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Windows Android Microsoft Programming IT

Microsoft's 'Project Latte' Aims To Bring Android Apps To Windows 10 (windowscentral.com) 65

Windows Central reports: Microsoft is working on a software solution that would allow app developers to bring their Android apps to Windows 10 with little to no code changes by packaging them as an MSIX and allowing developers to submit them to the Microsoft Store. According to sources familiar with the matter, the project is codenamed 'Latte' and I'm told it could show up as soon as next year. The company has toyed with the idea of bringing Android apps to Windows 10 before via a project codenamed Astoria that never saw the light of day. Project Latte aims to deliver a similar product, and is likely powered by the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL.) Microsoft will need to provide its own Android subsystem for Android apps to actually run, however.

Microsoft has announced that WSL will soon get support for GUI Linux applications, as well as GPU acceleration which should aid the performance of apps running through WSL. It's unlikely that Project Latte will include support for Play Services, as Google doesn't allow Play Services to be installed on anything other than native Android devices and Chrome OS. This means that apps which require Play Services APIs will need to be updated to remove those dependencies before they can be submitted on Windows 10.

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Microsoft's 'Project Latte' Aims To Bring Android Apps To Windows 10

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  • But instead of bringing me Android apps, how about bringing me an actual Latte?

  • Maybe MS does to Google what Google did to Oracle... i.e. clone their API. Replicate the 'Play Services API' (and call it 'Zune Services API' maybe)

    • c.f. microG But yeah Amazon has google-free Fire OS.

      It's probably more a thrust for cross-licensing - MS agrees to distribute Play Store on Windows. Google, via Parallels, includes a copy of Windows on enterprise Chromebooks.

    • Microsoft was right. Linux is cancer. But in a good way.

    • Microsoft already had their own bastardized version of Java once. Why would they take someone else's? They just want to add milk to make a latte.

  • Yeah, ok (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DivineKnight ( 3763507 ) on Friday November 27, 2020 @06:46PM (#60771440)

    How about fixing your f*cking OS first? It takes me several hours to clean the OS after a fresh install, and to get the settings somewhere near where they should be.

    Also, it's 2020 (year of the meteor)...if VS can get a package manager, Windows can get a package manager.

    So tired of installing Paint.net by hand...and yet, I am not willing to use the Windows Store...

    Finally, MS, you need to lead. Stop playing second fiddle to Apple. And f*ck your antitrust rulings...buy Adobe, etc. and integrate that shit into your OS.

    • Check out choco, most apps are on it
    • How about fixing your f*cking OS first? It takes me several hours to clean the OS after a fresh install, and to get the settings somewhere near where they should be.

      It sounds like you have very specific set of needs best met with another OS. Most people in the world just install their OS (or rather they have it installed for them by the OEM) and they just start using it.

      Most MS users don't even spend minutes let alone several hours "cleaning the OS" (what do you use ShamWow! or EazyOff for that?). You remind me of the time I bought a VW Beatle but then had to have it raised, a larger engine put in, a tow hitch attached, replaced the wheels, the gearbox the brakes and f

      • Ah yes, Candy Crush Saga is an app most people need sucking up disk and mind space. Among other things.

        Most 'users' don't spend minutes let alone hours "cleaning the OS" because they say "f*ck this POS, I'm getting a Mac."

        • sucking up disk

          If it's sucking up disk space then I suggest you run Windows 10 on a PC instead of a pocket calculator. As for "mind space", you seem to be someone who obsesses about things that can be trivially ignored. Don't do that, it's not healthy.

          Most 'users' don't spend minutes let alone hours "cleaning the OS" because they say "f*ck this POS, I'm getting a Mac."

          I'm sorry but we have actual data that shows this isn't the case. Please speak with your mouth not your arse.

    • This one works reasonably well: https://chocolatey.org/ [chocolatey.org]
      This is MS's own (very much WIP) version: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-... [microsoft.com]

    • Isn't the Store their equivalent to a package manager? How exactly do you see them as different?

    • by Quarters ( 18322 )

      Microsoft has a Windows package manager in public preview.
      https://docs.microsoft.com/en-... [microsoft.com]

  • by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Friday November 27, 2020 @06:48PM (#60771446)
    Just like I don't want a touchscreen oriented interface on my laptop, I can't see why I would want to run the average app on my laptop.

    I've been running Win10 ever since my Win8 laptop showed the "psst, wanna upgrade to Win10 for FREE" for the 20th time, but this time I was about to click Yes on a dialog box and ended up installing Win10.

    / damn, I'd forgotten about that sneak "upgrade"
    // eff you Microsoft for this BS.
    • by _xeno_ ( 155264 )

      Because Apple is.

      There's a certain logic to this: one of the reasons Apple is moving to their own custom silicon is so you can run iOS apps on macOS. (And, of course, to make it even harder to run non-Apple approved software.) The reason Apple is doing that is because they have a lot of iOS apps but very few people bother supporting macOS because the only people still using macOS these days are iOS developers, mainly because Apple keeps on breaking the software that Mac users depended on.

      By running iOS apps

      • by kriston ( 7886 )

        Having explored a jailbroken iOS devices, I can tell you that MacOS and iOS are very, very similar. The idea that they can be merged is not as far-fetched as people think.

        • Of course they are very similar. A no brainer. iOS is basically a tailored macOS/OS X.
          Just like Linux and Android are very similar, too.

      • Most people I know using Mac are Java developers ... oops.

        Another Apple hater in his rant bubble. Why do you not step back 5 yards, carefully read what you just wrote, shake your head and admit: it is utter bullshit.

    • Microsoft's 1008th attempt at producing a viable OS with apps for mobile devices.

    • Yeah, ill agree that touchscreen on desktop and laptop seems like a fail. We went to the extra expense of shipping a training app on desktop/laptop with touchscreen interface and monitors. 90% of the app consists of clicking on things in 3D space and ... nobody ever used touchscreen over keyboard / mouse. Not even people who never gamed a day in their life.
    • Just like I don't want a touchscreen oriented interface on my laptop

      I don't own a touchscreen. Everything in Windows 10 works just fine without it. What are you doing so differently that your early 2000s era UI knowledge isn't directly transferable? Do you think just because something looks different you're no longer able to click on it?

    • by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      You do realize that this would be an optional feature right?
      If you have no interest in running Android apps on your Windows computer then just don't run them. There may be other Windows users though that might like to be able to run their Android apps in Windows.
      This would be similar to if you don't want to have a laptop with at touchscreen then don't buy a laptop with a touchscreen. Just because you don't want to have a touchscreen doesn't mean that Microsoft should remove all touchscreen controls and opti

  • by kriston ( 7886 ) on Friday November 27, 2020 @08:45PM (#60771714) Homepage Journal

    Did BlueStacks miss an opportunity? They've been doing this for over a decade.

    • by Himmy32 ( 650060 )
      If Microsoft's version is on WSL then it wouldn't be emulated.
  • Windows GPS navigation apps are obsolete (RIP Streets and Trips) and the ability to use Waze or Google Maps or others on a Windows touchscreen notebook could be very useful.

  • I just thought about it for quite some time, and cannot think of a single Android app I'd want to use on my PC or even desktop OS.

    They are all extremely limited, compared to desktop software.

    And I'm saying that as somebody who used scrcpy to display his phone's screen on his desktop for the last month. (The screen was broken, and I waited for the replacement part longer than expected.)

    [Enable adb while you still can, by the way. And learn "adb input" commands, to enter the pin blindly. Also, learn to push a

  • Sure, there's a bunch of VirtualBox-based Android emulators available but they all badly suck in one way or another and waste RAM. If Microsoft make a proper solution, apps like WhatsApp, (proper) Steam Guard, banking software, meter readers, shopping etc. can then all be had from one place without needing a smartphone or tablet. My desktop with this would cover just about every use case I could possibly want, with absolutely no need to refresh crippled pocket computers or pay for a bunch of cloud-based ser
  • Why not just make the final one or two relevant programs on Windows work on Linux too, like Visual Code? I've sat thinking, and I can't think of anything other than that. Nothing really relevant on Windows any longer.

The rule on staying alive as a program manager is to give 'em a number or give 'em a date, but never give 'em both at once.

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