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Termux no longer updated on Google Play

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Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#191

Post by Dylan16807 »

thetinguy wrote: post #98
app4soft wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, since January 1st, 2020 Termux team dropped[0] support for Android 5.x/6.x , so actually in F-Droid repo it now requires minimum Android 7.x : > Support for Android 5.x.x - 6.x.x is dropped forever. Time to upgrade your devices or learn how to backport git changes. [1] And this part from Termux devs reply is especially cynical: > ... Time to upgrade your devices... [1] It looks like they has a contract with de…

I think 5 years of support is reasonable.

5 years is okay for a phone, but once you subtract the time it takes for Android releases to get into new phones it can be a problem. Hopefully the manufacturer releases OS updates! Hopefully.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#192

Post by fsflover »

m4rtink wrote: post #161
iagovar wrote: post #4

We have to replicate somehow the PC ecosystem into mobile phones. I'd like PostmarketOS / Manjaro to take off, hope it becomes ready as everyday driver one day.

This is thankfully work in progress at least on the PinePhone: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Software_Releases The list contains many existing Linux desktop distros. The PostmarketOS edition of PinePhone even shipped with a USB-C docking station that you can use to easily connect a monitor, keyboard, mouse and even ethernet.

Also on Librem 5: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/operat....

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#193

Post by michaelmior »

searchableguy wrote: post #189
michaelmior wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tasker is one example. There's a bit more info here: https://notenoughtech.com/tasker/important-tasker-5-9-2-upda... You can certainly do a lot more with a rooted device. I think it's a reasonable tradeoff to limit uncommon use cases for devices which haven't been rooted. I think the majority of users would prefer the additional security restrictions in place on non-rooted devices. For those who want more control, yo…

Google's safety net API is used to check if the device is rooted/unlocked/tampered. Many apps are using that now and will in future. There's no way around it. You can either have a phone for tinkering or general usage. There is no in-between now.

That personally doesn't bother me. I think it's reasonable for developers to want to safeguard the integrity of their apps. I can choose to use an alternative app without this check on my rooted phone. If there's no alternative, then of course you're left deciding which is more important. I am a developer (but not for Android) and I've never really felt the need to root my phone for many years. I think if you're a professional Android developer, it's reasonable to have a second rooted device for development if you really feel you need root.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#194

Post by npsimons »

monsieurbanana wrote: post #107
reportgunner wrote: post #56

Check out Termius. I've never used Termux so I'm not sure if Termius has the same feature set but it was enough to occasionally ssh in to my machine to attach/detach a gnu screen session to do what i needed. Also see Admin Hands.

From Termius description, it's a completely different app than Termux. Termius is a ssh client, it's purpose is to allow you to connect to a remote computer, whereas Termux is the computer. You can program, compile, run programs, etc... from Termux.

My use case is emacs, git and ssh so that I can have my org files on my phone and synchronize them with my other computers. And no, the org apps aren't good enough, plus there are other features of emacs that are nice to have at all times.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#195

Post by saagarjha »

londons_explore wrote: post #64

TL;DR: Android is trying to enforce all data being either writable, or executable, never both. iOS already does this. There are big security benefits (it becomes much harder to exploit an app). A disadvantage is it becomes much harder to make things like terminal emulators and things that want to download random code and run it. But those are by far the minority of apps, and it seems crazy to make a pretty massive se…

W^X is not a security protection on iOS, it serves to enforce the integrity of App Review. Apple claiming that it is the only entity that can write a JIT securely both provably incorrect and belies a lack of confidence in the platform sandbox.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#196

Post by lbrito »

Termux is such a great piece of software. I've been using it as my primary server[1] for half a year now with no issues and very minimal maintenance.

That said, it always kinda felt like a kludge when compared to (ideally) using a full-blown Linux distro like PostmarketOS.

[1] https://lbrito1.github.io/blog/2020/07/replacing_google_anal...

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#197

Post by saagarjha »

shawnz wrote: post #172
londons_explore wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bunch of things that add up...: * Lack of things like w^x enforced across the OS. (the root of this post). * The quality of SoC and OEM provided drivers being very very poor - there are lots of kernel exploits to be found. * Very slow/no updates. Time from an exploit being reported to Google to it being patched by a typical user is usually 6 months or more. That means for any random device you find on the street, t…

Some good points, although... > Lack of things like w^x enforced across the OS. (the root of this post). Are you sure iOS does this for the filesystem at all? I can't find any documentation besides some comments that they don't allow apps which exec other binaries in the app store. > The quality of SoC and OEM provided drivers being very very poor - there are lots of kernel exploits to be found. And how do we know ab…

iOS apps on the App Store effectively cannot create W^X mappings.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#198

Post by saagarjha »

yoz-y wrote: post #81
londons_explore wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it interprets x86, and therefore loses a lot of performance. For just running a few bash scripts, it really doesn't matter tho.

This, plus the App Store version does not come with apk package manager so in theory all executable code is there. Also they are on a kind of thin ice and already almost have been kicked out: https://ish.app/blog/app-store-removal

The version of iSH on the App Store has shipped with APK for a little while now: https://twitter.com/iSH_app/status/1336770264885948416

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#199

Post by saagarjha »

driverdan wrote: post #95
app4soft wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, since January 1st, 2020 Termux team dropped[0] support for Android 5.x/6.x , so actually in F-Droid repo it now requires minimum Android 7.x : > Support for Android 5.x.x - 6.x.x is dropped forever. Time to upgrade your devices or learn how to backport git changes. [1] And this part from Termux devs reply is especially cynical: > ... Time to upgrade your devices... [1] It looks like they has a contract with de…

Why would you expect them to continue supporting a 5 year old OS version?

I know some people do this for iOS, so I would have expected it to almost be the norm on Android where many devices frequently fall behind on updates.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#200

Post by wvenable »

pjmlp wrote: post #188
wvenable wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've attempted to use many different Android programming environments on my tablet and they're all terrible compared to basic Linux tools and VSCode. I even managed to get .NET core running on my tablet. There's a real possibility to do real work, everything you're suggesting is a toy at best.

Programming on the go is for toy programs anyway. For real work there are laptops and desktops.

No, I've done real work on the go. The manufacturer of my tablet sells it as a productivity device. My tablet is more powerful than my laptop and I have a portable keyboard and mouse for it.

Why have all this power if all I can do is play Candy Crush?

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