Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC • Hacker News Board

Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC

#1

Post by cblte » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 5:53 AM UTC

Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC
android-x86.org

Re: Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC

#2

Post by ianlevesque » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 7:40 AM UTC

I thought mainline Android had x86 support? What am I missing?

Re: Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC

#3

Post by dogma1138 » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 7:47 AM UTC

ianlevesque wrote: post #2

I thought mainline Android had x86 support? What am I missing?

This is the AOSP version for x86, there are commercial builds for x86 like there are builds for any other platform but if you want to have your own android is you gotta build it from the AOSP source which might lack quite a few things such as drivers for example.

Re: Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC

#4

Post by cblte » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 8:23 AM UTC

I think it is in an early stage. My test inside a VirtualBox was not really satisfying. Slow and not really smooth. maybe on dedicated hardware it might run better.

Re: Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC

#5

Post by rodgerd » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 8:25 AM UTC

cblte wrote: post #4

I think it is in an early stage. My test inside a VirtualBox was not really satisfying. Slow and not really smooth. maybe on dedicated hardware it might run better.

I've run it on an old Centrino laptop. It runs quite well, all things considered (wireless and so on and so forth.

Re: Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC

#6

Post by augustl » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 8:29 AM UTC

Perhaps Android in a VM will replace wine for running unported stuff on a Linux desktop.

Re: Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC

#7

Post by scintill76 » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 8:45 AM UTC

I've been thinking about trying something like this as my main system, with Linux chroot and possibly X11 server to fill in the gaps in apps. I like the idea of sandboxing everything like Android does. Some of the things that have held me back are lack of time to tinker and wondering if I would end up using a terminal emulator and GNU/Linux command line tools for everything, which sort of nullifies the sandbox. Maybe it's still worth it if, e.g., a browser compromise can't access the emails from my email client (which is possible on my current desktop with both running under the same uid and no special access controls.)

Re: Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC

#8

Post by aosmith » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 8:59 AM UTC

Great, let's introduce java-esq vulnerabilities to my desktop.

Re: Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC

#9

Post by dyates » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 9:10 AM UTC

scintill76 wrote: post #7

I've been thinking about trying something like this as my main system, with Linux chroot and possibly X11 server to fill in the gaps in apps. I like the idea of sandboxing everything like Android does. Some of the things that have held me back are lack of time to tinker and wondering if I would end up using a terminal emulator and GNU/Linux command line tools for everything, which sort of nullifies the sandbox. Maybe…

If you're interested in a system that sandboxes everything, take a look at Qubes OS.[1]

[1]: https://www.qubes-os.org/

Re: Android-x86 Project – Run Android on Your PC

#10

Post by joelhaasnoot » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 9:44 AM UTC

If this is what you want - Android on your PC, you might as well use Genymotion (https://www.genymotion.com/) - essentially a well packaged version that uses VirtualBox. Free for non-commercial use, $100/year for commercial use. Have new OS versions fast and easy to install Google apps/services on.