# Phone vs Computer



## ElectroGeek (Sep 5, 2011)

I see specs on phones these days which far surpass my (old) desktop computer. Even this (old) phone does. I have not noticed it being faster than my computer at anything I try to do though.

So here are my questions:
What are the limiting factors on these phones compared to computers?

Could you use an old phone to make a desktop computer?

Could you add an old phone to the existing computer setup to add processing power? Etc?

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## Gasai Yuno (Jul 25, 2011)

1. None. The phones use the ARM architecture; it's a different paradigm in terms of hardware design and low-level programming.

2. Not really. Unless you mean webtop-like stuff, and you won't be able to run anything that isn't built for ARM.

3. No.

Desktop computers these days are purely x86 (x86 for 32bit mode, and x86_64, also known as amd64, for 64bit).

ARM is a different architecture that is completely binary-incompatible with x86.

You cannot run Windows on an ARM machine (except Windows 8 RT but that's a completely new OS).

You can run Linux on ARM, but you'll have to either rely on the distributors to provide binaries for the ARM platform, or build software from sources.


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## ElectroGeek (Sep 5, 2011)

Ok. So no windows. What about a modified android os to support external keyboards/trackpad/mouse etc. ?

Are there drivers already available for periferals or would that just be too hard.

I am not a programmer/coder so I really have no experience with this. It just seems like a waste to throw away old devices.

I was thinking along the lines of the original PS3. You could link more than one together to make a better faster computer. I belive some government agency here in the US built a super computer that way.

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## Gasai Yuno (Jul 25, 2011)

Android supports those out of the box, but most older smartphones do not support USB host mode.

PS3 has a different architecture and is well supported.


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## Morlok8k (Jul 13, 2012)

Well, I've installed Ubuntu on my Droid 4.
Never tried it on my D2G.

Ubuntu worked pretty well on the D4, but its not very usable... for day to day use that is.
The screen is too small, and its slow (as it is running Android and Ubuntu at the same time, along with other apps in the background.)

I could potentially see running it on a tablet, but if your going to do that, you should get a x86 tablet and run Ubuntu natively.

so, basically my answer is this:
If you want to effectively use your old hardware for things other than a phone, you should use actual android apps.

I use my D2G most often as a music player, torrent downloader (via WiFi), and i can make (free) calls and send (unlimited) texts using Google voice and GrooVeIP when connected to WiFi.
I've thought about using my D2G as a little web-server, but I haven't yet.
I basically consider it as a mini "tablet", until i can afford an actual tablet.


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## ElectroGeek (Sep 5, 2011)

I didn't really think using the phone screen was a good idea. I thought maybe somehow just using the guts out of the phone (not necessarily disassembling it) and using other existing monitors keyboards etc...

So anyway the answer is no.
Unless someone starts from scratch and builds the code from the beginning to be compatible with this idea. For EACH phone.

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## Morlok8k (Jul 13, 2012)

ElectroGeek said:


> I didn't really think using the phone screen was a good idea. I thought maybe somehow just using the guts out of the phone (not necessarily disassembling it) and using other existing monitors keyboards etc...
> 
> So anyway the answer is no.
> Unless someone starts from scratch and builds the code from the beginning to be compatible with this idea. For EACH phone.
> ...


well, since you run Ubuntu on the phone through a VNC app, if you are connected via WiFi, you could potentially VNC to the Ubuntu desktop from another computer.

it would still be slow though.


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