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Run Android 6.0 Marshmallow on Your PC With Android-x86 6.0 (softpedia.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the apps-with-a-mouse dept.

This week saw the first stable release of Android-x86 6.0 (marshmallow-x86) -- and a new version of Remix OS for PC, a PC-optimized version of Android. Slashdot reader prisoninmate quotes Softpedia: Android-x86 6.0 has been in the works since early this year, and it received a total of two RC (Release Candidate) builds during its entire development cycle, one in June and another in August. After joining the Remix OS team, Chih-Wei Huang now has all the reasons to update and improve its Android-x86 system for the latest Android releases. Therefore, as you might have guessed already, Android-x86 6.0 is the first stable version of the project to be based on Google's Linux kernel-based Android 6.0 Marshmallow mobile operating system, and includes the most recent AOSP (Android Open Source Project) security updates too.

Under the hood, Android-x86 6.0 is using the long-term supported Linux 4.4.20 kernel with an updated graphics stack based on Mesa 12.0.2 3D Graphics Library, and offers support for Samsung's F2FS file system for SSD drives, better Wi-Fi support after resume and suspend, and initial HDMI audio support.

90 comments

  1. why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's the point? Really!

    1. Re:why? by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Embedded boards (minnowboard), Intel compute sticks, tablets... anywhere you don't want a General Purpose OS or you don't want to interact with the machine or perhaps an odd app.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    2. Re:why? by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 1

      What's the point? Really!

      Well Duh! To leave no stone unturned in the ongoing quest to make Linux's year on the desktop a reality.

    3. Re:why? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Android is a General Purpose OS at this point. Embedded Android is a terrible choice...for anything.

    4. Re:why? by bogaboga · · Score: 2

      Yeah, right! Now going on decade #3!

    5. Re:why? by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

      There are several neat games that are only available on Android and that I like to play on my PC with a big monitor. The somewhat outdated Android hardware that I have does not have HDMI output...and to be blunt, 7" screens suck. Way too small.

    6. Re:why? by guruevi · · Score: 1

      I meant a full blown general purpose desktop OS. Android is good enough for cursory Internet browsing and email and certain games as well as a single application system (e.g. a kiosk). For anything else, Android is a terrible choice with a useless UI.

      Android x86 fills the niche where you need/want the Android software but you need a bit more powerful hardware (windowed 1080p playback, image/video composition). Most ARM devices on the market are absolutely terrible at doing anything high resolution beyond streaming very specific formats.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    7. Re:why? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      For people trying to escape Windows 10 but not confident about Linux or BSD due to CLI issues, this would be an alternative. Although it partly hinges on how dependent it is on the PC being touchscreen - don't want a Windows 8 like fiasco again

    8. Re:why? by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      I can't fathom this being any easier for a noob than (for instance) Xubuntu / Linux Mint XFCE edition, unless someone has literally grown up knowing only tablets and has never used Windows or OS X in their life. As you imply, the fact that many apps require or assume various gestures (some of which use more than one finger) means that a mouse-driven experience will be less than seamless.

      That said, it's an interesting option for old netbooks and I'm particularly curious to see if it will perform well in Virtualbox or Xen. Also could be interesting if the x86 machine in question has a touchscreen.

    9. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are seriously recommending android to people upset with win10 tracking? Frying pan and fire come to mind.

    10. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not a matter of ease, it's a matter of software. Android has a bigger library of stuff that people actually want to use and games that they want to play.

      I suggest giving Remix OS a try first though.

    11. Re:why? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      First, did he mention tracking in the first place? Second, is it really so difficult to customize vanilla Android to not do the things you don't want it to do?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    12. Re:why? by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      The person I was replying to said "CLI issues", not "software library", and he was claiming that this x86 Android port would be a superior alternative (vs. desktop Linux) for someone seeking to avoid Windows 10. I don't really know what Android looks like these days, but I'm assuming it's not exactly a drop-in replacement for x86 Windows 10. It's not better vs. worse so much as apples and oranges.

    13. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remix OS looks like any windowed, desktop GUI, that's the point.

    14. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, what I would like is a Linux distro that also runs Android apps. This thing is just an attempt to draw Linux users into the Android biosphere, but I don't want to give up my old desktop and apps just to use Android.

    15. Re:why? by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      Does it have the drivers to support typical desktop peripherals? Are Android's versions of full-featured IDEs, Office Suites, web browsers, photo editors, etc. on par with Debian's?

      I'm not saying it's utterly impossible to use it as a desktop replacement; I'm saying that the idea it would be better than an XFCE LTS release for a noob is a strange one. Even if this port were utterly flawless and addressed all UI concerns (for apps that assume multitouch instead of mouse input), it seems unlikely that Google Play has the same level of heavy duty apps that Debian repos have. Even the games would be spotty. Android has more social gaming, but it would presumably be missing all of the modern-graphics high res games (at least some of which are available via the desktop linux Steam client.)

      Android is not ready to magically take over the desktop and be automagically better than all existing linux desktop distros just because someone ported it. May (not all) Android apps, as you may or may not have noticed, tend to be smaller and more simplified compared to what equivalent x86 desktop apps can do.

    16. Re:why? by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      Also, I don't know if you're the same person who's replied to me three times but "the point", as you say, has been rather different with every response. Is it avoiding CLI, is it the software library, or is it having a windowed desktop gui? And are we talking about a Win10 alternative or aren't we?

      My response is that CLI isn't necessary at all with Mint and the windowed desktop gui surely isn't going to be *better* than all modern desktop linux GUIs. That leaves only the second point on a differing software library, and *as a dropin replacement for x86 Windows 10* it seems very clear that a distro like Mint would be better suited to the task.

      If someone is fine with more tablet-y usages but just wants a more powerful processor and keyboard (on the cheap), well, that's another matter entirely.

    17. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course it does. Yes, yes, yes, yes, etc.

      Noobs want software and don't understand why traditional Linux desktop environments don't have all of the stuff they are used to having and that other people use too. The Android software ecosystem has grown big enough to be a legitimate threat to desktop Windows.

      There is no magic about it. Android has been around a long time and a great deal of software has been made for it by indies and huge corporations alike. There is very little stopping it from dominating computing, regardless of form factor. People don't use operating systems they use software, which is why Android and Windows are the most used.

    18. Re:why? by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      Android has games that are 60GB to download and use all of the latest graphics tech? Since when? Did I miss out on something where someone managed to build a graphics card that requires very little power or cooling? It guess it's possible I missed out on some major development; I grew completely bored with the limitations of tablets about 3-5 years ago.

      People have ported Eclipse and Visual Studio and all that crap to Android? And it's exactly the same, feature for feature, as the x86 version? The glibc library is available and in common use? I'm not saying it's impossible in principle; I'm talking about today, right now, re: the original poster's assertion that this unofficial, closed-source Android port is better than Windows 10 and Linux Mint for general desktop usage RIGHT NOW .

      I'm not saying this project is worthless. If you want to argue this is a Chromebook killer or a handy way to get a keyboard and extra CPU power for your Android on the cheap, that is another discussion entirely. If Google starts officially supporting an x86 Android and encouraging people to develop for that, that's another discussion entirely.

    19. Re:why? by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Yeah, right! Now going on decade #3!

      And I think Linux the kernel has been ready for at least half that time... With so much being rewritten for the web and for mobile, the time seems ripe. Somebody (hello, Google) just have to push it out of the current catch-22 and say it's the next big thing. Android came pretty much out of nowhere and took the mobile market, I think they could to the same to the desktop market. But they don't believe that, not yet...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    20. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Android is open source, Windows 10 is not. Why do you fail to comprehend this very simple fact?

    21. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are several companies producing graphics cards that require very little power or cooling. Adreno (ex-radeon staff), mali, and powervr are the main names. In fact, mobile rendering technologies (e.g. tiled rendering) is now driving innovation in desktop GPUs (nvidia adopted this tech to provide most of the speedups in Maxell).

      Yes, Android has "triple-A" games that are 10GB++ and require the latest GLES4 or Vulkan.

      Yes, Android runs Eclipse - but ewt/swt wasn't ported to SurfaceFlinger, so you'll need to install an X server app to get it running. There are also platform-native IDEs, and the current hipster crop (Atom / VS-Code) are built using web-based technologies that run on Android too.

      Who cares about glibc? This isn't a glibc system, neither is solaris or freebsd - but you can run docker or chroot if you're building for a glibc target.

      Google has already officially supported x86 android by sanctioning use of the play store on several x86 android devices (e.g. asus zenfone 2) running Atom SoCs.

      Android has far more games, office suites, and far more "general desktop usage" apps than desktop linux. Especially for non-technical users i think choosing something like remix-os is a no-brainer.

    22. Re: why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. With containers and virtual machines, can we not accomplish running Android apps inside a Linux desktop?

    23. Re:why? by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1
      Your arguments are becoming more and more disingenuous. Yes I understand that low power mobile GPUs are an active area of development; that doesn't mean that they are even remotely comparable to current mid-high end desktop GPUs. (If you really want to bark up that tree, please post some benchmarks.) Yes, I understand and have already conceded that Android has more games. Go find the nearest serious Windows gamer and try to argue that makes it a better gaming platform. I find it amusing that you think that the fact that it has more office suites means it's better.... more likely none of the gimmicky halfassed office suites it has is decent enough to become a standard. Have you actually had to use MS Office in a production environment? With lots of kludge-y macros and database accesses?

      I knew all of these things *existed* for Android; the question is whether or not they are noob-friendly, replacement-friendly or if they can even be plausibly considered to be replacements at all.

      Especially for non-technical users i think choosing something like remix-os is a no-brainer.

      I don't know if you genuinely believe this or if you're some kind of (forgive me) shill, but as a description of the current state of affairs this is not a no-brainer... it is brainless. Anyone who is genuinely looking for an alternative to Windows 10 on their desktop does not need to go and adopt the first non-open source, unofficial port of a tablet os produced by a relatively small and obscure team that comes tumbling down the pipeline. Ubuntu and Linux Mint have been established for the better part of a decade, have massive online communities and require no technical skill or CLI usage whatsoever to install with working flash, video playback, document editing, etc. functioning right out of the box. And these platforms will receive updates from both the community and a major commercial Linux provider for the next five years, as well as offering clear (optional) upgrade paths at the two year and four year marks.

      Long term, of course Android is a threat. The public has showed an astounding willingness to tolerate a tsunami of slings and arrows to avoid leaving their precious walled garden, but that battle is going to be won (or lost, depending on one's side) based on slow encroachment, not little piddling projects like this one that overturn the apple cart by making a better desktop overnight. I haven't had the chance to play with this thing yet, but it's almost certainly more breakable, less secure and is a less reliable install as compared to the latest LTS from Linux Mint. That's not its fault--it is in fact a small, unofficial project with (reportedly) no source code available. I'm simply in favor of recognizing it as such.

    24. Re:why? by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      I probably gave you too much room to hide in that wall of text so as a reminder:

      1. The original topic here is about an alternative to Windows 10 for general desktop usage, implicitly for someone who has traditional desktop needs and previous desktop usage.

      2. The topic is NOT about the perfect desktop OS for someone who is in love with their tablet and has never used a desktop computer before.

      3. There every reason to suspect that many Android applications will be very cumbersome to use with a mouse. Some may even be unusable.

      4. This is a very small, unofficial, closed source project with a highly questionable future that is being compared against *all* modern desktop Linux distros.

      5. The topic is about today and this project, not whether Android will defeat traditional distros in the long term.

    25. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To compete with Windows 10 in spying?

    26. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do those games have keyboard and mouse support? On my Android TV box every single game I have tried has been unplayable.

    27. Re: why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. With containers and virtual machines, can we not accomplish running Android apps inside a Linux desktop?

      I don't think people have fully understood what this is. It _exactly_ is a Linux distro which can run Android apps. Note that a) the desktop shown has multiple windows, so the user interface question that the great grandparent is talking about isn't true - this is suitable for general use. b) You can install Debian on Android c) there are multiple X servers for Android so you should be able to have full Linux sessions running on this.

    28. Re:why? by Kartu · · Score: 1

      Well, say you have 2 in 1 notebook and what to use it as an ANDROID tablet. (because there are so much more apps available)

    29. Re: why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, sort of, as much as Android *is* a Linux distro. But I don't mean "only runs Android apps," I mean "runs Linux apps plus Android apps."

      I didn't know you could run Debian directly on Android, thanks for that info. I thought you had to replace Android on your device by rooting it and installing Linux.

      Anyway, I've already got Linux running on multiple machines. It would be nice to just add some libraries or frameworks and run Android apps without turning the operating system on its head.

    30. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the answer is yes, Remix OS is perfectly ready to be used by newbies on a desktop PC. It has everything that they want, unlike traditional desktop Linux.

      You're so biased that you refuse to admit it's true, even though it's completely obvious to everyone else. Android has surpassed Debian or whatever kludgy OS without much software you use.

    31. Re:why? by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      I recently commented offhand, but without reservation, that in the medium-far future some descendant of iOS is likely to be one of the most common desktops in the world. The same goes for Android. I freely admit that the allure of the walled garden is too strong (and the general public is far too lazy) for it to not ultimately prevail.

      My "bias" here is against small piddling closed-sourced projects. They do not tend to last very long and there tends to be all kinds of rough edges and for those reasons alone they are not noob-friendly. And there are a plethora of OTHER reasons to assume that this project will not be noob-friendly which I've already explored: Android apps typically being less powerful, mouse UI issues, etc.

      But please, keep pretending you've already won the war when the first, pathetically weak shot against non-Android distros has barely been fired. If the rest of the masochistically delusional Android fanboys are like you, that at least gives us more time to delay the inevitable.

  2. Not open source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Jide will not give you the source code for Remix OS if you ask.

    These guys want to capitalize on open source, but aren't willing to empower you to do anything new based on their work. Screw 'em.

    1. Re:Not open source by guruevi · · Score: 1

      A) they have to give you the source code to any GPL-based software they sell/distribute to you. That would include the Linux kernel at least, not sure about anything else within Android.
      B) in GPL you don't have to give the source code to entities that have not purchased your product or that you have not distributed to. The people you do give/sell it to are not obligated to release it to the public either.

      The Apache license (Android) does allow you to distribute binaries without source code, whether or not that is a good business decision is another thing all together.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    2. Re:Not open source by drolli · · Score: 1

      And what is https://github.com/android-x86...?

    3. Re:Not open source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not Remix OS.

  3. Play store by SeriousTube · · Score: 1

    Can I run stuff from the play store?

    1. Re:Play store by richy+freeway · · Score: 2

      I've tried Remix and yes, you can.

    2. Re:Play store by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Can I run stuff from the play store?

      Yes. I got all my favorite apps running under RemixOS. E.g. I am watching Netflix on my RemixOS virtual machine.

    3. Re:Play store by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

      Can also try Mobdro and cancel the cable subscription. :)

    4. Re:Play store by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've tried Remix and no, you cannot.

    5. Re:Play store by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Can I run stuff with 3d acceleration? Like games?

  4. Isn't ANdroid terrible for most applications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have a tablet running CyanogenMod. That is supposed to be a good Android distro with root etc easily available. Perhaps Android is better than iOS, I couldn't say, but my experience is that compared to say Maemo5(despite the browser getting old and 256M of ram?! on the N900) Android is non-multitasking toilet of an OS, and the apps and utilities available outside of Fdroid are worse than a joke with everyone grabbing for in-app purchases.
    Why would I want that OS on a PC?

    1. Re:Isn't ANdroid terrible for most applications? by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      compared to say Maemo5

      Nokia was so far ahead of everyone else, it's not even funny.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
    2. Re:Isn't ANdroid terrible for most applications? by iampiti · · Score: 1

      I haven't used Maemo but yes, Android is not a general purpose OS. I've yet to find a reason that we don't have "proper" OS on smartphones apart that the fact that the manufacturers don't want us to.

  5. slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    over time, my sensations and feelings about slashdot have certainly changed.

    back when i first joined, it was kind of like recapturing the closely-knit social net that bbsing used to provide. except instead of being largely net by geographical proximity, *cough* we were net by intellectual capacity. "news for nerds", right?

    and today i would say my feeling towards or sensation about slashdot is more like, sitting down at a dinner table that's so old and worn it largely resembles found wood, and i'm wearing raggedy, hobo clothes and so is the teenager sitting down across from me, and we have one old iron pot to scoop our food from with disgusting wooden bowls, and i make sure that the teen ager gets the greater portion of food because it's a growing child, but every last thing that comes out of the teenager's mouth just makes me want to kick it down the worn out dingy stairs right into the stupid fucking horse drawn buggy traffic. and it leads me to posts like this which are basically apropros of nothing suddenly standing up and spitting directly into the teenager's fucking soup pot.

    1. Re:slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And there's a greased Yoda doll in your ass.

    2. Re: slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You gonna post this over and over again?

    3. Re: slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9663745&cid=52904193

    4. Re:slashdot by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      If you're posting AC, you're not showing that you've ever joined anything.

      Moreover, this isn't about Slashdot, it's about *you*. And at 5AM on a Sunday when I can't sleep, I don't want to read about you, sorry. Piss off.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  6. I like RemixOS by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    I have tried RemixOS. For simple chores (read email, surf the net, watching videos) I prefer it over the desktop offerings that Red Hat and Ubuntu are pushing. For serious work, I prefer far simpler desktops, like XFCE and LXDE. Gnome, KDE and Unity are trying to be everything for everybody, and the only thing that they are achieving is to alienate almost everybody. It is, in this light, that I am happy that Linux on the desktop is going nowhere - if the atrocities that these guys are pushing were the only choice in the desktop for Linux, and the *BSDs did not exist, I'd move to the Apple offerings.

  7. Let me be the first to say.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No thanks! Windows has enough vulns for me already.

    1. Re:Let me be the first to say.. by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

      So do all other OS and we still use them and in some cases even pay a lot of money for them.

    2. Re:Let me be the first to say.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BSD?

    3. Re:Let me be the first to say.. by unixisc · · Score: 1

      What vulns does Marshmallow have? The very flexible control over what is your primary and what is your secondary storage?

  8. too bad it doesn't work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    seriously, that thing just lag and I can't even install a simple APK, the play store fails to open, and is overall just terribad.
    I hope they fix all the issues with it soon.

  9. Okay..... by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    Okay, maybe this is a dumb question, but what runs on Android-x86? I haven't heard much about this, but it sounds interesting.

    Does it (can it) run all the usual Android apps that you'd normally run on an Android phone?

    Is it a touch-optimized OS or a mouse & keyboard-centric OS, or a bit of both?

    I see from the comments that it's maybe meant for kiosk-type applications, but could this be a general purpose OS for home use? (Assuming there are applications that would make it useful in such a setting.)

    I know there are sound, photo editing, and office-productivity type apps galore in the Android and Google Play store, but would this be something that people could use those for in a home environment for typical tasks?

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:Okay..... by omtinez · · Score: 1

      I highly encourage you to try Remix OS on a VM and to judge for yourself. I feel 50/50 about it. I'm still a little baffled about why Android can run OK in very low end phones yet making it work fast on x86 is apparently an impossible thing to do (Intel releases their own images of Android built for x86 that make use of all kinds of tricks to be emulated faster on their CPUs).

    2. Re:Okay..... by omtinez · · Score: 2

      In retrospect, if what you are interested in is mostly the applications, then you should definitely look at ChromeOS: https://chrome.googleblog.com/...

    3. Re:Okay..... by wbr1 · · Score: 1

      Many cheap tablets including a lot of Asus kit are Atom CPU running android on an x86. Apps are java (or art or dalvik or whatever), they are not native apps but JIT compiled bytecode. So yes, apps will run on android on whatever platform, with few exceptions.

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    4. Re:Okay..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's that emulation part. Running x86 native apps on Android is great, but emulating an ARM processor is a lot slower. Unfortunately, a lot of popular apps bundle native components rather than just being "run anywhere" Java code that could be JIT compiled for any platform. Also, the GPU is used a lot on Android. A poorly integrated GPU or driver will lead to very poor performance.

    5. Re:Okay..... by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

      Many cheap tablets including a lot of Asus kit are Atom CPU running android on an x86. Apps are java (or art or dalvik or whatever), they are not native apps but JIT compiled bytecode. So yes, apps will run on android on whatever platform, with few exceptions.

      Interesting...so just to be clear, I could install Android-x86 and then download apps from an app store and run them as-is, more or less? No recompiling or code changes?

      I mean, obviously my PC doesn't have some of the hardware for specific apps (like a compass or flashlight), but stuff messaging and other apps would run and function?

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    6. Re:Okay..... by wbr1 · · Score: 1
      Yes... Since you can root your instance of android you can even do things like spoof GPS and compass readings for app testing. This is also doable in the android development kit from google, but that is excruciatingly slow for day to day use.

      There are a few apps that use low level CPU specific code. One example that comes to mind is MX player ( a video player). It will runn (being java) on and android hardware using a software decoder for audio/video. You can get hardware decoders for it but they are pre-compiled for specific architectures. Another category is gaming console emulators and many 3d games, some have cpu/gpu specific code or optomizations in them but fall back to a software mode for incompatible hardware.

      Your average day to day apps will still run fine. Mouse navigation works okay too. Android has built in mouse support. You can get a usb on the go cable and plug any mouse or keyboard in to a phone or tablet and it works, so that support is baked in. Apps that rely on things like touch pressure or multi touch (like pinch to zoom) can be harder to use though.

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    7. Re:Okay..... by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      It's a grease-busting kitchen cleanser... AND a tasty fat-free dessert topping that you and the whole family can enjoy!

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    8. Re:Okay..... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Does it (can it) run all the usual Android apps that you'd normally run on an Android phone?

      Not all of them. Only the ones which have been built for x86. Which is goddamned pathetic, really. Why use Java if you're not going to support the same binaries on all platforms? This is really my only problem with Android. Using Java was stupid because it was needless. We'd have been better off with Objective C.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  10. Re:Android x86 is a buggy piece of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm using android on a x86 tablet and it seems just as reliable as android on my ARM cellphone. I'm not saying android is a good OS but it doesn't seem to be different on x86. Is the PC version something different?

  11. Run Android 6.0 Marshmallow on Your PC by flu1d · · Score: 0

    No thanks

  12. Gotta say it ... system by MouseTheLuckyDog · · Score: 1

    As long as it doesn't come with systemD

  13. Re:Android x86 is a buggy piece of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have some kind of Asus tablet with Atom processor, and it's quite a bit slower in games than my Huawey P9 lite (and in some games it crashes at the beginning of the game).

  14. You have to ask for the hardware support list by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    I have just now done so. I would like to know what hardware is supported before I go diving in...

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  15. How about Marshmallow upgrades? by unixisc · · Score: 1

    I'd be more interested in upgrading my Verizon Ellipsis 10 - currently running Lollipop - to Marshmallow. Particularly if it means that I can put in a 256GB SD card, define it as the primary memory, and make the mere 16GB storage that it currently has the secondary memory

  16. the fruits of permissive Open Source by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

    Quick, somebody get the GPL-bashers in here to remind us all about how this is so much better, how we all have so much more freedom ever since Google embarked on their "no GPL in userspace" crusade!

    I understand the corporate guys are justing doing what they're told, but I can never understand why the volunteer devs contribute thousands of hours of their life to a permissive-licensed projects. Do the BSD guys feel a great swelling of pride in their chests when they think back to how their tireless work laid the foundations for Apple's OS X era renaissance, or how they helped Microsoft fix early revisions of Windows NT's networking (and hey, weren't "winmodems" introduced at around the same time?)

    Remix OS's source code might turn out to be of little importance, but it should serve to remind us all that AOSP isn't guaranteed to last forever. Tthe only reason big corporations promote permissive licenses (as opposed to proprietary licenses) is because they're afraid of GPLed components gaining any more traction. It's much harder to slam the floodgates on a GPL project.

    1. Re:the fruits of permissive Open Source by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Quick, somebody get the GPL-bashers in here to remind us all about how this is so much better, how we all have so much more freedom ever since Google embarked on their "no GPL in userspace" crusade!

      Well, given the way cellular manufacturers work, had Android been GPL'd, it would be like the other GPL'd cellphone OSes out there. You know the 3 or 4 of them that were around when iOS was out?

      Instead, you have the freedom to pick an iOS phone, or an Android phone. Is that better than just an iOS phone only?

      The cellphone manufacturers were not going to touch Android if it was GPL'd. It's why Google released it as Apache. Maybe Google would release a Nexus here and there, but that would be pretty much it.

      But hey, maybe OpenMoko might be as popular as Blackberry OS!

      Oh, and GPL supporters always say commercial vendors "lock up" BSD code. Yet they ALWAYS fail to recognize that GPL "lock up" of BSD code is far more common and far more insulting because if GPL is better, why are GPL projects locking up BSD code? Makes GPL no better than a commercial license in that respect.

    2. Re:the fruits of permissive Open Source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, given the way cellular manufacturers work, had Android been GPL'd, it would be like the other GPL'd cellphone OSes out there. You know the 3 or 4 of them that were around when iOS was out?

      Instead, you have the freedom to pick an iOS phone, or an Android phone. Is that better than just an iOS phone only?

      That's begging the question. It seems pretty unlikely that the way it started is the way it would have remained, especially a decade later. Especially with the billions and billions of dollars on the line.

    3. Re:the fruits of permissive Open Source by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1
      Pretending that the issue was the license and not the corporate backing is ridiculous. Parts of Android ARE GPL (namely, the kernel.) And early on, more of it was GPL... it's my understanding that other GPL components were slowly phased out.

      OpenMoko is a red herring. If Android didn't exist then I'm pretty damn sure something like Maemo/Meego (a GPL phone project sponsored by Nokia and Intel, although parts of it was LGPL or permissive to allow for some proprietary customization it wasn't all of userspace) would have rapidly achieved a large portion of the market share. Did you ever see an N800? It kicked the crap out of the G1 and iPhone 1, even though it had a resistive touchscreen.

      Or do you think the rest of the world would have swallowed the stupid tax (err, I mean the Apple tax) and Samsung and all the rest of creation would have all quietly gone out of business rather than dare touch a project that had slightly more GPL code in it than early Android did?

      You are out of your mind.

      Yet they ALWAYS fail to recognize that GPL "lock up" of BSD code is far more common and far more insulting .... Makes GPL no better than a commercial license in that respect.

      It's not locked up. That's bullshit doublespeak. It's freely available under the GPL. This permissive license ==> freedom thing is so dumb it's Orwellian. It's only the freedom to deny other people freedom. Repeat that to yourself until it sinks in: There is no freedom permissive licenses give you (that the GPL doesn't also give you), except the freedom to deny those freedoms to other people when you re-release the code.

      You might as well complain after the police shoot someone who is firing a gun into a crowd that they were wrong because shooting people is undesirable.

    4. Re:the fruits of permissive Open Source by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      I sometimes wonder if the GPL shouldn't have a "free renaming" clause, since most of the anti-GPL people I meet seem to hate it on purely guttural, emotional "IT'S A VIRUSSSSSS!" grounds. So let's change the license--you're allowed to rename it to whatever you want so that you can feel like a special snowflake. And maybe even you're allowed to insert as many reasonable new attribution clauses or other new clauses that don't affect reuse by other people. Sure. I don't care. That's not the point.

      The point is that projects like these, where midgets stand on the shoulders of giants, can easily leverage the selflessness of open source volunteers into the creation of more closed ecosystems.

  17. great but by Simulant · · Score: 1

    Still waiting on Android 6 for my Remix Mini. Why did I buy that again?

    Also, I run Hyper-v. Remix OS Player wants me to disable it. How about you release a VHD?

  18. Re: Android x86 is a buggy piece of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One of the major modifications for x86 is the use of ethernet cards/drivers.

  19. Your FUD is weak by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Android is non-multitasking toilet of an OS"...
    You realize that everyone has used an Android phone don't you? So pretending its not multi-tasking is mighty weak. Are you hoping they don't click play on a video and see it running lots of apps on the screen at the same time? Instead they'll read your comment and take you AC word for it?

    "Why would I want that OS on a PC?"
    To run the millions of Android apps.

  20. Why on earth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    would anyone cripple the functionality of their PC by putting Android on it?

  21. Re:Android x86 is a buggy piece of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why is this modded flamebait? In my experience it's a pretty accurate assessment. Every build of Android x86 I've tried since 4.2 or thereabouts has failed to boot on AMD hardware, either in a VM or on bare-metal. It's been reported as a problem over the years without being fixed, and some versions even do the same thing on an intel laptop, though it's definitely more likely to work on that system. I've also had problems with some releases being so broken that, once booted, important processes would crash, be restarted, and repeat the cycle forever, rendering them unusable.

    Android-x86 is great when it works but lately (the past few years) it's a total crapshoot whether it will or not. It used to do a lot better with 4.0 and earlier versions. The parent comment is harsh but definitely in line with my experience of trying Ax86 lately.

  22. Re:Android x86 is a buggy piece of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Android-x86 is not quite the same as the official x86 Android releases. It's a porting effort based on AOSP that predates the existence of Google's official versions and (in theory) supports more hardware and some changes in software. The wikipedia page says it does things like use a different kernel, tries to use GPU acceleration on desktop/laptop hardware that wouldn't normally be supported, and more.

    So, it's similar but not the same thing at all. And like the GP said, it's a buggy piece of shit most of the time. It works great when it works but tends to not work at all, in my experience.

  23. Just what I was waiting for... by guygo · · Score: 1

    NOT! My desktop works just great, thanks. Instead of Android 6.0 for my desktop, how about Android 6.0 for my Galaxy S4 mini? Or does that just make too much sense...

  24. kernel version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    4.4.20 => for four twenty.

    Yes, yes I am.

  25. Privacy by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 1

    Might contain less spyware than Windows 10 after all...

    --
    My first program:

    Hell Segmentation fault

  26. Useless if you use AMD processors, Intel only. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No support for AMD processors. Not everyone uses Intel, idiots. Using proprietiary Intel hardware crapware in ReMix player is not fun.

  27. VirtualBox? by dabrowsa · · Score: 1

    Can you run this without rebooting under VirtualBox?

    --
    `Perche non reggi tu, o sacra fame de l'oro,l'appetito de' mortali?'
  28. Why can't we have an android runtime for linux? by norweeg · · Score: 1

    Why can't we have the android runtime on Linux? Why does it always have to be bare-metal or VM only? I want the android runtime environment for Linux so I can run Android apps in a fashion similar to RemixOS side-by-side native Linux apps. You want Linux on desktop to happen? Bring it a metric fuckton of mainstream apps via the android app store!