Hi, thank you for documenting your experiences. Would you please let us know how the experience is using remote desktop into a windows machine or even a Linux machine via NoMachine?

E.g. how is alt tabbing inside the target machine, do hotkeys correctly pass through like ctrl+alt+del or the Pause key?

My dream setup is having my phone be the terminal to my work and personal desktop VMs with a portable monitor,mouse,keyboard

Currently I use a P6P but if this experience is feasible I will buy a P8P right now

    privy2naught slightly off topic, and I can’t help you with your specific question - but this is exactly how I use my iPad. It’s a very cool experience. Would be even better on a gos device.

      BraveDuck The Anker hub setup is able to work without the external power. But I have been using a 50W Anker charger which is enough to charge the phone while running the desktop mode.

      privy2naught Unfortunately I am unable to test this app. Teamviewer does not capture the Alt-Tab. One way to use your P6P to test if it works is to go to System -> Developer options -> Simulate secondary displays to try out the desktop mode yourself. This option gives you a floating, resizable desktop overlaid on top of your regular phone screen, and similar limitations apply. For example, sometimes the mouse does not show up on the floating screen. Try restarting it. Please post to this thread if it works!

          8 days later

          (This forum software again lost my draft after reloading...)

          So basically, the differences between Android and PC are quite drastic.

          PC

          • for offices and work mainly
          • many professional tools, office, video editing, image manipulation, science, coding, ...
          • lots of FOSS but also paid and big software, with many features

          Android

          • 90% Webview
          • mostly just for consuming content, so Apps are minimalist, lots of DRM
          • nearly no real work done, apart from messaging and calling, so...
          • apps have ad-driven free "Android versions" with little features
          • there are no filemanagers with tabs
          • no good Image Editors (Snapseed & Krita are not replacements for GIMP, XNView, Inkscape, Darktable etc.)
          • not sure if Collabora Office is a whole Libreoffice Clone in Desktop mode, in mobile mode its basically only for reading
          • apart from Open Video Editor nothing for Video editing
          • k9mail is simplified (but efficient), but openkeychain is unmaintained and has no key generation!

          The whole interface has to be reduced, and things are often really opinionated. Android has awesome Gems though, like OSMAnd, Infinity for Lemmy, Fedilab and many more things I use through Waydroid on Linux.

          Also some nice ports:

          • Freetube
          • Krita
          • more?

          Not wanting to be pessimistic, but if you are perfectly fine with what a phone can do, doing stuff like this may be fine. But overall, phones are meant for stupid media consumption, messaging and really little really useful stuff.

          I think developers evaded making actually good Apps sometimes, so they are reduced and instead use Ads. But many are also great, and I can imagine many things will be fine!

          Also it is Linux, plus hardening, and it is not fragmented. This is a huge advantage. Do know that 70% of apps will look horrible though.

          For curious people I recommed installing Waydroid on Linux, and test if you could use such a Desktop. Its based on pretty old code now though, and has no official Desktop mode too.

            missing-root i guess in the future you can have full linux app emulation for android, like windows has for linux so you could run a desktop linux app on the phone with docking station, Android 15+ should also have better compatibility with this

                That's right, mobile apps were never designed for desktop use.

                freezet really, Android 15 will have native Linux App support?

                I mean it is already very possible using Termux, a vnc server and local client. But a huge pain in the ass, and a second entire OS and Desktop.

                  11 days later

                  I read somewhere that the AOSP January patch fixed a bunch of issues with desktop mode. Unable to locate the post. Does anyone have recent experience?

                  missing-root Pixels have hardware virtualization support and being able to use other operating systems in virtual machines including Windows 11 and desktop Linux distributions is a planned feature for GrapheneOS. We just haven't prioritized it since there wasn't DisplayPort alternate mode until the Pixel 8 and the desktop mode support still isn't fully baked. Once the feature is complete and enabled on stock OS with a proper UI included for the launcher, we'll consider prioritizing it.

                      @missing-root You're making a lot of incorrect assumptions based on your personal knowledge and experience with apps which does not reflect the whole set of apps that are available.

                        GrapheneOS not sure which comment you are referring to but I can't find that many incorrect assumptions really.

                        Krita, Chromium (and soon Firefox), Acode, OSMAnd~ are the only desktop-friendly/comparable Apps that I know. Maybe a few more, notes apps etc. but a ton of apps are not convergent (like many GNOME and KDE apps are nowadays).

                        I sure hope that the many tablet options on the market will motivate people to develop good Tablet software, which would then be a step closer to Desktop.

                        It just doesnt make sense on phones, so Android Tablets need to become "a thing". I suppose there are a lot more proprietary options like Adobe, Microsoft, Notes apps etc.

                        • KS1 likes this.
                          13 days later

                          GrapheneOS accepting the hardware limitations as a bottle neck, does this mean a meaningful step towards a xen based (or similar) model?

                          Or aside that, the option to launch disposables for untrusted links, PDFs, etc, along with other features people praise Qubes for?

                            Since the Pixel 8 only has 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Port, will using it with a lot of accessories (ethernet, mouse, keyboard, display, and headset) negatively affect its speed when using external drives?

                            • de0u replied to this.

                              DeletedUser40 I don't think mouse or keyboard matter. But too much overall load will slow the system down. And it might not be the USB port that saturates... DRAM has limited throughput too. Fundamentally this is a phone, not a tower PC.

                                OutlawSanZhang

                                I have followed your advice and the truth is that the desktop mode looks great. It is missing a home or task bar, but I was surprised that when I connected my new pixel 8 to my work dock (dynabook) it instantly recognized the screen, keyboard and mouse perfectly.

                                Is there any way to use desktop mode with the smartphone screen off? I'm afraid it will burn out the oled panel.

                                    DeletedUser40 I think that if it is a real problem, having the smartphone screen on for a long time with a static image can end up burning it.

                                    It is the main drawback I find today to the desktop mode.

                                      • [deleted]

                                      • Post #24
                                      • Edited

                                      OutlawSanZhang which gives you a desktop-like experience with floating windows

                                      Hope they'll implement tiling some day....

                                      OutlawSanZhang Using this feature requires enabling developer options, which are frown upon in this community because of the security implications. Do not use this feature if the best level of smartphone security is desired.

                                      What are the security implications of using developer options? Unless you're turning something necessary, there's none AFAIK. I, for example, had to turn Absolute volume off since it messes up the volume calculator i'm using. The apps have no way of knowing whether it's working, and this option specifically doesn't affect GOS precautions whatsoever.

                                          GrapheneOS
                                          That sounds like great news! Looking forward to it. I would argue that most people would use the VMs in full-screen mode, so a polished desktop UI shouldn't be necessary for this to be greatly useful.

                                          ifman13
                                          You can just run any app that gives you a black screen on the phone side, like a gallery app and a black image.

                                          aeduigh
                                          Please see the previous reply on simulating a desktop mode to try it out on any GrapheneOS-supported device. It works exactly the same way.