Yesterday we were able to know through the KDE project blog news that has surprised many. KDE will create a new mobile operating system called Plasma Mobile. Plasma Mobile will have a very, very ambitious goal. Plasma Mobile will be able to run any app from any other operating system. So Plasma Mobile will be able to accept Android, Ubuntu Touch, iOS and Windows Phone apps.
Plasma Mobile will be totally free and any company can use it without having to pay anything for it, also, like Ubuntu Touch, it can be installed on smartphones with android but this does not mean that Plasma Mobile is an android rom but that it is a system Independent.
So ... how will Plasma Mobile work?
The basis of Plasma Mobile will be the QT libraries, libraries that are used in many apps of almost all mobile operating systems and that will make Plasma Mobile as versatile and powerful as it seems, according to the KDE team. Plasma Mobile will also have apps and functions from KDE and Kubuntu, something that has caught my attention because a priori it seems that the intention of Plasma Mobile will be to be a KDE for mobiles.
Plasma Mobile News
The first Plasma Mobile prototypes are already on the street and development is being carried out with LG Nexus 5. Also, thanks to ExoPC, this operating system can be tested on computers and some mobiles that support this program. As you can see in the video, Plasma Mobile already supports phone calls and the odd app works, however we cannot yet certify the proper functioning of apps for other operating systems in Plasma Mobile.
Conclusion
Personally, I find this project very ambitious. Although it seems that it is possible, it is hard to believe that KDE manages to make all the apps work on its operating system and that companies like Google or Apple have not. Even so, it seems that it will be a great rival for Ubuntu Touch and for the rest of operating systems.or maybe not?
I think that those companies that you name are not that they have not succeeded, but that they are not interested in doing so, because actually those companies have almost all the apps in existence for smartphones available.
What KDE would do is use an abstraction layer (emulator) to run android applications, which really shouldn't be too complicated, because they run on a java-based virtual machine, and many other OSs take advantage of that advantage (Sailfish OS , blackberry OS).
With respect to Ubuntu, it is based 90% on it, so in theory what is developed in Plasma will be able to be ported relatively easily to the Ubuntu platform.
Sailfish applications do not know how they will port, I think with QT.
Well android is already Linux, closed but uses a Linux kernel 😀
The issue of the Webapps is a shit the truth, ubuntu touch needs if it wants to get "something" from the market more native applications and less webapps that do not lead anywhere.
Regarding the KDE development issue, well we will call it that, but it is nothing more than a GUi, I suppose that they will not support even remotely in emulating android (ubuntu touch does not) since this, first, would not be anything new second, it would work so slow that it doesn't even make sense to propose it, for that you buy a mobile with android and well third, it would not be an open development, so it is not what you think they propose here.
It looks good. The most important thing is that Linux systems for mobile platforms are coming out, perhaps that way they will eat the market. I have been a Linux user on my PC's for a little over a decade and as soon as the BQ Ubuntu Edition came out, I bought it, but I have to admit (even though I am) that it is still not practical. They have insisted on using the famous Webapp to try to cover the lack of applications, but the reality is that all the ones I have tried work very badly. I suppose that in a couple of years they will have improved a lot and it can help that other distros come out.
Anyway, I hope that tomorrow, Linux will be a powerful platform in the mobile world.