Google Readies Linux Terminal For Android, Linux Apps?

[@scaryifliteral]

omg the 34321 termux comments. Even if that were 1:1 with what we're potentially looking at, which it isn't, that isn't a built-in feature. Y'all are killing me 😂

[@OverdosedCaffeine]

actual desktop browsers for starters.

[@julioau]

Pretty sure for now it only works for cli apps, graphical apps should require a lot more work. If I recall correctly, unlike ChromeOS, Android's display manager is very different from Wayland. Though one can dream! I would also enjoy that very much ;)

[@icollided]

LIbre Wolf would be nice.

[@theotherhive]

​@@julioautheres already several Wayland and x11 shells you can install that would work

[@AgentZeroNine1]

Turning old Android devices into a NAS is going to be awesome. Now I need a Pixel device with 32GB of RAM so I can turn a phone (that's connected to a portable monitor) or a Pixel tablet into a work/development machine.

[@TheRanguna]

That is, if you can install android 15/16 on them

[@ghost_of_you_tube]

​ there is GSI for 9+ android devices 😮 (in future GSI+GKI+pKVM will be wild😮)

[@TheRanguna]

@ghost_of_you_tube too many acronyms, mate

[@omarflux1580]

You can still do this with termux tho

[@TheRanguna]

@@omarflux1580 not at the same performance we'll see with the terminal app. It'll use kvm, whilst termux uses qemu, which is much slower due to the emulation overhead

[@RoryEckel]

I always thought that something like Termux should be a part of android itself

[@nikichashadow]

now i wont need termux and can uaea the native terminal yaaay

[@R.B.]

On the other hand, it isn't considered (for now) a user supported scenario. Adding a terminal, even for developers, means that Google would need to provide ongoing support for a feature a small percentage of its users would need or use. That's resources they could expend for other purposes.

[@LostieTrekieTechie]

@@R.B. perhaps under developer tools? But perhaps it makes most sense as a third party project, they can run a package manager that isn't run by Google

[@nikitf7777]

​@@nikichashadow the main and very big problem that is it's absolutely not native (as Termux), because it uses virtualization. In other words it virtualize Linux kernel inside Linux (Android) kernel, which is quite stupid

[@omonighoprogressoghenetejiri]

​@@nikitf7777oh, Google should make it native to the main kernel? Do you even hear yourself? And y'all are the first people to also say iOS is way more secure than android and now you're suggesting giving users the ability to run Linux apps from any source they see on the internet on the kernel level of their phone Do you know how many things can go wrong?

[@exorsuschreudenschadenfreude]

this was already available back in 2013-2014, but Termux in 2015 made the process easier

[@thesupremeorg]

Don’t get too excited. This could also be part of Google’s efforts to merge CrOS with Android. Same as the desktop chrome project.

[@SamGarfield1]

There's got to be more to this story. I don't see Google bothering to add this to satisfy a few nerds. I must coincide with something else.

[@scaryifliteral]

On Chrome OS it makes sense as means to attract developers. I'm not exactly sure if that makes sense on an Android phone. It is interesting..

[@jimmy999S]

IMO, other than Chromebooks, it makes sense for tablets. A 500$ tablet with a keyboard case/cover would then become a pretty capable and extremely light and portable development environment. It's also cool as fuck.

[@TheRanguna]

I belive they are doing this for security reasons, to run applications in a sandboxed environment inside Linux VMs That and maybe opening the floodgates to allow all Linux app, like steam, to run on android. (slight caveat on steam and a bunch of other apps, they don't have an arm version)

[@codychilders8307]

Chrome OS to target companies IT sectors. Possibly.

[@kovalsky117]

probably required to debug future local LLMs running directly on the devices (imho)

[@doooouge1136]

some day i may actually be able to play my steam library on my phone

[@blisphul8084]

Winlator is making big strides

[@atomikami]

Samsung dex plus terminal 🗿 diabolical

[@brabes76]

Yes samsung dex and this would be a game changer for me. I happen to have a phone.That should be more than capable of running some heavier applications. But getting some of those applications to run effectively through winlator has proven to be challenging. I know winlator's main focus is on gaming but I am very interested in being able to run blender, gimp, or maybe even some other standout applications on the go. I don't expect the performance to hold up between the phone and a desktop or laptop in some cases but with some of the upcoming mobile chip sets that gap is being depleted more and more. I am always for more diversity / options when it comes to these mini supercomputers that we merely title as flagship phones

[@brabes76]

Also i remember running linux on dex, samsung's experiment during the note 10 era

[@CH32mix]

The part I completelly disliked is that they just cancelled the project, instead of letting the community to continue it, but there is a high chance they were using hidden dex apis and didn’t wanted to disclose that information.

[@brabes76]

@@CH32mix yes they should of allowed the few of us that were using it to keep experimenting with it.

[@brabes76]

@@CH32mix yes they should of allowed the few of us that were using it to keep experimenting with it.

[@spyplane8]

Let's not forget Android is Linux, just a different flavor

[@JpAm_queijo]

only the kernel because all other parts are different

[@smartnima]

It is Linux, But not GNU/Linux, which most of the desktop distros are.

[@spyplane8]

@smartnima yup adb push iunderstand.apk

[@OkarinHououinKyouma]

GNU/Linux is different from the AOSP.

[@TheRanguna]

​@@JpAm_queijoeven the kernel has been modified from the Linux one. We could say it's a fork of Linux

[@tom_marsden]

One step closer to my dream of a one device ecosystem!

[@adityashukla7849]

I can't thank them enough. I've wanted this ever since I started using Android devices.

[@ariel_chess]

Yippie! More touchscreen/mobile "linux" users means better support and more touch-compatible responsive libadwaita apps. I'm so excited, and might consider developing for this tecnology now that it looks more promising

[@mohammedgoder]

This is dope! This would make development so much easier.

[@hilmyakatsuki1665]

No, at current stage linux vm on android is just CLI interface, unless someone try remote desktop the GUI though VNC it's just a terminal emulator. Unless google goes further don't expect the get the same UI/UX from android. Although google provides virtualization framework on android which is already used to run linux VM. Btw, chrome os user LxC/LxD container and inside of it you can run different linux VMs with different VMs which is not the case with android. also from performance point of view it's not the same.

[@scaryifliteral]

www.androidauthority.com/android-linux-terminal-app-3489887/

[@TheRanguna]

> Performance pov is not the same Care to elaborate?

[@hilmyakatsuki1665]

@TheRanguna running Linux using the kernel level acceleration means less emulation parts + less resources usages. Sometimes providing native like performance which is not possible with non kernel level acceleration. Kernel level acceleration is available with chrome but not android

[@TheRanguna]

@@hilmyakatsuki1665 are you sure about that? Some pixels have kvm and Google was experimenting with graphical acceleration already. It's still not fully releases, but I'm hoping it will by mid next year with android 16

[@hilmyakatsuki1665]

@TheRanguna hence I have said at the current situation

[@Damglador]

I find it amusing how Google makes from Linux something completely different (aka ChromeOS and Android) and then makes a VM for running Linux apps on technically a Linux system. Though I guess a VM gives better compatibility and makes the thing easier to implement.

[@deepakkamble3602]

if android is a linux distro then why run linux distribution virtually in android

[@_CrescentMoon]

Android is not a Linux distro, it missing GNU components to be call a distro

[@VitoF95]

Also the kernel is not exactly the same, it is a fork of the Linux kernel

[@nikitf7777]

​@@VitoF95 the kernel is similar enough to make compatibility (at least for console applications, see Termux project)

[@Beryesa.]

It lacks the gnu userspace and tbf with the tech of today it's both easier to implement and more secure this way. Everything will be sandboxed, containerised or at least isolated in the future. And hey android goes forward with KVM so it won't be a big performance penalty for the added completeness!

[@roiborromeo7921]

As someone who loves termux, this will be a good time for Android user that are also devs.

[@zandermcnabb7779]

It’s already here, they had the chrome OS demo on a pixel 7? I believe, and they have got the shared hardware access in VMs all sorted out, and 😅it’s kinda decent (I toyed with nestbox and KVM access on the pixel 6a and 7pro)

[@TheRanguna]

How far did you got with kvm? Does it support accelerated graphics virtualization?

[@suomi422]

Yup, but you are not allowed to use root anyways, so whatever

[@jonnyb1761]

being in a virtual machine makes it much less useful than it seems

[@NyteStalker89]

Useless comment without context and details for anyone not versed in Linux VMs

[@jonnyb1761]

@@NyteStalker89 well basically it means any files within the linux environment dont really interact with the rest of the OS, installed packages, etc. Its just like a little sandbox linux environment unrelated to the actual phone/tablet

[@arthurpizza]

Based on how it works with Chrome OS, I would disagree. Full desktop browsers, Docker, Photo editors, and a full suite of networking tools would be amazing on my Android tablet.

[@RoryEckel]

Have you ever heard of chroot?

[@Skimpily4426]

@@jonnyb1761 I'm quite sure it is going to have an ability to mount directories inside the VM which is much better for security, i.e. no access to the whole disk

[@BakrAli10]

A rare win from Google for android power users? Finally something useful other than the constant restrictions we have got on power features year over year that were upsetting me to the point of contemplating switching to the walled garden of Apple after the EU forced them to open many things! Let's hope it actually makes it into the final release.

[@nikitf7777]

It's not a "power feature", but just a virtual machine.

[@Beryesa.]

As for non-linux nerds, these VMs aren't your slow virtualbox lol, they'll be perfectly fine, it's both easier to implement and more secure this way. 🐧 In the future, everything will be containerised, sandboxed, or at least isolated ✨ and actually, we're almost there today except Windows.

[@doGior]

Do you think this might be first step towards the unification of chrome os and android?

[@photowalkmyworld]

A few comments (might come across as being "that guy", it's not meant to be) You stated on ChromeOS there were "a couple of options" for Linux distros. Officially only Debian is supported. It's called Linux Shell on Chromebook not Linux Terminal On Chromebooks a large number use intel x64 processors, there are ARM based Chromebooks and Linux does run on them, at the time of writing ARM linux apps are not as supported as x64 on Linux (it's getting better quickly) I love Google is doing this, the scenario of a Dex like solution would be most welcome. I love in a dream where I plug my pixel into a hub, a monitor, keyboard and mouse are connected, ChromeOS loads and I've got the Android apps on the phone available in ChromeOS and the Linux Terminal This is a game changer, and most top spec phones have the grunt to do this

[@localblackman427]

I wanna know if it has root access or if it's still sandboxed the exact same with termux and andronix is

[@scaryifliteral]

I would guess this will be sandboxed

[@kaslmineer7999]

you can do that since like 2015 using termux and it still works to this day

[@mf4071]

I have the same GNOME apps and games from Arch that I have on my desktop, on a Chromebook. Google's VM is very seamless and performant.

[@vectoralphaSec]

Hmmm what are some security implications of this though.

[@scaryifliteral]

Theoretically, if everything is sort of walled off in a VM, should be minimal.

[@TheSmokeOfSolidarity]

GNU/Linux is much more secure than android due to how it is structured

[@keith5790]

if that's all possible it would be a game changer 😃

[@mellowcloud6434]

It's always been possible, Android is Linux but with a different page size. Another difference is the standard libraries, but Google already bundles the Linux standard libraries when installing their terminal app. It isn't emulation if the processor can understand the instructions

[@keith5790]

@mellowcloud6434 To my knowledge I've never seen any Android device run GUI apps similarity to normal Android apps from the launcher. Theoretically yeah I know it's possible since Linux, but never seen it done so far.

[@mellowcloud6434]

@@keith5790 I still don't think that's going to happen, Android OS itself would need to implement official support for that. Users can do it though by making an APK generator for Linux "apps", with a loader built-in and a virtual filesystem which is easy. Renderer frameworks like Vulkan aren't supported on some GPUs like the one Google Pixel has been using (hard to proxy), but apps that use OpenGL should work fine out of the box. I was working on a security project for Apple devices, where I needed to use android apple music libraries on it to access some cryptographic functions and I gotta say making a loader is so easy - I got mine to support windows, Linux, and Mac without a sweat, but that's because Android relies soly on what comes with the device. Linux has a more complicated install process with dependencies, usually it doesn't have something an app needs When the Pixel 10 announces, rendering framework compatibility shouldn't be an issue because of the new GPU not being Mali, so by then I wouldn't be surprised if someone starts working on it

[@jimmymichel4]

It's gonna be monstrous with Box86/64 & Wine/Proton !

[@hexisXz]

ChromeOS is Linux… on top of that it already has its own native terminal. Now android is Linux but not as much as chromeOS but it’s still Linux

[@scaryifliteral]

How much Android *is* Linux is debatable.

[@hexisXz]

@ well it’s just a modified Linux kernel. So it’s not debatable because it’s literally just Linux with a bunch of google stuff on it and support for phones but at the core it’s just Linux in disguise.

[@scaryifliteral]

A bunch of Google stuff and virtually zero GNU. The only thing Android has is a modified kernel. If you want to say Android is Linux, I guess you can, but what you're really saying is it has a modified Linux kernel. That's why I said it's debatable.

[@mrme8521]

Once it's working, for me, that will be a game changer.

[@Iron_Condorr]

Is this different then just running Termux or KEX?

[@scaryifliteral]

Yes, it should be more capable/easy.

[@_CrescentMoon]

Termux is not GPU accelerated

[@BakrAli10]

What's KEX?

[@nikitf7777]

Termux is not a virtual machine

[@dinohorseaborus]

I imagine this (coupled with the fairly recent video over usb-c ability for pixel phones) is a direct response to Samsung dex. (Although it will role out to all phones eventually, pixels will have it first obviously

[@KioMilenium]

This could be game changing 🎉

[@phinsxiii]

You can do something like this now with termux on Android.

[@Beryesa.]

Someone could integrate a packagekit backend (or just apt since it'll probably only be debian) to use a store gui like f-droid instead of needing the command line directly 🌟 Though the native app store guis on linux could be easier since they're already adaptive for the mobile form factor 😁

[@Villager_U]

can't wait to run blender on android for real

[@dafoex]

I want to know how they'll handle GUI software on a phone, especially when lots of things are dependant on having a two button mouse and a relatively large screen. There are some phone app-style programmes coming out of GNOME as well as KDE's experimental phone DE, so the GNU Linux world is thinking about phones, but as someone who's played with installing GIMP under Termux I can tell you it's... interesting

[@aryansingh7209]

Good luck getting that on 90% of devices because Chinese OEM would enable this feature.

[@scaryifliteral]

What? lol

[@subugatai7377]

Doesn't Termux do this?

[@arthurpizza]

Termux does a great job, but I think this will have a GUI compatibility layer, and possibly access to the GPU/NPU. Termux also lacks hardware acceleration for virtual machines. If you've ever tried to run Docker on Termux, you would see a lot of the limitations.

[@Ethorbit]

Termux only supports the primary user which is extremely annoying. I hope a native app could improve things.

[@BakrAli10]

​@@Ethorbit what does "only support the primary user" mean? I'm a linux noob.

[@arianetrek7049]

​@@BakrAli10you log into your Linux with a default or primary user. You can create more and change users quite simply, which is useful to manage files and directories permissions for projects, for example, and to ensure decent safety. That means Termux is a single user only.

[@nikitf7777]

Termux is not a virtual machine. It runs executables natively (which is way more interesting and potentially more useful). It even can access root directory and run executables there

[@comosaycomosah]

oh man i hope! i like termux but itd be better if terminal was integrated

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

Wow, it only took 16 years for Google to turn Linux into Linux. Astounding.

[@scaryifliteral]

Cramming multiple bad faith statements into one comment like this is impressive lol. Calling Android Linux is ignoring a lot of detail. It's more complicated than that. No gnu, modified kernel, different environment. Based on a modified Linux kernel is about as far as you can honestly go. "Took 16 years" implies they were working on this the entire time and just had a breakthrough which is obviously silly lol.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

@ excellent analysis of my comment except for the fact you missed it was a tongue in cheek joke, and not a serious statement. I _love_ when I make a joke and then get accused of making “multiple bad faith statements”! 😂

[@scaryifliteral]

I have no idea how anyone would be able to tell that was a joke, especially considering how many "Android is Linux" comments there already are on this video. To me, it just reads like another curmudgeonly everything is bad Internet comment.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

@@scaryifliteral by either being autistic or British, and therefore having a deadpan sense of humour. Though I suppose I do have an unfair advantage, since I’m both.

[@scaryifliteral]

As a fellow ASDer, I get it. If it was indeed just a silly joke then this is just a silly misunderstanding. Apologies for my portion of it.

[@bad65dad]

It's in the new developers on Android 15 beta 2 right now

[@techzone2009]

Kudos to team 👏

[@ulrich-tonmoy]

maybe the only thing we are missing on Android is wine integration

[@BN0FFICIAL]

Hardware accelerated?

[@replikvltyoutube3727]

Termux can be used now, even if native could have a chance to be better in future.

[@scooter5480]

I don't see Samsung getting on board with it since they have Dex

[@Aative]

This isn't the same as dex though. Dex and linux apps would go hand in hand very nicely. I'm hoping that there will be full application support on Android, because imagine running steam on your phone. You could get the full aspect ratio for all your games (both for candy bars and foldables) which would definitely be better than remote desktop solutions being limited to their original display sizes. Now yes there is still the limitation of requiring some kind of input method like a controller, but that's a problem for if this actually happens.

[@localblackman427]

Dex is a launcher. Not an OS. Samsung only wins by supporting this

[@BryanOwens]

Samsung Dex running linux? 🤔

[@cjrobo]

I had a go at Linux on asus chromebox 3 - slow machine. Looked at libra office, set up steam store. No games of interest. My experience was probably poor due to the 1.8ghz processor. Unless there's some niche commercial software a company might use. I don't get it. I doubt phones will become servers with batteries on constant charge. I'd have to be shown lots and lots of use case scenarios to see why android apps aren't easier and sufficient.

[@icollided]

Nice! I might still make a crackBerry because I like clicky buttons.

[@aleksimoose]

Is this not just Termux?

[@zandermcnabb7779]

Reminds me a lot of MaruOS as well for the nexus 5

[@AgavePiper]

What is the whole craze with Linux? Trying to understand if it’s something that I have been missing out on

[@scaryifliteral]

Most people won't really care, but there are many great Linux applications and this could open the door to running them on your phone.

[@_CrescentMoon]

You can install desktop steam, desktop browser and other professional desktop apps on your phone

[@gropatapouf5998]

I wonder if we'll be able to access the Linux files from the core android os When I think about it, Steam is on Linux, will we be able to play Wukong on our phones? 😅

[@Because-Linux]

Im gonna add flatpak and steam and RVNC if needed. Janky, but yay.

[@ar-jaysacay7993]

no surprises for me. they have just the same kernel… im using termux with ubuntu installed to it on my galaxy tab s9. 😂

[@furrypotato]

Android desktop mode and running linux apps would be anninterestikg move by google.

[@vterpko]

Google, if you can hear me, please include cron and GNU utils.

[@mikairu2944]

If only I could actually update my chinese Lenovo P11 tab that straight up does not have an update menu, to android 15

[@TheSmokeOfSolidarity]

You can. You just have to flash the device, but it might run poorly, as android doesn't run well right out of the box especially on older Devices.

[@mikairu2944]

@TheSmokeOfSolidarity flash support for that model is quite paltry I'm afraid. I might be better off selling it as it is and upgrading

[@lule-ahmed]

Ai on the on device 🔥🔥🔥

[@printessmorris3628]

First 🎉 hope your day is great!

[@the_graytest]

It's already possible to run as root user, with the right tweaks. Not very nerdy from you maifren

[@scaryifliteral]

Am I only allowed to talk about things that no one has ever seen before?

[@jierenzheng7670]

There's box64 too

[@redwind3475]

*Laughs in Termux*

[@ILAN12346]

Termux?!?

[@athardavid]

Wowowwwww

[@JohanAdrian]

DAMN!

[@Mehedi-d3f]

4:41 Samsung's phone already does it. It's called dex.

[@scaryifliteral]

Dex does not run full linux applications unless you're calling Android apps full linux apps lol.

[@Mehedi-d3f]

@scaryifliteral my bad