“We are very pleased to announce that the PinePhone will ship with Plasma Mobile on a Manjaro ARM base from this point on. We have a long-standing relationship with Manjaro and KDE Community, and both projects have supported us and our efforts since the dawn of PINE64,” writes Pine64’s Lukasz Erecinski in a February update.

This is good news as it means there is a single distro that will at least be standardised on and receive all the attention needed to ensure stability and compatibility. I use Manjaro myself on my desktop computer, and I’ve favoured KDE for a long time too. KDE Connect will bring some good integration between mobile and desktop too.

See https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2021/02/pinephone-picks-manjaro-with-plasma-mobile-as-default-os

#technology #opensource #mobile #linux #manjaro

  • SirLotsaLocks@lemmy.ml
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    4 years ago

    I think kde is a great choice for this. It’s customizable, it has a solid library of kde apps that have been ported or created for a mobile environment, it has an existing large community and like you said it has kde connect, which could allow for a more unified desktop/mobile experience.

  • xe8@lemmy.ml
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    4 years ago

    That’s great. Personally I don’t use KDE, and haven’t even received my Pinephone yet, but it’s great that they’ve picked a default distro - and it sounds like Manjaro / KDE teams have earned it.

    I’ll start with Mobian but will try a few distros.

    I think it’s important to focus on a single distro / user experience to get it to a standard where it can be used as a daily driver.

  • Werwolf@lemmy.ml
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    4 years ago

    KDE Plasma is a great choice. I thought that Phosh would be the shell chosen, because there’s Purism team developing it. But Plasma is definitely a very good option. KDE Connect works great with Android. I’m sure that they’ll make it work even better in Linux phones

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      4 years ago

      Hmm, I feel like Plasma Mobile fits better to the PinePhone:

      • You’re probably buying the PinePhone as a secondary device, and so it not being yet-another-Android/iOS (which is what Phosh feels like to me), is probably a selling point.

      • It’s marketed as a tinkerer’s device, so the tinkerer UI is a good fit.

      • They market it as a community effort, so choosing the community-developed UI over the company-developed UI makes sense. And probably also just gives them a certain form of independence.

      • PureTryOut@lemmy.ml
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        4 years ago

        Interesting, most people seem to think Plasma Mobile looks more like Android than Phosh does. That’s not a bad thing imo, it’s what most people are familiar with so they can get used to it quickly.

        • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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          4 years ago

          Yeah, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. For Purism, it’s probably a selling point to be relatively similar to existing platforms, because with that price tag, customers are more likely to buy it as a replacement for their existing phone and then it’s really good, if it works similar.
          But if you’re buying a PinePhone as a secondary device, which makes a lot more sense with its price tag, then you’ll be a lot more willing to discover a fresh UI. Since if you’re struggling with the UI, you can go back to your Android/iOS device easily.

          But I also wasn’t just talking about looks. I also imagine that Phosh isn’t very customizable (prejudice, because GNOME isn’t very customizable).
          And even if the default experience is similar, you may want a very customizable UI just for playing around and because you expect something to be different/better from your OSs so far.

          And if it isn’t clear yet, I should also point out that I know practically nothing about the things that I’m saying here. I’m still saying them, because I have that perspective of a potential customer.

    • poVoq@lemmy.ml
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      4 years ago

      I guess not wanting to depend on an actual competitor (as friendly as this competition might be) probably played a role in the decision not to go with Phosh.

  • kelbot@lemmy.ml
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    4 years ago

    I was happy with this decision as well. I’m impressed with how much plasma mobile has improved the last few months and I’m a fan of kde and plasma in general.

  • mindfuloftech@lemmy.ml
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    4 years ago

    I am not exactly a poweruser of Linux (I have an ubuntu server and have played around with distros on various machines) but I am definitely a fan of this decision. My time with Manjaro + KDE on my desktop was defintely the best linux experience I ever had.

    Can not wait to dump Android and move on :)