ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Selene Scriven <selene.scriven@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

* Stephen M. Webb <stephen.webb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> X11 is an inherently insecure platform on which to run 
> untrusted software.  It's simple and easy to inject keystrokes, 
> intercept keystrokes, scrape screens, and even launch 
> privileged applications through the X server.

And it's beautiful.  Those traits sound like features to me, not 
bugs, and I rely on them heavily for my daily work.

* Christian Hahn <ch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I realized that when I have for instance gedit open and then 
> run (in an ssh shell)
> 
> $ DISPLAY=:0 libertine-launch puritine matchbox-keyboard
> 
> I get a useful onscreen keyboard for gedit.
> 
> Libertine uses the matchbox-window-manager, so instead of 
> launching a specific programm i thought it would be cool to 
> launch the matchbox-desktop

Ah, matchbox is a nice old UI for small screens.  I've used it on 
various devices since ~2001, back when I was developing for 
handhelds.org's "Familiar" Linux PDA distro.  I wonder how mallum 
(Matchbox's author) is doing these days.  I wonder if the mb 
keyboard still has the fitaly layout I gave it.

It may seem small and cheesy, but here is what my Linux PDA 
looked like in 2002:

  http://i.imgur.com/M42wabW.png

Good times.  Before convergence was a buzz word, the iPaq and 
Zaurus ran the same software as a regular Linux desktop...  
though that was limited by what would actually fit on devices at 
the time.  It was nice having full applications instead of just 
"apps".

Additionally, wireless display was easy, flexible, and universal.  
I could use my PDA to view/control my desktop and vice-versa, or 
even use the PDA screen as a drawing tablet for GIMP on a bigger 
screen.  A bit later, I used the same networked-display 
techniques to turn the PDA into a viewing / piloting device for a 
remote-control vehicle I built.  Or one could put the PDA on its 
cradle and treat it like an extra screen, exporting windows and 
moving the mouse freely between it and other computers.

It was only popular among enthusiasts though, and the 
more-popular Qt- and Android-based devices got rid of all that 
cool stuff.

> What do I have to do to just start a Xmir-Server?

Would be nice, no?


-- Selene