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RemixOS – Android for the desktop

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Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#61

Post by khedoros »

currysausage wrote: post #50
xearl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems that "Remix OS for PC" will be at least "free to use": > "With that in mind, Remix OS for PC is free to download, free to install, and free to use." No idea about open source, though.

> free to download, free to install, and free to use Remix OS is based on Android and Android includes, among other things, the Linux Kernel, which is GPL, which is Copyleft, which would mean that the Remix OS creators would need to provide the source code to users, wouldn't it?

You can build closed and proprietary software on top of GPL software (for certain definitions of "on top of"), as long as any changes to the GPLed software are released as source, and LGPLed software is only linked to dynamically.

Example: If I wrote an alternative GUI system to replace X and the open window managers, I wouldn't necessarily be forced to open-source that system.

Real-world example: My employer uses Linux in some of its products, integrated with our proprietary software in license-compliant ways (and we've got a legal office that verifies that we're following the licenses for all the software that we use, to avoid legal trouble).

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#63

Post by icebraining »

Someone1234 wrote: post #20
nextos wrote: post #15

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too for…

I cannot help but wonder if "apps" aren't going to eventually replace package managers. That's certainly what Docker-like containers try to do. It might sound crazy when you consider some of the services typically installed with a package manager but ultimately there's no reason why an "app" cannot run in root, many root packages aren't actually installing drivers, they're only root for historical reasons (e.g. being…

I'd say that's what Bitnami already is: an app store for servers. https://bitnami.com/

I've never actually used it, though, since Debian packages work fine for me.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#65

Post by amazari »

nextos wrote: post #24
Someone1234 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot help but wonder if "apps" aren't going to eventually replace package managers. That's certainly what Docker-like containers try to do. It might sound crazy when you consider some of the services typically installed with a package manager but ultimately there's no reason why an "app" cannot run in root, many root packages aren't actually installing drivers, they're only root for historical reasons (e.g. being…

I'm certain containers will end up replacing package managers. This idea is being pushed by the systemd guys. I think its a step backwards, as you loose tight control over dependencies. E.g., in case of a security issue, one cannot easily patch all containers if they are blackboxes. IMHO, the right tool for this is an improved package manager such as Nix or Guix (which incidentally also support containers in their ow…

Well, at least xdg-app has the concept of "runtimes" shared among applications. If a lib/bin in a runtime has a security issued, the whole runtime might be updated. Transparently for the apps running over it. A runtime might be FreeDesktop-1, Gnome-3.14 for example. Lets say a 0day is discovered and patched in gtk 3.14, a new version of the Gnome-3.14 is issued and dl by the clients. Magically (with the help of overlayfs and co) all the apps depending on this specific runtime have a secure gtk.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#69

Post by derefr »

morganvachon wrote: post #59
legulere wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would prefer less app-ification, more package management. I would argue for the opposite: One problem with linux is that you can't run untrusted software without it getting the same access as the user. That's exactly what the appification is. I see package managers as a source of some problems of linux: Package maintainers are a unneeded middleman between the writers of the software and you, package managers inte…

> I see package managers as a source of some problems of linux: Package maintainers are a unneeded middleman between the writers of the software and you, package managers interact with the whole system, scattering files around the whole filesystem... It sounds like you'd enjoy Slackware's approach to package management. Zero dependency resolution, packages are built from the source tarball with little or no patching…

The parent is advocating for the Slackware approach—just take whatever's in the upstreams and slam it together—but installed into a container (so all that slamming doesn't conflict with anything), and distributed as a container image. This is effectively the 'modern Linux app philosophy', as supported by systemd et al. It's similar in concept to app bundles, but it also assumes automatic sandboxing.

It's great for games in particular, given that you'll be able to boot up a 10-year-old game container-image as if it were new. (In that way, it's like game emulation, but without the performance drawbacks.) Most other "app" software gets lesser-but-still-significant benefits, in much the same way you see on e.g. the Mac App Store with their self-sandboxing apps.

There's little advantage in distributing system software this way, given that system software is usually full of low-level extension-points that other system software plugs into to achieve the purpose. And this is what can make a platform abstraction layer like Android make sense. With a platform, the system software is all composed together by the platform maker into an underlayer, and a single, clean API is specified atop it. Above the platform abstraction, there doesn't need to be any exposed runtime model for system software—since it's all been encapsulated into the black box of the underlayer. The platform only needs to specify a model for developing+running+distributing app software.

Sometimes things straddle the boundary, though. There are numerous cases of software that has "failed out" of the Mac App Store after a while, because the software is fundamentally a system-software/app-software hybrid, and sandboxing the system-software aspects just didn't work.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#70

Post by RamenJunkie_ »

I have the Remix PC from the Kickstarter.

It's basically a Raspberry Pi sized PC (in a case) that runs Remix OS.

Honestly, I rather like it though I have not used it a ton. I got the most use out of it when I was traveling for work a few months back, I took it with me to the hotel and hooked it to the TV and got my first real use out of it.

As for why I have not used it a ton, the HDMI out on it doesn't support my "Dumb cable" HDMI to DVI cable. So I have to hook it to a TV to use it, HDMI to HDMI, which is annoying at best. If I could hook it to a regular PC monitor on my desk I'd probably use it pretty regularly as a secondary machine.

Most of the apps I tried on it worked fine, Netflix, TuneIn Radio, Amazon Music, Hearthstone, Fallout Shelter. It hooks to your Google Play account so you get all the apps you already have purchased there.

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