Software development on a Pixel+GOS?

monozygote

My laptop is showing its age (still functional) and I was highly interested in QubesOS - including for fun/learning. I did save some over the last year to help me buy a powerful laptop to run it (eg. loaded Novacustoms etc).

However I just came across this article from ₁ year back - they use their phone + foldable keyboard + AR glasses to get a laptop experience (including software development) literally anywhere! And claim it all fits into pocket-size while on the move!

That sounded like 007 stuff - so cool!

Now I'm wondering, should I rather invest the money in a decent pixel 9/10 pro or whatever is the most powerful phone supported by GOS instead. I currently have P8 pro but don't want to put too much load on that due to it being a daily driver for "phone" stuff and reduce its life somehow.

Is anyone regularly using GOS/pixel desktop mode along with the Linux Terminal (not just as a one off experimentation - but regularly)?
Has anyone used it for software dev - from building projects with interpreted languages (eg. Python) and compiled languages (eg. Rust)? I assume the latter will put much more load on the CPU etc.
Is this stable? Do you reckon it'll reduce the phone's life by putting too much load on it?
On desktop mode can I log into and see multiple profiles at the same time (for "why" see below)?
Using docker I'm hoping I should be able to compile/run x86_64 binaries (including interpretors/lib-dependencies etc) since all the companies work on x86_64 systems. Any concerns here?
While the companies I work for don't develop GUIs, just to cover my a**, GUIs run fine in the VM i suppose if I ever need one (like interface with GTK or something - not sure, not a UI person so far)?

Or am I still better off getting a laptop? I don't play any games - mostly do banking + browsing + some social media + loads of software dev most of which need running docker (compose/containers/etc) because that's how the team develops.

With QubesOS I would follow something like this for segregating contract work. In GOS+pixel linux terminal, I don't suppose I can do this, but I can install/activate terminal app in different profiles and get that segregation I suppose? Although it won't be as convenient since I can only log into one profile at a time?

thmf

monozygote In short, desktop mode is not just there yet. You can check the long thread (which I'm sure you already saw) about it for other community members' experience with it and for a lot of workarounds for the glitches people found so far. Some say it's usable, but everyone's use case is different, thus the level of involvement / tolerance to the glitches will be different. Your use case sounds somewhat more involved than of a casual user, so only a test will tell if it's usable enough for your workflow.
Not sure on the x86_64 side, but the rest of the tools seem to be already there (profiles, terminal app, virtualization capabilities, etc). The whole thing just feels like its still in development, which it is. It gets better and better with every QPR/major Android release. Just not there yet.
Without spending any money you could try using your P8 Pro for a day or two and see if it's ready for your use case. It won't do your phone any harm. P8 Pro supports alternate mode, so the experience shouldn't be drastically different from 9/10 series, if not the same.

mmobder

monozygote along with the Linux Terminal (not just as a one off experimentation - but regularly)?

re Terminal:

I haven't yet figured "why", but I can reliably re-start the terminal. It's rare I can exit it and then re-run without an error of "restore failed" and a need to re-init it loosing internal configuration.
Also, I guess it's not only my case, but as I use VPN, I have to disable "block connections without VPN" in GOS settings. Otherwise it just doesn't start. Not something I would like to while on the go.

re Desktop mode: it's really good for me, using it kinda daily.

pixelfairy

monozygote You'd be better off with Qubes-os for all that. You'll get used to it quick and never want to go back to monolithic desktops.

If you get a laptop from NovaCustom, make sure you get the FHD screen. Not the 2.8k one! The higher res one can't do full screen video smoothly even if you set it to FHD. They sent me the higher res screen accidentally.

On Graphene, you can run podman containers in the dev terminal and get light, clunky compartmentalization that way. Docker might work too. I've used bash and python in the dev terminal, but only light scripts like moving files around.

monozygote

Thanks all! I finally got around to trying it and I surprisingly got quite far but not all the way. Still, beyond what I had expected. The TL;DR is that it's good news (for the future at-least I imagine), although unfortunately still insufficient for a full blown software development. I've put the details later below.

pixelfairy

make sure you get the FHD screen. Not the 2.8k one!

Oh thanks for that - didn't know! One thing that's bugging me about Novacustom or these laptops in general is the lack of multiple USB controllers - basically discussed in this thread :

Without that every device is on the same controller and can’t be separated by USB-VMs, even internal devices. That means a Yubikey and the Camera is in the same trust domain as the bluetooth module. That is inacceptable.

I'll search more if there are other laptops offering this else might spend money on a desktop instead (which I don't want to because I love portability - esp with QubesOS where you can't/mustn't do remote logins to dom0. Let's see.

Details

I could install docker/docker-compose, git etc and nearly stood up my whole project. It has over 10 docker-compose services and all of my own services and many of the 3rd party services like postgres etc were up. However some more involved ones failed - eg. localstack (which has been a problem on arm architecture in the past including apple silicon M1, M4 etc) and so on. Maybe if I spend more time I'll eventually get it to work or find a way around.

For the UX - it was so so - the terminal app itself keeps crashing when you visit it after a while (I've logs I can post if helpful but it's mostly SIGSEGV errors). Once it's logged in though it remains stable for at-least an hr or so that I spent at a stretch. I couldn't increase the font size in Desktop mode but I had timeboxed this whole experiment so didn't try beyond setfont and setting facesize in .Xresources (because echo $TERM says it's xterm). Maybe if I search/tinker a bit more I might get there. Otherwise, it's not stellar but totally passable for working with it.

pixelfairy

monozygote Mayby someone here can help https://forum.qubes-os.org/

I've only run a few docker or podman containers at a time. What template were you using and have you tried a different one?

I use qubes as my main os, but still use another computer with libvirt and more resources for things qubes can't do.

monozygote

pixelfairy

What template were you using and have you tried a different one?

You mean Qubes template? Sorry, just to be clear I bundled two posts into one - the Details (software-dev / docker) portions were related to the Terminal app as bundled with GOS giving access to Debian VM.

On QubesOS I'm sure it'll all just work - the VMs there should be no different than any other Linux machine for software development (well maybe with the exception of very low level / graphics-card related / etc stuff which I don't currently deal with).

For the QubesOS portion, my slight concern was the lack of multiple usb-controllers in the compatible laptops.

pixelfairy

monozygote My v54 has what looks like two different usb controllers, or at least two different pci addresses on 3 devices held by sys-usb.

00:0d.0 PCI_USB: Intel Corporation Meteor Lake-P Thunderbolt 4 USB Controller
00:0d.2 PCI_USB: Intel Corporation Meteor Lake-P Thunderbolt 4 NHI #0 (rev 10)
00:14.0 PCI_USB: Intel Corporation Meteor Lake-P USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 xHCI Host Controller (rev 20)

When I get some time, I'll try separating them and see how it works.

Wouldn't bother trying to do this stuff from your phone. Its too resource constrained. At best you could use it as a terminal for your real dev machine. Which is what I sometimes do with qubes-os. Qubes intentionally disables nested virtualization and graphics acceleration for security reasons. Or course, its open source so you could re-enable nesting. Don't know how graphics acceleration would work, but doesn't sound like you need it anyway.