With the introduction of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ earlier in the year came DeX, a mobile-as-a-desktop experience that is eerily similar to what Microsoft had done earlier on with Continuum.
Samsung DeX (short for desktop experience) allows users of Samsung’s premium smartphones like the Galaxy S8 and Note 8 to use the Android applications installed on their devices on a much larger screen by dropping the said device(s) in a dedicated dock that is plugged into a monitor.
This is a concept that has since been aped by competitors like Chinese device maker Huawei whose latest device, the Mate 10, packs a similar feature.
At its ongoing Samsung Developer Conference, which, as the name implies, aims to court the people developing for its ecosystem, Samsung is showing developers that they can be able to take their productivity further without being limited to just one platform. DeX is now available for use on Linux, a platform that quite a number of developers prefer for their work.
“Installed as an app, Linux on Galaxy gives smartphones the capability to run multiple operating systems, enabling developers to work with their preferred Linux-based distributions on their mobile devices. Whenever they need to use a function that is not available on the smartphone OS, users can simply switch to the app and run any program they need to in a Linux OS environment.”
For those who had already embraced the Kshs 15,000 accessory, support for more games like those in the Final Fantasy franchise, has been added, taking advantage of the Vulkan API, the 3D graphics platform that was baked into Android with the release of Nougat last year and available on Samsung devices since the release of the Galaxy S7 thanks to Samsung being a launch partner.
