Is PLASMA as good on MOBILE as on the desktop? - KDE Plasma Mobile review
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
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I'm continuing my tour of the state of the various mobile versions of popular desktop environments, and it's time to take a look at Plasma Mobile, the version of KDE tailored for smartphones, and touch screens. Let's see how it's advanced and how it works
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Plasma Mobile
Plasma mobile looks very similar to an android experience: you've got your shortcuts, with a favorites bar on the bottom, and wiping up opens the app drawer, with all your installed applications.
You can then long press these app icons to drag them to the main screen, and move them around, creating your own shortcut page. Creating a shortcut doesn't remove the app from the drawer, just like on Android.
The main difference seems to be that you only get one page, and you can't drag apps to the right to create another screen.
If you've used Android in the past, it's going to be a super familiar experience, down the fixed buttons at the bottom of the screen. The central one, with the plasma logo, brings you back to your home screen, hiding all open applications.
The square on the left is the multitasking button, letting you see all your applications as small cards, that you can select, or close.
Finally, the cross, on the right, is only active when you have an app opened. Tapping that will close the app completely, so it won't be in the multitasking menu anymore.
As usual on most phone operating systems, you also get a top bar with the cellar signal strength, the date, and the various connections to wifi, bluetooth, plus the battery life.
If you slide from the top to the bottom from this top bar, you get the usual quick toggles, and the notifications, just like you'd get on any other mobile OS.
You can also long press on the homescreen, to change wallpapers. You get a short list of the ones that are installed, and a the familiar "Get new..." button, that works the same as on the regular desktop version KDE plasma: it opens a library of wallpapers that you can download in one click.
You can also add widgets to your home screen, although the selection is more limited than what you get on the desktop, out of the box. Here again, you can download new ones and stick them where you want.
Applications
Plasma mobile comes with a bunch of applications preinstalled.
You have your phone dialer, an address book, the usual calculator, a clocks app, a calendar and a beautiful weather app, a pretty nice looking audio player.
The web browser is called Angelfish, and it's alright, if not the fastest thing I've ever used.
Then you get a host of utilities: a file manager called Index, which works fine once you understand how to select items and interact with them, a video player, a PDF and document viewer, which is Okular, the same app you'll find on desktop KDE, a voice recorder, a terminal, and multiple chat apps, like Neochat, which is a matrix client, Spacebar, the SMS client that I couldn't get to start a new conversation, and telegram.
You also have Koko, the image viewer, Megapixels, the camera app, Nota and Buho, 2 note taking applications, and Psensor, a temperature monitor.
Discover
Now, of course, there is a way to get more apps onto the phone, using Discover, Plasma's app store.
The app itself works really well on mobile, with an adapted user interface. it lets you download updates to your applications and your whole system, and search for new applications, or add-ons.
Unfortunately, the same issue applies here as on Phosh, which is there is no way to know if an app will work well on smartphones, or not.
The app pages on Discover also lack some information: you don't get mobile screenshots, even from apps that support the mobile form factor, and you don't get any version history that I could find.
Settings
Now, any tour of a KDE Plasma desktop wouldn't be complete without a tour of the settings, and there are a few to look at.
You get the aforementioned online accounts, letting you configure for example a Google or Nextcloud account easily, and the usual audio, bluetooth, cellular and hotspots settings, but you also get tons of personalisation options, including the colors of the interface, the icons, and the plasma style.
You can also extensively configure the keyboard.
If this gets a faster professor and becomes smooth we have a android alternative
Yep!
Note: It is *never* the hardware's fault if software runs slow.
@@SkyyySi except if you are a developer who doesn't want to optimize
@@kuhluhOG If you are a dev and you don't want to optimize, then especially in that case it's the developers fault.
It looks like the sluggishness is due to no/incomplete support for hardware accelerated rendering
I've said it before and I'll say it one more time, if anyone can do it, it's going to be the plasma team. This looks amazing and very familiar. Give them good hardware and they'll take it from there. I think purism should team up with the plasma team to make plasma mobile the default OS on the librem phone and work on it together.
The level of security that Purism aims for is overkill for most people and has the potential of slowing down development to a halt.
I'm thinking how hard it might've been enabling animations in plasma-shell. QT really needs some working for better animation support
Animations with Qt work pretty well if you're looking ib the right spot. Sailfish OS is Qt-based, and has a beautiful look and feel.
depends a bit on what you mean with Qt
QtWidgets or QtQuick?
@@WedgeStratos I didn't say it looks/works bad. I mentioned about the hard work. Creating animations based on physics instead of intervals is quite hard though. Just appreciating KDE mobile shell team
@@WedgeStratos Sailfish OS uses QtQuick not Qt for that. QtQuick uses the gpu while Qt does not, thats why its smoother
@@krtirtho Physics is superior to arbitrary iteration, however.
Incredible. If there was a more powerful phone in hardware, I would totally try to swap over from Android. It might be hard until Signal, Maps, and bank apps come to it.
Isnt Signal already available for linux?
You can always use Waydroid, but Plasma for Mobile is a pass for now...
Ubuntu Touch is still most useable and stable. But I'm definitely waiting for this aswell
UT is great but, IMHO, Sailfish OS is more stable and advanced.
Arch and mobian are the best...
I agree ubuntu touch is the smoothest os so far and yes they did have a big head start and the help of canonical. I think PHOSH has a bright future since it is based on GNOME and they are helping a lot with the project.
Install gentoo
Install gentoo
I totally appreciate the effort the team is putting in to this, it looks great but it still looks very slow and that would kill me. It's such a promising project however, I will definitely keep my eye on this. It does look fab for sure. Well done and keep up the good work.
Yeah, it still lacks hardware acceleration, I think!
One of the things that's great about Plasma is they generally don't make the type of opinionated decision that limits the user. They don't feel they have to make some obnoxious ""paradigm shift"" that adds up to costing you a cumulative week worth of your life in regular use.
They make a familiar, effective experience and generally allow you to customize to a good enough level without having to make your life about customization.
Exactly what I love about plasma. It just works out of the box AND it allows me to customize it like no other DE does!
AAAH YES! I am most hyped for this one !
I would be a fan of this however it's extremely sluggish and laggy. So nogo
Yeah it needs more optimization!
@@TheLinuxEXP I would say a more powerful hardware. It doesn't matter which OS you put on it, will be always laggy.
@@512Bytes Its true that the hardware is slow, it was originally made for a 360x720 display rather than a 720x1440 display. But if your gui uses the gpu properly then it wont really lag. Plasma mobile uses Qt that uses the cpu for rendering, thats why its slow. If they instead use QtQuick then it will use the gpu and it will be smooth. I believe the settings menu in plasma mobile uses QtQuick so scrolling there is smooth.
@Arch Jason you don't know what you're talking about. The hardware isn't remotely the problem - it isn't optimized. Hardware has been sufficient for seamless, quick transitions and renderings for close to a decade. They're building the phone from scratch
I wonder what compatible phone runs it smoothly enough. On the video it looks like there is no hardware acceleration whatsoever.
I saw a few of your videos without realizing you were from Brest too (despite the obvious tag), i enjoy the content, keep it up ;).
Thanks :) Brest is a nice city!
@@TheLinuxEXP yes definitely with nice people too :)
That was sweet! I'm really cheering for this one. Thanks!
You’re welcome!
The issue on swiping from the top is a hardware issue which seems to be a dead-spot around the top-center part of the screen. Not sure if this was fixed in latest versions but it's there since Braveheart.
Also, you can actually swipe left or right to navigate to previous or next page similar to Sailfish OS. This works at least on apps that use Kirigami toolkit.
Oh interesting!
He says "you can replicate your desktop experience" not knowing that I am using a Frankenstein plasma-awesomewm that aesthetically begs me everyday to kill it and relieve it from total inconsistency. Those five seconds less per day when opening stuff are just worth it, 1\2s
4:34 Yes as someone who used KDE Neon in the past and openSuse with Plasma this definitely is something I feel KDE must work on in the future. 4:57 You might wanna reupload and blur this section as we can see your contacts don't know if there are actual human contacts or not. 9:22 where you able to install Latte and customize it on PinePhone.
10:40 Plasma Mobile is as ill sickend as most Linux Mobile Operating Systems to me you have to fully commit to the eco system of the vendor otherwise you'll have a bad time. There are alternatives but they aren't optimized their isn't battery optimization or any useable apps that we know and need what about a Corona Tracing app for example. Instant messaging via WhatsApp, sure you could use Instagram half-way through the web browser same goes for other applications but most dont have PWAs and using the web browser as app alternative are always lacking. Banking apps a lot of banks don't use HTTPS authentication but rather rely on apps I know my bank allows for verifaction throuh HTTPs and the browser but hey that's just me.
What's with photo editing, you may got Krita, Gimp, Inkscape here which would be awesome to use. But I'm sure they don't have optimized UI/UX for Plasma Mobile. When Linux Phones would be comparable desktop alternatives why can't you just seemlessly plug them into a USB-C capable monitor and switch into desktop mode like you might do with Samsung DeX.
I get the point more system configurability, stability, private, secure a desktop like experience but just as always just for enthusiasts with Linux and apps that have been hastly been optimized for mobile instead of in the first place being mobile first. Why not take an approach like /e/Android which uses normal Android. That one at least works, the other one is prone to fail imo.
I love that you have a keen eye for those systems but useable to a normal person, no way not even if you're very limited in what you do. But as you said you didn't even get your emails working that's a nogo.
It's fantastic! Amazing how quickly it became so mature! Go go KDE!
This reminds me of android in 2008, it needs to get more optimized and dmoother
7:10 you also can swipe right/left to navigate to the previous pages on the stack. But I understand your point
great video by the way :)
Thank you :)
This works great and i'm sure it's only going to get better with time. Since KDE will continue to optimize mobile and better hardware may be on its way soon I think KDE Mobile may have a chance of being one of the best ways to get at least Android users to switch to a Linux phone. I also believe once Anbox becomes more stable and compatable it would be cool if it could directly integrate with KDE.
6:26 restart megapixels after a reboot because the colors are funky without restarting the app
I have always had personal problem with software buttons on smartphones. My experience comes from BlackBerry 10 OS, which was all about gestures and I see no advantage in using buttons instead of gestures. This is why I like Lomiri probably the most of all environments on PinePhone. I believe that Phosh is heading that way as well. Even though I like Plasma Desktop, on mobile it does not make sense to me to follow the android train.
Damn, that looks GOOD. I really do hope that in a few years' time (when I'm gonna need a new phone), this will be a properly working mobile OS. I would LOVE to ditch Android!
7:10 all qtquick 2 application like the settings app have gestures like swiping from left to right to go back
It’s not really an optimisation issue and it’s certainly not a hardware issue. None of these DEs are hardware accelerated with the exception of UBports but that has a whole slew of other issues that make its decidedly “meh”.
What are the issues with UBports?
Owww. They're getting sooo close!
Thanks for the great video!
Before I am going to change it needs multiple email clients, full open-source office, Signal, Not laggy (that much) and 24 hrs of battery life.
We're living a mobile world where more apps are the new standard. So somekind of fast and efficiency .apk-emulation would be the markeshare profit.
Ubuntu touch looks so much ahead of this. But I am glad there is more os development going. Lets hope it wont get discontinued.
The KDE cellphone environment has come a long way, but it's clearly not quite there yet. On top of lag and subpar optimization, that calculator/mail/keyboard (and overall) jankiness is unacceptable. It's not just a matter of polish, these issues detract a lot from usability.
Anyway, I'm sure they'll get this sorted out eventually.
Very beautiful but it looks a little laggy. I have the belief that KDE mobile will grow eventually and mature to a serious android/ios alternative. And we obviously need more powerful hardware and bigger compatibility with various devices.
It's not really relevant if Angelfish is recognisable as a web browser, neither is Chrome, Vivaldi, Edge, Firefox. But searching for "browser" will bring all of these up.
Nice review. linus tech tips also did the test with multiple linux distros on the pinephone and they mentioned that the stutter seems to be the graphics not being hardware accelerated. The only one that was “usable” was ubuntu touch.
Yeah it’s probably the issue!
Can we make a virtual-machine to test this? Probably with qemu + cpu-emulation etc? I don't know how and probably my potato machine couldn't handle it but would be cool :d
You can hide keyboard by swiping down from top edge of keyboard.
I really like plasma mobile more than phosh, but currently phosh just works better as phone.
Hardware is not biggest issue. There is nokia n900, real linux phone that was released 12 years ago with hardware that is weak compared to pinephone, and it runs smoother.
Man, imagine if Nokia had continued using Linux all these years. :/
Much respect to those developing on this. It looks extremely cumbersome and if it wasn't for a lack of time to deal with the problems and lagging load times, I'd love to try them out.
Hey Nik, thanks for another great video. Soon going to touch the 100k mark? 😉
Yeah, we’re not far away :)
@@TheLinuxEXP btw the feature that turns a mobile OS into desktop after connecting to an external monitor, first came with Microsoft Phones back in 2016, not sure about the exact date. Ubuntu, Motorola and Asus did some experiments on this feature but Microsoft was the first to pull it off as far as I remember.
I like the K every where 😊
I don’t really mind the « K », it’s more that to fit the K, they invent names that don’t tell what the app does :)
@@greggoog7559 klose instead of close is actually useable/guessable
take Kleopatra for example: do you know what it does by looking at the name? the icon doesn't tell you this either
or Ark, or K3b
or Kontact: by the name I would guess it's something you manage contacts with; you get that, but also with RSS Reader, Popup Notes, a Journal, a To-Do List, a Calendar and an Email Client (KMail)
if they would just use the "K" as a prefix to the names, I doubt a lot of people would be bothered, but what they are currently doing really isn't good
uh, the stuttering is brutal.
Also hard to tell if the issues with swipe gestures are because the phone is so slow, because the touchscreen is sub-par or because the software detection has issues.
This looks way better than I expected, now I'm pretty excited! Also, I love how people are commenting and judging like this is the final version of the OS.. we have a long way to go people, chill. Great content, can't wait for more mobile distros reviews!
About the app names, agree with all the others, but isn't Bujo the short form of Bullet Journal, a note taking method? Maybe the app doesn't actually implement such method, but if it does, the name seems proper to me
this actually looks great
I would buy it immediately if it would have:
1. Good web browser with possibility to send notification to the screen (something as Firefox, Chrome desktop can) and synchronization for the links and passwords. With this you would get client with notification for email, instagram, whatsap, youtube, facebook,...
2. Good camera
3. File manager with media player capabilities (as it is Total Commander for Androind for instance)
4. Office
5. Network tethering
6. Terminal
7. Desktop mode
8. Dark mode with blue light filter
I wish there was more documentation on using it. I understand that it's under active development, but getting more users is a great way to get more contributors.
Finally got it installed on my RPi4 (using Manjaro-ARM) and it "works." It doesn't quite look like what's in the video though. Part of the problem is the terrible 800x480 resolution on the touch screen, but some stuff just doesn't seem to be working right. There's this weird bar at the top with a close button (that doesn't do anything?). Tons of stuff is missing (I probably need to install some more applications). Plenty of people turn the RPi into a tablet, and given that tiny resolution standard DEs dont' seem to work well (at least regular plasma doesn't). Plasma-mobile would be a perfect fit, but it looks like almost no one has tried this (a few articles from 2-3 years ago are the best I can find).
Today I found out youtube can say a video was uploaded X seconds ago
I wish it gets some features like iPhone. Taking calls from your PC and similar integrations.
You have KDE connect for that, it does the exact same thing and you can already use it on Android :)
@@TheLinuxEXP But it is still not like iPhone.
It’s actually a bit more, since you can control media playback from the phone, use the phone as a trackpad, etc...
KDE connect does more than what Apple does in terms of phone-computer integration :)
@@TheLinuxEXP Yeah, that's what I like to see happen. PC - Phone integration.
1 min 10 seconds of ad on linode. No wonder I finished my dinner, haha
The naming scheme of KDE software has always been odd.
When I started with Linux, seeing this massive list of qt programs that came shipped with Knoppix 3.7 was impressive, but lots of them started using K as its first letter.
My personal hope for their projects however is that one of them actually reaches the point of good usability as standard Plasma.
For instance, next to Plasma Mobile there's Big Picture which aims to bring KDE to TV connected devices like the Raspberry Pi but its just as early in its development stage as Plasma Mobile.
Otherwise, their framework should allow for really good mobile screen adoption.
GNOME does a good job here so I don't see why Plasma can't.
Nice video that was cool. I did get some 2014 phone vibes from that. It's interesting and like that it exists.
Will you try out Ubuntu Touch on the pine phone ?
Of course :)
Someone should make a good porting guide for plasma mobile and phosh.
As android's open source nature allows the whole OS to be changed this way rather than waiting for communities to make new powerful devices we could just enjoy it on our own devices which we know all too well.
LegendofTotalWar here and today we have a saving your disaster battle.
« Saving your disaster Arch Install »
I still don't know whether I am supposed to install it on mobile by myself or to buy it somewhere.
I would say that the lack of an email client isn't a big issue nowadays. Most if not all email providers offer web apps which work well enough.
IDK if other Linux phones were available at the time when you recorded this video, but the PinePhone is known for having subpar hardware now in 2024. So yeah, maybe it's the hardware's fault.
You might have a PinePhone from before video out worked. What edition of the PinePhone do you have? Oh and for email use Geary, there's a mobile-optimized version on Arch Linux ARM at least.
I was waiting for this
You’re welcome :)
Hopefully we could see others like Plasma running on Linux based phones. I can see KDE Plasma is taking the first step into the mobile domain and hopefully others will see this an opportunity to try out for themselves. While we did have Ubuntu Phone, that really didn't last very long. Hopefully a bunch of smart people will come along and help develop KDE Plasma for Mobile to be better optimized for the hardware they're running on, and fix up the naming convention for some of these apps and build a theme around the application icons that shows what they're supposed to be.
Indeed naming conventions in KDE has always been a pain in the ...
Kaboose?
You mean the Knaming Konventions?
These stuttery situation, it feels like i'm using my old smartphone from 2010. But i like the design, totally kde plasma experience on mobile.
A decent foundation but needs a fair bit of work. No sync with desktop, passwords etc. No email client. No multiple screens for App shortcuts, these would be deal breakers for a lot of people! Hopefully they'll fix all the major problems fairly soon¿?👩🔧🔧
Promising one keep thw good work up
You do not need to scroll all the way up to access the navigation bar in apps. It's will peek back open when you scroll just a tiny bit up. Further as for plasma mobile being slow and certain things not being the most amazing, this is litterally the first official release of plasma mobile, give it a break.
Are there favorite contacts for quick access?
Maybe I have missed it, but can one disable animations in the settings? On desktop one can and that might increase the overall performance.
Curious how Plasma Mobile will continue!
OMG why it's freezing?
Does Plasma Mobile only run on PinePhones atm?
Because I want it for my Xiaomi, and eventually it should work on every phone with unlocked Bootloader just like any other good custom ROM.
i like different shapes but i like when they have the same design laungurage like u can tell there the same theme kind of like ios 6 and android kitkat lol
What we really need, is great ARM desktops and laptops running Linux. Because a lot of the ARM software for Linux, while running perfectly, are far from optimized and they won't be until developers are actually using them on a daily basis on their desktops. The new Apple Silicone devices could be the thing to do it, and Asahi Linux now says they've been able to make Linux usable on those devices, although still without hardware accelerated graphics. They are working on that. So keep them in mind if you have some extra bucks and want to contribute something important to the Linux ARM world.
I would like to install linux on my device but I am concerned about my apps. I need at leat a way to qatch comfortable RUclips, Chat with Discord and Threema and to make calls with two simcards. Is that possible (i dont care if just ubuntu manjaro etc)
RUclips will work in the browser, but the other ones, I’m not too sure
What's your device? I don't know about support for multiple SIM cards. There is KDE RUclips app I think and RUclips works reasonably well in browsers. As for Threema I have no idea, and Discord has unofficial clients, but with using those you risk getting banned so I wouldn't recommend it. Both Threema and Discord's Android apps should work in Anbox, but don't expect a great experience from that.
Creating shortcuts doesn't remove the app from the drawer on android too
I saw a video where you mentioned an app for file sharing on linux.. where you can send files to other devices on your local network directly. I can't remember what its called but the logo was a wolf or a fox. Does anyone have any idea what its called?
I just can't wait for all the kinks to be ironed out! But what will the hardware be like?
KDE Plasma Mobile is ready for me, today, right now, just give me a decent Linux Phone AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa
I kinda want to install plasma mobile in my samsung, but the OS looks a little bit too laggy, does it?
2.59
Didnt know he was a fan of LegendofTotalWar
Gameplay?
I really enjoy his livestreams :)
@@TheLinuxEXP Thats awesome
This looks much more refined than pine. I just wished these phone become available in India. But I know that would be a long shot.
Can it run Flatpak apps?
i am wondering if it makes phone calls
It seems a bit laggy.. how was your experience hands on?
It was... a bit laggy xD it needs hardware acceleration :)
Can this OS run on newer Samsung phones?? like samsung galaxy s20 FE or the like??
Honestly it works pretty well despite that anemic Mali400MP2 GPU from 2008. I am pretty sure that this is already hw accelerated, considering that some apps run fluently.
Apparently it’s not, and that’s why it’s so stuttery
Good Video need better hardware give it 5 years I buy one
is there a fork of retroarch for linux phones? i now you can run the desktop version, but i mean with touch capability.
Thank you, Nick. What does the Plasma logo mean or represent? I can't figure it out.
It represents kde plasma. Duh
@@comment1652 The K with a Gear means KDE. But the three dots with a broken arrow means what?
@@AnzanHoshinRoshi Yeah I don’t know. I was just making a joke. It’s a weird logo no idea what it could mean
How fast (I mean, slow) is the hardware you used? :-D
Can i install Ubuntu touch or kde on any phone?
O M G finally a os not being stupid and trying to be "unique" instead choosing to take concepts that work in the mobile space, this is good
What distro are you using in your review?
Manjaro ARM, I think I mentioned that at the beginning :)
@@TheLinuxEXP I haven't heard it, and was looking in the description ^^
Tried it on Google Pixel 3 via mobile-nixos, it's still jittery and sluggish :(
They shouldn’t’ve made another Android looking GUI. Kde on pc is very customizable, this could be anything
What do you do at Brest ?
I live there, and I also work there as a product owner :)
Oh is this the new andoird 4.0?
I am trying to make the Razer Phone 2 work with Linux Mobile (Halium)
Hopefuly this will work out. But there is so much conflicting information out there, nothing straightforward... mh.
Razer Phone 2 has a Snapdragon 845 so it should be very possible to run mainline Linux on it. They even got the modem working recently. I would link the article on the pmOS wiki, but it looks like RUclips shadowbanned my comment for including a link, so I suggest you search for SDM845 Mainlining.
Those app names are rediculous. How about gnome? If pine phone had tomtom app, units always in stock, and a payment plan, I would buy one. No GPS is a huge no for someone who travels over 30,000 miles a year. Outlook needs to be compatible for my work emails too. I love my Linux gnome at home. I hope it takes the leap to work professionally!
Is this beta 1 or beta 2?
I would really like to use it, but it seems abysmally clunky. I wish it was snappier and the animations more fluid.
Yeah it needs more optimization and better hardware!
I eagerly look forward to the day that Linux mobile devices are just as viable as Android and iOS.
It kind of looks like very early versions of Android
is it use x11 or wayland?
Wayland!
Was this on the 2GB or 3GB memory phone?
The first version, so 2GB :)
The performance is terrible. I realize the need to be agile but if the hardware support is so bad it works like win95 with malware then priorities might need to change.
Does linux have an android emulator like wine
There is Anbox but it's pretty slow on the PinePhone.
where i can get plasma!?? No site to get img!!!!!!!!!! help meee. not to pinephone
Please make a video on how to create own linux distro ??
I wouldn’t know how to do that :)
@@TheLinuxEXP BTW, which distro you personally use ??
I use Manjaro KDE, and elementary OS :)
@@TheLinuxEXP both at same time ?? Is it a Dual Boot ??
No, on 2 different devices :)