Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NewPipe on Linux, Using Android_translation_layer

flathub.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 100 posts

Re: NewPipe on Linux, Using Android_translation_layer

#11

Post by sigh_again »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #2

I feel like the interesting part is mostly https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer/android_transla... which is probably an alternative to waydroid, but maybe more like WINE so it doesn't need the binder kernel module? EDIT to add: I also think packaging up an application plus the compatibility layer using flatpak[0] is a really nice idea; it lets you 1. make those apps available in a way that nearly appears nati…

Trying to reimplement Android without Binder is a doomed plan. Everything about Android is so intrinsically linked to having Binder available that you're just going to end up piling hacks on hacks to have anything working. At this point, an x86 Android image will be better and more reliable. Somewhat just as fast.

Services ? Binder. Intents (even internal ones) ? Binder. Play Services / microG which 90% of apps use ? Binder. Permissions ? Binder.

Re: NewPipe on Linux, Using Android_translation_layer

#12

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

sigh_again wrote: post #11
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #2

I feel like the interesting part is mostly https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer/android_transla... which is probably an alternative to waydroid, but maybe more like WINE so it doesn't need the binder kernel module? EDIT to add: I also think packaging up an application plus the compatibility layer using flatpak[0] is a really nice idea; it lets you 1. make those apps available in a way that nearly appears nati…

Trying to reimplement Android without Binder is a doomed plan. Everything about Android is so intrinsically linked to having Binder available that you're just going to end up piling hacks on hacks to have anything working. At this point, an x86 Android image will be better and more reliable. Somewhat just as fast. Services ? Binder. Intents (even internal ones) ? Binder. Play Services / microG which 90% of apps use ?…

> At this point, an x86 Android image will be better and more reliable. Somewhat just as fast.

You mean a full VM?

Re: NewPipe on Linux, Using Android_translation_layer

#13

Post by sigh_again »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #12
sigh_again wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to reimplement Android without Binder is a doomed plan. Everything about Android is so intrinsically linked to having Binder available that you're just going to end up piling hacks on hacks to have anything working. At this point, an x86 Android image will be better and more reliable. Somewhat just as fast. Services ? Binder. Intents (even internal ones) ? Binder. Play Services / microG which 90% of apps use ?…

> At this point, an x86 Android image will be better and more reliable. Somewhat just as fast. You mean a full VM?

No, merely using the standard Android emulator, as well as the x86_64 images that have been available for a while (or the ARM64 ones if you're on an M1 and others). With hardware acceleration properly setup, it's a nice experience. https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-commandlin...

It does tend to be very unhappy when the system gets under load though, and might be sluggish if you're running a dozen IDEs on the side.

(Which, as comment under says, is technically a VM. But QEMU gets a pass at pretending not to be a VM and rather just black wizardry that makes bytes happy)

Re: NewPipe on Linux, Using Android_translation_layer

#14

Post by NoahKAndrews »

sigh_again wrote: post #13
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At this point, an x86 Android image will be better and more reliable. Somewhat just as fast. You mean a full VM?

No, merely using the standard Android emulator, as well as the x86_64 images that have been available for a while (or the ARM64 ones if you're on an M1 and others). With hardware acceleration properly setup, it's a nice experience. https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-commandlin... It does tend to be very unhappy when the system gets under load though, and might be sluggish if you're running a dozen IDEs…

The Android Emulator is a full VM under the hood. Waydroid is a lighter-weight alternative that uses the Binder implementation in the Linux kernel.

Re: NewPipe on Linux, Using Android_translation_layer

#15

Post by NoahKAndrews »

bubblesnort wrote: post #3
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #2

I feel like the interesting part is mostly https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer/android_transla... which is probably an alternative to waydroid, but maybe more like WINE so it doesn't need the binder kernel module? EDIT to add: I also think packaging up an application plus the compatibility layer using flatpak[0] is a really nice idea; it lets you 1. make those apps available in a way that nearly appears nati…

It's conceptually similar to wine, but rather a reimplementation of the reference Android, which is AOSP. See https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer/android_transla...

Better link: https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer/android_transla...

Re: NewPipe on Linux, Using Android_translation_layer

#16

Post by anthk »

ravenstine wrote: post #6
antics9 wrote: post #5

Why would one want NewPipe on desktop when there's https://freetubeapp.io/

Perhaps because one is accustomed to the NewPipe experience and would prefer consistency across devices? Never heard of Freetube, but it looks pretty snazzy.

Parabolic it's far better for desktop users.

Re: NewPipe on Linux, Using Android_translation_layer

#19

Post by charlieboardman »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #2

I feel like the interesting part is mostly https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer/android_transla... which is probably an alternative to waydroid, but maybe more like WINE so it doesn't need the binder kernel module? EDIT to add: I also think packaging up an application plus the compatibility layer using flatpak[0] is a really nice idea; it lets you 1. make those apps available in a way that nearly appears nati…

I have been hoping for compatibility layer + application flatpaks for a while so it’s nice to see someone doing it. My dream is to have a bunch of flatpaks for the Microsoft office suite

Re: NewPipe on Linux, Using Android_translation_layer

#20

Post by clfdev »

If you have a device running postmarketOS or Alpine Linux you can try this out yourself with other Android apps. Just "sudo apk add android-translation-layer" and then run

$ android-translation-layer some-app.apk

I tried a few (F-Droid, Spotify, Megalodon) but they all failed with various issues, looks like there's a lot of API surface still not covered. Hopefully a lot of it is fairly easy to add now that the foundational work has been done!

Post reply on HN