[janmarsal]

Still waiting for the day when I can get rid of my work laptop and replace it with a phone entirely. Technically it's already possible, but it's just not practical until I can easily run docker containers on my phone. Also the samsung desktop mode is a bit underwhelming right now.

If this is not the default in the next decade I'm gonna riot. Hotels could replace the TV with a big computer screen and the corner chair with an office chair. Even a cheap hotel room could be an office without anyone having to bring their own toys with them. Just the phone in your pocket.

[pjc50]

Windows Phone let you do this with Continuum ten years ago: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/01/14/conti...

Like the rest of the WP ecosystem, never really took off enough.

[broken-kebab]

I can't understand what exactly is in this dream you want to become true. It sounds like you want a portable device with physical keyboard, and reasonable screen size. Which is laptop.

[forgotmypw17]

I think it's about being able to take the portable device with you separately from the display and keyboard.

[larrybud]

So you mean a Microsoft Surface 2 in 1?

[forgotmypw17]

I think that matches 2 out of 3 requirements:

Full general-purpose computer: Yes

Connects to external keyboard and display: Yes

Fits into pocket: No

[broken-kebab]

When good keyboard, and decent-sized screen are priorities, "fits into pocket" is (self-)deception as they presumably will be carried in a backpack anyway. In other words it's unwieldy laptop one part of which fits into pocket.

Alternative is to hope for keyboard and screen to be present at special places. Which however means that practical portability is very limited. Also it would affect security, personal ergonomics etc.

[forgotmypw17]

I think the "special places" use case is exactly what OC was talking about, office and home.

[she46BiOmUerPVj]

JNCOs coming in clutch.

[getpokedagain]

I assume it's something like mine. I want a phone I can dock and use as a desktop with a monitor and mouse/keyboard. That is just a phone when undocked.

We have reactive UIs and desktop mode on android. It's getting very close. I am not certain on the previous commentors reasons but I detest the many device game. A 500 dollar pixel 10a is a great computer and I would rather not buy another machine if I dont have to.

[bombcar]

And if every iPhone was also a Mac when attached to a monitor and keyboard, monitors and keyboards would become entirely common - as with the hotel example.

My iPhone 15 Pro Max is more capable than a MacBook Neo; it’d be nice if it could be one.

[HappMacDonald]

So the Nintendo Switch model of PCs. I dig it, I dig it

[usrnm]

The last thing I want is work following me wherever I go. I even have a separate phone for all the work-related stuff that I only take with me when absolutely necessary. Which is almost never except when I'm oncall.

[Fnoord]

Well, if you have BYOD policy consider yourself blessed. Many are simply not allowed to do whatever on their managed devices.

My recommendation is use OpenSSH (alternative: Wireguard, Tailscale for whole TCP/IP stack), tmux (or equivalent, there are alternatives such as zellij and rmux), and a keyboard (wired is more secure, YMMV). Then you have a thin client. Run Docker remotely, on a far more capable device than whatever your smartphone is. With Waydroid or another variant of remote Wayland you could even have the GUI part working.

I was able to do the above 5 years ago on Ubuntu and Arch. I am sure you can still do it nowadays.

One caveat. Don't do this in environments where you cannot auth in privacy. You must be able to trust your hardware, too. Don't bring this setup to e.g. China. You can put a strong password on your SSH private key, rotate it, and combine OTP/MFA.

Which leads me to say: I am puzzled how people can work in environments like coffeeshops, cafes, and I even see laptops used for work in swimming pool where I go weekly. Your screen can be viewed, recorded at all time, and I doubt the users are aware of that. Even passwords can be recorded.

[cbdevidal]

Maybe rent a cheap VM for Docker?

I often think to myself when using my iPhone, there is no way I could get desktop work done with this. Can’t recall right now why I have said so but I think it had to do with keeping multiple apps open side by side.

For example this year I have been car shopping and I keep multiple windows open; this would be much harder on my iPhone. Maybe not so much an iPad.

[brokenmachine]

You can run two apps in split screen on Android. Not sure about two separate browser windows at once though.

[xuhu]

Though it might be a while before hotels start offering Aeron Classic chairs in their rooms.

[WhyNotHugo]

I leant Python on a Nokia N900, which ran a regular Linux with Xorg, ssh, etc.

You can still do this today with a Linux phone (e.g.: postmarketOS). Of course, a lot of your typical iOS apps won't run there (e.g.: Signal, Maps, etc), but you can't really run docker container on iOS (yet?).

If you really need all the usual iOS (or Android) apps maybe you just need two phones? Still lighter than a phone and a laptop.

[MarceliusK]

I want this too, though I suspect the hard part is less compute and more the boring peripheral/ecosystem stuff

[close04]

Mouse, keyboard and a screen would already cover the needs for most users. No need to wait until everything just works. As for the ecosystem, Apple’s Neo is a phone connected to a bunch of peripherals. Even on limited iPhone/iPad OS a more desktop like interface could easily be implemented. The iPad already has some half decent desktop approximation.

The hard part is getting Apple to cannibalize their desktop and tablet related sales. Because they’re the only ones with all the tools in the box. Samsung doesn’t have any proper OS of their own to take this role, they bolt it on Android.

[user876]

Postmarketos can run the containers, however a 4k desktop environment is still a bit sluggish

[dietr1ch]

I wish computing evolved to let thin desktops evolve into some screen + phone mount where the dock provides extra power, compute+GPU, screen and peripherals.

The problem is attaching a thunderbolt/network CPU with it's own memory doesn't work as well (although aren't external GPUs similar? external compute+memory).

[skybrian]

If you're willing to run stuff in a Linux VM in the cloud, I quite like exe.dev and the website is pretty mobile-friendly. Also, you can ask the AI to do stuff instead of typing it on the command line.

[sharts]

Just use a VPS