←back to thread

Google is building its own DeX: First look at Android's Desktop Mode

(www.androidauthority.com)
442 points logic_node | 2 comments | 13 May 25 14:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.458s | source
Show context
enragedcacti ◴[13 May 25 14:58 UTC] No.43973693[source]▶
Taking better advantage of a display is nice but imo the really exciting part of desktop mode is the planned integration with Google's Linux Terminal app (i.e. 1st party linux VM support). I have a Samsung DeX device and while you can get a basic dev environment working easily it can be really cumbersome to make it comfortable to use and integrate with your normal tablet workflow. Being able to install full-fat linux apps and run them in a window would be a complete game changer.

source for planned integration: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/392521081?utm_source=...

replies(7): >>43975631 #>>43976152 #>>43976570 #>>43977363 #>>43980160 #>>43995473 #>>44006293 #
eru ◴[14 May 25 02:38 UTC] No.43980160[source]▶
When I tried the external display mode on my Pixel 8a, I did some development with a bluetooth keyboard, bluetooth trackball and vscode tunneling into my desktop.

So the development wasn't local, but it was sort-of usable. (And the editing is local in any case.)

replies(1): >>43984332 #
apitman ◴[14 May 25 13:32 UTC] No.43984332[source]▶
What do you mean by tunneling here; remote desktop or does vscode run on the 8a?
replies(1): >>43990945 #
eru ◴[15 May 25 01:28 UTC] No.43990945[source]▶
VSCode runs in Chrome on the Pixel 8a. But it connects to a remote VSCode server via a VSCode tunnel where eg your compiler runs. See https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/tunnels
replies(1): >>43994558 #
1. apitman ◴[15 May 25 12:59 UTC] No.43994558[source]▶
I had no idea the vscode tunneling stuff worked in the browser. I thought it was SSH. Do they have some sort of WebSocket proxy? Do you have a link to how to set this up?
replies(1): >>44001289 #
2. eru ◴[16 May 25 02:23 UTC] No.44001289[source]▶
They offer both ssh and their own tunnel protocol.

So you start the 'server' on eg your desktop, and that registers with eg GitHub or Microsoft (or perhaps another service, not sure how open the system is), and then you can use any other computer to connect to your system via GitHub or Microsoft (as a proxy, I think). The other computer can either run just a browser, or can run a vscode (which is basically also a browser in the end).

See https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/tunnels

Yes, the nice thing about the tunnels is that the computer you want to develop on doesn't have to be reachable from the internet. It only has to be able to reach the internet. GitHub (or Microsoft) play the man-in-the-middle.

It's really convenient. I often use it to develop from my laptop on my desktop, even when they are on the same local network: because it's basically just as fast, but I don't have to worry about which network I'm on, it just always works (as long as I have Internet access on both machines. But if that ever stops, I'm not really going to develop much anyway.)