The Maui Project has announced the release of Maui 2, a major update to the open source, cross-platform user interface framework for applications that can run on phones, tablets and desktops.
Maui 2 includes an updated MauiKit framework with new common widgets and utilities, as well as new and updated Maui Apps including a file manager, music player, text editor, terminal emulator, image and document viewers, web browser, and more.
In addition to mobile and desktop Linux-based operating systems, Maui supports Windows and Android. So if you don’t have a Linux phone handy, you can try out the latest apps on an Android phone.
You can find more details in the Maui 2 announcement, but a few highlights include:
- Faster scrolling and cleaner UI in most apps
- Flatter UI, and more file thumbnail previews in the Index file manager
- Faster start-up time and new metadata editor for Vvave music player
- Shelf document viewer works on Android again, has large document previews in browser view
- Nota text editor has bigger thumbnail previews for text files and two preview plugins including ToDo lists and QMLScene
The MauKit framework is build using KDE’s Kirigami framework and Qt Quick Controls 2. And since the goal is to create applications that can scale well to different screen sizes and shapes, Maui apps are ideal for convergent devices like Linux phones that can be used as Linux desktops when you connect an external display.
Hmmm… I wonder when we’ll see this make it’s way into the nightly builds of ManjaroARM for the PinePhone? Soon, I hope!