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Android Apps on Windows 11

blogs.windows.com

71–80 of 190 posts

Re: Android Apps on Windows 11

#72
post #6

I think Microsoft cares more about Android than Google does. They should work out a deal where Microsoft takes over Android.

What about this makes you think that? Microsoft cares about getting Android _users_, I don't think they care that much about the Android OS beyond their rather poor implementation on the Surface Duo.

Microsoft at least appears to be interested in Android. To me it feels like Google has lost interest in the product.

Re: Android Apps on Windows 11

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably yes. People don't like to use app stores unless they are forced.

Or maybe I'd even say "people don't like to use terrible app stores unless forced". Unfortunately, all of the commercial ones I have used are really terrible (gPlay, the Apple App Store, the MS Store), though at least on everything but iOS you aren't 'forced' to use them per se, just aggressively encouraged. It's kind of mind-boggling to me that none of them have managed to make an acceptable example, how hard can se…

I don't think Google Play or the Apple App Store are terrible, at least for end-users. They have the apps people want and function as advertised.

The Microsoft Store struggled because initially it was limited to UWP apps. Developers could not easily ship their existing Windows software on it. Microsoft shot themselves in the foot by excluding the store from Windows' biggest selling point: it's extensive library of existing software.

To make things worse, the store has always been a bit...buggy, compared to the contemporaries I mentioned earlier. I have, on more than one occasion, spent half an hour troubleshooting why a game wouldn't download and install, with the store throwing obtuse unhelpful errors.

Re: Android Apps on Windows 11

#74
post #67

Requires use of Hyper-V... does this mean they will bring Hyper-V to Home edition? Seems like many users who would run Android apps are likely to crossover with the group of users who are not going to upgrade their Windows license to Pro or better. Windows Subsystem for Android™... runs in a Hyper-V Virtual Machine, like the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Interestingly, I don't see an entry for it in hyper-v

This and WSL use "Virtual Machine Platform" which is a bit like WebView2 but for virtualization.

Re: Android Apps on Windows 11

#75

What do people use features like this for?

In the article, they posted a screenshot where there's an Android game, a WIN32 app (word), a PWA app and a linux app in the same window.

So I think Microsoft wants to position Windows 11 as the platform for all apps.

Re: Android Apps on Windows 11

#76
post #29
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This partnership is a win win between Microsoft and Amazon. Users should be able to install fdroid too

I got the impression developers shunned Amazon app store because it's a bad experience for them. Quite often am I seeing apps there that are many versions behind the play store.

I always assumed it was just because nobody uses the Amazon app store.

From a consumer perspective, the Amazon app store has no real reason to exist. It's just another place to download the same apps that are already in the Play Store, only with the extra hassle of needing to sideload it and set up a separate account from the one you already use for most other things on your phone.

If Amazon is actively making the app submission process worse for developers, then that is a colossal failure on Amazon's part to understand their market position. Developers are not the ones who need Amazon in this relationship.

Re: Android Apps on Windows 11

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying it's only a matter of time before Windows, which is 35 years old, might become a walled garden?

I think this is really unlikely. PC gaming is an increasingly important market for Windows in the consumer space. As more casual users abandon conventional PCs for increasingly capable tablets and smartphones, PC gaming is only becoming and even bigger piece of the pie. The day Microsoft announces that the next version of Windows will be wholly incompatible with player's existing libraries is the day Windows ceases t…

Ugh, this just came to me and I hate to put this deviltry in the air:

But right now, kinda feels like Microsoft buys Steam or dies.

(Maybe not dies, but "becomes IBM.")

Re: Android Apps on Windows 11

#78

I have a suspicion that they went with the Amazon App Store because it removes the dependency on Google Play Services. Is that just me?

Google would never have wanted to put the Play Store on Windows because they actually compete with Windows. Access to the Play Store is a selling point of ChromeOS.

Re: Android Apps on Windows 11

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does "someone can install Linux in a VM on Windows"[1] translate into "ajvs won't be able to use Linux anymore"? I don't see how you can make such a claim with a straight face. [1] WSL is based on Hyper-V virtual machines.

They're already doing it with WSL specific features such as the DirectX driver. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directx-heart-linux/

Am I misreading? It looks like they ported the DirectX runtime to Linux under GPL 2.

>> "This is the real and full D3D12 API, no imitations, pretender or reimplementation here… this is the real deal. libd3d12.so is compiled from the same source code as d3d12.dll on Windows but for a Linux target. It offers the same level of functionality and performance (minus virtualization overhead). The only exception is Present(). There is currently no presentation integration with WSL as WSL is a console only experience today. The D3D12 API can be used for offscreen rendering and compute, but there is no swapchain support to copy pixels directly to the screen (yet )."

https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel/tree/e445d061...

https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel/blob/e445d061...

>> "SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0"

They're also working on supporting all the standard Linux equivalents according to your link. I don't see the third E here.

Re: Android Apps on Windows 11

#80
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is really unlikely. PC gaming is an increasingly important market for Windows in the consumer space. As more casual users abandon conventional PCs for increasingly capable tablets and smartphones, PC gaming is only becoming and even bigger piece of the pie. The day Microsoft announces that the next version of Windows will be wholly incompatible with player's existing libraries is the day Windows ceases t…

Ugh, this just came to me and I hate to put this deviltry in the air: But right now, kinda feels like Microsoft buys Steam or dies. (Maybe not dies, but "becomes IBM.")

You underestimate the size of their enterprise business.
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