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Android container in Chrome OS

chromium.googlesource.com

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Re: Android container in Chrome OS

#111

Post by exikyut »

josephfrazier wrote: post #106
reggieband wrote: post #26

I just had a vision of all major OS projects providing developer containers for their projects. Like, you could just pull the latest Firefox dev container and run a single command to have a running debuggable app. I know one of the major pains we have when on-boarding new people is the whole dance to get to that first working build / first meaningful change. I can imagine this being significantly more simple if a wor…

> Like, you could just pull the latest Firefox dev container and run a single command to have a running debuggable app. https://janitor.technology/ is attempting to provide a web-based version of this. Haven't yet used it myself, but it sounds promising.

I somehow highly doubt they're building all of Firefox in that demo video... heheh

Re: Android container in Chrome OS

#112

Post by guiambros »

millstone wrote: post #95
skrowl wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair you can't go very far without running into garden walls in Apple land. It doesn't just apply to development. Want to change your launcher / dialer / etc? WALL! Want to run a different web browser (an ACTUAL web browser complete with JS / CSS engine). WALL! Want emulators or adult-themed apps? WALL! Want to develop for iOS or macOS on Windows or Linux? WALL! The list goes on and on...

ChromeOS is significantly more locked down than macOS, developer mode notwithstanding. Firefox for iOS may use WebKit, but Firefox for ChromeOS isn't even a thing.

> ...Firefox for ChromeOS isn't even a thing

Uh? Most Chromebooks these days run Android apps, so you can install pretty much anything that can run on a regular Android smartphone -- including Firefox Quantum [1].

I haven't tried Firefox yet, but did install a bunch of things on my parents' notebooks - Skype, Android games, etc. Some have problems with the larger aspect ratio, but most run just fine.

[1] https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-run-firefox-quan...

Re: Android container in Chrome OS

#113

Post by freehunter »

MBlume wrote: post #94
freehunter wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people have different tastes. I know a lot of people who drive a Honda because it's easy for them to repair on their own, and parts are cheap. I know others who drive a BMW even though it's difficult and expensive to repair, because they would never repair it themselves so it doesn't matter. They value the experience of driving "the ultimate driving machine" even if it costs more and is harder to repair. Some pe…

The specific issue under discussion has little to nothing to do with user experience though. It wouldn't change the iOS user experience if an iOS dev environment was available for Linux, or if you could test your iOS code on a jenkins server running on an ec2 instance.

Wouldn't it? I'm sure plenty of iOS devs have Macs and understand Apple's ecosystem (since they have to right now), but if they opened that to people who aren't in the ecosystem, would it really have no impact on user experience? Mac and iOS are two different products but they both follow the Apple standard and appeal to Apple people. Limiting iOS development to Mac users means everyone who develops for iOS understands Apple at least enough to use their products for work.

Apple sells a very specific user experience, one they control soup to nuts. It's not for everyone, it's for a specific audience. Luckily we live in a world where there are tons of choices, and by far the more popular choice is "not Apple" according to every statistic I've ever read. They can afford to be picky, they can afford to turn off some customers, because there are a ton of choices that are the opposite of the Apple experience.

If you want a BMW, you want a BMW. If you want a car, you can have any car you want. Including an Audi.

Re: Android container in Chrome OS

#114

Post by zer0zzz »

tomaskafka wrote: post #108
quantumwoke wrote: post #4

I can't wait for the day that phone operating systems development environments are a docker pull away. It's encouraging to see Google approaching my ideal workflow using containerisation. Apple systems are great until you run into the garden walls and are forced to use closed-source single platform software like Xcode. Chrome OS and Android are a lot more open in many respects. Hopefully efforts like this continue wi…

This. Apple, just give me a console access on iPad with keyboard. Heck, I could even run it virtualized, if Apple didn't forbid it :(.

I don’t even want that. I just want a keyboard that doesn’t blow. iOS provides no key remapping and most iPad keyboard covers don’t have esc keys. The only way for me to type semi-fluidly on an iPad in a terminal is to hook up one of those happy hacker keyboards to a hand held scientific usb-to-Bluetooth adapter.

Re: Android container in Chrome OS

#116

Post by sigjuice »

Phrodo_00 wrote: post #59
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, there once was a time when we did everything in folders and didn't need the overhead of containerization just to keep well behaved things from stepping all over each other and breaking everything. Like all progress in computing we've reinvented the wheel, but now with a few additional layers of abstraction and the consequential performance degradation.

> keep well behaved things from stepping all over each other and breaking everything Containers help with keeping bad behaviors from stepping all over each other.

Containers also decrease the likelihood of bad behaviors getting fixed.

Re: Android container in Chrome OS

#117

Post by bitskits »

zer0zzz wrote: post #115

When the hell are we going to get electron and node.js apps on chromeos. Those are far more important than these crappy blown up phone apps

I disagree on the "more electron" front. Running old Chrome with known vulns packaged up into an app is not the direction I'm looking for ChromeOS to go. I'll take an app in a tab, please.

Re: Android container in Chrome OS

#118

Post by tyingq »

jacksmith21006 wrote: post #48

By looking at the comments this article is creating confusion. So I thought I might provide an overview of the two things happening with ChromeOS. 1) Android apps have been enabled on many Chromebooks using a locked container that shares a Linux kernel with ChromeOS. You do NOT have access to the container mechanism that is being used. It ONLY supports a container locked by Google. It is NOT using Docker also. This i…

There's also another option. Many Chromebooks and Chromeboxes allow you to install a new bios and run a normal Linux distro without ChromeOS at all. Handy if you like the cheap hardware but aren't interested in ChromeOS. See https://johnlewis.ie

Re: Android container in Chrome OS

#119

Post by cyphar »

DCKing wrote: post #12
ajross wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, cgroups is enabled on every major linux distro (though I'm too lazy to check if every configurable is set such that it will run this particular Android container). It's well-established base linux technology at this point, certainly nothing weird.

I think OP might be referring to the fact that Android kernels disable most functionality required to run most standard Linux container tech. AFAIK it's not possible to run Docker even on rooted devices if they are running a (close to) vanilla kernel, whereas you can run Docker just fine on Linux single board computers that run similar processors.

You can run LXC on Android, and have been able to for several years. So on Android enough of the kernel features are there (though to be honest you only really need a pid+mnt namespaces and most people wouldn't tell the difference).

Re: Android container in Chrome OS

#120

Post by wolfspider »

I have an ARM64 React Native toolchain sitting on blocks for ChromeOS. Caret is the IDE for this but Android SDK is truly lacking for ARM the build tools are base level. There is a guide floating around out there to make your own too. Looking forward to more stuff like this because essentially you get realtime Native app development with this but hooking into the debugger via crosh terminal is hard. Smoothing out the rough edges on this and then wow! You will have a powerhouse. NativeScript? Even better in theory.
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