Matej Ľach ✅ @MatejLach@social.matej-lach.me

I decided to start sharing parts of #fediQuest as they become mature.

Today, I am releasing a #Golang library for decoding ActivityStreams 2.0 objects into native Go objects and also for encoding Go objects into ActivityStreams 2.0 JSON objects.

Repo: https://github.com/MatejLach/astreams

The usage is your typical Go Marshal/Unmarshal, (see tests for examples).

The license is copyleft (AGPLv3).

Your feedback (and a star) are welcome :-)

Overall, my recommendation would be:

If you want Phosh shell, go with #Mobian first or if you want full disk encryption then #postmarketOS but be ready to use a shell script to trigger deep sleep, because only #systemd can handle it properly atm and pmOS doesn't use it.

If you want Plasma Mobile, I'd suggest you wait until at least the next release when the pmOS implementation is supposed to get better, if you cannot wait there's the Manjaro Plasma builds.

Also, give #Sxmo a try, it's fun.

Another important feature implemented by #postmarketOS and not offered by any other distro at this point is full disk encryption, which I think is a must for a mobile device in 2020.

After initially being skeptical, I can honestly see myself using Sxmo, my only concern really would be with its reliance on the hardware buttons of the #PinePhone which do not feel built with the intention of being used constantly, so them being the primary method of interaction with the UI may not have been the wisest choice.

Other than that, am impressed with it.

Also, it's pretty much the only UI where deep sleep works flawlessly without having to echo to /sys...

https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo

#postmarketOS Plasma implementation is currently rather broken, sleep doesn't work at all for example, but they do have an interesting UI that few others offer; #Sxmo.

Sxmo is basically a #dwm config for the PinePhone with some additional tooling to make it recognize touchscreen gestures and handle rapid successive key presses in order to map more functionality on to the 3 HW buttons of the PinePhone than they would normally be able to.

This feels the most old-school UNIXy and power user UI

For #KDE Plasma Mobile, there's the KDE Neon builds for the #PinePhone, however they feel less functional than the Manjaro Plasma builds, specifically when it comes to turning of the screen, going to sleep, waking up and also the Neon builds seem more prone to freezes.

That being said, it is hard to recommend a Manjaro build after all the drama they've been involved in and how they treat upstream.

Plasma also has problems bringing up the keyboard in GTK apps, so I'd wait for a while re KDE.

#postmarketOS in particular shines with its mobile friendly #Firefox config that also works with non-ESR versions, but it's held back by #AlpineLinux insisting on not using #systemd and the fact that #OpenRC just can't handle deep CRUST sleep properly, which is not a problem on say #Mobian.

#Mobian however currently relies on Firefox ESR, rather than the latest stable version, however it does have the most mobile parches to make apps usable on the small screen, including for Geary.

Some observations regarding what DE works best on which distro for the #PinePhone:

- #Phosh (#GNOME mobile shell by Purism) is probably the most "ready" mobile shell overall, mainly in need of more GTK apps that utilize libhandy to resize themselves properly for the small screen.

In particular #Geary would be a good candidate since every modern smartphone needs a good email client in its arsenal.

#Mobian has probably the best implementation, followed by #postmarketOS & #Arch ARM/Manjaro

Only #Apple can spin not giving you a charging cable in the box as being environmentally responsible.