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That sounds like shoehorning Android into a place it does not fit in. It is essentially a single-process OS, only the running app gets all the resources it need

That sounds like shoehorning Android into a place it does not fit in. It is essentially a single-process OS, only the running app gets all the resources it needs. It is an UI-focused OS, nobody is using Android without an UI. It is a single-user OS. It does not provide a consistent computational capacity since things get put to sleep as fast as possible. None of those things you'd want in a server OS.

Dalewyn 3y ago
>It is essentially a single-process OS, only the running app gets all the resources it needs. Does the vast majority of people do more than one thing on their computer at a time? As far as I'm concerned, Android not taking the desktop by storm (and ushering in the Year of the Linux Desktop) is because Google seemingly just isn't interested. Windows is at its most vulnerable state in its entire history, and it's steadily losing ground to MacOS as things stand. Google and Android could absolutely wipe the desktop market if they could be convinced.
- CogitoCogito 3y ago
  This is the quote from the post you're responding to: > That sounds like shoehorning Android into a place it does not fit in. It is essentially a single-process OS, only the running app gets all the resources it needs...None of those things you'd want in a server OS. That is obviously referring to _servers_. > Does the vast majority of people do more than one thing on their computer at a time? The vast majority of people are not running servers. In fact, I'd assume the majority of people do their computing on either iOS or Android. Really the question of why "there no major push towards Android for Servers and Desktops?" is mixing two very different issues that should be discussed separately.
- wwosik 3y ago
  > Does the vast majority of people do more than one thing on their computer at a time? Absolutely. Just looking at my wife, an office worker. Even when not working with whichever of 5 huge Excel files she has open, she is talking on Teams while working in a permanently open Outlook. Add a variety of internal sites which she constantly peruses. She just cannot have each single application taking the whole screen at a time.
  - 4ggr0 3y ago
    Even if we ignore that most people who work on PC use multiple applications at the same time, at least in my experience also most office workers use at least 2 displays, plus the in-built laptop screen. Not sure if Android can handle 3 screens with each showing at least 2 applications by average. Currently visible for me are 9 applications on 3 screens. Sure, I could minimize or close some of them (Keepass is not that important all the time), but I appreciate the convenience of having a lot of space.
- hbossy 3y ago
  >Does the vast majority of people do more than one thing on their computer at a time? Yes? A browser, chat client, and music player in addition to whatever program they use to do their job.
johnea 3y ago
Because it's a Goggle surveillance abomination? I mean, you're serveer isn't walking into retail stores, so why would Goggle want to track that? The primary purpose of android is a user data harvesting platform. I'm already dismissing large numbers of modern cars because of this.
pjmlp 3y ago
Actually it supports multiple user accounts with ability to switch among them, each application runs under its own process account, it has multiple ways to execute background processes, it uses OS IPC among several kinds of workflows, since Treble each device driver runs in its own process, it is possible to request a wake lock, Android Things was a headless version of it,.... Looking at Inferno and replacing Limbo with Java/Kotlin, it could be made to work. How much it would add over any UNIX clone + Java/Kotlin? Maybe a safer userspace. Would it be worth the trouble? Probably not.
Nighthorse 3y ago
I did see a job posting recently for some company running "headless Android" and I was super confused. Like trying to hammer a screw.

Dalewyn 3y ago

>It is essentially a single-process OS, only the running app gets all the resources it needs. Does the vast majority of people do more than one thing on their computer at a time? As far as I'm concerned, Android not taking the desktop by storm (and ushering in the Year of the Linux Desktop) is because Google seemingly just isn't interested. Windows is at its most vulnerable state in its entire history, and it's steadily losing ground to MacOS as things stand. Google and Android could absolutely wipe the desktop market if they could be convinced.

CogitoCogito 3y ago
This is the quote from the post you're responding to: > That sounds like shoehorning Android into a place it does not fit in. It is essentially a single-process OS, only the running app gets all the resources it needs...None of those things you'd want in a server OS. That is obviously referring to _servers_. > Does the vast majority of people do more than one thing on their computer at a time? The vast majority of people are not running servers. In fact, I'd assume the majority of people do their computing on either iOS or Android. Really the question of why "there no major push towards Android for Servers and Desktops?" is mixing two very different issues that should be discussed separately.
wwosik 3y ago
> Does the vast majority of people do more than one thing on their computer at a time? Absolutely. Just looking at my wife, an office worker. Even when not working with whichever of 5 huge Excel files she has open, she is talking on Teams while working in a permanently open Outlook. Add a variety of internal sites which she constantly peruses. She just cannot have each single application taking the whole screen at a time.
- 4ggr0 3y ago
  Even if we ignore that most people who work on PC use multiple applications at the same time, at least in my experience also most office workers use at least 2 displays, plus the in-built laptop screen. Not sure if Android can handle 3 screens with each showing at least 2 applications by average. Currently visible for me are 9 applications on 3 screens. Sure, I could minimize or close some of them (Keepass is not that important all the time), but I appreciate the convenience of having a lot of space.
hbossy 3y ago
>Does the vast majority of people do more than one thing on their computer at a time? Yes? A browser, chat client, and music player in addition to whatever program they use to do their job.

johnea 3y ago

Because it's a Goggle surveillance abomination? I mean, you're serveer isn't walking into retail stores, so why would Goggle want to track that? The primary purpose of android is a user data harvesting platform. I'm already dismissing large numbers of modern cars because of this.

pjmlp 3y ago

Actually it supports multiple user accounts with ability to switch among them, each application runs under its own process account, it has multiple ways to execute background processes, it uses OS IPC among several kinds of workflows, since Treble each device driver runs in its own process, it is possible to request a wake lock, Android Things was a headless version of it,.... Looking at Inferno and replacing Limbo with Java/Kotlin, it could be made to work. How much it would add over any UNIX clone + Java/Kotlin? Maybe a safer userspace. Would it be worth the trouble? Probably not.

Nighthorse 3y ago

I did see a job posting recently for some company running "headless Android" and I was super confused. Like trying to hammer a screw.