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Run Android 6.0 Marshmallow on Your PC With Android-x86 6.0 (softpedia.com)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
Android is a General Purpose OS at this point. Embedded Android is a terrible choice...for anything.
Can I run stuff from the play store?
Yeah, right! Now going on decade #3!
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?
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.
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.
So do all other OS and we still use them and in some cases even pay a lot of money for them.
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...
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.
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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
As long as it doesn't come with systemD
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.
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.'"
What vulns does Marshmallow have? The very flexible control over what is your primary and what is your secondary storage?
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
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.
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
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
Might contain less spyware than Windows 10 after all...
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
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)
Can you run this without rebooting under VirtualBox?
`Perche non reggi tu, o sacra fame de l'oro,l'appetito de' mortali?'
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!
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.