What is Reddit's opinion of
Anbox?
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80 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
> Unfortunately I can't open the article for some reason (is the site dead?)
Not dead, just auto-generated scam. It offers downloading something by liking it on facebook... Maybe it's getting blocked by your browser or adblock.
Anyway, here is official site.
Checkout Sailfish OS. If you buy the paid version, it comes with android support. Just make sure to get a phone that it supports. The forum is a great place to get advice about this.
Other than that, some people are working to get anbox running on some linux phone distros. So there might be something worth exploring there.
No worries, it's up to the community to support mainstream use cases. Valve / Proton / Wine has created a great example of this that I hope the Linux mobile community can replicate for Android apps.
Here are some projects that are spearheading the effort:
This was posted here yesterday: https://reddit.com/r/linux/comments/b87mdg/running_android_next_to_wayland/
I wouldn't really call if like BlueStacks; BlueStacks uses virtualization, while if I understand correctly, this runs Android inside a container (using systemd-nspawn), using your host's own Linux kernel, similar to Anbox or Chrome OS' Android runtime.
Dual boots with Windows are less reliable than Windows.
Windows has a nasty (arguably, anti-competititive) habit of ignoring the fact that other operating systems exist and clobbering the bootloader during its updates. Not only does this not solve the reliability problem, it will actually make it worse because those updates have a high chance of hosing Linux, too.
My suggestion if she still needs Windows apps for work or entertainment would be to run a full Linux distro on the hardware, and run a virtual machine for Windows.
All consumer-grade hardware since the Intel Core 2 Duo days supports virtualization, so performance is very good. Virtualization on Linux also supports USB and PCI passthrough out of the box, so working with external devices like mixers and GPUs for rendering both work well using this method.
My recommendation for her would be ElementaryOS. Don't let the price tag thing at the bottom bother you, it's a pay-what-you-want model, and entering $0 in the 'custom' box is fine.
Elementary is based on Ubuntu, which is widely supported in the Linux world, and you'll find that a lot of applications support Ubuntu. It's also got a predictable and infrequent major update cycle, though it does constantly get security updates that squash bugs without changing all of the software versions that she'll be using.
As to Android emulation, Anbox might be helpful, though if the game is 3D intensive, that might not offer the best performance. It's possible to run an ARM-based virtual machine, or Android x86 as well.
> I want to see what it can really do
Honestly, as of now, based on my own experiences and the many bug reports that I've read on github, I suspect that many (most?) users are having trouble getting Anbox to do much of anything.
But keep in mind that Anbox is still pre-alpha and is being developed by a small group, with most of the development being done by one Canonical employee (Simon Fels), who is working on his own time without any corporate support (from Canonical or otherwise). So its current state is remarkable, all things considered.
the kernel is pretty much irrelevant when it comes to "apps". RIF is mostly interesting for its nice UI, and that is written for android's graphics stack, which is not available anywhere else.
maybe anbox will run on the librem5, but noone can tell that at this point in time. (hell, it doesn't even run on my amd processor yet)
and for an app: rtv should run fine :^)
The default OS is going to be built on debian/gnome, so in terms of apps will be closer to desktop linux than an android phone.
But, anbox should run on it, if you want to run android apps.
And I would not be surprised if an android port shows up very quickly.
>I use a lot of secure services but if they don't develop apps for this platform, then this platform is useless to me.
I suspect you'll be able to run Anbox on it considering it runs a full GNU/Linux distro.
> So, technically, there is no such thing as Windows emulator on Linux only compatibility layers (Wine) which is used as a base for other "brands" like Proton?
It goes mostly like this:
WINE is the base, the compatibility layer that translates Windows calls into Unix calls (the term "emulation" gets people riled up like the whole GNU/Linux debacle, so some use the term religiously and some refrain to use it religiously too - in the end it makes Windows stuff run on Linux and that's all we need to know)
Proton is a fork of WINE with some extra stuff in it, namely the DXVK translation layer and some other neat things (being a fork means Proton is based on WINE but is its own thing at the same - think of it as if Proton were a "child" of WINE, doing the same things it does but specialized in gaming compatibility, while WINE itself is more generalized to programs as a whole. Also Valve does contribute to upstream, so any improvements made in Proton that can be merged to WINE are done so)
> Also is there only Wine (as the core of all software of that kind) or also something else?
Of it's kind, no. We have WINE for Windows translation, Darling for MacOS translation (even though it's still in its infancy), and in a way Anbox for running Android apps in Linux. But regarding Windows translation specifically then yeah, WINE is pretty much the only thing we have if you don't count VMs. I'm not sure if I count ReactOS either because not only it uses parts of WINE but it also has a different vision.
WhatsApp will probably never release a native app for Linux on mobile. However, multiple OS's, including postmarketOS, are trying to get Android app support through Anbox which should allow you to run WhatsApp.
Personally I run a headless Android VM with WhatsApp on it on my server and use a self-hosted WhatsApp bridge to talk too it via my Matrix account. This way I don't need WhatsApp installed on my phone and it all feels like a native Matrix experience.
Probably. Check out Anbox and similar. I'd be surprised if people didn't have Android apps running fairly soon after release, we'll just have to see about performance & integration.
Of course, many services also offer a mobile web experience.
Im not really sure why you're afraid of whatsapp on your phone, depending on what phone it is, it wouldn't really make much of a difference. However if you are worried about it, you can get something like Anbox.
Android Apps are already there, too. You can install Anbox and use alternative app stores like F-Droid, Amazon App Store, Aptoide or Aurora Store.
It would just be cool if Valve did the same with Anbox as they do with Wine/Proton. Then you could also buy Android games directly via Steam.
Not well tested, but there are a couple of options. I can't guarantee any of these work, so you'll likely have to do the legwork to find out.
The basic method is to deploy an Android Image through Virtual Box. Instructions are here. This is basically what Bluestacks/Memu/etc do on Windows, with a few tweaks for their own customization and features.
You can also try Anbox, which is an android equivalent to WINE, if you're familiar with running Windows programs on Linux. Here's some detailed information about installing Anbox.
I've been pleasantly pleased with Anbox (https://anbox.io/). It's much more efficient than a VM - once you get it up and running properly. Runs the Play Store just fine for me.
​
Also I have had a pretty nice "Android on Ubuntu" experience using Scrcpy to control a cheap, rooted Amazon Fire HD8 tablet, connected via wireless ADB. There are several things I like about this setup: I'm basically left with a snappy Android-on-desktop experience which runs efficiently and doesn't really tap into my PC's processing power/memory but of course has its own processor/RAM from the Fire tablet. And another nice perk is if can walk away from my PC at any time and just grab the Fire Tablet and it's the same Android interface/experience I've been using on my desktop but now it's portable and ready to go with me if I don't want to take my whole Linux laptop with me.
Android "emulation" already exists. It's called running Android x86 in a VM. And if that is too low level, AMIDuOS existed and ran fine.
And native android on Linux is already a thing: https://anbox.io/
Android is tricky. It uses an older modified linux kernel but it is not the usual GNU/X/Wayland/Linux distro you're using. Most Android Apps are written in Java and run on Android's Runtime (formerly Dalvik, hence the Oracle lawsuit...).
There are Android emulators that will work. Anbox is pretty good but still has performance issues and apps aren't always compatible. Speed depends on your hardware.
EDIT unfortunately if you're looking for a good experience, the best solution may still be a cheap Android tablet.
Android uses linux as their kernel, and Android in Chrome OS is just a compability layer running over Chrome OS' Linux kernel. So we can safely say that it's close to emulation but works little different(See containers in Linux). Other linux distros also has similar thing called anbox
To be fair Snap was originally created not just for applications, but for the whole system (like in Ubuntu Core), right down to the kernel, which Flatpak doesn't do.
But yeah, for most applications I don't see the point of using Snap instead of Flatpak. The only exception I've seen is Anbox, which at the moment is only officially available as a snap and not a flatpak because it needs to mess with some system stuff (at least based on what the Arch wiki says about it), but then again it can still be compiled from source so not a big deal.
Lots of Linux machines can run Android apps! There are Linux phones that support Android apps and Google supports Android apps on Chromebooks too.
This is the method that I use to install Android apps: https://anbox.io
There are some projects like Anbox (an Android container), but they aren't quite ideal. On a 2-in-1 tablet/laptop device, you can run desktop Linux apps. The PinePhone and Librem 5 can be connected to a monitor and keyboard to be used as a desktop, but since they use ARM processors, support is mostly limited to open-source desktop Linux software.
Ultimately, if you depend on Android apps, the best compromise is probably a phone or tablet that runs vanilla Android (Google Pixel/Nexus) or an enthusiast spin thereof like LineageOS.
If you use the webbased versions, sure. If you want to write an app yourself, sure.
As for the Android apps, maybe. There is Anbox which will allow running some Android apps, but I wouldn't want to depend on that.
If you setup an AVD with a GPE system image and enable quick state reboot, you can start it almost instantly. Anbox seems to work well on linux, its just an AVD would be portable across machines if setup adequately.
Avoid andy, nox, memu - they ship known insecure, outdated and permission hungry libraries and packages. Word of advice, emulators are a significant infection vector of (windows) machines with malware distributed through android since their drivers are given full trust.
deff. understand you.. i just ordered a second pixelbook just to hack it to hell and throw windows on it.
Btw.. since you are running linux.. you might wanna consider: https://anbox.io/ .. give it the love google never gave it
Ubuntu Touch has not been ported to that device as of yet. You are welcome to, however! :)
There are no risks at all. I've got Ubuntu Touch installed on my Nexus 5 and I absolutely love it. UBports has a wonderful graphical installer that's available as a snap, a deb, and an AppImage.
You cannot run APK files because Ubuntu Touch is not Android. The only part of Android that is used in Ubuntu Touch, to my knowledge, is simply the drivers. With Anbox, however, you are able to install and use some Android applications. It's not available for the Nexus 5 yet so I haven't been able to test it.
To go back to Android (or any other ROM), you can flash TWRP then go from there as you would from any other ROM. My old phone was a crappy $30 smartphone from Walmart and it hardly ran anything and no ROMs were available for it. The first thing I did when I got my N5 was install Ubuntu Touch. After a few weeks, I decided to try LineageOS. I used it for about an hour and found that I could not use it. The Android UI is the opposite of intuitive while Ubuntu Touch is intuitive. I'm working on getting some screen recordings of UT so people can see exactly how UT works from a better perspective than a recording of someone's phone.
Tried installing it as described here https://anbox.io/ and I got the following. Not sure how to install it otherwise. I'm running Solus Linux.
[14:32:40] loguser@logmediapc002 ~/Downloads $ snap install --classic anbox-installer && anbox-installer
anbox-installer 1 from 'morphis' installed
Anbox (Android in a Box) - Installer
IMPORTANT: THIS IS ALPHA LEVEL SOFTWARE. EXPECT INSTABILITY AND
BUGS !!!!!
IMPORTANT: ALSO PLEASE BE AWARE THAT WE DON'T PROVIDE FULL
CONFINEMENT FOR THE SNAP YET !!!!
PLEASE NOTE: This script will require root access on your system
to install all necessary things. It will prompt you to enter your
password when required.
ERROR: You are running the installer on an unsupported distribution.
At the moment we only support the following distributions:
Ubuntu, LinuxMint, neon, elementary
If your distribution is in the list but you still see this message, open
an issue here: https://github.com/anbox/anbox-installer
J'pense que je pourrais me passer de microG aussi, me semble que j'ai plus d'application dont j'ai besoin de faire croire que j'ai les framework google, juste que j'ai pas réinstallé et comme je vais voir pour tester postmarketOS, j'ai pas trop l'intérêt de réinstaller Lineage sans microG si je wipe le truc entièrement.
​
Après normalement avec des solutions comme anbox, la bascule devrait être plus facile vu que les 2/3 apps android que j'utilise souvent devrait fonctionner
I have no issues whatsoever with building packages on my own, or even packaging, I can get my hands dirty. I am more worried about the newbies or the non-technical people. When the developers have this to say:
> Why is Anbox only distributed as a snap?
> Anbox is currently only distributed as a snap as snaps makes the life for us developers pretty easy. They allow us fast and easy packaging, easy distribution to our users, as well as regular and fast updates.
Source you have to admit that they provide little to no incentive for creating alternatives.
Usually, when the developer endorses something, newbies just go for it, without necessarily understanding what is at stake. So yes, I think only distributing as a snap is a downside.
I don't think that Valve will put efforts to support Android games on Steam Deck. Valve is interested to keep you in Steam and buy games there. But Valve will not block such thing as Android games or other stores, they are just not put any efforts and do not support them.
> Well I bring this up because if valve made a modification to proton. I don’t see why it couldn’t be supported with android apps.
Proton is to execute Windows native apps. Android apps work completely different and are for a different operating system. And not only that; the Android applications are not build for X86 processors, but for smartphone processors. It is not possible to use Proton to run Android apps.
Try out https://anbox.io/
> Anbox puts the Android operating system into a container, abstracts hardware access and integrates core system services into a GNU/Linux system. Every Android application will be integrated with your operating system like any other native application.
I don't think so. I believe the Raspberry Pi 4 uses the armhf architecture and I don't think there is an OS based around running Android apps. Something like Android-x86 only supports i686 and x86_64 devices. You may want to look into Anbox but I don't know much about it and have doubts it would run particularly well for you.
From the Anbox homepage:
>Anbox puts the Android operating system into a container, abstracts hardware access and integrates core system services into a GNU/Linux system.
Containers are not translation layers, nor are they emulators. They're namespaced chroot jails, directly sharing the host kernel. There is essentially no similarity since there's a full copy of Android running in Anbox without any virtual hardware. This is in contrast to emulators like Qemu or translation layers like Wine that provide virtual hardware or a pseudokernel to translate ABI calls, respectively.
> What apps are on it?
Depends on the distribution you're going to run on it. The PinePhone is just a regular computer, but can call and fits in a phone form factor. Meaning you can install any regular Linux distribution you would want on it, like postmarketOS (which I help develop for ;).
It'll work just like Linux on the desktop, but will (by default) not run Android apps. There are ways to get around that with things like Anbox though.
I don’t think you’ll ever be able to since windows has given up on mobile development and their ARM laptop doesn’t share an architecture with android phones analogously to the new MacBooks and iOS. It looks like some people are working on a desktop version of Android via https://anbox.io/ but it’s not really the same.
I wouldn't buy it if it doesn't come with a stylus, I think it's pretty important for a tablet. Linux already has the software to support styli, see https://github.com/H-M-H/Weylus for example.
Krita, Xournal++, and OpenBoard are examples of applications where a stylus is essential or would help a lot.
I'll keep all the software open source, it wouldn't hurt financially since you would still need the hardware.
I would definitely not drop the headphone jack, unlike some companies, and I'd keep an SD card slot, which is something useful in Android but completely unavailable in iOS devices.
Optional but recommended: A good ebook reader which could hook potential users, and other useful software preinstalled by default like Xournal++, Krita so people could see the potential even from a store and reviewers would try it.
To close the compatibility gap, I'd add something like Anbox or an Android VM in QEMU+KVM for Android app compatibility (Android dual boot would be nice too).
Altri ti hanno consigliato versioni di ChromeOS/ChromiumOS: sicuramente esistono prodotti con questo sistema operativo in cui puoi attivare il Play Store. Non so se si possa fare con versioni "installate a mano", ma magari smanettando si può.
Inoltre, puoi installare app Android su Ubuntu/altre distro Linux: https://anbox.io/
Not with any Linux based operating system on it, no.
You would not being able to run any PC version of Roblox on the Pi because the Pi uses a ARM processor while Roblox on PC uses at least x86 or amd64.
Even if you could run Roblox on a Pi using Wine (a project like Grapejuice), you'd only be able to run Studio as the Roblox Player has protection that does not play nice with Wine.
You might be able to install something like Anbox on your Pi, but I've never tried that and your mileage may vary in terms of compatibility and performance. If you can get Roblox running on that, you'd be limited to games that are available for mobile, and the controls are pretty bad.
Hope this helps!
Crouton: Full Linux CLI/Desktop on Chromebook
https://www.howtogeek.com/162120/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-your-chromebook-with-crouton/
Anbox: Android-in-a-Box (Run Android apps on Linux)
> I do understand that ChromeOS is nothing like windows or OSx.
Curious what you mean nothing like? It sounds like you might have some incorrect information? But need to know what you mean specifically?
> Can I actually download and install APKs onto a Chromebook without messing around with developer mode options as I have seen?
I do not know a way this can be done without developer. But that is exactly how it should be, IMO. So hope there is not a way. If there was people would do it, run into problems, blame Google. If it is important to you then just put in developer mode. Do realize it will be less secure.
https://medium.com/@dihuta/turn-on-developer-mode-on-chromebook-bd8a05c31bf9
Do not have a HP x360 but on my Pixel book the keyboard is disabled when flipped around.
Some additional technical details follow and might not be of interest.
Google implemented Android using containers. Containers is passive and is just a different view of the system. Containers is also sharing a common kernel with ChromeOS. Google can support Android in this manner securely because they control Android. So it is important to shut down the alternative APK vector.
GNU/Linux was implemented as containers on top of a VM. Because Google can not control GNU/Linux. This means they do NOT share the kernel with ChromeOS. So security wise the vector is more limited in what it exposes.
So if the Android things you need have GNU/Linux alternative than that is the better option to use. Would be curious to see performance of using Android on GNU/Linux on ChromeOS. That would be another way to use alternative APKs without developer.
Something like https://anbox.io/
It runs in a container. But realize containers are passive so have no performance impact. But GNU/Linux is using a second Linux kernel (VM) and going to consume more resources.
If we ignore that the Guix people have a pretty clear free software only stance and if we allow virtualization as possible workaround for things that are otherwise tricky to do.
Things that are pretty difficult is any kind of application that tries to mess with it's installation directory or downloads executable binaries (Android dev tools are really bad about this), Anbox is also really difficult to do since it only works as a snap. Proprietary binaries are also kinda tricky but NixOS shows that it's possible by patching the binaries or running the binary in a fake environment.
If you want to run Android applications inside Linux, you should check out Anbox. Anbox runs Android apps inside containers instead of VMs (what they do on Windows), so it should make your games run faster.
Containers are made to inherit the host's operating speed, whilst keeping a separate environment. I would expect better frame rates assuming a fast enough PC.
Setting it up and getting things working still requires you to use the terminal though, so don't expect it to be noob-friendly. That said, there are lots of guides on the Internet that can help you. So I think it's still worth a try.
A few things, first I never used Manjaro and it's been almost 21 years since I've used Windows. I have used Mupen. There are 2 ways to setup controls one is via of M64py and other is to edit the cfg file directly. The first method is much easier.
In Manjaro, is there an audio setting and blue tooth setting where you can set to always allow. I imagine there would be. Be sure to see if that is checked off.
Have you tried - https://anbox.io/?
All the other stuff, I have no clue. Hope that little bit helps.
What do you mean with Android-Emulator? If you want to run Android programs on Ubuntu you can use Anbox.
If you want to a real emulator, what is wrong with the stock emulator from the android sdk?
Not sure if it can WhatsApp. and getting Google Apps on it can be a pain, but take a look at Anbox.
It isn't really a VM, rather something that runs on top of Linux, but I'm just throwing it out here.
I never realisd that mobile-nixos was a thing, that's wonderful! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Unfortunately it (and linux on android devices) looks like they need more time before they're ready, but once it is combined with anbox it could be an awesome solution for devices that can be bootloader unlocked/rooted.
- You'll find it easier to install Chromium, which is the open-source browser Google Chrome is based on. For the average user, the only difference you'll ever see is a change in icon colour.
- You would need some kind of runtime or virtual machine to run Android apps in. Take a look over here: https://anbox.io/
I'm not a Linux user.
But IIRC the best way to emulate Android on Linux is by using QEMU (With VirGL) + Android-x86.
Here is a tutorial that i found from a quick search: How to Run Android in QEMU to Play 3D Android Games on Linux
Or if you don't want to set-up a VM, you can try to play Arknights with Anbox if your distro supports it.
Edit: This post might be useful if you decide to try Arknights on Anbox: Touch Emulator not worked in fullscreen games #1183
If you purchase Sailfish OS ($50 ish) you can run android apps.
There is andbox but I think it's still highly experimental. Is essentially like running an android virtual machine for your android apps.
Sailfish already runs Android apps and has done it for years and Anbox runs Android apps to at least some degree on Ubuntu touch and probably will on other Gnu/Linux mobile operating systems aswell.
APKs are Android packages, you won't be able to run them out-of-the-box on Ubuntu or other GNU/Linux distributions.
You could try a compatibility layer like Anbox, but you might find the functionality you want is available in another native app. What are you hoping to use Morph TV for?
Try Anbox. It has a few distinct advantages over Bluestacks and Nox:
It can run in a low resource system environment, e.g. a LXDE or LXQt desktop environment, freeing up more resources for the Android environment.
It is container based and runs natively using your desktop system's resources, so it avoids the virtualization costs of the Windows emulators.
You may be able to install the desktop version using Libertine. But even if you can, you probably won't be happy with the performance on your phone.
Also, perhaps you can install the Android version using Anbox. But at least for now, running Android apps on UT using Anbox is buggy. So again, you probably won't be happy with the performance.
Your best bet is running signal through anbox.
I don't have a device but I did install the signal mobile app on a regular Linux machine using anbox.
Installing, connecting, and sending signal messages worked. Couldn't test SMS of course.
- Use their onion page with the TOR Browser
- Use a disposable phone number to signup with
- Don't use your real name
- Don't reveal your facebook name others so they can tag you in pictures or otherwise reveal information about you (or at least do that as little as possible)
- Don't install the messenger on your phone or at least use anbox
Okay. It seems like this is something for directly talking to the Google assistant app. You can't get Windows or Linux to work since the only desktop OS available is ChromeOS (citation). If you're not inclined to spend time arguing with a computer, you should probably stop here.
If you feel like a project, there are two things that I can think of that might work.
The first would be to try and install the Google Assitant Android app on your Linux machine. There are several different projects designed to facilitate this. Anbox would probably be your best bet since it is a compatiblity layer rather than an emulator/VM and thus has better integration. You will probably have to do a lot of debugging if you go down this route.
The other option would be to setup a different voice assistant on your Linux box and see if you could use the button on your headphones for it instead. I don't know much about the options, but I've heard good things about Mycroft.
I appreciate your response, unfortunately I already got the VM to work through I don't know how, and what I discovered was that my macbook simply isn't powerful enough to run a VM of android running at a acceptable speed. I've since installed Debian on the laptop through I haven't tried to run Anbox yet so I don't know if that will make for a acceptable android experience. I really appreciate your response, thank you!
> Have you considered running a virtualization of Android to run their (older) APK on Linux?
Got any you recommend? I know of Anbox but it is going to be a pain to get working in Mageia, because it's distributed as a Snap. And Mageia has better support for Flatpak.
>Tried it two times, it's great. UI is nice.
Nice! I still suspect it is the most ergonomic of phone interfaces, particularly in terms of its swipe gestures in preference to picky little buttons on Android. I can actually see Android taking in some of its design elements.
>But before there's no good replacement for the android apps
UBports can run Anbox. The UBports developers know that it is very important not to waste all the effort that has gone into developing Android applications over the years.
>(Also the browser tends/tended to crash the whole phone)
I haven't seen this myself, but you'll be happy to know that it has a brand default new browser called Morph. :)
From the anbox's FAQ:
Is there any relationship to Google's effort to bring Android applications to Chrome OS?
Google is implementing support in Chrome OS for Android applications in a very similar way as we do. Both approaches are quite similar as both put Android into a lightweight system container based on Linux namespaces and keep a small bridge to allow communication with the host system.
In contrast to Google's implementation, Anbox doesn't allow any direct access to hardware devices. For example it bridges Open GL ES to the host. In Chrome OS the container gets access to the host kernel side of the graphic subsystem to allow fast rendering. In our case, we decided against this to keep an easy way to port Anbox to different platforms. All a host operating system needs to provide is a Open GL / Open GL ES compatible driver to provide proper integration with the graphics subsystem. Other hardware devices like WiFi or Bluetooth will be abstracted in the future via a dedicated APIs between the container and the host.
​
This particular project is not aimed at the general consumer. Rather at Linux enthusiasts and the privacy minded. But it'll boost development of mobile apps in the Linux community, which is a step toward something more generic and mainstream in the future. Besides, projects like Anbox already make it possible to run Android apps on GNU/Linux.
> Which avenue do you think that people will be getting plasma mobile? postmarketOS or what?
As a postmarketOS developer, I hope pmOS obviously! :D
No clue though, I guess most people will go with what is pre-installed so it will depend on the device. Also the philosophy of the distro matters quite a lot.
> Is it ever going to be possible to run android apps or make phone calls on plasma mobile?
That is not dependent on the UI but the OS that runs beneath it. I know for sure at postmarketOS we are working on making that happen, I already did quite a lot of work to get Anbox running (but we're not there yet!). We have a work in progress branch for it here.
It depends on what you want from your phone. If you are fine with the usual tasks of making calls, using a calendar, surfing the web, then there are in quite a few Linux applications out there, that are also mobile optimized.
If you are into something super specific, then your best bet is either writing the app yourself for Linux (which can be done nicely with KDE's Kirigami framework for example, it will then run on Desktop Linux, mobile Linux, Android and iOS IIRC). Or you could look into Anbox to run Android applications on Linux. The latter should be seen as last resort of course, having proper free software Linux programs is the preferred choice. We looked into packaging Anbox for postmarketOS and wrote a few words about that in the previous big update blog post.
I've seen people mention Anbox as an option. I believe that's the solution Ubuntu Touch uses. I don't really see a reason why it couldn't work in the Librem, and seeing as Anbox is OSS, it could even come pre-installed in PureOS.
Try and check out anbox. I haven't tried it myself but it aims to allow users to run android apps on Ubuntu.
Porting is a different story though. Afaik, it'd require writing a Gtk+/Qt app from scratch.
Digging around: https://anbox.io/ seems to be a new option.
Stretching things out, maybe a Docker container.
Though Qemu would still be my first recommendation if you're ok with fiddling with settings such as the chipset to ensure it runs as an ARM processor with vanilla android.
Anbox support is in the works so their shouldn't be a shortage of apps. Soon we should be able to run F-Droid apps including Yalp Store.
WARNING: Before you go ahead and install Anbox on your system, please keep in mind that Anbox currently is ALPHA level software. Not every feature is supposed to work or work well yet. You will find bugs, you will see crashes and unexpected problems. When you do so, please report a bug here.
Tried installing it as described here https://anbox.io/ and I got the following. Not sure how to install it otherwise. I'm running Solus Linux.
[14:32:40] loguser@logmediapc002 ~/Downloads $ snap install --classic anbox-installer && anbox-installer anbox-installer 1 from 'morphis' installed Anbox (Android in a Box) - Installer
IMPORTANT: THIS IS ALPHA LEVEL SOFTWARE. EXPECT INSTABILITY AND BUGS !!!!!
IMPORTANT: ALSO PLEASE BE AWARE THAT WE DON'T PROVIDE FULL CONFINEMENT FOR THE SNAP YET !!!!
PLEASE NOTE: This script will require root access on your system to install all necessary things. It will prompt you to enter your password when required.
ERROR: You are running the installer on an unsupported distribution. At the moment we only support the following distributions:
Ubuntu, LinuxMint, neon, elementary
If your distribution is in the list but you still see this message, open an issue here: https://github.com/anbox/anbox-installer
Some of us
regard Android and Apple as two sides of the same poisoned coin
Nothing with crapdroid
and nothing with an Apple tether attached to it
But perhaps an ANBOX emulation on a linux desktop may work,
I am hoping to examine this myself shortly
The Arc welder way is most miss than hit, few apps work as that method was abandoned by google. There's a promising development in https://anbox.io/ but it's still green. The way it works is similar to how ChromeOS runs android apps, the main difference being that ChromeOS gives the android container direct hardware access, while anbox doesn't. For now, crouton would be better if you depend on android apps.
Google relies on ARC++ to run Android apps on Chromebooks. And according to the FAQ section on the Anbox website, the ARC++ and Anbox employ similar approaches:
>Is there any relationship to Google's effort to bring Android applications to Chrome OS? > >Google is implementing support in Chrome OS for Android applications in a very similar way as we do. Both approaches are quite similar as both put Android into a lightweight system container based on Linux namespaces and keep a small bridge to allow communication with the host system. > >In contrast to Google's implementation, Anbox doesn't allow any direct access to hardware devices. For example it bridges Open GL ES to the host. In Chrome OS the container gets access to the host kernel side of the graphic subsystem to allow fast rendering. In our case, we decided against this to keep an easy way to port Anbox to different platforms. All a host operating system needs to provide is a Open GL / Open GL ES compatible driver to provide proper integration with the graphics subsystem. Other hardware devices like WiFi or Bluetooth will be abstracted in the future via a dedicated APIs between the container and the host.
Which is better? As of now, ARC++ is late-beta, while Anbox is pre-alpha. So comparisons of the two aren't yet meaningful. But I'm hoping that, eventually, Anbox will perform as well as Google's ARC++.
Yes and no. Chrome is uses its own proprietary runtime to run android apps while Linux will have anbox while still alpha it looks promising and can't wait until it's more mature.