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Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

termux.com

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Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#71
post #37
post #27

Termux has recently run into issues with Android 10 and the more recent APIs, which break its form of package management. Their workaround is fairly clever (although not yet implemented) but means that updates to the Play Store version have been temporarily put on hold. https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-An...

Comments like this one[1] that mention having difficulty using Termux to access SD cards keep making me feel like we are radically over-securing devices. More and more it feels like the OS, the browser, are guarding the user not against bad apps, but also against the user. Firefox Mobile only allowing less than a dozen extensions. Chrome mobile supporting no extensions. These are different than the OS, but the same k…

What worries me most is that our devices are being radically over-secured according to a threat model that doesn't include companies that share my data without my permission, but does include open source developers building general-purpose tools. The former are actively encouraged, and the latter are considered collateral damage.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate the direction Google is taking Android. They're on an appliance-ification quest trying to hide any exposed linux-ness of the OS, including trying to remove developer access to all file handles. They always claim it's in the name of security but my suspicion is that it's an effort to transition from Linux to Fuchsia.

For me so far the worst thing Google did was disabling API for call recording. That makes new phones pretty much useless for me. I always record calls, so that I can go back to them if I forget something or that nobody can claim they said something when they didn't (most recently insurance salesperson told me I will have option X if I take their insurance and they once I bought it, there was no such option. Once I pu…

[deleted]

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#73

"This version requires Android 7.0 or newer." Termux is a great piece of software; I'd love if they would keep supporting older OS versions as well, since it's the kind of software one would keep on that old tablet to be used as a terminal or generally as a Swiss army knife.

Put LineageOS on it.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#74
post #27

Termux has recently run into issues with Android 10 and the more recent APIs, which break its form of package management. Their workaround is fairly clever (although not yet implemented) but means that updates to the Play Store version have been temporarily put on hold. https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-An...

The workaround won't help with self-installed executables though, right? Like when I cross-compile something on my dekstop and copy the executable to run under Termux?

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate the direction Google is taking Android. They're on an appliance-ification quest trying to hide any exposed linux-ness of the OS, including trying to remove developer access to all file handles. They always claim it's in the name of security but my suspicion is that it's an effort to transition from Linux to Fuchsia.

For me so far the worst thing Google did was disabling API for call recording. That makes new phones pretty much useless for me. I always record calls, so that I can go back to them if I forget something or that nobody can claim they said something when they didn't (most recently insurance salesperson told me I will have option X if I take their insurance and they once I bought it, there was no such option. Once I pu…

I assume you're up on all the various local laws on recording conversations, so this is for others, not you. Look into it before doing this.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#76
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is great but slow and 32bit.

It’s not that slow...

It’s pretty slow; usually somewhere between 10 and 100 times slower for most language runtimes. On newer devices this is less of a big deal, but only because they are ridiculously fast.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#77
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not that slow...

It is. The design, somehow dictated by Apple constraints, makes it so. I find it usable as a text editor, git client and ssh client, which is great really. Any lightweight CLI usage should feel great. I was hoping to run go and python code locally, but even installing deps, not to mention running tests is unreliably slow.

No dynamic code generation for apps on the App Store :(

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in terms of hardware https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque... Librem 5 has a number of features generally only found in high-end phones, such as USB 3, dual-role port, DisplayPort alt-mode, high resolution video out and a discrete audio DAC, but its CPU performance and its video processing capability are those of a low-spec phone from several years ago. For people who want to buy a phone that…

Literally from your own quote... >its CPU performance and its video processing capability are those of a low-spec phone from several years ago That's enough for me to decide the experience isn't on par with a flagship Android or iPhone - but that's not what it's trying to be. This isn't trying to be a phone - it's trying to be a mobile linux PC that you can also use as a phone and has the same form factor.

> This isn't trying to be a phone - it's trying to be a mobile linux PC that you can also use as a phone and has the same form factor.

You literally just described an Android phone to someone from 2006.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#79

what do people use this for? While I was really excited when i encountered it, I didn't find any practical uses.

I don't use it often, but I did use it twice to get a misbehaving apache service restarted while on the bus/train to work, saving me about 20 minutes of downtime before I could get in front of a better keyboard.

There's a widget addon that makes doing those sorts of things one-tap: https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux:Widget

Though naturally once I created a widget to kick apache, it never failed again.

Re: Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

#80

"This version requires Android 7.0 or newer." Termux is a great piece of software; I'd love if they would keep supporting older OS versions as well, since it's the kind of software one would keep on that old tablet to be used as a terminal or generally as a Swiss army knife.

I find things like termux most useful with network connectivity, and a device you can't update should never be connected to a network.

I beg to differ. Network connectivity in a managed home environment is fine. I use Termux to transfer backups, images, PDFs between my home server and an "old" Nexus7 tablet. And I sometimes use it as an offline map device while hiking, after downloading OSM maps and gpx files with track infos.
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