Google just added a powerful new feature to Android: The Linux terminal. It's easier than you think to use and it unlocks a whole new level of control.
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
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.
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.
Is there an upside to using this over termux?
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
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?
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.