I haven't used it on the PinePhone or PinePhone Pro in a while, but Waydroid is solid on my OnePlus 6T with postmarketOS. Android apps that only need an Internet connection work fine. I installed microG and have push notifications working for Discord and Teams. However, notifications don't get passed through to the Linux side so they only show if you open the Android UI. Screen rotation doesn't work on Waydroid which can be very annoying. Apps that use other hardware features such as location, Bluetooth, vibration, access to calls/texts won't work properly.
CalcProgrammer1
joined 3 years ago
I tried to daily drive a PinePhone for a long time, then a PinePhone Pro. It is not really ready. Too many dropped/failed to answer calls and missed texts. I love having a fully capable Linux PC in my pocket and am typing this on my OnePlus 6T with postmarketOS, but as a phone it is not ideal. My setup now is that I have a OnePlus 6 with stock Android and my main SIM for doing phone stuff (calls, texts, some apps, Bluetooth handsfree) and the OnePlus 6T with pmOS for Linux experimentation and doing pocket computer things (browsing, coding, SSH, VPN, testing Waydroid). I got a second cheap SIM so I can have service on both devices, but as the 6T with pmOS can't receive calls in 4G mode it really doesn't work as a phone. The PinePhones can work as a phone but the modem dropouts make it less than ideal and their battery life and performance leave much to be desired while the OP6T has fairly good performance and battery life on pmOS.
I've had an A770 Limited Edition since its release in late 2022. Overall, I'm happy with it. The drivers were a mess at launch but now everything works as expected. Performance is decent in the games I play, though I have a 144Hz 4K monitor and it's not really capable of that resolution and refresh rate except on the lightest esports games so I use FSR on most games. My most played game is Overwatch and it hits 144Hz with dynamic resolution scaling on and medium settings. I want to buy a higher end GPU eventually to really push this monitor but waiting to see what happens with the next generation of Intel and AMD cards (NVIDIA is not even in the running unless NVK suddenly gets performance parity with the proprietary drivers).
Steam Deck is an open platform because you can run any OS, launcher, etc. on it. It's just a handheld PC. Steam itself is a closed ecosystem but the Deck is very open.
That's why I mentioned the "without an OS installed already" though a corrupt OS is another possibility that would need some other system available (whether phone, tablet, another Deck, or PC).
GitLab used to be awesome when it was the place to go after MS bought out GitHub. They had premium access for all public projects under a FOSS license and top-tier CI. Then as time went on, they began pulling support for various functions in a very Microsoftian EEE sort of way. First requiring credit cards fir new users to access the CI, then taking away the CI almost entirely except for a practically useless monthly allotment, then taking away the premium access for public FOSS licensed projects. If I were migrating today I would not have chosen GitLab, but it is where I settled after leaving GitHub and my projects have grown to depend on GitLab CI even if I'm now forced to run my own runners due to the extreme nerfs they've done to the hosted CI. I mirrored OpenRGB to Codeberg, but since the CI pipelines depend on GitLab I don't see Codeberg becoming the main hub anytime soon unless they can execute GL CI configs. Sad to see how far GitLab has fallen though, it is unrecognizable from what it used to be as far as support for FOSS prohects goes, especially given how GitLab itself started as a FOSS project.
And you can create the bootable USB with the Deck before you swap the SSD. You should never need a second PC to set up the Deck unless you bought your Deck without an OS installed already.
Leo's covers are the best, been following him for years.
Plug in hybrid usually refers to a car that has some amount of purely electric range, charges like an EV, but after depleting its battery falls back into conventional hybrid mode where the battery is maintained to some level of reserve power using a gas engine. The Chevy Volt is probably the best example. I drive a Volt and all my daily commute is purely electric unless it's super cold outside.
I love my 2014 Gen 1 Volt and would love to see the technology continue to improve. If they made a Gen 3 Volt with at least 100 miles all electric range and a heat pump system that didn't halve the battery when it's cold outside I would absolutely consider it over a pure EV for my next car.
AMD's integrated GPUs have been getting really good lately. I'm impressed at what they are capable of with gaming handhelds and it only makes sense to put the same extra GPU power into desktop APUs. This hopefully will lead to true gaming laptops that don't require power hungry discrete GPUs and workarounds/render offloading for hybrid graphics. That said, to truly be a gaming laptop replacement I want to see a solid 60fps minimum at at least 1080p, but the fact that we're seeing numbers close to this is impressive nonetheless.
We have Waydroid which is close enough. It needs some quality of life improvements for better integration with the native Linux ecosystem but it runs Android apps just fine on Linux phones.