Plasma Mobile on the Librem 5

[Matthias Klumpp]

2017-08-29 15:58 GMT+02:00 Eike Hein <hein at kde.org>:
>
> On 08/29/2017 10:28 PM, Matthias Klumpp wrote:
>> As some of you might already know, we at Purism are planning to
>> develop a mobile phone that uses only free software and Matrix[2] for
>> communication. We are currently running a crowdfunding campaign[1] in
>> order to be able to make the phone a reality.>
>> [...]
>>
>> Our scope for this project is limited, in order to be able to complete
>> it successfully and not end up in a never ending development loop: The
>> phone should be able to communicate via Matrix, have a web browser,
>> make calls, take pictures. We are not aiming for a massive amount of
>> apps, but instead want the basic functionalities of the phone working
>> well when we ship it - more apps and features can be delivered later
>> via Flatpaks and system updates.
>
> Very interesting!
>
> I'll let others reply about some of the more Plasma Mobile-specific
> parts as they're better equipped to do so and will focus on the Matrix
> part, as it piqued my interest with my "Konversation developer" hat on.
>
> Konversation is KDE's IRC client. As a by-product of an (ongoing)
> conversation within the KDE community on whether we want to stick by IRC
> or move on to another chat solution as 'the one' for the community, and
> how to transition smoothly, we're currently (a) rewriting the UI to be
> more convergent and allow for a mobile version and (b) looking to
> retarget it as an IRC/Matrix client.
>
> This is a very early effort currently focused on UI experimentation and
> rampup (read: there are no Matrix bits yet, although the Konvi team has
> been following Matrix for a while and is to a degree familiar with the
> technology). After a few initial sessions of hacking this months, here
> are some (working and chatting) mockups of the UI direction:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cr7hirDzws&hd=1
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b88oqdlNyuU&hd=1
> http://imgur.com/a/bT7XE
>
> As you can see the UI is headed toward a responsive/convergent bent
> (here with desktop-specific concessions) using KDE's Kirigami UI technology.
>
> As one of the main problems the community has with IRC is the poor state
> of mobile access, a mobile version of Konversation for both Plasma
> Mobile and Android - both platforms Kirigami easily deploys to - is
> definitely planned, leveraging both Kirigami's convergent nature (and
> meaning it, not buzzword bingo) and the ability to do form
> factor-specific customization via KPackage. This work is currently being
> done in collab with KDE's Visual Design group and with (code, advice)
> support from the Kirigami team as well.
>
> Again, it's the early days of this effort - but I can confirm Matrix is
> something we're interested in and gearing up to hack on, motivated in
> large part by mobile. We share that one.

I was made aware of that effort already a few weeks ago, and it is
looking great! I guess the default Matrix app in the Librem phone
would have to be something focused on person-to-person communication
and tight integration with the user's contact list, instead of being
more group-chat centric like Konversation is. But having more choice
in Matrix clients is a good thing, and maybe we can have different UIs
for the same backend.
Keep up the good work!