[HN Gopher] Valent Is a KDE Connect Client for GTK-Based Desktops
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Valent Is a KDE Connect Client for GTK-Based Desktops
Author : logix
Score : 140 points
Date : 2023-02-25 16:11 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.linuxuprising.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.linuxuprising.com)
| gremlinsinc wrote:
| Would this run on just i3wm? Or do I need the gnome-i3 session?
| zerr wrote:
| From the name, I was hoping it to be written in Vala.
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| I used KDE Connect in the earlier years and am totally blanking
| out on what it is or does... I assume it forwards data from a KDE
| desktops widgets?
| potatochup wrote:
| It's a phone app that allows control of your desktop. you can
| control music, send files, use the camera from your phone to
| get pictures on the desktop, etc
| jbverschoor wrote:
| Doesn't tell me anything.
|
| How does it work? What apps are compatible? How is the
| connection between devices set up? Wire guard? If not, then
| what? How does it control apps and receive notifications?
|
| At first it sounded to me like an alternative X11 thing
|
| I hate it when projects/products only state what you can do
| (or at least what they envision), and not explaining the
| actual workings. Especially when data and access gets more
| and more important.
|
| Same with I think it was postbox.. nice app, but they didn't
| tell you that they need full access to your account, store
| "securely" on their server.. no thank you.
| jcelerier wrote:
| > How does it work? What apps are compatible?
|
| it integrates in the desktop UI (and standard protocols,
| e.g. D-Bus, the "share as..." feature, etc) & phone UI (and
| standard protocols, e.g. MPRIS, the Android "share"
| feature, etc), it's mostly not about apps but about the
| shell, although some apps have nice additional integrations
| through extensions, like firefox.
|
| For instance:
|
| - when I copy on my linux desktop I can paste on my phone
|
| - I can share links, files, etc between phone and desktop
| trivially (through the usual android feature on the phone,
| and through right-click in my desktop)
|
| - when I have media playing either in my desktop media
| player or in web browsers I can control the playback from
| the phone
|
| - I can use my phone as a remote control when I give talks
| & presentations
|
| - I see my phone notifications on my desktop
|
| etc
|
| It's really the only thing that makes Android remotely
| tolerable for me.
| chupasaurus wrote:
| > How does it work?
|
| KDE framework has KIO library which provides network-
| transparent file access (that's why Konqueror works a file
| manager and a browser simultaneously). IIRC the author of
| KDE Connect was tinkering over sending notifications to a
| phone app and found out you can make much more with it.
|
| > How is the connection between devices set up?
|
| The server part uses 1716/UDP for broadcasting it's
| presence and 1716-1764/TCP to communicate with clients. The
| client had to be paired with server (like in Bluetooth),
| the communication is done via TLS, file browsing works over
| SFTP.
|
| > How does it control apps and receive notifications?
|
| Everything is done via plugins, both sides choose which
| ones are enabled and some have their own control schemes
| (i.e. whitelist of apps to sync notifications from phone).
| cycomanic wrote:
| I am quite the opposite, many projects now just have a wall
| of text about the technology they use, but completely utred
| to explain in simple terms what it does. It seems some devs
| assume that everyone can guess from the tech stack. By all
| means have a page explaining the technology, but the front
| page should tell me what I can do with it.
| mcsniff wrote:
| You know, reading the article would have answered your
| question, saving your time, my time from (voluntary)
| responding, and everyone else who reads this comment and
| subsequently also responds it.
|
| I don't mean to be harsh, but really? There is entire bullet
| point list on the page, and yes, I didn't include it in my
| response. Ironic.
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| I upvoted the thread so I can look at it when I have free
| time, figured I would ask since when I skimmed I didnt see
| it.
| vlovich123 wrote:
| > KDE Connect provides various features to integrate your
| phone and your computer. It allows you to send files to the
| other device, control its media playback, send remote input,
| view its notifications and may things more. It is available
| for (mobile) Linux, Android, FreeBSD, Windows and macOS.[1]
|
| Actually I read your response, then I read the article and
| still came away confused as to what it does, and I use Linux
| and KDE as the daily driver for work. So now you've wasted my
| time finding the answer to the question instead of just
| answering a question likely a lot of people will have. Yes,
| op could have googled that information themselves. However,
| the valid criticism of OP is that upon having that question
| they should have googled the answer and then posted their
| question with the answer proactively. But "did you even RTFA"
| is not a helpful meta discussion to have. It's useful to
| check the comments first to see whether TFA is even worth
| reading so having this answered about a more obscure piece of
| software seems totally valid. And someone did paste the
| bulleted list of features for Valent itself in this thread
| too so the rhetoric is just a bit too sanctimonious at
| chewing out a fellow person without providing value to
| everyone else reading your comment.
|
| [1] https://apps.kde.org/kdeconnect/
| rat9988 wrote:
| my time from (voluntary) responding
|
| This one is on you bro.
| vorpalhex wrote:
| It is a way for your phone to interface with your computer,
| allowing bidirectional notifications, media control, clipboard
| and file transfer.
|
| It works VERY well. The app itself mostly stays out of the way
| and things "just work". No noticeable latency even using the
| remote keyboard functionality.
| Kukumber wrote:
| That's a smartphone UX [1], why he need to have large vertical
| screen? I don't understand
|
| [1] -
| https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj...
| NayamAmarshe wrote:
| I use Zorin connect, seems to work pretty well. This one looks
| cool too though.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| As far as I can tell, Zorin's connect apps are just
| forks/rebrands of various KDE Connect apps. KDE connect worked
| flawlessly with a Zorin VM last time I tried it.
| coolgoose wrote:
| Wasted the opportunity to call it Konnect :p
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| How about Gonnect?
| JasonFruit wrote:
| Given the state of Linux application naming, we're lucky it's
| not called GKCellP, so we'd have to find it via 'apt search
| kdeconnect' every time because we can't remember the name. (I'm
| looking at you, GKrellM. You too, Liferea. )
| eitland wrote:
| I could understand Gnome as an ideological hack back when KDE
| wasn't completely open source or when Ubuntu pushed beautiful and
| polished versions of Gnome 2. And when KDE was on version 4.
|
| Today, why would anyone choose anything except KDE?
| franga2000 wrote:
| KDE is much more glitchy compared to GNOME and many other DEs
| in my experience (but it also has way more features, so that
| kind of makes sense). Many users don't care about most of those
| features, so taking the more stable option makes sense.
|
| There also still are big issues in KDE that "just work" on
| basically every other system (including Windows and macOS).
| KIO, Akonadi and Baloo come to mind immediately - all great
| ideas that in reality never really work.
|
| (I say this as someone who daily drives KDE on both Wayland and
| X11 - to me, the features are certainly worth dealing with the
| issues)
| encryptluks2 wrote:
| GTK != Gnome. KDE is extremely bloated and so that is why I
| avoid it. One KDE package wants to pull in pretty much all the
| dependencies for a full desktop environment which isn't what I
| want to do.
| michaelmrose wrote:
| If you find yourself using the term bloated you should in
| most cases find a new word because it communications only
| imprecision. It neither uses excessive RAM, nor requires
| excessive storage, nor runs slowly. Do you mean it has too
| many features?
|
| In the context of the prior comment which was choosing
| between Gnome and KDE the fact that applications require you
| to have half of KDE is meaningless as you are if you pick KDE
| going to install all of KDE already.
|
| In the context of installing KDE apps outside of KDE this is
| fairly overblown. Most people have hundreds of GB to TB of
| storage available and will install games which require 60GB.
| At this point in time worrying about KDE installing a few
| gigs of deps is like worrying about the difference in ram
| used by Emacs vs Vim.
| przems wrote:
| I guess everyone has their own reason, look-and-feel being a
| valid reason.
|
| For me, it's the wonky Active Directory integration/support
| that is the dealbreaker.
| Operative0198 wrote:
| Gnome doesn't need any more KDE Connect clients. GSConnect is
| pretty much perfect and most importantly, is integrated into the
| Quick Settings. What I have always been puzzled by is the near
| absence of KDE Connect clients for tiling compositors. I would
| love to one day use KDE Connect in a way that feels native for
| something like Sway.
| Centigonal wrote:
| From the article:
|
| _What can this do? Using Valent (and KDE Connect), you can:_
|
| - _receive Android phone notifications on your desktop and reply
| to messages_
|
| - _sync the clipboard between your Android device and desktop_
|
| - _control music playing on your desktop from your Android phone_
|
| - _share files between your desktop and Android device, and
| browse your phone from the desktop_
|
| - _send SMS from your desktop_
|
| - _execute predefined commands from your Android phone to run on
| your desktop_
|
| - _control your desktop 's mouse and keyboard from the Android
| device_
|
| - _browse your Android device filesystem from your desktop
| wirelessly_
|
| - _and more_
| skykooler wrote:
| There's also an iOS client, though it doesn't have all features
| implemented due to limitations in Apple's APIs. However it's
| still the most convenient way to transfer files between an
| iPhone and a Windows or Linux computer.
| harry8 wrote:
| Signal "note to self" is another way.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| It'll work but that will upload your files to the cloud. If
| you're on cable internet or even DSL, transferring video
| files that way will take significantly longer than just
| using the local connection KDE Connect provides.
|
| Of course, there are many local alternatives as well. I
| just can't see cloud upload features as an alternative to a
| local network transfer mechanism.
| sneak wrote:
| This ruins your images or videos via terrible recompression
| that you can't disable.
| rickstanley wrote:
| Telegram's "Saved messages" is another.
| rouxz wrote:
| Only if you trust telegram (you shouldn't)
| eitland wrote:
| Without context this is just noise.
|
| Also when you say: don't trust Telegram, while not saying
| anything about WhatsApp, you are, on average, pushing
| people from a solution that _isn 't proven_ to be
| trustworthy to a solution that _is proven to be
| untrustworthy_.
|
| Because unless you simultaneously point out that WhatsApp
| is worse, that is where people will go if they listen to
| you and avoid Telegram.
| heinrich5991 wrote:
| I think in this context, WhatsApp is better than
| Telegram. In Telegram, you'd upload your files in a way
| that the server can see them. In WhatsApp, the server
| won't be able to see the contents.
|
| (Even in general, I think that Telegram is no clear win
| over WhatsApp, and in fact I'd consider it worse in terms
| of chat message security.)
| eitland wrote:
| WhatsApp has a documented history of all kinds of
| shadyness from uploading unencrypted (yes, unencrypted)
| backups to Google under an agreement that let Google
| rummage through them(!) to their "send the data in a
| sidechannel directly to Facebook for analysis while also
| sending it end-to-end-encrypted to the recipient".
|
| I really can't understand why you bright folks here on HN
| falls for WhatsApps marketing.
|
| E2E means absolutely nothing as long as the messages are
| siphoned away in broad daylight.
|
| That said: avoid Telegram all you want. But if you mean
| no one should ever touch it, I hope you are also against
| physical mail which is way less secure and also email
| which is way less secure than Telegram.
| heinrich5991 wrote:
| > WhatsApp has a documented history of all kinds of
| shadyness from uploading unencrypted (yes, unencrypted)
| backups to Google under an agreement that let Google
| rummage through them(!) to their "send the data in a
| sidechannel directly to Facebook for analysis while also
| sending it end-to-end-encrypted to the recipient".
|
| I don't have that backup enabled. Does that mean that
| WhatsApp is secure for me with everyone who also has that
| disabled?
|
| I don't see how Telegram is better in that respect; the
| server sees all messages directly. It doesn't even need a
| documented backdoor like you described.
|
| > under an agreement that let Google rummage through
| them(!) to their "send the data in a sidechannel directly
| to Facebook for analysis while also sending it end-to-
| end-encrypted to the recipient".
|
| *EDIT*: Can you give a link to that agreement? It'd
| interest me. :)
|
| > But if you mean no one should ever touch it
|
| That's not what I said.
| sneak wrote:
| Telegram is not e2ee.
| eitland wrote:
| And? WhatsApp is e2ee-but-sends-your-data-brazenly-to-
| google-and-facebook-by-sidechannels.
|
| So far Telegram hasn't been caught once the last decade
| while WhatsApp has been caught at least twicem
| JustSomeNobody wrote:
| iOS app does also support Samba.
|
| I really with the Photos app did. I don't think a "Pro" phone
| is a Pro phone without that feature.
| jacooper wrote:
| Gsconnect already exists?
| viraptor wrote:
| Yes, that's mentioned in the opening sentences along with a
| reason why it's different.
| coding123 wrote:
| Does this map gnome components to Qt based components?
| reocha wrote:
| The gsconnect extension for gnome also works well if you are on a
| gnome desktop
| https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/
| tssva wrote:
| This is from the same author.
| jonas-w wrote:
| Perfect! Works great for an alpha release.
|
| Few years ago i had kde and used kde connect, but i didn't want
| that much qt in my life (can't stand it), and switched to gnome.
| There was gsconnect but it wasn't that realiable. Used that for a
| while but in the end i switched to sway, becaus twms are great
| and everything is so much snappier. But one thing was missing,
| kdeconnect. I didn't want qt, and gsconnect was a gnome
| extension. I tried several other alternatives to, but nothing was
| as good.
| jwrallie wrote:
| What's wrong with surrounding yourself with qt?
| seszett wrote:
| I've used kdeconnect under various different systems without
| ever using KDE (well, not since the Konqueror days so it's been
| a while). It works just fine under awesome, dwm and whatever
| two of my coworkers are using (some kind of Gnome desktop as
| far as I know).
| vanderZwan wrote:
| KDE Connect is the one "linux" tool where after showing to my
| partner what it can do _she asked me_ if I could install on her
| Windows laptop, her tablet, and her phone. It 's been extremely
| practical when exchanging PDFs of (say) traintickets, remote
| controlling the volume of whichever laptop we connected to the
| projector for movie night (which was the "tech demo" that
| convinced her), and so on.
| shaan7 wrote:
| Indeed, kudos to the devs for maintaining a Windows version
| too!
| TuringTest wrote:
| But does it work on Windows?
|
| I've only been able to connect it right after a fresh
| install, but after I reboot it doesn't see the phone anymore.
|
| Is your experience better?
| IshKebab wrote:
| They should probably rename it.
| pxc wrote:
| I kinda like that the name draws attention to KDE. And it
| is still KDE software, whether you're using Plasma as your
| desktop environment or not.
| chungy wrote:
| I disagree. It attracts interest in the KDE project as a
| whole.
| whalesalad wrote:
| konnect
| sneak wrote:
| the k-prefix is a nerd shibboleth that does not help
| those not in on the joke/tradition/convention.
| sangnoir wrote:
| Apple didn't get the memo with their nerdy prefix.
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(page generated 2023-02-25 23:00 UTC)