This is a great idea, and well pitched, but it's not the first time I've seen it. Therefore it all comes down to _execution_. Since there's no real technical info or even an explaination of who's making it and why (is it a commercial thing? What's the business angle?), it feels pretty pointless.
If it ever does appear as more than a product pitch, I'll be really keen to find out more. But for now it just seems like someone's put the cart (a beautiful website) in front of the horse (an actual product)!
Yes, the website has giant images and minimalism and everything that's all the rage recently, but in the end all it does is make me scroll endlessly and hunt for the tiniest bits of information. There are multiple full-screen-spaces that only show fancy monitors and marketing speak.
I really like the idea of this small computing device that basically turns into whatever you need it to be, but I'm still not sure about what's the use case exactly with phones that turn into desktop PCs. I could have a big screen and bluetooth peripherals at home, fine. But when I'm traveling there's no way to know where I'll be able to switch to "desktop mode" again. At the hotel, hoping I can attach my HDMI cable to the wall-mounted TV? At a friend's house - and then what, maybe they only have a laptop or they'd rather not have me rip out their cables and use their monitor. At work where I don't get to use my own hardware?
I think that ASUS Transformer concept makes more sense on the hardware side. I remember this one device where you'd have a phone, put it into a tablet, and then attach a keyboard effectively turning it into a laptop.
The only interesting thing about this is exactly what you said, the execution. It's a custom Android (with Debian added to it somehow... containerized maybe?) so they'll either need to make their own hardware or partner up with someone. Or maybe it's just someone's Android custom ROM project.
The upcoming Pyra Handheld is addressing some of these issues. It runs Desktop Linux by default, and can connect to an HDMI display to benefit from larger screens. At the same time, you should be able to boot ANdroid on it if you prefer an OS made for a small form factor. All in a single device equipped with a keyboard. It's certainly not perfect, but it's getting close to what I want to do when I am on the move.
atm its just a proof of concept, a bit too early in terms of interfaces, and a bit underpowered in terms of cpu/memory/storage. In couple of years from now, though, you might have a phone with 4-8gigs of RAM and 256gigs of storage, and plug it into display/keyboard dock at work and at home.
I clicked "Get Maru" and signed up for the mailing list hoping that granted me access. They have a beta version for Nexus 5 but that's it. I unsubscribed and noted that I thought their execution was poor and that they wasted my time.
TBH, I'm not even sure it's a great idea at the time of writing, as such. The few technical details they mention seem to indicate that it's some kind of VM running on your phone. This brings a bunch of limitations with it; I use my desktop not only for the nice screen, but also the i7 processor, 1TB+ SSD, ridiculous amounts of RAM and gigabit network card. So assuming the VM guess is correct, you're getting a 5+ year old PC in your pocket.
I suspect there are some people who could make great use of something like this, but I don't think it's for me. If it truly solved the multiple device problem in a perfect way, it'd be a different story. As it is, I suspect it's a lot more niche than the marketing says.
It's more likely to be a container/chroot than a VM.
Debian chroots on Android are nothing new -- whether this is anything new depends entirely on the execution. Autodetecting when to spin up the container, handling the external display, safely suspending the container somehow, those are all nice new things, if they work as promised.
Yeah, I get that. I'm taking a step back and asking "but is it really a good idea?". E.g. I remember how everyone was really excited about the Intel Compute Stick - for about 5 minutes, and then they realised that it's actually not particularly useful. I'm getting a similar vibe here, while it might be occasionally super useful, I'm not seeing the mainstream appeal.
If it ever does appear as more than a product pitch, I'll be really keen to find out more. But for now it just seems like someone's put the cart (a beautiful website) in front of the horse (an actual product)!