I almost wonder if WebAssembly might be sufficient here? I suppose that'd break support for third-party binaries, but you don't need exec() to load a wasm blob /shrug
Termux and Android 10
211–220 of 329 posts
Re: Termux and Android 10
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am still surprised Google gets almost no flack for this. Chromebooks are particularly bad offenders. They're basically disposable laptops with an incredibly short lifecycle, where even browser security updates end when Google decides a laptop has left support. It's ironic Chrome is supported many years longer on any given Windows PC than any given Chromebook. Google loves claiming to be environmentally friendly, bu…
Not sure what's "bad" about Chromebooks, seeing as you can unlock them and install standard firmware. Then your only obstacle to using them as you would any other laptop is OEM hardware that's sometimes not supported by the mainline kernel, and a mildly non-standard keyboard. Android is a lot worse than that, many devices are not even OEM unlockable in the first place.
They might be unlockable, but at that point they're disposable to a business or school environment.
A PC shipped with Windows 7 in 2009 can run Windows 10 for free and the latest release of Chrome, supported officially by Google. If you upgraded from XP or Vista, many of those PCs can still run current Chrome just fine. The max life of a Chromebook as a Chromebook is like six years.
Re: Termux and Android 10
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
But you pay 750$ for a 3GB quad core phone; I've got these specs on a 300€ OnePlus One five (six?) years ago. Sure, replaceable battery and open hardware are a _very_ good thing, but the value/$ of these phones are horrendous. That's not to defend OnePlus or any other manufacturer, but when I can get a high end Samsung or Xiaomi device with 4 times the specs at every corner for the same price or less and simply insta…
>value/$ of these phones are horrendous Sounds like you value the open/libre aspect at $0. Not everyone feels the same way: Those phones are for people who value the replaceable battery and libre stack at $x where x > 0.
The most I've ever paid for a phone is $300. I value open/libre more than $0, but not more than I value the phone itself.
Re: Termux and Android 10
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't that the same thing in Android? SELinux, which I read elsewhere in this thread is where this is built into, is part of the system in which your app runs.
Yes, but the configuration of SELinux can be changed.
Not without root. Termux is very useful even on a non-rooted phone.
Re: Termux and Android 10
#215I almost wonder if WebAssembly might be sufficient here? I suppose that'd break support for third-party binaries, but you don't need exec() to load a wasm blob /shrug
WASM w/ WASI is still in its early stages and cannot even support existing applications seamlessly, let alone a full operating environment. For now, it would be better to run a riscv64 system VM, since that architecture will both run with comparative efficiency under an interpreter or JIT, and be well-supported at a system level.
Re: Termux and Android 10
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd much rather run a narrowly scoped (diff-style) .reg file than unpack an entire configuration file from a .tar.gz and potentially blow away existing settings (which has happened to me more than once when installing system updates...)
You can diff Unix configs with... diff I don't think it's ever advisible to tar -xf- -C / to fix a minor config issue. Just extract in tmp and diff -aru etc /etc
Sure, but with .reg files all you need to do is look at the contents of the .reg file to see what the diff is.
The .reg file is the diff.
Could not have been simpler.
That's one upside of the registry being a database rather than a text file.
Re: Termux and Android 10
#217I really hope they figure out a good solution for this problem. One way I distinguish between a "real" computer and a toy or appliance is whether you can use the device to write software for it. With Termux, you can write Linux-style programs on the Android device itself or even build full Android apks. One of the other awesome things about Termux is that you can use it to setup a pretty complete ARM Linux environmen…
where do chrome books fall on this spectrum?
My son got a school issued chromebook. My first reaction was: Oh, goody. We can install Python.
Nope.
The school chromebooks are locked down tighter than a crab's ass. What a waste.
Re: Termux and Android 10
#218I really hope they figure out a good solution for this problem. One way I distinguish between a "real" computer and a toy or appliance is whether you can use the device to write software for it. With Termux, you can write Linux-style programs on the Android device itself or even build full Android apks. One of the other awesome things about Termux is that you can use it to setup a pretty complete ARM Linux environmen…
Tablet companies really need to realize that a decent tablet with a decent dev experience is going to lead to an explosion of developers on their platform and result directly in way higher quality apps and therefore way better sales and brand. Imagine if websites couldn’t be developed on normal desktop computers and you had to run an extremely inefficient emulator every time you wanted to make a small notification.
About 3 years ago my 2012 MBP finally gave up the ghost. I was traveling frequently at the time and still had my trusty Mac Mini. So I decided to get a tablet. I did tons of research and it came down to a spec’d iPad Pro with all the bells and whistles vs. a mid range MS Surface. I’m an engineer so I need to code.
I got caught up in the Apple fanfare, and shame on me for not doing better research, but the thing was near impossible to use for coding. It’s a beautiful tool, but not one that fit my development needs. I ended up using it as a 2 monitor for my Mac Mini and a media consumption device. In hindsight, I shoulda went with the Surface.
All I wanna do is be able to code on an iPad. Yeah I know it’s currently possible, but have you tried it!? Is that asking too much?
Re: Termux and Android 10
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would be ChromeOS tablets. Full linux terminal in container and all. Hasn't really made any difference.
Also Microsoft Surface.
For clarification...
Surface Pro - full Windows tablet with separate keyboard
Surface Laptop - normal Windows laptop
Surface Book - Windows laptop with beefy detachable keyboard/battery (may have dGPU!)
Surface Pro X - (almost full) Windows tablet on ARM
Surface RT - Ran Windows RT (no desktop x86) on ARM
Surface Studio - Windows All-in-one PC with very nice big screen
Re: Termux and Android 10
#220I mean it's sad that this change will affect Termux, but at the same time I can see why Google wants to enforce W^X on apps home dirs.
This is currently a big backdoor for apps to sneak unvetted code in at runtime, bypasses Google's review policy. Sure Termux was using this for good, but I guarantee that Google has examples of apps doing this to sneak hostile code onto user devices.
Development tools often need higher security permissions on Desktop, maybe Android just needs a "development" class of app that is more privileged? They'd just need to enforce the limitation to development focused apps really strongly in the review process.