Windows Subsystem for Android Declared Ready for Prime Time (theregister.com) 32
Microsoft has decided the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) -- its offering that runs Android VMs which behave just like another application in Windows -- is sufficiently stable that it can be designated version 1.0 and made available to all. From a report: While it's lovely that Windows can now run Android VMs, Hendrixson's tweet needs a little parsing. The "50,000 apps" he mentions are only available from the Amazon.com app store -- not the larger Google Play digital tat bazaar. Google's apps aren't in the Amazonian store, nor are Microsoft's. I couldn't find Twitter, WhatsApp, Slack, any of the banks I use, or the Australian government apps I need to access services. In fact it's tough work to find apps other than games in the store -- and when a search term does bear fruit it delivers what look like knockoff apps that scream "here be dragons."
Booo boo booo boo beee bee bee bee da nuh da nuh (Score:4, Funny)
Pay but don't use (Score:5, Funny)
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Is there anything on Android (or MacOS) that you would actually want to run on Windows?
There is lots if stuff for Linux, but I can't think of any Android apps... Some games maybe?
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GLM for my Bosch laser tape measure. There was a PC app but that's gone missing.
Re:Pay but don't use (Score:4, Informative)
On a desktop computer, generally no. But on a tablet like the Surface Pro, it can be useful. It's nice to have a tablet that's a real x86 computer and can (when you ditch the rubbish Windows 10S) run normal software pretty well, and at the same time can use it as a normal tablet. Running a few Android apps makes it work quite nicely here, such as Voxer for my parents.
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I'm sure if Microsoft thought it could get away with it, it would implement an iOS subsystem, but of course Apple would sue them into oblivion. Android being an open platform gives them an open door.
At the end of the day, after playing around with Android emulation even on a Windows 10 tablet a few years ago, I decided it really doesn't map well. The apps ran well enough, and I could even play Minecraft PE, but it just didn't feel right, and maybe a better implementation might help, but frankly with the cos
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I can think of ONE. For some reason I can access my bank ONLY through their app. This way I can do it through my desktop with it's benefits.
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TFA says "Windows can now run Android VMs". So the semantics are confusing. I read this as running an Android environment on top of Windows. Capable of running Android apps (or a subset thereof). So the "Android Subsystem" is technically correct. It's the bits and pieces necessary to give yourself an Android UI.
But yeah. Gotta get that "Windows" label out in front. Even if the goal is not to have to look at that turd ever again.
-- "Not having to look at a Windows turd since Linux 1.2.13"
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for Windows 10? (Score:1)
Im interested, but cannot update my computers to Windows 11. Can I do this?
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Then it's going to be Bluestack for everyone else.
Re:for Windows 10? (Score:5, Interesting)
In fact, it does *require* hyper-V. This salient fact, and that WSL2 requires hyper-v also, is lost in translation. On Windows 11 once you enable hyper-V you take a huge hit in terms of virtualization. Hyper-v is a type 1 hypervisor and runs before Windows loads, so Windows and Linux run as siblings on Hyper-V. The downside to Hyper-V is that Microsoft hasn't put any real effort into making it a "consumer" platform so if you enable Hyper-V client utilities on Windows 11 and try to use it for running VMs on Windows, you are stuck with a set of limited resolutions that render via software through RDP. This is a terrible user experience in comparison to hypervisors like Virtualbox.
Virtualbox is a type 2 hypervisor that runs on TOP of Windows, so with Hyper-V enabled it's really doing nested virtualization and it doesn't play well with Hyper-V, resulting in VERY slow performance.
If you want a good user experience with Virtualbox, you either must forgo Hyper-V (and WSL2, WSLg, and WSA) and use Virtualbox on top of vanilla Windows, or stick to Windows 10 (for the best experience) without Hyper-V (Windows 10 doesn't have WSLg or WSA, so you really have no reason to enable Hyper-V).
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If I run a hyper-v console session *not* in enhanced mode it doesn't appear to be a remote-desktop session. e.g. I can change the resolution of the guest machine and the console window resizes. It also supports operating systems e.g. BusyBox that don't speak RDP at all. Am I missing something?
WSLv1 didn't use Hyper-v and i
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Windows emulates the console using RDP by default, at least that's what I found. You can tell it's RDP by the banner controls at the top of the window/screen.
Naming (Score:5, Interesting)
So in short it should have been called Android subsystem for Windows, not the other way around.
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You have to think of it from the point of view of who will benefit in the long run. From now on there's no need for or benefit toto creating applications for Windows. You might as well just create an android app and if some client needs to use it on Windows they always can. This is basically the announcement of the retirement of Microsoft from the operating system development market. Thus "for Android" as in "helps Android".
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Yours is a common sentiment, but it misses the underlying rationale for the nomenclature. This [brianreiter.org] blog post from 2010 helps explain. The short version is that Windows NT was designed to use 3 different Windows Subsystems (userland environments): Win32, OS/2, and POSIX. Hence, any other subsystem (Linux, Android) is a type of "Windows" subsystem.
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Re:Naming (Score:5, Informative)
"Windows Subsystem" is a technical term/phrase within Windows. The two long-reigning subsystems in Windows NT-based OSes are GUI and Console. Every PE32/PE32+ EXE is marked with the relevant subsystem that the EXE is intended to run under. Linux and Android are two relatively new Windows Subsystems within the Microsoft Windows OS.
#define IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_UNKNOWN 0 // Unknown subsystem. // Image doesn’t require a subsystem. // Image runs in the Windows GUI subsystem. // Image runs in the Windows character subsystem. // image runs in the OS/2 character subsystem. // image runs in the Posix character subsystem. // image is a native Win9x driver. // Image runs in the Windows CE subsystem.
#define IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_NATIVE 1
#define IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_GUI 2
#define IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CUI 3
#define IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_OS2_CUI 5
#define IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_POSIX_CUI 7
#define IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_NATIVE_WINDOWS 8
#define IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CE_GUI 9
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What happened to 4 and 6 ? :)
No such numbers. The counting scheme goes: 1, 2, 3, 95, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, 11
Unfortunately it seems there was an unpaid intern on the day when the OS/2 image was added, and no doubt Windows CE will be fixed in an upcoming patch to correct the true Microsoft numbering scheme.
One VM running on another? (Score:2)
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It's turtles, all the way down.
Try the company (Score:2)
How about Windows Subsystem for XYZ (Score:2)
I don't find this especially interesting because you could already run x86 android in a virtual machine if you wanted to run mobile apps on the desktop. Given there is really a lot of interface parity anyway I can't imagine the experience is all the different/inferior.
I also don't see the upside for Microsoft here, as it just means that an ISV that build a killer android only app has no incentive to make a windows version if they can sell it / get subscribers who are Windows users and dont have a android de
Lack of apps in the Amazon store (Score:2)
I wonder how many of these entities who's apps aren't in the Amazon store have been pressured by Google to make those apps only available in the Play store and nowhere else?
Is anyone suing about "last windows" for 10? (Score:2)
Yet another feature I can't use because they arbitrarily set the bar for support so high that I can't afford it (new computer when this one works fine).
Didn't Microsoft's CEO say something about Windows 10 will be the last Windows you need to buy? I'm sure they realized the issue there. After everyone pays once, they're done. And you keep supporting it.