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Chromeos-apk – Run Android APKs on Chrome OS, OS X, Linux and Windows

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Re: Chromeos-apk – Run Android APKs on Chrome OS, OS X, Linux and Windows

#31

Post by dozy »

tokenizerrr wrote: post #27
dozy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Android developer here. I used to have the same issue - even on a fantastic machine the emulator would run very slowly, or not at all. This is now completely different You no longer have to emulate ARM. You can run the native x86 image, using GPU acceleration, and the thing screams. I can get multiple high resolution emulators running in parallel without issue. I'm still used to debugging every single compile on…

The last time I worked on Android (which was about 6-12 months ago) I tried to get the x86 image working on my laptop, but it apparently requires an intel processor[1]. Do you happen to be aware of any speedups for AMD processors? [1]: https://developer.android.com/tools/devices/emulator.html#vm...

Try out Genymotion, I think that's your best bet for AMD.

Re: Chromeos-apk – Run Android APKs on Chrome OS, OS X, Linux and Windows

#32

Post by byuu »

cryptoz wrote: post #6
byuu wrote: post #4

Can anyone explain how this differs from using an Android emulator? ( http://developer.android.com/tools/help/emulator.html ) Is it a matter of features, speed, or convenience? Obviously, all of those can be overcome, be it as a fork of the official emulator or as a third-party emulator. For instance, this new Chrome extension must be the same thing under the hood: a Dalvik runtime, possibly an ARM->Intel recompiler…

It's been a few years since I dared run the official emulator, and I used to have an underpowered computer for development, but last time it took about 10 minutes to boot Android and another 2-3 minutes to open an app. I presume it's been improved since then and runs nicer on better hardware, but my first impulse is that speed is a huge concern in Android emulation. Convenience only matters if speed is solved, but th…

Surely the Chrome extension is also an emulator, albeit a much faster one. Just seems like a large opportunity to create and sell the Parallels equivalent for Android, given the buzz this seems to be creating.

Edit: looks like that is done by Bluestacks and Genymotion. So I guess this is just about the novelty of the hack.

Re: Chromeos-apk – Run Android APKs on Chrome OS, OS X, Linux and Windows

#33

Post by kasabali »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #26
kasabali wrote: post #18

I will absolutely go nuts if this thing manages to run OneNote on my Debian desktop.

Please don't downvote this. What is on debian today that you can't get on or don't like about OSX? I ask this as a former Linux die hard. What am I missing back in the Linux world these days? Also, One Note is killer isn't it? It is so much nicer than Evernote. I've loved One Note ever since the first time it shipped with Office. It's so great to see Microsoft porting their better apps to other platforms.

I can't (easily and reliably) get OS X to run on my non-Mac computer while Debian runs like a champion, this is what's missing from OS X :) Otherwise I would like to try it seriously as my main OS if I get a chance in the future. Heck, I even used Windows 7/8 for a few years and even they get good enough after installing Cygwin, so I can't think of any showstoppers that would make me dislike OS X. (Well, lack of the vast apt repository may be a problem, but they say very good things about homebrew and MacPorts, so this wouldn't be an issue I guess.)

I was a heavy OneNote user in Windows and accumulated a lot of stuff in it, so after coming back to Debian, I desperately tried running it in Wine and also tried the Web version but unfortunately they didn't cut it. Currently I use CherryTree[0] and it gets the job done but it's very far away from the OneNote experience.

[0] http://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/

Re: Chromeos-apk – Run Android APKs on Chrome OS, OS X, Linux and Windows

#34

Post by ryanmarsh »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #26
kasabali wrote: post #18

I will absolutely go nuts if this thing manages to run OneNote on my Debian desktop.

Please don't downvote this. What is on debian today that you can't get on or don't like about OSX? I ask this as a former Linux die hard. What am I missing back in the Linux world these days? Also, One Note is killer isn't it? It is so much nicer than Evernote. I've loved One Note ever since the first time it shipped with Office. It's so great to see Microsoft porting their better apps to other platforms.

and I got downvoted... sheesh HN.

Re: Chromeos-apk – Run Android APKs on Chrome OS, OS X, Linux and Windows

#35

Post by ryanmarsh »

kasabali wrote: post #33
ryanmarsh wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't downvote this. What is on debian today that you can't get on or don't like about OSX? I ask this as a former Linux die hard. What am I missing back in the Linux world these days? Also, One Note is killer isn't it? It is so much nicer than Evernote. I've loved One Note ever since the first time it shipped with Office. It's so great to see Microsoft porting their better apps to other platforms.

I can't (easily and reliably) get OS X to run on my non-Mac computer while Debian runs like a champion, this is what's missing from OS X :) Otherwise I would like to try it seriously as my main OS if I get a chance in the future. Heck, I even used Windows 7/8 for a few years and even they get good enough after installing Cygwin, so I can't think of any showstoppers that would make me dislike OS X. (Well, lack of the…

If you have an iPad with a bluetooth keyboard OneNote is great on iOS. Also, thanks for the link to Cherry Tree. It looks cool.

Re: Chromeos-apk – Run Android APKs on Chrome OS, OS X, Linux and Windows

#36

Post by TheMakeA »

byuu wrote: post #4

Can anyone explain how this differs from using an Android emulator? ( http://developer.android.com/tools/help/emulator.html ) Is it a matter of features, speed, or convenience? Obviously, all of those can be overcome, be it as a fork of the official emulator or as a third-party emulator. For instance, this new Chrome extension must be the same thing under the hood: a Dalvik runtime, possibly an ARM->Intel recompiler…

My guess is that this is closer to a simulator. Just a Dalvik runtime and any necessary OS hooks, so it should be much faster than an ARM emulator or x86 Android build running in a virtual machine.

    possibly an ARM->Intel recompiler
The NDK has an x86 target, so it would make sense to just rely on developers providing those in their APK.

Re: Chromeos-apk – Run Android APKs on Chrome OS, OS X, Linux and Windows

#38

Post by untog »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #26
kasabali wrote: post #18

I will absolutely go nuts if this thing manages to run OneNote on my Debian desktop.

Please don't downvote this. What is on debian today that you can't get on or don't like about OSX? I ask this as a former Linux die hard. What am I missing back in the Linux world these days? Also, One Note is killer isn't it? It is so much nicer than Evernote. I've loved One Note ever since the first time it shipped with Office. It's so great to see Microsoft porting their better apps to other platforms.

What is on debian today that you can't get on or don't like about OSX?

The ability to use any hardware other than a Mac, presumably.

Re: Chromeos-apk – Run Android APKs on Chrome OS, OS X, Linux and Windows

#39

Post by untog »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #34
ryanmarsh wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't downvote this. What is on debian today that you can't get on or don't like about OSX? I ask this as a former Linux die hard. What am I missing back in the Linux world these days? Also, One Note is killer isn't it? It is so much nicer than Evernote. I've loved One Note ever since the first time it shipped with Office. It's so great to see Microsoft porting their better apps to other platforms.

and I got downvoted... sheesh HN.

Saying "please don't downvote this" does not immunise you from getting downvoted.

Re: Chromeos-apk – Run Android APKs on Chrome OS, OS X, Linux and Windows

#40

Post by duaneb »

byuu wrote: post #32
cryptoz wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been a few years since I dared run the official emulator, and I used to have an underpowered computer for development, but last time it took about 10 minutes to boot Android and another 2-3 minutes to open an app. I presume it's been improved since then and runs nicer on better hardware, but my first impulse is that speed is a huge concern in Android emulation. Convenience only matters if speed is solved, but th…

Surely the Chrome extension is also an emulator, albeit a much faster one. Just seems like a large opportunity to create and sell the Parallels equivalent for Android, given the buzz this seems to be creating. Edit: looks like that is done by Bluestacks and Genymotion. So I guess this is just about the novelty of the hack.

Dalvik apps should run natively unmodified. No need for an emulator at all.
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