Android-x86 4.4 RC2 Released

[caligula]

I don't see the point to use a mobile oriented OS under a desktop machine.

Android also comes with a modern high DPI capable desktop for HTPC use. It's really power efficient and powerful (due to the mobile history -- mobile devices use less power and need high level of optimization). It also supports touch and bluetooth and multichannel home theatre audio. Desktop Linux doesn't have good UI for setting up Bluetooth.

[BSDude]

I don't see the point to use a mobile oriented OS under a desktop machine.

x86 hasn't been a desktop architecture for a long time now. Don't forget that atom CPUs can be found now in Dell and Asus tablets. And guess what OS is the Dell Venue 7 running on? Have a look: http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-7/pd?~ck=mn

[sarmad]

I see the point to running Android apps alongside regular Linux apps.
(even if the apps are in a VM)

Can you run Android apps on Linux seamlessly through a VM, i.e. without having the Android UI itself, just the app on your own distro's background?

[BSDude]

Can you run Android apps on Linux seamlessly through a VM, i.e. without having the Android UI itself, just the app on your own distro's background?

It's like asking "can I run GTK based applications without the GTK interface." You probably can run the application without the Android UI in CLI depending on what type of application it is.

[sireangelus]

x86 hasn't been a desktop architecture for a long time now. Don't forget that atom CPUs can be found now in Dell and Asus tablets. And guess what OS is the Dell Venue 7 running on? Have a look: http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-7/pd?~ck=mn

what are you talking about? Every intel and amd processor is an x86. How is that not a desktop architecture? do you mean you have a powerpc/arm desktop? Because i ain't selling them in my shop, all i sell in my computer shop are x86 laptops/desktops .

[sireangelus]

It's like asking "can I run GTK based applications without the GTK interface." You probably can run the application without the Android UI in CLI depending on what type of application it is.

the right answer to this one is " can i use a gtk based app without having to run a gtk desktop manager"

[Temar]

It's like asking "can I run GTK based applications without the GTK interface." You probably can run the application without the Android UI in CLI depending on what type of application it is.

I don't think sarmad's question was unreasonable. Android is basically just the Dalvik Virtual Machine, a Java API, a Kernel API and the Bionic libc.

It would be an insane amount of work but it should be possible to draw into an X11 window and reimplement parts of the Android API to integrate with your desktop environment. Android applications could run in some kind of chroot environment similar to what Wine does with Windows applications.

It would be really cool if you could run Android apps as Plasma widgets on a KDE desktop.

[BSDude]

what are you talking about? Every intel and amd processor is an x86. How is that not a desktop architecture? do you mean you have a powerpc/arm desktop? Because i ain't selling them in my shop, all i sell in my computer shop are x86 laptops/desktops .

It seems you have misunderstood me and I my wording hasn't been the best. x86 is not a desktop _only_ architecture any-more. Atom aims for the embedded/mobile market whilst Xeon the Server market. Core i's, Pentium and Celeron are for the desktop/laptop. But I have to say that the line between Atom and Core is a bit blurred.