![]() There you’ll find source code and a guide on setting things up. If you’re interested in learning more, getting involved with development, or building the project from source do check out the project’s Gitlab page for more info. As such, there’s no neatly-packaged Flatpak or runtime to download and install on your system. The project only just been publicly announced. No reason why Linux shouldn’t join the fun, eh? ChromeOS can run Android apps, Windows 10 can run native Linux CLI tools, and recent versions of macOS come pre-loaded with a selection of popular iOS software. OS boundaries aren’t nearly as distinct now as they once were. ‘OS boundaries aren’t nearly as distinct now as they once were no reason Linux shouldn’t join the fun’ Early Days for a Promising Project Google, by way of its successful Android for Chromebooks effort, shows us that containers and virtual environments can be tailored to run Android apps on top of Linux in a functional, performant and neatly integrated manner. Resource efficient this ain’t.Ĭollabora say the project aims to run “a single Android application full-screen” rather than lots of apps, windowed.īut that doesn’t preclude devs in the wider free software community from adapting the project to suit different use cases. The main “drawback” to SPURV is, like all virtualised/emulated experiences, the fact you’re running a full Android system on top of a full Linux system. Technical wizardry allows Android apps to leverage hardware features of the underlying Linux system, such as the audio, network, and graphics stacks, as this diagram shows: SPURV is more a collection of tools that can be used to set-up an Android container, install Android apps inside of it, and then run those apps fullscreen on a Wayland Linux desktop on top of the host Linux kernel. But unlike Bluestacks it’s not an “all-in-one” runtime you can download and install. ![]() Like Bluestacks, SPURV creates an emulated Android device on your Linux system. A n early Christmas gift for Linux lovers has arrived: Linux Mint 19.3 ‘Tricia’ OS is now available to download for all with a bunch of new features, and a striking new logo. In some way SPURV appears similar to Bluestacks, an emulator that can run Android apps on Windows desktops in ‘windowed’ mode. It’s not polished or perfected, but shows what’s possible. The video demo above shows native Wayland Linux apps and an Android app running at the same time. It is the oft-mentioned solution give to the “how to run Android apps on Linux?” question when raised.īut for all the promise Anbox shows - which is plenty - it remains a) technically different and b) is some way off of being the user-friendly way to run Android app files on Linux system that many (myself included) would like it to be. An Anbox Alternative?Īnbox is the free software project you probably thought of when you read the headline above. Well, the ‘SPURV’ project sets a foundation for precisely that. There’s a wide array of native software and games available, including image editors, web browser, e-mail clients and social media apps.īut wouldn’t it be great if you could also tap in to the Android app ecosystem? Run your favourite Android apps on the Ubuntu desktop in windowed mode, with native integrations? It’s the work of Collabora, a UK-based open-source software consultancy and development outfit, who unveiled their experimental new project in a blog post. ‘SPURV’ is an experimental containerised Android environment that can run Android apps alongside regular desktop Linux apps under Wayland. ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you could run your favourite Android apps on Ubuntu, in windowed mode with native integrations?’ But I don't know.The dream of being able to run Android apps on Linux distributions like Ubuntu is a step closer to reality, thanks to a promising new open-source project called ‘ SPURV‘. Since Android is a Linux, I guess the ROS port might need a POSIX subsystem or something. In that case, the x86 stuff would need the emulation. What would be nice for the ARM people, not the interest of me or most here, would be an ARM port of ReactOS and made to where it can run both Android and Windows apps. The 68000 series CPU isn't that hard to emulate (though there are 3 other chips of note to emulate such as the Creative Labs compatible sound chip OPL or a cousin, a noise generator, and the Z80 which is used as a coprocessor, percussion sounds, and for D/A conversion).Īnyway, my point is that folks have modified the Windows HAL to run various things that normally don't run in Windows. For instance, I think someone had mixed the GENS emulator in with HAL so you could double-click on a Sega image and run the game. One is to add an alternative subsystem.īut another approach I've seen mentioned (refused to look at the source to not be dirty in case I do jump on board here at some point), at least for emulators, is to modify HAL. Now, if someone wanted to do this, I can think of a couple of approaches.
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