35 ms·

RemixOS – Android for the desktop

380 points by xearl 11y ago

pearjuice 11y ago
Android barely works on smartphones.
- ConAntonakos 11y ago
  Come on...
cstross 11y ago
Ironically, if this was available on the Google Pixel C it'd be a compelling option. (The Pixel C runs Android 6 with no multi-window/multi-app on-screen capability, which somewhat defeats the object of having such a device -- one that with a more comprehensive OS would be a potential Surface competitor. And indeed the Pixel C looks like it was originally designed for ChromeOS.)
solotronics 11y ago
This is really cool. What is the target audience? I have been thinking of making a custom in car computer and this seems better than a linux distro for that purpose.
- iokanuon 11y ago
  >Disclaimer: Remix OS is only licensed to authorized business partners and pre-loaded on specific product models of those partners;it's not intended for personal use. Source: http://www.jide.com/en/partnerships http://www.jide.com/en/partnerships
  - dizzyviolet 11y ago
    Available in 5 days for download for anyone to use at jide.com
- lovelearning 11y ago
  If you want Android, one option you can look at is using an SBC like the Odroid C1+ or XU4 which can run Android and connect to an external screen. See [1] page 6. [1]: http://magazine.odroid.com/wp-content/uploads/ODROID-Magazine-201506.pdf http://magazine.odroid.com/wp-content/uploads/ODROID-Magazin...
rubyn00bie 11y ago
Awesome. This sort of thing is what makes me hopeful for a Linux desktop one day-- that I actually enjoy using. I'm really excited to give this a try. Does anyone know where to download or when it'll be available? Doesn't seem to be available yet?
- fatlasp 11y ago
  Looks like it's available on their custom hardware, but not as software only. From the bottom of the page: Disclaimer: Remix OS is only licensed to authorized business partners and pre-loaded on specific product models of those partners;it's not intended for personal use.
- quaz3l 11y ago
  According to the links in the top bar "Remix OS for PC" [0] is coming in mid-January. [0]: http://www.jide.com/en/remixos-for-pc http://www.jide.com/en/remixos-for-pc Edit: apparently this will include windows and mac, so assuming it's going to be like a normal distro.
- ocdtrekkie 11y ago
  It looks like it's available to flash on some Nexus devices, and their own tablet is shipping within the next month or so: http://www.jide.com/en/remixos/devices http://www.jide.com/en/remixos/devices
  - michaelmior 11y ago
    While I'm skeptical about using RemiXOS on a desktop machine, the tablet looks really nice.
- lazaroclapp 11y ago
  You can always try it on their own desktop hardware, which is pretty cheap: http://www.jide.com/en/mini http://www.jide.com/en/mini I have no idea how open it is to modification in practice, though. I might consider trying it if I can get a proper shell on it (similar to the Android shell you get in an emulator when using 'adb shell'), even if I cannot fork their DE code itself.
ocdtrekkie 11y ago
I feel like this is what Android would be today if not for Sundar Pichai killing off Android's laptop project in order to protect Chrome OS. The janky methodology of having Chrome OS run some Android apps is silly, when this could've been Google's path.
- bobajeff 11y ago
  "if not for Sundar Pichai killing off Android's laptop project" This is the first I'm hearing of this. Do you happen to know what the project was called or anything more specific that I might be able to look up?
  - ocdtrekkie 11y ago
    Not any sort of name, but an article on Sundar specifically cited that it was one of his early moves after taking over Android. I can dig up the source if you want it, but there's not a lot of additional info there, unfortunately.
    - ocdtrekkie 11y ago
      http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-06-24/googles-sundar-pichai-king-of-android-master-of-mobile-profile#p4 http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-06-24/googles-sund... "And Pichai killed a project to develop a version of Android for touchscreen laptops—it overlapped with Chromebooks—shifting attention toward tablets and new categories such as smart TVs and wearable computers."
      - bobajeff 11y ago
        Thanks. The reasoning wasn't terribly sound. (Android and Chrome OS overlap regardless of the target hardware). But from a branding perspective it makes sense to distance a immature product from a widely popular product. (Obviously that wasn't the idea though since Android Auto, Android TV, Android Wear) I can also see why they wouldn't want to kill off Chrome OS since it allows them to experiment with a diverging set of strengths and features that Android might not be conducive toward. Those strengths could be leveraged in their other products especially Android.
iokanuon 11y ago
Will it be open source? "Free for licensing" isn't quite clear. Will anyone by able to license access to the source code for free? If yes, what about forking? EDIT: Okay, this isn't what I've hoped for: >Disclaimer: Remix OS is only licensed to authorized business partners and pre-loaded on specific product models of those partners;it's not intended for personal use.
- YngwieMalware 11y ago
  yeah this is not great. moving right along...
  - serge2k 11y ago
    yeah, it looks like a nice product from the pictures but oh well. "Right click" is a feature. That makes sense but I still find it funny.
  - keithpeter 11y ago
    Early adopters in organisations are important. An .iso you can download gets you those without the 'corporate communications' problems you get when you have to fill out a form, use language like 'licencing' and then get the official IT department to install stuff.
    - YngwieMalware 11y ago
      i would early adopt the heck out of this in a VM but they had to get all weird about it. not interesting at all in 2016
      - ris 11y ago
        I suspect it largely doesn't exist yet. Keep in mind all you see are probably mockups.
- xearl 11y ago
  It seems that "Remix OS for PC" will be at least "free to use": > "With that in mind, Remix OS for PC is free to download, free to install, and free to use." No idea about open source, though.
mariusmg 11y ago
Yeah, that's what you need on a desktop. A OS designed for "touch" with "innovative features" (which features were standard on a desktop 25 years ago). The UI looks like a uglier clone of ChromeOS.
- zouhair 11y ago
  Now imagine you have a Surface Pro of some sort.
- fuzzywalrus 11y ago
  Years ago I installed a mouse driver for iOS on a jailbroken iPad 2 on iOS 6, it more or less worked for most applications that didn't require two finger gestures. I was able to paint with Brushes and such. It wasn't a pleasant experience but I was just tinkering to see what it'd be like. If you like big huge icons, zooming when highlighting, and having to occasionally touch your screen, I suppose it was good. I can't imagine its about being a viable desktop OS more than push the envelope of Android.
rhodin 11y ago
Will it run on a phone so that I can connect a monitor to the phone and use it as a desktop OS, and then disconnect and use it as a phone OS?
- dharma1 11y ago
  this will - https://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/10/20/ubuntus-path-to-convergence/ https://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/10/20/ubuntus-path-to-conve...
  - carussell 11y ago
    The problem with Canonical is that it looks like they started working from the wrong end of the stick. So long as you make it to your pre-defined convergence point, what does it matter if you start with Ubuntu and try to evolve it towards mobile, or start with Android and work the other way? The difference is that if they'd taken the latter approach, they could've probably already reached it by now. Instead, they set themselves up to fight an uphill battle, alone, and get bogged down with a bunch of diversions wrt to Unity and Mir and systemd, which, in the grand scheme of things, should have only appeared as pit stops along the way. It's silly.
nextos 11y ago
As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too foreign. I would prefer less app-ification, less stores, more package management. And no mothership, no Google.
- Someone1234 11y ago
  I cannot help but wonder if "apps" aren't going to eventually replace package managers. That's certainly what Docker-like containers try to do. It might sound crazy when you consider some of the services typically installed with a package manager but ultimately there's no reason why an "app" cannot run in root, many root packages aren't actually installing drivers, they're only root for historical reasons (e.g. being able to read/write to /etc). Why, for example, couldn't a web server be an app? Or a DNS client? Or a DNS server? Sure, there are certain system services which cannot (anything installing drivers/filter drivers/core UI/sound subsystem/graphics subsystem) but MOST things can.
  - nextos 11y ago
    I'm certain containers will end up replacing package managers. This idea is being pushed by the systemd guys. I think its a step backwards, as you loose tight control over dependencies. E.g., in case of a security issue, one cannot easily patch all containers if they are blackboxes. IMHO, the right tool for this is an improved package manager such as Nix or Guix (which incidentally also support containers in their own way). Perhaps the future should be a Nix-like package manager for dependency management, and container-ization for security and resource limits.
    - amazari 11y ago
      Well, at least xdg-app has the concept of "runtimes" shared among applications. If a lib/bin in a runtime has a security issued, the whole runtime might be updated. Transparently for the apps running over it. A runtime might be FreeDesktop-1, Gnome-3.14 for example. Lets say a 0day is discovered and patched in gtk 3.14, a new version of the Gnome-3.14 is issued and dl by the clients. Magically (with the help of overlayfs and co) all the apps depending on this specific runtime have a secure gtk.
fuddle 11y ago
Not bad for the price tag - $69.99
SmokyBorbon 11y ago
Can you run it in a VM? Would be nice to have Android apps on a PC without that shitty BlueStacks.
staunch 11y ago
I want regular Linux on my phone, not Java Linux on my desktop.
- dharma1 11y ago
  http://www.ubuntu.com/phone http://www.ubuntu.com/phone
  - jmnicolas 11y ago
    Isn't Ubuntu Phone using an Android kernel though ?
    - dharma1 11y ago
      Yes Android kernel, with some patches. These links might be useful: https://sturmflut.github.io/ubuntu/bq/2015/07/02/hacking-the-bq-part-4-building-and-booting-a-kernel/ https://sturmflut.github.io/ubuntu/bq/2015/07/02/hacking-the... https://github.com/bq/aquaris-E4.5/tree/aquaris-E4.5-ubuntu-master https://github.com/bq/aquaris-E4.5/tree/aquaris-E4.5-ubuntu-...
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  Help out with libhybris then or one of its downstream projects.
- carussell 11y ago
  Why? Serious question. And what do you mean by "Linux"? Would GNU coreutils and a terminal be sufficient, or is there something else you need?
  - pixelbeat 11y ago
    Yes something like termux might be a sufficient addition to "android". Note a standard GNU coreutils build is about 15M, though one can configure to use a multi-call binary like busybox, reducing the install size to about 1M. See the coreutils-single subpackage in Fedora rawhide for example: http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/rpms/coreutils.git/commit/?id=fb9bc470 http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/rpms/coreutils.git/commit...
daveloyall 11y ago
The licensing seems to make this a non-starter. But let's suppose they must fix that. (This is pretty clearly a derived product...?) We'll need a proper ARM desktop... How about one based on AMD's A1100? :)
- sowbug 11y ago
  By "derived product" do you mean an obligation to open-source? If yes, there isn't any: Android is licensed Apache 2.0. https://source.android.com/source/licenses.html https://source.android.com/source/licenses.html
  - frik 11y ago
    Read the first sentence: "The Android Open Source Project uses a few open source initiative approved open source licenses for our software" Android is based on a fork of the Linux kernel which is GNU GPL v2. RemixOS should release their code, it contains several GNU GPL parts.
    - hollerith 11y ago
      That's not how that GPL works. To be precise, although there might be a (very small) chance that a court has found or will find that software running in user space is a derived work of the kernel, that finding would not apply to Linux's user space because Linus declared (in the 1990s) that the conditions of Linux's license do not apply to user space. Tivo was one of the first owners of proprietary software to test this area of the law: their devices ran Linux, but they never had to publish the source code for the software on their devices that ran in user space. The distributors of RemixOS would have to publish the source code to any changes they make to the kernel itself, but someone else in the comments says they have made none.
Fastidious 11y ago
This is very nice, and priced just right. Could easily replace the desktop of just about everyone in my family.
- davidcollantes 11y ago
  Indeed. The device covers the needs of half of the faculty at my college. Their version of Android looks very polished.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
mtgx 11y ago
Google could - and certainly has (even with the latest Pixel C) - do much worse than RemixOS for the desktop. If they can't come up with any other way to make Android look good on the desktop, it should at least acquire RemixOS and go from there. I'm not a fan of the whole "Android apps inside Chrome OS" idea - it seems like a very roundabout and complex way to achieve what Android already can by itself - run over a million Android apps. However, if it does make an Android Wear-like Android for PCs, I do think Google should retain all control, so it can update Android for PCs just as easily as it can do with ChromeOS (or as Microsoft can do with Windows). Google should in no way repeat the update failure of Android on smartphones.
- efes 11y ago
  I would rather slowly move everything to ChromeOS and abandon android. I find it ridiculous that I am running an OS from Google with a broken mobile browser. I also find it more likely that the ChromeOS model could remain secure despite the contents of the play store than the Android "we aren't quite sure what we meant to do here" model.
RivieraKid 11y ago
Well I'm sceptical you can make a good desktop OS by modifying Android. Major desktop OSs (including their ecosystems!) have been developed for decades, there's a lot of depth in their functionality, flexibility, different use cases. Two of the main issues are that apps designed for Android touch devices suck on desktop and that the Android SDK is very limited compared to what deskop OSs offer. Don't get me wrong, I also think that current desktop OSs suck - it's just that Android-as-a-desktop is not the solution.
- 0xFFC 11y ago
  About the sdk point I completely agree. Unless you want somewhat shallow os There is no way for Android sdk to compete with real world desktop os. By shallow I mean something which don't have much functionality. This is not absolutely bad thing.yes most of powey users will not use that ,but for people who want to chat, browse, and use Skype this is not a bad this.but the point is these kind of users already leaving desktop after tablets/phone revolution.
  - thecupisblue 11y ago
    It's exactly for those users. Android is easy to maintain and hard to fuck up for the regular user, which is what everyone does with any and all Windows PCs. And you can't just get a grandma to use Linux.
- pier25 11y ago
  I agree, but if you consider the success of Chrome OS it's clear that for a lot of users a simple OS is more than enough for their computing needs.
jadengore 11y ago
It seems like a good idea, but of course its not running the latest version of Android. Most of the problems with Android stem from security updates not reaching devices in a timely manner, and RemixOS is just another example of a skin that is behind. Most devices are only on RemixOS 1.5, which is Android 5.0.2.
lnanek2 11y ago
This link has more info: http://www.xda-developers.com/jide-announce-multi-window-android-for-pc-and-mac/ http://www.xda-developers.com/jide-announce-multi-window-and... > Today’s public release of Remix OS, based on Android x86, is something that we’ve been working towards since we founded Jide Technology in 2014 So it's a commercial fork of the Android x86 project, basically.
zouhair 11y ago
Their tablet looks nice too.
- livejamie 11y ago
  It's not very powerful, but pretty nice entry-level machine.
henryscala 11y ago
I like the idea. If developing android app using multiple programming languages is also capable in this OS, it would be more exciting.
- bcook 11y ago
  RemixOS supports apps from the Play Store.
supercoder 11y ago
Why would I want this when I can just use OSX on the desktop ?
- Fastidious 11y ago
  It will run on hardware other than Apple, for those who do not own an Apple computer. It will be "always on", similar to iOS. If you use Android on your phone, you will feel right at home.
- skrowl 11y ago
  One big reason, at least for me: Because OS X is the least secure desktop OS - http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/31/software-with-the-most-vulnerabilities-in-2015-mac-os-x-ios-and-flash/ http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/31/software-with-the-most-vul... I also enjoy the openness of Android and the fact that it works on a large variety of hardware. In all seriousness though, if this works as well as their little launch video show it working, 2016 could REALLY be the year of desktop linux. 'This year / next year is the year of desktop linux!' is a long running joke, but this could really be it.
  - supercoder 11y ago
    That's like saying I'd rather eat shit for breakfast because it's possible to get food poisoning from eggs.
RamenJunkie_ 11y ago
I have the Remix PC from the Kickstarter. It's basically a Raspberry Pi sized PC (in a case) that runs Remix OS. Honestly, I rather like it though I have not used it a ton. I got the most use out of it when I was traveling for work a few months back, I took it with me to the hotel and hooked it to the TV and got my first real use out of it. As for why I have not used it a ton, the HDMI out on it doesn't support my "Dumb cable" HDMI to DVI cable. So I have to hook it to a TV to use it, HDMI to HDMI, which is annoying at best. If I could hook it to a regular PC monitor on my desk I'd probably use it pretty regularly as a secondary machine. Most of the apps I tried on it worked fine, Netflix, TuneIn Radio, Amazon Music, Hearthstone, Fallout Shelter. It hooks to your Google Play account so you get all the apps you already have purchased there.
- ocdtrekkie 11y ago
  Quite a large number of "regular PC monitors" these days ship with HDMI ports, as many desktop PCs have HDMI as well. You can usually find a decent monitor for about $99 with an HDMI port.
RRRA 11y ago
I'd rather see the web evolve even further and make "apps" irrelevant and have a desktop OS on my phone, that respect my privacy, rather than the other way around... And FOSS!
tobbyb 11y ago
I think the potential for the Android desktop is huge, and can threaten Intel in a serious way. Look at the Amazon Fire TV equipped with a Mediatek 64 bit quad core A72 + A53 SoC. The same SoC is scheduled to be in Chromebooks shortly. This tiny 4 inch by 1 inch box can play 4k at 30fps, provide super fast internet browsing, Facebook, Youtube, Office apps, video conferencing and play Android 3D titles well. And it costs 64 Pounds or 90 USD! It geekbenches 1600/3500 which is pretty respectable compared to an Intel i3 which retails for around $150 just for the CPU. Why spend anything more for grandma's, mum's or a just a general PC. It also has good support for Kodi so no need for expensive HTPCs. So here is a 60 GBP device doing a of lot of thing a traditional basic PC or laptop does at a fraction of the price, power, noise and size! This is disruptive. The only thing holding it back is the absence of proper desktop support in Android and the relatively closed nature especially GPU of the Arm ecosystem. Also the PC ecosystem is accustomed to a much more open hardware and software playing field, and the driver scenario for ARM and Google's control of Android itself can be problematic. Android is currently completely touch oriented and even though you can attach a keyboard and mouse, as the recent Ars review highlights [1] there are quite a few rough edges. Remix OS is a step in that direction but it appears some of the issues are serious enough that only Google can address. A better situation is ARM being more open, Linux is already well supported on ARM so if it opens up the drivers in good faith without the back and forth of licensor and licensee that open source developers deal with, desktop need not depend just on Android. [1] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/12/android-on-the-desktop-not-really-good-but-better-than-youd-think/2/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/12/android-on-the-deskto...
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- lqdc13 11y ago
  Why would grandma want a desktop instead of a chromebook? And why would a poweruser or a gamer want an underpowered PC? This might be good for intermediate/casual/netbook users though or those who do computing on some remote machine.
  - emidln 11y ago
gosukiwi 11y ago
Interesting. I doubt this can be used as a development environment yet though.
yalogin 11y ago
Can I run in this in a VM? That would be the easiest way for me to try this. I don't want to buy new hardware to try the OS.
- Sujan 11y ago
  Site says you can boot it from an USB stick. So should work in a VM, too.
zer0zzz 11y ago
Why isn't anyone talking about how the hardware for their ultra tablet is literally the Surface 2? Did they get a bunch of unsold inventory or did they just have manufacturing rights to the design?
- pussinboots 11y ago
  probably leftover inventory still interesting that this kind of a deal took place with m$ involved
- bmaupin 11y ago
  Not only that, it's cheaper: $300 for the Remix Ultratablet (64 GB) and $350 for the equivalent Surface 2 on Amazon.
  - zer0zzz 11y ago
    Yeah and sadly ms totally screwed up with rt when they had no available porting strategy for real applications to arm. And now rt is basically on life support and the rt devices have locked down bootloaders as far as I've heard which makes them kind of an even worse investment as far as buying a device goes.
leke 11y ago
I'm disappointed there is no download available. This news seems a little premature.
- pbhjpbhj 11y ago
  I'm surprised they didn't have a download reminder option - they must have noticed a traffic spike. There's not even a part that says "download is not yet available" which is annoying; perhaps they want people to search the site for the download though, maybe that's good for them somehow.
printhellonerd 11y ago
Where is the downloading link of the OS for PC?
- arthurfm 11y ago
  There isn't one. Remix OS 2.0 is due to be released on 12th January 2016 [1]. [1] http://www.xda-developers.com/jide-announce-multi-window-android-for-pc-and-mac/ http://www.xda-developers.com/jide-announce-multi-window-and...
osoti 11y ago
Most expensive items in the worls...Its amazing http://goo.gl/fjsRrp http://goo.gl/fjsRrp
Aandre 11y ago
High paying,low stress jobs http://goo.gl/QThkna http://goo.gl/QThkna
gdamjan1 11y ago
So basically, as I see it, RemixOS is a "window manager" and a custom launcher (with their notifications) for Android ?
jakhead 11y ago
A Core i7 outperformed a Samsung Galaxy. Fascinating...
drakmail 11y ago
How I could left email for further notifications about RemixOS status? It seems very interesting OS for me :)
cJ0th 11y ago
2016 - Year of the Android Desktop ;)

380 points by xearl 11y ago

pearjuice 11y ago

Android barely works on smartphones.

ConAntonakos 11y ago
Come on...

cstross 11y ago

Ironically, if this was available on the Google Pixel C it'd be a compelling option. (The Pixel C runs Android 6 with no multi-window/multi-app on-screen capability, which somewhat defeats the object of having such a device -- one that with a more comprehensive OS would be a potential Surface competitor. And indeed the Pixel C looks like it was originally designed for ChromeOS.)

solotronics 11y ago

This is really cool. What is the target audience? I have been thinking of making a custom in car computer and this seems better than a linux distro for that purpose.

iokanuon 11y ago
>Disclaimer: Remix OS is only licensed to authorized business partners and pre-loaded on specific product models of those partners;it's not intended for personal use. Source: http://www.jide.com/en/partnerships http://www.jide.com/en/partnerships
- dizzyviolet 11y ago
  Available in 5 days for download for anyone to use at jide.com
lovelearning 11y ago
If you want Android, one option you can look at is using an SBC like the Odroid C1+ or XU4 which can run Android and connect to an external screen. See [1] page 6. [1]: http://magazine.odroid.com/wp-content/uploads/ODROID-Magazine-201506.pdf http://magazine.odroid.com/wp-content/uploads/ODROID-Magazin...

rubyn00bie 11y ago

Awesome. This sort of thing is what makes me hopeful for a Linux desktop one day-- that I actually enjoy using. I'm really excited to give this a try. Does anyone know where to download or when it'll be available? Doesn't seem to be available yet?

fatlasp 11y ago
Looks like it's available on their custom hardware, but not as software only. From the bottom of the page: Disclaimer: Remix OS is only licensed to authorized business partners and pre-loaded on specific product models of those partners;it's not intended for personal use.
quaz3l 11y ago
According to the links in the top bar "Remix OS for PC" [0] is coming in mid-January. [0]: http://www.jide.com/en/remixos-for-pc http://www.jide.com/en/remixos-for-pc Edit: apparently this will include windows and mac, so assuming it's going to be like a normal distro.
ocdtrekkie 11y ago
It looks like it's available to flash on some Nexus devices, and their own tablet is shipping within the next month or so: http://www.jide.com/en/remixos/devices http://www.jide.com/en/remixos/devices
- michaelmior 11y ago
  While I'm skeptical about using RemiXOS on a desktop machine, the tablet looks really nice.
lazaroclapp 11y ago
You can always try it on their own desktop hardware, which is pretty cheap: http://www.jide.com/en/mini http://www.jide.com/en/mini I have no idea how open it is to modification in practice, though. I might consider trying it if I can get a proper shell on it (similar to the Android shell you get in an emulator when using 'adb shell'), even if I cannot fork their DE code itself.

ocdtrekkie 11y ago

I feel like this is what Android would be today if not for Sundar Pichai killing off Android's laptop project in order to protect Chrome OS. The janky methodology of having Chrome OS run some Android apps is silly, when this could've been Google's path.

bobajeff 11y ago
"if not for Sundar Pichai killing off Android's laptop project" This is the first I'm hearing of this. Do you happen to know what the project was called or anything more specific that I might be able to look up?
- ocdtrekkie 11y ago
  Not any sort of name, but an article on Sundar specifically cited that it was one of his early moves after taking over Android. I can dig up the source if you want it, but there's not a lot of additional info there, unfortunately.
  - ocdtrekkie 11y ago
    http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-06-24/googles-sundar-pichai-king-of-android-master-of-mobile-profile#p4 http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-06-24/googles-sund... "And Pichai killed a project to develop a version of Android for touchscreen laptops—it overlapped with Chromebooks—shifting attention toward tablets and new categories such as smart TVs and wearable computers."
    - bobajeff 11y ago
      Thanks. The reasoning wasn't terribly sound. (Android and Chrome OS overlap regardless of the target hardware). But from a branding perspective it makes sense to distance a immature product from a widely popular product. (Obviously that wasn't the idea though since Android Auto, Android TV, Android Wear) I can also see why they wouldn't want to kill off Chrome OS since it allows them to experiment with a diverging set of strengths and features that Android might not be conducive toward. Those strengths could be leveraged in their other products especially Android.

iokanuon 11y ago

Will it be open source? "Free for licensing" isn't quite clear. Will anyone by able to license access to the source code for free? If yes, what about forking? EDIT: Okay, this isn't what I've hoped for: >Disclaimer: Remix OS is only licensed to authorized business partners and pre-loaded on specific product models of those partners;it's not intended for personal use.

YngwieMalware 11y ago
yeah this is not great. moving right along...
- serge2k 11y ago
  yeah, it looks like a nice product from the pictures but oh well. "Right click" is a feature. That makes sense but I still find it funny.
- keithpeter 11y ago
  Early adopters in organisations are important. An .iso you can download gets you those without the 'corporate communications' problems you get when you have to fill out a form, use language like 'licencing' and then get the official IT department to install stuff.
  - YngwieMalware 11y ago
    i would early adopt the heck out of this in a VM but they had to get all weird about it. not interesting at all in 2016
    - ris 11y ago
      I suspect it largely doesn't exist yet. Keep in mind all you see are probably mockups.
xearl 11y ago
It seems that "Remix OS for PC" will be at least "free to use": > "With that in mind, Remix OS for PC is free to download, free to install, and free to use." No idea about open source, though.

mariusmg 11y ago

Yeah, that's what you need on a desktop. A OS designed for "touch" with "innovative features" (which features were standard on a desktop 25 years ago). The UI looks like a uglier clone of ChromeOS.

zouhair 11y ago
Now imagine you have a Surface Pro of some sort.
fuzzywalrus 11y ago
Years ago I installed a mouse driver for iOS on a jailbroken iPad 2 on iOS 6, it more or less worked for most applications that didn't require two finger gestures. I was able to paint with Brushes and such. It wasn't a pleasant experience but I was just tinkering to see what it'd be like. If you like big huge icons, zooming when highlighting, and having to occasionally touch your screen, I suppose it was good. I can't imagine its about being a viable desktop OS more than push the envelope of Android.

rhodin 11y ago

Will it run on a phone so that I can connect a monitor to the phone and use it as a desktop OS, and then disconnect and use it as a phone OS?

dharma1 11y ago
this will - https://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/10/20/ubuntus-path-to-convergence/ https://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/10/20/ubuntus-path-to-conve...
- carussell 11y ago
  The problem with Canonical is that it looks like they started working from the wrong end of the stick. So long as you make it to your pre-defined convergence point, what does it matter if you start with Ubuntu and try to evolve it towards mobile, or start with Android and work the other way? The difference is that if they'd taken the latter approach, they could've probably already reached it by now. Instead, they set themselves up to fight an uphill battle, alone, and get bogged down with a bunch of diversions wrt to Unity and Mir and systemd, which, in the grand scheme of things, should have only appeared as pit stops along the way. It's silly.

nextos 11y ago

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too foreign. I would prefer less app-ification, less stores, more package management. And no mothership, no Google.

Someone1234 11y ago
I cannot help but wonder if "apps" aren't going to eventually replace package managers. That's certainly what Docker-like containers try to do. It might sound crazy when you consider some of the services typically installed with a package manager but ultimately there's no reason why an "app" cannot run in root, many root packages aren't actually installing drivers, they're only root for historical reasons (e.g. being able to read/write to /etc). Why, for example, couldn't a web server be an app? Or a DNS client? Or a DNS server? Sure, there are certain system services which cannot (anything installing drivers/filter drivers/core UI/sound subsystem/graphics subsystem) but MOST things can.
- nextos 11y ago
  I'm certain containers will end up replacing package managers. This idea is being pushed by the systemd guys. I think its a step backwards, as you loose tight control over dependencies. E.g., in case of a security issue, one cannot easily patch all containers if they are blackboxes. IMHO, the right tool for this is an improved package manager such as Nix or Guix (which incidentally also support containers in their own way). Perhaps the future should be a Nix-like package manager for dependency management, and container-ization for security and resource limits.
  - amazari 11y ago
    Well, at least xdg-app has the concept of "runtimes" shared among applications. If a lib/bin in a runtime has a security issued, the whole runtime might be updated. Transparently for the apps running over it. A runtime might be FreeDesktop-1, Gnome-3.14 for example. Lets say a 0day is discovered and patched in gtk 3.14, a new version of the Gnome-3.14 is issued and dl by the clients. Magically (with the help of overlayfs and co) all the apps depending on this specific runtime have a secure gtk.

fuddle 11y ago

Not bad for the price tag - $69.99

SmokyBorbon 11y ago

Can you run it in a VM? Would be nice to have Android apps on a PC without that shitty BlueStacks.

staunch 11y ago

I want regular Linux on my phone, not Java Linux on my desktop.

dharma1 11y ago
http://www.ubuntu.com/phone http://www.ubuntu.com/phone
- jmnicolas 11y ago
  Isn't Ubuntu Phone using an Android kernel though ?
  - dharma1 11y ago
    Yes Android kernel, with some patches. These links might be useful: https://sturmflut.github.io/ubuntu/bq/2015/07/02/hacking-the-bq-part-4-building-and-booting-a-kernel/ https://sturmflut.github.io/ubuntu/bq/2015/07/02/hacking-the... https://github.com/bq/aquaris-E4.5/tree/aquaris-E4.5-ubuntu-master https://github.com/bq/aquaris-E4.5/tree/aquaris-E4.5-ubuntu-...
voltagex_ 11y ago
Help out with libhybris then or one of its downstream projects.
carussell 11y ago
Why? Serious question. And what do you mean by "Linux"? Would GNU coreutils and a terminal be sufficient, or is there something else you need?
- pixelbeat 11y ago
  Yes something like termux might be a sufficient addition to "android". Note a standard GNU coreutils build is about 15M, though one can configure to use a multi-call binary like busybox, reducing the install size to about 1M. See the coreutils-single subpackage in Fedora rawhide for example: http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/rpms/coreutils.git/commit/?id=fb9bc470 http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/rpms/coreutils.git/commit...

daveloyall 11y ago

The licensing seems to make this a non-starter. But let's suppose they must fix that. (This is pretty clearly a derived product...?) We'll need a proper ARM desktop... How about one based on AMD's A1100? :)

sowbug 11y ago
By "derived product" do you mean an obligation to open-source? If yes, there isn't any: Android is licensed Apache 2.0. https://source.android.com/source/licenses.html https://source.android.com/source/licenses.html
- frik 11y ago
  Read the first sentence: "The Android Open Source Project uses a few open source initiative approved open source licenses for our software" Android is based on a fork of the Linux kernel which is GNU GPL v2. RemixOS should release their code, it contains several GNU GPL parts.
  - hollerith 11y ago
    That's not how that GPL works. To be precise, although there might be a (very small) chance that a court has found or will find that software running in user space is a derived work of the kernel, that finding would not apply to Linux's user space because Linus declared (in the 1990s) that the conditions of Linux's license do not apply to user space. Tivo was one of the first owners of proprietary software to test this area of the law: their devices ran Linux, but they never had to publish the source code for the software on their devices that ran in user space. The distributors of RemixOS would have to publish the source code to any changes they make to the kernel itself, but someone else in the comments says they have made none.

Fastidious 11y ago

This is very nice, and priced just right. Could easily replace the desktop of just about everyone in my family.

davidcollantes 11y ago
Indeed. The device covers the needs of half of the faculty at my college. Their version of Android looks very polished.

deleted 11y ago

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mtgx 11y ago

Google could - and certainly has (even with the latest Pixel C) - do much worse than RemixOS for the desktop. If they can't come up with any other way to make Android look good on the desktop, it should at least acquire RemixOS and go from there. I'm not a fan of the whole "Android apps inside Chrome OS" idea - it seems like a very roundabout and complex way to achieve what Android already can by itself - run over a million Android apps. However, if it does make an Android Wear-like Android for PCs, I do think Google should retain all control, so it can update Android for PCs just as easily as it can do with ChromeOS (or as Microsoft can do with Windows). Google should in no way repeat the update failure of Android on smartphones.

efes 11y ago
I would rather slowly move everything to ChromeOS and abandon android. I find it ridiculous that I am running an OS from Google with a broken mobile browser. I also find it more likely that the ChromeOS model could remain secure despite the contents of the play store than the Android "we aren't quite sure what we meant to do here" model.

RivieraKid 11y ago

Well I'm sceptical you can make a good desktop OS by modifying Android. Major desktop OSs (including their ecosystems!) have been developed for decades, there's a lot of depth in their functionality, flexibility, different use cases. Two of the main issues are that apps designed for Android touch devices suck on desktop and that the Android SDK is very limited compared to what deskop OSs offer. Don't get me wrong, I also think that current desktop OSs suck - it's just that Android-as-a-desktop is not the solution.

0xFFC 11y ago
About the sdk point I completely agree. Unless you want somewhat shallow os There is no way for Android sdk to compete with real world desktop os. By shallow I mean something which don't have much functionality. This is not absolutely bad thing.yes most of powey users will not use that ,but for people who want to chat, browse, and use Skype this is not a bad this.but the point is these kind of users already leaving desktop after tablets/phone revolution.
- thecupisblue 11y ago
  It's exactly for those users. Android is easy to maintain and hard to fuck up for the regular user, which is what everyone does with any and all Windows PCs. And you can't just get a grandma to use Linux.
pier25 11y ago
I agree, but if you consider the success of Chrome OS it's clear that for a lot of users a simple OS is more than enough for their computing needs.

jadengore 11y ago

It seems like a good idea, but of course its not running the latest version of Android. Most of the problems with Android stem from security updates not reaching devices in a timely manner, and RemixOS is just another example of a skin that is behind. Most devices are only on RemixOS 1.5, which is Android 5.0.2.

lnanek2 11y ago

This link has more info: http://www.xda-developers.com/jide-announce-multi-window-android-for-pc-and-mac/ http://www.xda-developers.com/jide-announce-multi-window-and... > Today’s public release of Remix OS, based on Android x86, is something that we’ve been working towards since we founded Jide Technology in 2014 So it's a commercial fork of the Android x86 project, basically.

zouhair 11y ago

Their tablet looks nice too.

livejamie 11y ago
It's not very powerful, but pretty nice entry-level machine.

henryscala 11y ago

I like the idea. If developing android app using multiple programming languages is also capable in this OS, it would be more exciting.

bcook 11y ago
RemixOS supports apps from the Play Store.

supercoder 11y ago

Why would I want this when I can just use OSX on the desktop ?

Fastidious 11y ago
It will run on hardware other than Apple, for those who do not own an Apple computer. It will be "always on", similar to iOS. If you use Android on your phone, you will feel right at home.
skrowl 11y ago
One big reason, at least for me: Because OS X is the least secure desktop OS - http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/31/software-with-the-most-vulnerabilities-in-2015-mac-os-x-ios-and-flash/ http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/31/software-with-the-most-vul... I also enjoy the openness of Android and the fact that it works on a large variety of hardware. In all seriousness though, if this works as well as their little launch video show it working, 2016 could REALLY be the year of desktop linux. 'This year / next year is the year of desktop linux!' is a long running joke, but this could really be it.
- supercoder 11y ago
  That's like saying I'd rather eat shit for breakfast because it's possible to get food poisoning from eggs.

RamenJunkie_ 11y ago

I have the Remix PC from the Kickstarter. It's basically a Raspberry Pi sized PC (in a case) that runs Remix OS. Honestly, I rather like it though I have not used it a ton. I got the most use out of it when I was traveling for work a few months back, I took it with me to the hotel and hooked it to the TV and got my first real use out of it. As for why I have not used it a ton, the HDMI out on it doesn't support my "Dumb cable" HDMI to DVI cable. So I have to hook it to a TV to use it, HDMI to HDMI, which is annoying at best. If I could hook it to a regular PC monitor on my desk I'd probably use it pretty regularly as a secondary machine. Most of the apps I tried on it worked fine, Netflix, TuneIn Radio, Amazon Music, Hearthstone, Fallout Shelter. It hooks to your Google Play account so you get all the apps you already have purchased there.

ocdtrekkie 11y ago
Quite a large number of "regular PC monitors" these days ship with HDMI ports, as many desktop PCs have HDMI as well. You can usually find a decent monitor for about $99 with an HDMI port.

RRRA 11y ago

I'd rather see the web evolve even further and make "apps" irrelevant and have a desktop OS on my phone, that respect my privacy, rather than the other way around... And FOSS!

tobbyb 11y ago

I think the potential for the Android desktop is huge, and can threaten Intel in a serious way. Look at the Amazon Fire TV equipped with a Mediatek 64 bit quad core A72 + A53 SoC. The same SoC is scheduled to be in Chromebooks shortly. This tiny 4 inch by 1 inch box can play 4k at 30fps, provide super fast internet browsing, Facebook, Youtube, Office apps, video conferencing and play Android 3D titles well. And it costs 64 Pounds or 90 USD! It geekbenches 1600/3500 which is pretty respectable compared to an Intel i3 which retails for around $150 just for the CPU. Why spend anything more for grandma's, mum's or a just a general PC. It also has good support for Kodi so no need for expensive HTPCs. So here is a 60 GBP device doing a of lot of thing a traditional basic PC or laptop does at a fraction of the price, power, noise and size! This is disruptive. The only thing holding it back is the absence of proper desktop support in Android and the relatively closed nature especially GPU of the Arm ecosystem. Also the PC ecosystem is accustomed to a much more open hardware and software playing field, and the driver scenario for ARM and Google's control of Android itself can be problematic. Android is currently completely touch oriented and even though you can attach a keyboard and mouse, as the recent Ars review highlights [1] there are quite a few rough edges. Remix OS is a step in that direction but it appears some of the issues are serious enough that only Google can address. A better situation is ARM being more open, Linux is already well supported on ARM so if it opens up the drivers in good faith without the back and forth of licensor and licensee that open source developers deal with, desktop need not depend just on Android. [1] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/12/android-on-the-desktop-not-really-good-but-better-than-youd-think/2/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/12/android-on-the-deskto...

deleted 11y ago
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lqdc13 11y ago
Why would grandma want a desktop instead of a chromebook? And why would a poweruser or a gamer want an underpowered PC? This might be good for intermediate/casual/netbook users though or those who do computing on some remote machine.
- emidln 11y ago

gosukiwi 11y ago

Interesting. I doubt this can be used as a development environment yet though.

yalogin 11y ago

Can I run in this in a VM? That would be the easiest way for me to try this. I don't want to buy new hardware to try the OS.

Sujan 11y ago
Site says you can boot it from an USB stick. So should work in a VM, too.

zer0zzz 11y ago

Why isn't anyone talking about how the hardware for their ultra tablet is literally the Surface 2? Did they get a bunch of unsold inventory or did they just have manufacturing rights to the design?

pussinboots 11y ago
probably leftover inventory still interesting that this kind of a deal took place with m$ involved
bmaupin 11y ago
Not only that, it's cheaper: $300 for the Remix Ultratablet (64 GB) and $350 for the equivalent Surface 2 on Amazon.
- zer0zzz 11y ago
  Yeah and sadly ms totally screwed up with rt when they had no available porting strategy for real applications to arm. And now rt is basically on life support and the rt devices have locked down bootloaders as far as I've heard which makes them kind of an even worse investment as far as buying a device goes.

leke 11y ago

I'm disappointed there is no download available. This news seems a little premature.

pbhjpbhj 11y ago
I'm surprised they didn't have a download reminder option - they must have noticed a traffic spike. There's not even a part that says "download is not yet available" which is annoying; perhaps they want people to search the site for the download though, maybe that's good for them somehow.

printhellonerd 11y ago

Where is the downloading link of the OS for PC?

arthurfm 11y ago
There isn't one. Remix OS 2.0 is due to be released on 12th January 2016 [1]. [1] http://www.xda-developers.com/jide-announce-multi-window-android-for-pc-and-mac/ http://www.xda-developers.com/jide-announce-multi-window-and...

osoti 11y ago

Most expensive items in the worls...Its amazing http://goo.gl/fjsRrp http://goo.gl/fjsRrp

Aandre 11y ago

High paying,low stress jobs http://goo.gl/QThkna http://goo.gl/QThkna

gdamjan1 11y ago

So basically, as I see it, RemixOS is a "window manager" and a custom launcher (with their notifications) for Android ?

jakhead 11y ago

A Core i7 outperformed a Samsung Galaxy. Fascinating...

drakmail 11y ago

How I could left email for further notifications about RemixOS status? It seems very interesting OS for me :)

cJ0th 11y ago

2016 - Year of the Android Desktop ;)