Google is Experimenting With Running Chrome OS on Android (androidauthority.com) 23
An anonymous reader shares a report: At a privately held event, Google recently demonstrated a special build of Chromium OS -- code-named "ferrochrome" -- running in a virtual machine on a Pixel 8. However, Chromium OS wasn't shown running on the phone's screen itself. Rather, it was projected to an external display, which is possible because Google recently enabled display output on its Pixel 8 series. Time will tell if Google is thinking of positioning Chrome OS as a platform for its desktop mode ambitions and Samsung DeX rival.
There have been previous attempts... (Score:2)
...at running Linux on phone hardware. It seems odd that none of the attempts have really worked, at least, not well enough to gain any traction. Phone hardware is plenty capable. You need a few special drivers for the hardware, but those should adapt easily enough.
I would much rather have a Debian-phone than a Chrome-phone.
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...at running Linux on phone hardware. It seems odd that none of the attempts have really worked, at least, not well enough to gain any traction. Phone hardware is plenty capable. You need a few special drivers for the hardware, but those should adapt easily enough.
I would much rather have a Debian-phone than a Chrome-phone.
I haven't had much luck with Mobian but Ubuntu Touch was pretty fantastic when accounting for the fairly low powered hardware of the Pixel 3A. It's about as close as I've found.
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It's a shame Intel Atom never could make it as a viable x86 phone CPU platform Intel was trying to make it. The concept of my mobile phone being driver and function compatible with a PC could have opened up way more options. A phone with a "standard" UEFI would let any Linux distros potentially target mobile platforms in a serious manner.
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> none of the attempts have really worked,
Userland [google.com] has 1M+ installs.
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This is still an "Android" phone.
It just runs Chrome in a VM,
Debian running bare-metal as the phone's OS - Mobian and other derivatives.
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Chrome is Linux.
Android is Linux.
iOS/iPadOS etc. is: BSD unix.
Should have done this day 1 (Score:2)
Chrome OS and Android started life as different things and Google has been struggling ever since to try and unify them. Absolutely nuts idea. What should have happened is Android for Desktop - basically allowing Android apps to function well on a windowed desktop with a keyboard & mouse with an SDK for apps designed for Windows / Linux to be ported over and run alongside with relative ease.
Re:Should have done this day 1 (Score:4, Insightful)
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And yet Java still exists...
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You're proving his point, though.
"Sucks at everything"
Can you write good Java code? Absolutely.
Does anyone write good Java code? Absolutely not - not if they're using java libraries.
Re: Should have done this day 1 (Score:2)
Java is more like "write once, suck everywhere".
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This is a bizarre argument. Java has plenty of issues, but being able to take a jar file built on one platform and run it on another without changing anything is not one of them.
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No it's nothing to do with "one size fits all" which is a complete red herring and a nonsense. Nobody said things have to look the same or not adjust depending on the device they're running on. Android already sets the app view based on criteria like screen orientation, density, resolution etc. and could do so for desktop. The same app could have a compact phone view and a full blown desktop view if devs wanted it.
A desktop android is just Android with a multi-windowed launcher, some utilities like a file e
Awesome! (Score:2)
Now you can run your app in a browser running in Linux, running in a VM under Linux!
Don't worry, if you don't have an Android phone you'll be able to run apps in a browser running in Linux in a VM under Linux in an emulator on your desktop or laptop. Probably best to run the emulator under Linux.
Why 2 OSes again? (Score:2)
Android could easily run on a Chromebook, and Chrome OS could be ported to run on a phone. At one point, it seemed logical that everything could just be a web "app" on Chrome. But now, Google seems intent on adding more traditional hardware services to Chrome OS. The functionalities seem to be slowly converging. Did they really need 2 OSes?
Samsung DEX (Score:2)
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Funny. I used it as my primary 'desktop' OS on my last (always-working) vacation.
Connected it to the TV in the resort, and used a BT keyboard and mouse to do everything I needed - email, web browsing, SSH, VNC, and Wireguard.
Worked great. Didn't need my laptop.
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Was that the 'Linux' environment on Dex, or just 'desktop' Android?
Currently on vacation, with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard connected to an Android 9 tablet (no DeX)
Android is functional enough except that the OS/apps don't use keyboard shortcuts or properly trap mouse events, e.g.
- mouse wheel crolling doesn't always work
- right click is bound to "back" so contextual menus don't work
- some apps only work well in portrait and not landscape
- touch events such as swipe aren't great with a mouse,
I find myse
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It was normal Dex.
I loved Linux on Dex, but Samsung killed it. Bass-turds couldn't just release it to the community