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Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

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Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#81

Post by poisonborz »

brainless wrote: post #54

Is it just me or does anyone else think this is Microsoft's first step to create it's own Android fork eventually? I have been thinking what's really keeping the "new" Microsoft outside the smartphone game? Google creating a desktop OS market share is not really on the horizon. But if Microsoft takes the right steps it might venture out to smartphones again, and gain market share this time. The HN crowd may not be th…

They wouldn't have Play Services, which gives all the power of the ecosystem. Just having a good desktop back country doesn't help anything in the mobile space, as Windows Phone showed. It also won't go without experienced hardware partners, and Samsung is already in Google's pocket, the other top dogs being Chinese, who don't look for fitting in the western markets anymore.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#82

Post by tadfisher »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #44
pcapca wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that apps written in java/kotlin are easy to run in a x86 compatible android runtime. The difficulty is for native code, the arm libraries embedded in many apps. Actually most Android app depends on native libs. For image processing for example. Nearly all games are using native arm binaries. The sentence you quoted is probably related to native code only, which is the difficult part. It looks like they h…

oh this makes more sense: JVM apps run in Windows with some simple JVM container. Intel Bridge Technology is only needed for the apps that have compiled native code.

Android apps don't ship with JVM bytecode, though; they are compiled to the DEX format[1], which is the format used by the Android Runtime (ART), which is generally why these Android-in-container projects ship the whole bionic-based userland and pipe I/O through a bridge service.

[1] https://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/dex-format

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#83

Post by jacob019 »

tomComb wrote: post #68
kumarvvr wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an absolute win-win for Microsoft and Amazon. Microsoft gets Android Apps, Amazon expands its app store and Google is shunted out of the Microsoft eco-system. I see this as an absolute brilliant thing to happen to the app ecosystem. I really hope innovation accelerates on the Amazon App store.

This could be good for competition, but it's hard to see it as being about innovation. Same as Microsoft copying Chrome and calling it Edge, users have another browser, now with MS telemetry etc. instead of Google. Good for user choice but hardly innovation.

Firefox user here. If I had to choose between MS and Google telemetry, which I don't, I would choose MS any day.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#84

Post by axaxs »

pmarreck wrote: post #51
sudosensei wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing Intel Bridge Technology is related to what they used to call Houdini. Houdini is an ARM binary translator which translates ARM binary code into x86. I believe Android-x86 ( https://www.android-x86.org ) makes use of it.

Based on the trends I'm seeing, they better be working on the opposite direction ;)

Quite the contrary. Why would Intel want x86 on ARM? That would make migration even easier.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#85

Post by partiallypro »

handrous wrote: post #22
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #11

If anything, Amazon knows this will really incentivize updating your Android app on the Amazon App Store, or bringing it there if you haven't. And that's good for us because, should the Amazon App Store become more viable for manufacturers, Google might find themselves increasingly losing control of Android, and increasingly forced to make the Play Store more competitive.

Google's well on their way to replacing Android, no? I thought a lot of their announcements at events the last couple years had been about their from-scratch Android replacement. Maybe another big company will pick it up, but if not, I don't see much benefit to the hobbyist community over the current status quo if Android gets "opened up" more but also loses 99+% of total corporate backing toward its development. Eve…

Google has about as much power to replace Android as Microsoft has the power to replace Windows. The ecosystem is too big now to go back.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#86

Post by canadianfella »

jacob019 wrote: post #83
tomComb wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This could be good for competition, but it's hard to see it as being about innovation. Same as Microsoft copying Chrome and calling it Edge, users have another browser, now with MS telemetry etc. instead of Google. Good for user choice but hardly innovation.

Firefox user here. If I had to choose between MS and Google telemetry, which I don't, I would choose MS any day.

This would be so weird to see if I had a time machine 20 years ago.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#87

Post by bitL »

smusamashah wrote: post #16

Some years later everyone will realize that desktops are not phones and are meant to utilize more available screen space. Then everyone will come up with "revolutionary" desktop interface ideas and we here at HN will call it out that we already had these back in 90s. I am waiting for that time. Windows 10 is "phony" already and becoming more like it's built for people with low vision. I hate it's UI. I hope bringing…

Now you'll have UI elements from Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11 and Android all in a single operating system!

Can't wait for the Android Settings integration to Control Panel next...

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#90

Post by CountDrewku »

database_lost wrote: post #32

"Android apps will run natively on Windows 11 and will be downloadable from Amazon’s Appstore, via the new Windows Store that’s included in the operating system." - confusion intensifies

Making one massive spyware conglomerate that collects every bit of personal data from individuals that's possible.
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