Bad move for the upcoming windows on arm with x elite.
Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
161–170 of 256 posts
Re: Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As in, the thing that tried to implement Linux syscall interfaces on top of the Windows kernel? It's really funny, NT was supposed to be great at three things: - be easily ported to different hardware architectures, which then never actually became relevant (and nowadays macOS is the best example for actual architecture migrations!) - have a much more sophisticated and elaborate security model than those filthy uni…
>macOS is the best example for actual architecture migrations Eh, they did 2 migrations while supporting at most 2 architectures concurrently. Nothing compared to Linux which is maintained for x86, POWER, ARM, s390x, MIPS etc concurrently
Does Linux allow you to run your s390x binary on your ARM system? No.
As others have pointed out macOS allowed migration including existing binaries. They have done 3 of these migrations. 68k to PowerPC, PowerPC to x86, and x86 to ARM. Each time, users were allowed to bring along existing binaries and keep using them and each time the binaries from the previous system generally ran as fast or faster on the new system. As far as I am aware, Linux has never done anything like this.
Re: Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
I imagine not only is this a technical challenge in general, but the "best" apps require google integration and google is giving devs and big companies incentives to require the google play libraries, which this can't use. This has been google's main dirty trick since the beginning, which is why you don't see much competition in the android space. Its a few big licensed players. Niche, homebrew, emulated, etc players…
Is the Windows store popular now? Aside from Microsoft dog fooding I didn't get the impression it was very much used even after all these years.
It's integrated with winget, but that hasn't caught on much either.
Re: Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
> especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop The SMS and Calls. Seriously, at this point, my phone is the least useful device I own for managing both of these functions. The only utility in having them in some broken down hard to use form is for the slight convenience of being able to use them outside of my home if I wanted to. I rarely want to. I'd much prefer thes…
If you're using Android (presumably with Google), there's Google Messages on Web that handles SMS: https://messages.google.com/web/ I used it for several years and found it quite reliable, unlike Apple's way of handling SMS/iMessage on each Apple device separately.
Agreed. I type half my texts in Firefox these days using the Google messages web frontend. Supports RCS too!
Re: Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
#165So, this is the second time a "run your Android apps on Windows" initiative fizzles out: before WSA (which was Amazon-centric), there was a late-2020 "Your Phone" feature that (briefly) allowed Samsung apps on Windows desktops. Not sure if this means anything other than "phone apps run best on, well, a phone", especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop, other than i…
> Your Phone
Still exists and still using it but this is not the same as that is just showing the phone's screen and content on your desktop.
Re: Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
#166They killed any possible interest in this by going with the Amazon app store instead of Google Play. They also did a horrible job of advertising it. This is the first I've heard about it from Microsoft since the feature first rolled out in Windows 11 2.5 years ago.
Some of the default shortcuts in the start menu triggered an install wizard for WSA so there was natural ways to discover it (I'm aware of the kindle app, but there must have been a few others). Of course I wouldn't fault anyone for first and foremost deleting all of these as uninvited clutter.
The main issues to me were the hurdle to get the Google Store instead, and the fact that android emulation is no ready yet, full stop.
It was the same issue on Chromebooks so I wouldn't fault microsoft: many android apps gave up on tablet support so they don't expect to be fluidly resized, bluetooth support had no chance in the first place, and a bunch of phone only app were predatory on being uniquely installed (looking at you Line) which made it a non starter to run them elsewhere.
I'm not sure there's any clear solutions to those issues.
Re: Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As in, the thing that tried to implement Linux syscall interfaces on top of the Windows kernel? It's really funny, NT was supposed to be great at three things: - be easily ported to different hardware architectures, which then never actually became relevant (and nowadays macOS is the best example for actual architecture migrations!) - have a much more sophisticated and elaborate security model than those filthy uni…
>macOS is the best example for actual architecture migrations Eh, they did 2 migrations while supporting at most 2 architectures concurrently. Nothing compared to Linux which is maintained for x86, POWER, ARM, s390x, MIPS etc concurrently
[deleted]
Re: Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use KDE connect for that on Windows too, it does both SMS and calling. Your phone only needs to be in the same network which isn't an issue on your desk when you get home.
How exactly do you do SMS and Calling on Windows? I have KDE Connect installed, and it has SMS and telephone integration checked, but I don't see any notifications or anything. https://i.imgur.com/JQphE16.png
Phone Link also works relatively well... native Microsoft app.
Re: Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
#169Android is an open source operating system. This should be trivial....right? /s
Re: Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
#170Android on the desktop works very well on Wayland with Waydroid and it even supports Google Play store. https://waydro.id/
Great running apps not available on Linux with a touchscreen PC. It only seems to run Android apps compiled for x86, but it is very fast.
There are practical use cases, and it is very usable. I haven’t tried it on WSL2, but it seems like a practical approach without reliance on Microsoft.