[HN Gopher] Valent Is a KDE Connect Client for GTK-Based Desktops
___________________________________________________________________
 
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)
 
web link (www.linuxuprising.com)
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.
 
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-02-25 23:00 UTC)