Is there an upside to using this over termux?
this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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My understanding is the plan is to eventually enable GUI, so it could be a better compatibility layer, for say, running full desktop Firefox on a tablet.
It's a Debian VM so you can install whatever software is available in the Debian package manager. Full blown ffmpeg for video processing. Install imagemagick and do some conversions on your images. Code compilers so develop your android applications on your android phone. Use your old phone as a Jellyfin media server.
Once GUI applications start working, use desktop software like Blender and Ardour. Desktop Firefox, Chrome. Desktop VLC. Desktop office suites like OnlyOffice and Libreoffice. Maybe it'll let you install any deb installer and you can install Davinci Resolve. This Debian VM may make Android replace ChromeOS and be Androids solution to a companion desktop environment that has access to a plethora of powerful desktop software
The only thing you will need for this is an updated Android device
Unless they backport it then it looks like it won't be available on older devices, so no new lease of life for an old phone unfortunately
...only arm apps though, few phones run x86 cpu's
Better compatibility(most every Linux command should work fine since the directory structure will be same unlike termux) and high number of apps. Also, unlike proot it will have better performance and run faster since its native emulation.
It's a full Linux VM, not Android.
I'm not sure what the use case is, though.
Containers?
Even if this is as good as (or better than) Ubuntu installed in Termux, I'm still not sure I'd trust it as anything more than an attempt at Google trying to hit Termux's user base so it shuts down, then they shut down their terminal too.
I never really understood why Google is so hostile to Termux. Maybe they are just worried about security.
Chances are Termux will stay around as it is still much lighter weight and better supported.
No idea, probably because it makes their shit more useful or something. Seems like their goal for the last 10ish years has been to enshitify the OS and water it down more and more with each release.
Seems like a lot of effort to remove one app which they could presumably just ban if they actually wanted to.
I wonder what their overall goal is. Maybe making Android viable as a development platform to one day claw some market share from macbooks?
Not entirely sure how they'd go about banning it, the official location for it is F-Droid. The one on Google Play is like 500 years out of date.
My guess was that their overall goal was to take the market share and shut down Termux, then cancel their own terminal so they can make Android worse than they already have lol.
Weird that it's so out of date, but if they wanted it gone from there they could say it was violating some security rule or other. I guess they could remove some necessary APIs if they actually want to break it.
Additional to burgersc12's comment, I think the app has always been hosted in both locations, but the team has switched hands and the original app developer basically went MIA so the package on Google is stuck in limbo.
The store version is functionally useless. It has been basically removed just without being completely wiped from the play store.
I don't see why the fuss here? Qemu-based emulators for android exist for quite some time now (like userland)
I wish they would instead just expose KVM to Android apps. It would be neat to be able to use virtualization for a wide range of purposes.
Can't wait for this to arrive on my phone
Yes you can
Will have to even
Does it mean I can install protonmail bridge and finally use thunderbird on Android?