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Android is a Linux. This means that it can have a keyboard, mouse and other periferials. You could (and probably can) even burn a CD using an Android phone. One

Android is a Linux. This means that it can have a keyboard, mouse and other periferials. You could (and probably can) even burn a CD using an Android phone. One of the nice things in OTG was to connect an external screen which is turning the phone to a full blown computer. Or a media player... HAHAHA! NAÏVE PERSON! You couldn't watch Netflix on USB OTG. Because... because of... REASONS YOU STUPID PIRATE!!! OR FUTURE PIRATE!!! OR FUTURE WANNA BE PIRATE! YOURETOCLOOSSEETOBEEINGPIRATEYOUPIRATE! ____ disclaimer: I do not want to offend anyone. Above sentences are what I hear in my head when I see that my phone with USB OTG/USB-C is not showing the video on my tv or monitor, or even showing but only subtitles. disclaimer 2: connecting screen using USB OTG was called MHL, not all devices had (has?) it

scarface_74 2y ago
Android being based on Linux doesn’t mean it has all of the capabilities of a Linux distribution anymore than iOS being based on BSD or even more relevantly being a fork of MacOS means it can do everything that Macs can do. As far as connecting an external monitor, that’s a standard USB C alt mode that your phone doesn’t support. https://www.benq.com/en-us/knowledge-center/knowledge/usb-c-introduction-what-is-dp-alt-mode.html#S3 https://www.benq.com/en-us/knowledge-center/knowledge/usb-c-... My iPhone 16 can send video and power to my USB C portable monitor over one cord. It can only drive the monitor as far as power up to 50% brightness. If I plug in a separate power supply to the second USB C port on my monitor I can run my monitor at full brightness and the monitor will charge my phone while my phone is sending it video. https://imgur.com/a/wyV4ReK https://imgur.com/a/wyV4ReK Of course my laptop supports powering and video at full brightness over one USB-C port
- p0w3n3d 2y ago
  What I describe is my genuine experience. I had a phone with usb otg with MHL. And netflix app didn't send video to the screen of the TV. It sent only text of subtitles. Because of some stupid limitations.
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    MHL is different than using the more modern USB-C Alt mode. In the image link I posted above, that was my iPhone connected via USB C watching “Breaking Bad” on Netflix while I was waiting on my flight in a Delta lounge. This is totally the fault of your hardware for not supporting part of the USB C standard. Even Google just started supporting it last year. https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pixel-9-display-output/ https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pixel-9-display-output/
  - Tharre 2y ago
    I'm honestly a bit confused about what your actual point is. Most people would agree that HDCP is hostile to consumers, but what does any of that have to do with USB or for that matter android? It sounds to me your problem is that your particular MHL implementation just didn't support HDCP. And AFAIK MHL has nothing to do with the USB standard other then reusing the connector to speak their protocol.
    - p0w3n3d 2y ago
      You're right, if this MHL implementation didn't have HDCP it would behave exactly like that. Sad. My thinming is square. I still connect my monitors using SVGA and watch movies on them. Truly this sounds to really complicated that a phone which is indeed a computer cannot do computer things. My first android was closer to my Linux than every each version following. My colleague had SSH server on his Motorola phone. What I moan about is that limiting, strangling list of changes made to browsers and systems that is happening right now
      - Tharre 2y ago
        > Truly this sounds to really complicated that a phone which is indeed a computer cannot do computer things. I agree with that point, but I don't think that's what's happening here. Go back a couple of years and you'll find tons of posts of people trying to get Netflix working on linux. People did find various workarounds of course, including really stupid things like changing the user agent of your browser, but it really wasn't working out of the box like it should. So the problem really isn't that your pocket computer can't do computer things, but that HDCP is doing what it's designed to do, restrict people from using video streams in a way not envisioned by the designers. The fact that this is a (legally) legitimate use-case doesn't matter, it's just collateral damage.
fsflover 2y ago
> Android is a Linux. Can you run unmodified LibreOffice or Wine on it? I can on my Librem 5.
- sangnoir 2y ago
  Android can run a full-blown Linux desktop distro in a chroot[0] - so yes, you absolutely can run LibreOffice on stock Android if the mood strikes you. I haven't tried it wine[1], but I don't see why one wouldn't be able to run x86 Wine on x64 Android hardware - it's not an emulator, like it says in the recursive acronym. 0. https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/1e6ahlg/how_do_i_install_a_full_linux_distro_chroot/ https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/1e6ahlg/how_do_i_in... 1. Because I don't own x86-64 Android hardware, and it's usually pretty awful (Dell Revue).
  - fsflover 2y ago
    > Android can run a full-blown Linux desktop distro in a chroot By that definition, Windows is a Linux, too (with WSLv1).
    - sangnoir 2y ago
      If you're playing fast and loose and consider a chroot running under a the devices' kernel (that also handles all syscalls directly) to be the same as a hypervisor, then yeah, Windows is approximately a Linux distro by the same loose considerations. Tomato/tomato: hiring a translator is basically speaking the language, right? On the other hand, if you're a syscall purists and are particular about the dependency on virtualization microprocessor extensions (or the lack thereof), then the stack requiring a hypervisor to run a guest isn't equivalent to the OS it's hosting. Bottom line is: if you have a shell access/ a terminal emulator on stock Android, you can configure it to run a desktop Linux using the kernel loaded on the device without installing am emulator or hypervisor. To me, this is materially different to WSL or ChromeOS' crostini.
      - Dylan16807 2y ago
nine_k 2y ago
I suppose you cannot watch Netflix on anything not having a certified DRM-supporting display tract, up to the encrypted HDMI interface. Were it not so, you could PIRATE a movie for free! (Now you need to pay for a $30 HDMI splitter, or something.) I don't do Netflix, so I don't care. Youtube works fine.
- p0w3n3d 2y ago
  Yeah all I think about when I connect a device to a monitor is PIRATING ARRR!
mmmlinux 2y ago
Does android actually support USB CD drives?
- dotancohen 2y ago
  Reading, yes. Writing, I have not tried.
  - p0w3n3d 2y ago
    I believe I have seen an external CD drive for android, but not sure. It was quite expensive, but maybe because it was having some middleware

scarface_74 2y ago

Android being based on Linux doesn’t mean it has all of the capabilities of a Linux distribution anymore than iOS being based on BSD or even more relevantly being a fork of MacOS means it can do everything that Macs can do. As far as connecting an external monitor, that’s a standard USB C alt mode that your phone doesn’t support. https://www.benq.com/en-us/knowledge-center/knowledge/usb-c-introduction-what-is-dp-alt-mode.html#S3 https://www.benq.com/en-us/knowledge-center/knowledge/usb-c-... My iPhone 16 can send video and power to my USB C portable monitor over one cord. It can only drive the monitor as far as power up to 50% brightness. If I plug in a separate power supply to the second USB C port on my monitor I can run my monitor at full brightness and the monitor will charge my phone while my phone is sending it video. https://imgur.com/a/wyV4ReK https://imgur.com/a/wyV4ReK Of course my laptop supports powering and video at full brightness over one USB-C port

p0w3n3d 2y ago
What I describe is my genuine experience. I had a phone with usb otg with MHL. And netflix app didn't send video to the screen of the TV. It sent only text of subtitles. Because of some stupid limitations.
- scarface_74 2y ago
  MHL is different than using the more modern USB-C Alt mode. In the image link I posted above, that was my iPhone connected via USB C watching “Breaking Bad” on Netflix while I was waiting on my flight in a Delta lounge. This is totally the fault of your hardware for not supporting part of the USB C standard. Even Google just started supporting it last year. https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pixel-9-display-output/ https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pixel-9-display-output/
- Tharre 2y ago
  I'm honestly a bit confused about what your actual point is. Most people would agree that HDCP is hostile to consumers, but what does any of that have to do with USB or for that matter android? It sounds to me your problem is that your particular MHL implementation just didn't support HDCP. And AFAIK MHL has nothing to do with the USB standard other then reusing the connector to speak their protocol.
  - p0w3n3d 2y ago
    You're right, if this MHL implementation didn't have HDCP it would behave exactly like that. Sad. My thinming is square. I still connect my monitors using SVGA and watch movies on them. Truly this sounds to really complicated that a phone which is indeed a computer cannot do computer things. My first android was closer to my Linux than every each version following. My colleague had SSH server on his Motorola phone. What I moan about is that limiting, strangling list of changes made to browsers and systems that is happening right now
    - Tharre 2y ago
      > Truly this sounds to really complicated that a phone which is indeed a computer cannot do computer things. I agree with that point, but I don't think that's what's happening here. Go back a couple of years and you'll find tons of posts of people trying to get Netflix working on linux. People did find various workarounds of course, including really stupid things like changing the user agent of your browser, but it really wasn't working out of the box like it should. So the problem really isn't that your pocket computer can't do computer things, but that HDCP is doing what it's designed to do, restrict people from using video streams in a way not envisioned by the designers. The fact that this is a (legally) legitimate use-case doesn't matter, it's just collateral damage.

fsflover 2y ago

> Android is a Linux. Can you run unmodified LibreOffice or Wine on it? I can on my Librem 5.

sangnoir 2y ago
Android can run a full-blown Linux desktop distro in a chroot[0] - so yes, you absolutely can run LibreOffice on stock Android if the mood strikes you. I haven't tried it wine[1], but I don't see why one wouldn't be able to run x86 Wine on x64 Android hardware - it's not an emulator, like it says in the recursive acronym. 0. https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/1e6ahlg/how_do_i_install_a_full_linux_distro_chroot/ https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/1e6ahlg/how_do_i_in... 1. Because I don't own x86-64 Android hardware, and it's usually pretty awful (Dell Revue).
- fsflover 2y ago
  > Android can run a full-blown Linux desktop distro in a chroot By that definition, Windows is a Linux, too (with WSLv1).
  - sangnoir 2y ago
    If you're playing fast and loose and consider a chroot running under a the devices' kernel (that also handles all syscalls directly) to be the same as a hypervisor, then yeah, Windows is approximately a Linux distro by the same loose considerations. Tomato/tomato: hiring a translator is basically speaking the language, right? On the other hand, if you're a syscall purists and are particular about the dependency on virtualization microprocessor extensions (or the lack thereof), then the stack requiring a hypervisor to run a guest isn't equivalent to the OS it's hosting. Bottom line is: if you have a shell access/ a terminal emulator on stock Android, you can configure it to run a desktop Linux using the kernel loaded on the device without installing am emulator or hypervisor. To me, this is materially different to WSL or ChromeOS' crostini.
    - Dylan16807 2y ago

nine_k 2y ago

I suppose you cannot watch Netflix on anything not having a certified DRM-supporting display tract, up to the encrypted HDMI interface. Were it not so, you could PIRATE a movie for free! (Now you need to pay for a $30 HDMI splitter, or something.) I don't do Netflix, so I don't care. Youtube works fine.

p0w3n3d 2y ago
Yeah all I think about when I connect a device to a monitor is PIRATING ARRR!

mmmlinux 2y ago

Does android actually support USB CD drives?

dotancohen 2y ago
Reading, yes. Writing, I have not tried.
- p0w3n3d 2y ago
  I believe I have seen an external CD drive for android, but not sure. It was quite expensive, but maybe because it was having some middleware