hard would it be for a smartphone to double as a ChromeBox?

I think all the walled-garden ecosystems of apps and device interoperability are also contributing to the slow progress on this front. Nobody with the resources to do so wants to develop open protocols that would enable easy collaboration on this kind of thing. We may get there one day, but you'll need to pick Google, Apple, or Amazon and buy your device, monitor, peripherals, and cloud services from just that one company.

Ubuntu Touch was expected to have that. Their crowdfunding video for the Ubuntu Edge showed an Android e-mail app that read/wrote to the same datastore as Thunderbird when it was in desktop mode.

I'm not sure how it worked as Ubuntu Mobile really kinda died off and I never tried it myself.

There are many other projects that have attempted this (none of which I can remember, but I've seen this concept a bunch). It makes a lot of sense. Your phone is already running a Linux kernel. You should be able to create a chroot or a container system that has a standard Linux distribution. You add some hardware/hotplug hooks, some data-sync apps and you should have a Linux desktop hidden in your phone.

various GNU/Linux-in-a-chroot projects exist on Google Play and f-droid. In the other direction, Anbox attempts to run Android inside a container.

I prefer the idea of a phone that can be plugged on a better hardware (desktop) and quickly boot on it... without the need of turn of the phone and the changes on desktop appearing on phone...

I always thought this was going to be the direction of the original iPod. Any day now...

I think it's a neat idea, but computing is cheap nowadays. When you have a nice screen, battery, and enclosure, throwing in some compute isn't a huge deal.

As you mentioned, I think this makes it redundant with the cloud when you can make thin-ish clients for everything, like Chromebooks, or Apple and Microsoft's initiatives to seamlessly transfer your workflow from one device to another.

Because fundamentally they always end up being two computers in one, they just share the storage.

I just don't see the use case. For work, most people have a work computer and that's separate from their personal computer. Tons of people no longer have a computer at home, those that do are likely gamers, developers or artists that all have a huge archive of files they work with and require more power than a mobile device can supply. I wish these companies would stop trying and just make an open, mobile, general purpose computer for mobile use cases.

I don't have a separate computer. I only have one single computer for work and personal things. I use it heavily for both. If something happens to my computer and it goes down for a few days, I'm screwed.

I personally would love something like this. Just in case I need to get some work done off my phone. I do no want another computer.

Do you not keep old computers as you update?

Have you considered having a cheap chromebook backup or something?

What for, dust collection? I refurbish them and give them away - by the time I upgrade, the machines are still comparable to mid-low current ones.

No. I'm a nomad and move around all the time. I carry everything I own with me. I am not going to carry two computers.

That's a really small convenience (if it is at all, I have my doubts) for such a expensive feature that doesn't have many practical uses. It's killing a lot of otherwise exciting projects.

"Tons of people no longer have a computer at home"

Sure, and those people are the perfect target market for being able to connect to full keyboard, mouse, and display from their phone without the need to buy another computer.

They don't want that. No one is sitting at a desk unless they're working or gaming. The tablet keyboard is enough and way more convenient for most users. There is a ton of talent and time being wasted on a feature no one really wants. MS, the only big company trying for this feature (and failing hard), can waste all the time they want, but the worlds needs a competitive open, general purpose mobile device and the projects keep dying because they can't figure out a good way to implement a feature no one needs (because there is no good way to implement a feature no one needs).

Its anecdotal, but I don't personally know, or have ever heard of anyone in my social network, regardless of age, not using a computer at home.

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