Splashtop

[woodsmoke]

a) Get your smartphone.

b) Get a pillow, seat yourself comfortably with the pillow below your jaw, distance below is trivial.

c) Install and activate this. It works with Iphone, Android with a deb download for the computer and a GooglePlay install for the phone.

d) Prepare to be amazed when you see your Kubuntu desktop on the phone, ....fully functional.

e) Ummm be very sure that the pillow is comfortably beneath your jaw of you will have to deal with a bruise.

http://www.splashtop.com/home

woodsmoke

[Frank616]

Woodsmoke:

Did you really get this work acceptably?

I just tried it with the Linux client (32 bit) on my desktop machine, and the newest Android Splashtop 2 on my Galaxy Note. Does it work? Yeah, sort of. Is it actually usable? You'd sure want to have something on the remote machine pretty bad to actually use it, Even trying to get it to email me a file from the desktop machine was an ordeal. Mouse cursor movement is slow, touchy (though the trackpad option worked better), and, did I mention slow?

I also have one Windows app running in WINE on my desktop machine. Again, yes, it can be manipulated from the Android phone, and one can get information off the desktop machine, but you better not have someone waiting for you....

So why did you think it was so great? Is it better than KDRC and VNC for Android?

I've got another thread going here on setting up the above. Surely it can't be worse than Splashtop?

Frank.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
No, I really don't think that it is all that useable but I was greatly impressed by just how:

a) the distro looked on the phone
b) That it actually did work, I wrote a few sentences in Calligra, activated Amarok, got on the net, etc.
c) I also tried a stock Unity setup and the buttons on the left panel were "useable", but the rest of the file structure was less than useable.
d) I made a big "folder view" and plopped it into the very middle of the screen and was able to bypass the menu system to click a document and edit it.
e) I normally keep FF in the rocket launcher widget and it was immediately useable.


The big take way for me was that Kubuntu translated pretty well and it kind of gives a feel for how the Kubuntu Plasma would work and appear on a tablet.

Since I'll probably not be running Kubu plasma on the little doof tablet I purchased, this was a nice representation of the Kubu plasma other folks will probably be seeing on tablets pretty quickly.

woodsmoke

[Frank616]

Woodsmoke:

a) the distro looked on the phone

Yes, and especially in comparison to the competition, like Team Viewer. I did have VNC for Android working on my phone on the local LAN connected to the same desktop, and it too was quite pixelated compared to Splashtop.

b) That it actually did work, I wrote a few sentences in Calligra, activated Amarok, got on the net, etc.

Agreed. That it works at all is amazing. And, if you have no other option, it is most certainly better than nothing. If you are several hundred KM away from home and need a file, or a piece of software that you do not have with you, all of Splashtop's 'warts' would be quickly forgotten as long as it did the job.

Your glowing report suggested more to me than I got, however. So perhaps my expectations are just too high, given the current state of hard and software. This technology will only improve, of course, so for the few bucks I paid for the product, I certainly don't consider it a waste.

I suspect that while it can be made to work on a smartphone, it is geared more to bigger machines, like a more powerful tablet, or even a laptop. I'm going to try putting it on my 17" Dell laptop, and see what it is like controlling the desktop machine with a proper keyboard and mouse interface. I'll connect to the net on the laptop through the wifi hotspot on my phone, like I would do if I were really out of the house. Quite honestly, that is a more likely scenario for me anyway. I run a small business, and when I am away on vacation, I've sometimes wanted to have a look at things on the computer at the shop.

One thing that did impress me was that when the phone connects, it changes the resolution on the monitor on the desktop machine. I run a 1600 x 1200 digital monitor on the desktop machine, and while the 1280 x 800 screen on my Galaxy Note is big, one still has to pan around a lot to use a 1600 x 1200 monitor remotely. This change of resolution is an indication to me of how much work Splashtop put into the Linux product. By the way, it goes back to normal 1600 x 1200 resolution when the phone disconnects. THAT is pretty slick.

Another thing: My daughter has a Macbook Pro and an iPhone. She tried Team Viewer, and got it to work. However, the Macbook Pro goes to sleep, and she cannot connect to it in that state. To show someone else how team viewer works, she had to get my wife to do down into her room and wake the Mac up so she could connect. Splashtop prevents the desktop machine from going to sleep, which means you can connect anytime. It also means that you have to turn the monitor off, but on a desktop machine, that is no issue. It would be harder if you were connecting to a Laptop that you left running.

Frank.

[vinnywright]

I'll connect to the net on the laptop through the wifi hotspot on my phone, like I would do if I were really out of the house. Quite honestly, that is a more likely scenario for me anyway. I run a small business, and when I am away on vacation, I've sometimes wanted to have a look at things on the computer at the shop.

have you tried an SSH connection ..... you can get X fording through one as well and say use dolphin on the home box from your away box ?
I'v even ran cheeze on the home box and watched the wife watching TV .....LOL

VINNY

[Frank616]

Vinny:

have you tried an SSH connection ..... you can get X fording through one as well and say use dolphin on the home box from your away box ?

No, I haven't. However, isn't x forwarding slower?

And, IIUC, one still has all the issues with IP addresses and whatnot, right?

I don't know if I need this technology enough to go to a lot of trouble to make it work.

Frank.

[vinnywright]

Vinny:



No, I haven't. However, isn't x forwarding slower?

not from what you all have been discribing.

And, IIUC, one still has all the issues with IP addresses and whatnot, right?

I don't know if I need this technology enough to go to a lot of trouble to make it work.

Frank.

not realy ....you would just ford the port that SSH is using through your router and then use your IP address for the connection.

VINNY

[Frank616]

Vinny:

not realy ....you would just ford the port that SSH is using through your router and then use your IP address for the connection.

Maybe one day.... Thanks for reminding me of the other option. I know there was a fellow in another forum that did x forwarding between machines in his house. Can't remember why, but it is an alternative.

Frank.