When Samsung launched the Note 8, it bundled a free DeX system, which is a dock designed to work with the smartphone and providing a desktop-like experience when connected to a keyboard, mouse and external display. The system is also compatible with the S8 and S8+. Now the company has said that the system will be able to support Linux on Galaxy as an operating system, as well as Android, giving access to apps in a Linux environment. The same apps can be accessed on a regular PC using a Linux environment.
Samsung has also worked with game companies to allow games running on the devices to work in the desktop environment and allowing control with a keyboard and mouse. The support is implemented through the Vulkan API
Analyst Comment
The key barrier to using smartphones as computers is the Android OS, which is optimised for the smartphone interface and doesn’t work well with a keyboard and mouse. I ordered a shell for my phone from the company that was Andromium (now Sentio) although, like many Kickstarter projects, it has been delayed and delayed. Sentio has developed its own front end, but clearly being able to use Linux makes things simpler.
I had a brief play with Dex at the Samsung event during IFA and found it quite usable and responsive on the latest S8 Note. It seems to me that in the future, the number of people using this kind of system is bound to increase. (BR)
