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A phone that is powered by Android and magically transforms into a Linux desktop when connected to an external display has been tried before. It was called Ubuntu for Android and it was one of Canonical's earliest attempts at some sort of convergence between the mobile and PC worlds.
It never succeeded and it was never launched. [The idea, however,] was working and they had a preliminary version of it in a sort of functional state. It's not clear why Canonical dropped the project but it probably had something to do with the hardware which wasn't all that powerful three or four years ago.
Maru is trying to do a similar thing. [...] [Now that] the team behind this project has better hardware, [....] it should work--at least in theory.
For the moment, Maru only works for Nexus 5 and it's in a closed beta. This means that if you subscribe, maybe you'll be given access. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be the kind of project that can work on anything and support needs to be added to each individual phone model.
[From the project site [1]]
Maru Mobile is built on the latest Android Lollipop. It ships with zero bloatware, so your phone runs snappy and has lots of free space for all your apps. Maru Desktop brings you true multitasking and desktop productivity in a lightweight package.
[Update: Maru is being open sourced!]
[1] The site's content is behind scripts; the archive.is link bypasses it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @01:09PM
Technologically speaking, a SBC (odroid c1+ for the record) whose specs are less than the latest phones delivers a smooth libreoffice and web browsing experience even on lubuntu (I'd rather have a port of antix on it but ok).
If all android phones do not come with a linux desktop, after asking the user if he's willing to sacrifice a meager couple gb of storage to host it, it's a commercial choice. Vendors do not want to sell personal computers (be they in the phone form factor) they want to rent out appliances. A mere matter of cash flow which costs A LOT in terms of lost time to society.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 16 2016, @10:22PM
Ubuntu Touch appears to be on the leading edge of getting convergence right.
Like Maru, it senses what's connected and gives you the corresponding UX.
In the coming weeks, they're hoping to get hooked up with existing vendors of Android devices.
odroid
About an order of magnitude improvement on price over some smartphones.
...but you lose the portability of a COTS phone|tablet.
...or do you have a packaging paradigm that covers that nicely?
I'd rather have a port of antiX
As small as that crew is, I'm amazed at how much they -do- get done.
...but we can dream.
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