Hacker News Reader

Comment by 2Gkashmiri | Hacker News Reader

I don't know.

What's a feature not in KDE connect that the writer wanted and it didn't have?

They could always submit a pr.

Beeper exists you know....

I have a question. It's fine to build for your own self but is it okay to release something in public when the environment is a moving target and you are just a one-man team keeping it afloat?

Wouldn't it be better to go behind established FOSS products and not reinvent the wheel when you don't have to?

I understand no one can tell you how to or why to do certain things but there comes a time, when youw want to help, not build the next temple os and instead help manjaro or whatever is cool these days?

View on HN

I find KDE Connect severely lacking. It's great that it exists, and maybe it's really excellent with Android, but for iOS it's really not there yet.

Even features that do exist don't always work reliably. I can't send files between devices, most of the time clipboard sharing doesn't work either, and there's loads not implemented.

> What's a feature not in KDE connect that the writer wanted and it didn't have?

From TFA:

"And Tether now supports: iMessage, SMS, Notifications, Contact sync on Linux. In addition to its previous: File Transfer, Clipboard Sync, OTP handling."

> Wouldn't it be better to go behind established FOSS products and not reinvent the wheel when you don't have to?

From TFA:

"Before you ask, I know KDE Connect exists. It's great! If you're on Android you should definitely use it. The problem is that it didn't do what I wanted and it's roadmap indicated it never would."

Maybe next time read the article before commenting?

Let's be fair: At least some of the features you quoted do work in KDE connect in my experience, so I had the same question as GP. Even after reading the article.

Like I mentioned, I found KDE Connect to be lacking but mostly even the feature that it does have, don't always work.

So far (really only a couple hours), Tether seems a lot more polished.

"What" features. Imessage? Thats it?

I'm sorry, do you require glasses? It's written right there.

> iMessage, SMS, Notifications, Contact sync on Linux.

Also email OTP handling.

Furthermore, a lot (most, really) of Tether's functionality works without having to open the app. Exactly 0 KDE Connect features do that.

A genuine question, does anyone here actually use KDE Connect as a daily driver to actually keep in touch with people? I would love to but, for example, when I'm on a university campus the possibility of keeping those two devices connected appears difficult if not impossible. I keep looking into both Bluetooth and/or the VPN route every once in a while, but it ends up not working and I give up. Something I'm missing, perhaps?

One of the not cool things about KDE Connect is that its "plugins" system doesn't seem like it.

Where are more plugins for it? How you add them? Where are docs for creating them?

I haven't had a great feeling when asking its dev about stuff but hope that situation has changed. Having a proper plugin system would let people like OP extend KDEConnect and potentially benefit more people, instead of being subjected to the will of its devs and the roadmap.

I suspect this is the wrong way to think about it. Since it's FOSS, you don't even need a plugin system to extend it. Likely the plugins are just an internal organisation structure.

This is a very good point and I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. I considered contributing to KDE Connect but decided against it for many reasons:

1. This would be a major subsystem added to KDE Connect and I have no history with the project.

2. The KDE Connect roadmap explicitly lists iMessage / SMS support as "Won't Implement"

3. My project requires a browser extension and mail extension, I can't imagine I have much of a chance of getting a "KDE Connect" extension approved.

4. Time: it would have taken much longer to jump through all the (appropriate) hoops.

5. Choice. While I'm not a fan of Omarchy, I LOVE what it is doing. Having an alternative to the Big Two and embracing "custom" desktops is very appealing to me, and I think it is a good thing for Linux and FOSS.

6. I was going to do this no matter what, it worked better than I expected, I wanted everyone to have it.

There "is" already a kde connect browser extension.

Just add to it

Personally, few years ago I wanted to use kde connect with my iPhone, and I don’t remember the distro now but it’s when I had to install kde connect later it wasn’t part of it, and after almost a whole day of googling around and trying to compile and solve whatever missing libraries or drivers, it never connected.. so yeah I welcome the fact that there are alternatives, always!

Glad you brought that up, I was actually going to suggest not to replace KDE Connect but rather to become interoperable with it because AFAIR (but didn't touch an iPhone for few years now) there is no iOS client for it.

kdeconnect has an iOS client.

Ah nice, I had no idea. Then if I was somehow forced into using iOS I'd probably try that first.

It doesn't do messages or notifications. "Just" things like file copy and clipboard.

Well if this solution managed to go that then hopefully those missing functionalities could be implemented back to the iOS KDE Connect client.

I would argue that if you have the same setup as the author then use it. Yes a moving target but won't you fix something you use for yourself? Also point an agent at it get it back working in a few hours of waiting :P

I can't get KDE connect to work for the life of me. So I guess something that works would be an improvement!

Could be GrapheneOS/arch interop or something.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com