Re: GNOME Mobile, or "GNOME on Purism's Librem 5"

[Matthias Klumpp <matthias tenstral net>]

2017-09-05 17:46 GMT+02:00 Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>:
> On Sun, 2017-09-03 at 16:29 +0200, Matthias Klumpp wrote:
> > [ Please keep the CC list for replies ]
> <snip>
> > So, is having a mobile UX something in scope for GNOME as a project
> > and the GNOME Shell?
> > Did anyone try to use GNOME on a smaller, phone-sized display
> > already?
> > Is there interest in the community in actually making a "GNOME
> > Mobile"
> > a reality (of course, Purism would help with that)?
> >
> > I am looking forward to your replies!
>
> Disregarding the fact that asking for the direction GNOME would need to
> go as a project to accommodate your use case when you've already said
> you could achieve it in 18 months seems a bit, well, like putting the
> cart before the horse. Anyway...

Fair point.

> There are plenty of things to be done on "the desktop" that would be
> useful for convertible laptops (like your own Librem 11), tablets (same
> one, but without the keyboard) and small form factor tablets, like
> cheap 7" Windows tablets you can now find for under $100.
>
> In no particular order:
> - working on a tip-top On-Screen Keyboard
> - working on more touch-enabled widgets (GtkImageView, "swipe" enabled
> listbox rows, slide-under toolbars that need scroll down to show up
> again, etc.)
> - have a go at gnome-shell's "maximising sovereign windows" problem
> (it's named exactly like that in bugzilla ;)
> - experimenting with UIs with smaller screens (build yourself a ghetto
> phone with the right size screen, and try out whether we need new
> widgets, adaptive apps or just CSS changes)
> - try integrating with (currently out-of-tree) OOM killer helpers to go
> away from application lifetime management by the users
> - implementing USB "gadget" to share the device's network access, or
> music library (requires specific hardware with the gadget capability)
>
> Tons to do! Let me know if you want to start experimenting with any of
> those, I'll gladly point you the right direction, and to the right
> people.

Alright, that is great to hear! I am not a UI developer myself, but if
we go through with this at Purism I might start working on some of
these points. In any case, it is clear we need to assemble a team for
this, and that having a GNOME Mobile would be generally welcomed by
the community. Of course, close coordination with the designers and
toolkit developers is needed first.

(by the way, just as a disclaimer: I am not in charge of making
decisions on what to do for the final phone - I do gather technical
information though, so when a decision has been made we can start
easier and with less friction)

Cheers,
    Matthias