[Gta04-owner] GNOME on Smartphone

[H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi,

> Am 26.10.2017 um 16:38 schrieb Jonas Smedegaard <jonas at jones.dk>:
> 
> Quoting H. Nikolaus Schaller (2017-10-26 15:26:40)
>> 
>>> Am 26.10.2017 um 15:12 schrieb Jonas Smedegaard <jonas at jones.dk>:
>>> 
>>> Quoting H. Nikolaus Schaller (2017-10-26 14:38:09)
>>>> there is currently a lot of hype around running Gnome on a 
>>>> smartphone which seems to need new hardware to be possible.
>>>> 
>>>> This made me curious. Therefore I took a fresh µSD card and did 
>>>> [...] apt-get install gnome-core
>>> 
>>> Yes, that is the easy part.
>>> 
>>> Challenging parts are these:
>>> 
>>> a) get GPU drivers for hardware-backed OpenGL working for the 
>>> particular device (since GNOME depend on OpenGL and software-only 
>>> emulation is likely too power hungry even if fast enough).
>> 
>> Does it?
> 
> Yes: https://wiki.gnome.org/GraphicsRequirements
> 
> 
>> At least the apt-get install on Debian 9.1 didn't ask for such 
>> dependencies.
> 
> If by "such dependencies" you (like me) mean package libegl1 then I am 
> curious how you managed to install gnome-core without that.

Well, I just did an apt-get install without knowing what it will install.
And it appears that it was neither installed nor tagged as missing.
Maybe it is optional despite the requirements list?

> 
> 
>> A more fundamental question is why everyone wants to require OpenGL.
> 
> Your question is flawed: Not everyone wants that.

It is not flawed, it is rhetorically exaggerated :)

> 
> I believe rephrasing to "why those embrasing shiny UIs use abstraction 
> layers like OpenGL or Vulcan" hints at the answer ;-)
> 
> 
>>> Might make sense to faster reach a usable state by doing b) without 
>>> waiting for GTK+4.  But that has a real risk of repeating QtMoko 
>>> which didn't want to wait for Qt to properly cover phones.
>> 
>> Seems to be a big hen&egg situation.
> 
> Imposing unreasonable constraints lead to odd scenarios, yes ;-)
> 
> You introduces a constraint of beating the Librem5 deadline.

No, not at all, i don't want to beat anyone. I am just curious to
better understand the implications of running Gnome on a smartphone.
And with a GTA04 I can already do such experiments.

> Remove that 
> deadline and it makes sense for Qt and GTK+ to evolve in their own pace: 
> Both projects already actively develop towards support for phones.

That is indeed a good move.

BR,
Nikolaus