How Remix's Android will eat the world Which platform will the next billion people on the internet use? Is it more likely to be Microsoft’s Windows squeezed onto low-cost mobile hardware, or a mobile OS given some steroids? Three former Google executives are betting it's the latter. And based on Jide’s early showing, a revved-up Android called Remix OS is a serious …
That thought went through my mind after about three milliseconds after I realized what the article was on about.
I just love disruptive, never saw it coming, developments from small teams of enthusiastic people. . Especially if the Gartner Gurus don't see it coming either,
Remix OS on the Raspberry Pi does make sense and could take both further than each would go independently...
Because what Remix does to the RPi is to put an OS (store and ecosystem) that joe public is familiar with, on to it. Sorry but 'nix does have techie connotations in joe public's mind, hence why the RPi will largely remain a niche platform.
Now is there a version of Scratch for Android/Remix?
"My Remix OS installation on an old Thinkpad didn't care that the apps were ARM apps, they just ran."
Several months ago, I predicted that this sort of thing was the inevitable future, and it attracted some rebuttals and downvotes.
I can see....THE FUTURE...
LOL
edit: 4 months ago I posted "So why do so many fail to see the obvious long-term future? One can imagine some future OS accepting Apps written for other OSes. Its embedded 'intelligence' would identify the App's native OS and intent, and then execute it within an emulation. Transparently. It seem obvious. So why the downvotes?"
(That's a subsequent post.)
Perhaps the down votes are because we've had OSs that can run native code from different OSs for years now. Then, you're not predicting the future, just failing to observe the present. Changing the architecture is harder, but that's what emulators are for, and those are also old hat.
How is your fantasy OS going to accept apps written for iOS, OS X or Windows? Those are not open source operating systems, someone will have to write massive libraries to emulate the APIs from scratch. That's what Wine is for Windows, and it still isn't complete or anything like bug free despite having 20 years or so to get the job done!
Why would someone write an emulator for all the iOS APIs an app might use? They won't, they'll just choose an app that runs on an open source OS like Linux or a mostly open source OS like Android. Then you just port the code that implements the APIs to your new OS (if it isn't already Linux based, but it will be) and you're done in a fraction of the time and effort.
If you must run an app that is only available on iOS or only available on Windows? Too bad, you will have to use an iPhone or a Windows PC.
No problem (illegally) running OS X in VMware workstation on Windows whatever version. iOS is a problem. Already do Android and a ton more than that. However, mixing and matching operating systems is something I've been doing using emulation and hardware/software virtualization since the late 80's.
The hardware to do this easily, and portably already exists. Just not cheaply which is the object of the exercise. I'm certainly going to check out Jide now.
True, DougS (have an upvote). However, being able to run Apple Mac is decades old, dating back to both it and the Amiga running on Motorola 68000 chips. Dead simple then, only mildly more difficult now on Intel x86. If people are seriously determined to do something, mere legality doesn't seem to matter. (Google it, no .onion required)
For now, we're in the Cambian explosion evolutionary cycle when it comes to IT. give it a few tech phases and we'll have the field winnowed down, again.
I'm with you in which this is a solved problem.
Unfortunately until it is legally sanction this is a hobby solution that you can only use at home.
I worked for a company once where they requested Apple permission to run OS X on vmware, they offered apple to buy 4 physical macs to keep 2 of each in two separate data centres, the Macs will be there but turned off as the Mac servers needed to be virtualized.
Apple said... thanks but no.
My company at the time said, OK, we're removing Apple products off our server state, and in 2-3 years we'll remove any apple product from our offices.
And Apple more than anyone knows this.
Related to your "sight"
I have predicted for many years now that at some point a piece of software will sooner or later allow plain .apk files to run on Linux, thus solving the commercial app problem on Linux once and for all.
Windows will try to avoid doing the same for as long as MS can, but eventually it will happen on Windows too... then MacOS... then...
Universal Apps as an open standard.
@John Sanders In case you were not aware, MS did have a project in motion to provide a subsystem supporting Google android code that would allow you to run android apps on win mobile (Project Astoria).. but it got killed.
It was technically viable but that was not why it was pulled
...Google Play Store has something rather important that Windows 10 Mobile doesn't: apps. And lots of 'em."
Sorry, but quality > quantity every time. I don't care how many hundreds of thousands of poorly-designed apps there are on Platform X. It's only the quality ones that matter. Always.
Windows 10's App Store already has more apps available in it than iOS did after the same period, so it's hard to paint it as a failure. Yes, it has some way to go before it catches up with its rivals, but it's shockingly ignorant of the IT media to demand Microsoft have an App Store stuffed with as many apps on launch day as Android or iOS do now, when none of their rivals had more than a small number of apps on theirs when they started.
What matters here is whether Windows 10's App Store is catching up, not just in mere quantity, but in quality apps from major names. And they are.
That said, Apple still wins the quality war hands down: they are a lot stricter about enforcing UX guidelines than either Google or Microsoft. I think there's a lesson to be learned here.
The consumer can have several cheap and cheerful laptops and tablets, at least one in all the major ecosystems. One doesn't have to choose only one.
Mobile Phones, due to the monthly bill, most people must choose one. Even there, one may own an example of another ecosystem by using it only on wifi.
It's a mistake to approach gadget ecosystems like religions.
Even so, most home users have a very limited need for business applications. Thus, except for the 3 or 4 times a year they need one, they can happily use any OS. The fact that most consumers treat Winbloat phones with a big yawn should be an alert to the fact they have figured this out. Winbloat for home users is more likely to survive by inertia than because consumers are clamoring for it. Businesses will likely stay strong Winbloat users because of the old legacy applications that only run on it.
Even so, most home users have a very limited need for business applications. Thus, except for the 3 or 4 times a year they need one, they can happily use any OS.
What business applications? Office? Home users like Word and Excel and they use them often, and they want Word and Excel because that's what they have in the office for every day use and it's familiar and comfortable. This is the reason that MS have the HUP, and they are pushing office into schools too, homework and for cheap student/educational licenses.
"it's shockingly ignorant of the IT media to demand Microsoft have an App Store stuffed with as many apps on launch day as Android or iOS do now, when none of their rivals had more than a small number of apps on theirs when they started."
It is likely to get into a chicken-and-egg situation.
Punters. Does the Microsoft store have an app for xyz? No? OK I'll buy Android/IoS.
Devs. Not enough customers on MS, I'll develop for Android/IoS.
Punters. Does the Microsoft store have an app for xyz? No? OK I'll buy Android/IoS.
Devs. Not enough customers on MS, I'll develop for Android/IoS.
Or alternatively:
Devs: There are already 3 dozen very well featured similar versions of my app available for free on Android.
One of the major complaints of Windows 8 was that MS were perceived as assuming everyone would be using a touch interface in some way to control their computer of choice.
Whilst the architecture and usability of this OS is commendable in its current form, what is the expected benefit of bringing an entire ecosystem of touchscreen based applications to the desktop?
The main product is the UltraTablet, which looks like a Chinese knock off Surface. The unique selling point for the mini seems to be a capacitive power button.
I can see what they are trying to do and its a fairly good idea, but I get the feeling that for this to work they need to have compelling hardware and right now, imho, they dont. I wouldnt want this installed on my own personal machine as I like playing games and I wouldnt see the need for installing it on a USB drive to boot from whatever machine as I would normally be carrying an Android phone and/or tablet.
For me personally, I would much prefer this to be installed on my phone and have the ability to hook that up to a monitor, keyboard and mouse either via USB or bluetooth.
"What matters here is whether Windows 10's App Store is catching up, not just in mere quantity, but in quality apps from major names. And they are."
What matters is whether Windows 10 devices are selling. The phones aren't. There will be a Surface phone next year, but it will probably be too little, too late. In the meantime, it's down to Windows 10 on the desktop and the recent broadening out of the app store suggests there's some desperation in Redmond around how things are going.
I've looked in the app store on Windows 10. I can't see that many quality apps from major names myself.
"What matters is whether Windows 10 devices are selling. The phones aren't."
Yes, they are. Not so much in the US, granted, but that's a relatively small market, and a pretty saturated one at that. It may sound counterintuitive, but I doubt MS are losing much sleep over it. There's a good reason why Satya Nadella is in charge at MS, and not some guy with a more Western-sounding name. Asia is a vast market, and nowhere near saturation point. Even Apple are becoming noticeably less US-centric of late.
Note, too, that MS are more focussed on the business and enterprise markets, not consumers. This shows in their approach to development, such as App Studio, which lets almost any corporation throw a basic app together. This may seem trivial to Anglophones, but it's a big deal in countries where English isn't the national language.
Any serious business, in a constrained economy like Italy or Greece, has to look at overseas markets if they want to grow their revenues significantly; the home market just isn't that big, and there aren't any major export markets that speak their language. That means their IT infrastructure needs to support multiple languages, in multiple countries, each with its own regulatory quirks, as a matter of routine.
MS gets this in a way their rivals do not. Their tools and support infrastructure make it a lot easier to handle this either in-house, or through local contractors. Both would be a lot cheaper than farming it out to a team that doesn't even speak the same language.
Microsoft made over $15 billion last year alone, and any business that has been consistently profitable since the mid-1970s clearly knows how to play the long game, or it would have gone bust many years ago.
I saw an article about an architect who'd open-sourced his plans for a sustainable house.
I downloaded and got some DWG files.
I clicked and had nothing installed that would open them.
Helpful popup, "want me to see if anything in the app-store can help?" - yes, I said.
Oh, there's auto-cad 360 *clicks and installs*.
Clicks DWG files and they open.
Now not a particularly mind-boggling interaction for most people here - but..
It isn't shockingly ignorant for the IT press to comment about the relative lack of apps in the Windows Store. It reflects the choice a consumer would make-- they can have an established app marketplace with Android or iOS right now, or they can bet on Microsoft having one eventually. What Android or iOS may have had in their respective marketplaces six years ago isn't relevant, since there were no competitors that already had what they were trying to build at that time.
"but it's shockingly ignorant of the IT media to demand Microsoft have an App Store stuffed with as many apps on launch day as Android or iOS do now, when none of their rivals had more than a small number of apps on theirs when they started."
That's what they said when Windows Phone 7 came out.
That's what they said when Windows Phone 8 came out.
That's what they're saying when Windows 10 came out.
I see a pattern........
I think what matters is who are the windows 10 customers? I can see something like remix OS being perfect for people like a family friend for example. She doesn't need office, she would just like something that can surf the web, get emails and things like that it's a OS and PC for people who have given up the pc already and are using their smartphones and tablets, but would maybe like a pc experience in the way of keyboards and a bigger screen etc.
"I think what matters is who are the windows 10 customers? I can see something like remix OS being perfect for people like a family friend for example. She doesn't need office, she would just like something that can surf the web, get emails and things like that it's a OS and PC for people who have given up the pc already and are using their smartphones and tablets, but would maybe like a pc experience in the way of keyboards and a bigger screen etc."
That option is already with us in the form of Chromebooks running the Chrome OS where there is an ongoing upward sales trend including in their use for educational purposes. Remix OS will therefore presumably be competing in that same sector where there is already an established option and how well Remix OS does remains to be seen. If the developers are serious about this OS then they'll have to start talking to existing manufacturers to get their OS as the installed operating system on these netbooks.
Incidentally, this is another area where Microsoft under Ballmer took their eye off the ball and lost out because they used to dominate the netbook/small laptop sector with Windows 7 Starter.
Sorry I should qualify It's not whether its running Chrome OS, or Linux. A Chromebook is a laptop type PC, some users will much prefer a larger screen "sit down" pc, for various reasons that will sometimes might seem irrational to more techy types but are enogh to influence their descision.
That makes sense to me.
But I think people are forgetting Linux here, even when Android is a Linux derivative. I'm currently running Linux, and I used Wine to run Windows programs. Just having that option has an effect on the market. It shows that the desktop is not limited to either Microsoft or Apple. And that is what gives Remix a chance.
I don;t think the creators are being stupid, but I am wary of the journalists when they forget that sort of stuff.
"What matters here is whether Windows 10's App Store is catching up, not just in mere quantity, but in quality apps from major names. And they are."
Citation needed.
Where are the stats that show that Windows 10 is catching up, i.e. more apps each period are being added to the Windows 10 store than the Google Play store or the Apple App Store?
That. Though I admit, I should have focussed more on that point in my original post.
A couple of years ago, you'd have had a hard time just finding apps for the major social media platforms (to pick one sector at random). Today, all the big names are present and correct, and most of the 2nd-tier ones too..
Once you have a critical mass of solid, front-line apps that meet your needs, the platform is fine. I don't care about the many thousands of crapware and glorified web links in an App Store, any more than you or anyone else does, so it doesn't matter how many of those there are on either platform.
Apple's App Stores beat both Windows and Android / Google Play stores by a country mile precisely because they put a bit more effort into sifting out the really, really shit stuff. Some still gets through, but it's hard to find an app on there that looks flat-out ugly. (Although this may have changed as I haven't owned an iOS device for two years now. I'm using OS X and Windows at the moment.)
I did a stand-alone boot from a usb stick and it got stuck at the bright, white, pulsing Remix-OS logo. This was on an old but powerful Dell Precision T5400 with an old Nvidia graphics card. I might try it on my more modern laptop tomorrow.
As far as I can tell from the website and instructions, you can do a dual boot installation onto an existing Windows drive or you can run it alone from a usb stick. It needs an option to install onto an empty drive.
@frank ly - "As far as I can tell from the website and instructions, you can do a dual boot installation onto an existing Windows drive or you can run it alone from a usb stick. It needs an option to install onto an empty drive."
That would be a case of hitting TAB on the screen with Guest Mode and Resident Mode. Highlight Resident Mode, hit TAB to edit the boot command line and add "INSTALL=1" to the end of the command line. Job done.
I didn't want to faff around with resizing the data.img so I opted to run Hirens BootCD, resize my windows partition create a 64GB ext4 partition. drag the files from the remix ISO to the new drive, create a folder called "data" and boot RemixOS - it will use the data folder instead of creating data.img, and that meant I had the full 60ish GB to play with.
I can't help you on virtualbox, except point to a youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t5kECk_U_Q
I'm running Remix on Linux Mint (following simple directions here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/remix/remix-os/remix-os-installation-rooting-t3293769).
My problem isn't getting it to run, but actually using it. It is familiar enough, but just enough different, that some actions seem exasperating.
Don't get me wrong! Remix is extraordinary in getting Android working in multiple, resizable windows. I was having trouble scrolling within the windows, getting app screen icons to open the app, having my gmail account suddenly being no longer associated with Remix after 20 minutes of operation.
It's just another trap - anything could be going on behind the scenes and no one will know.
Yes, the gullible, ignorant, and desperate may lap it up, they either have no idea what their freedom is worth, don't give a shit, or are not in a position to stand on their principles.
Anyone else though is either going to use it from the end of a very long pole, while holding their nose - a thankless task - or just leave it alone.
There are better tools out there.
@Dave 126 - For the meantime I'm standing by my comments. In the Wikipedia reference you possibly didn't read as far as: 'Unlike Android-x86 the source code of Remix OS is not available to the public.' Reading elsewhere reveals that, yes, there is substantial re-use of open source and GPL code - fairly obvious given the originating source - but there appears to be considerable use of proprietary code to make Remix what it is. At least the extent to which the OS is 'open' and/or 'closed' still seems opaque. Until there is clarity on this I still say 'it's a trap', not because Remix OS is 'evil', but because on the face of it there are hidden corners where no outsider may go, and that does not sit well with the notion of genuine 'general purpose computing'.
Obviously as a consumer OS, for people who only care that things 'just work' it may prove ideal.
I think we're getting somewhat into the realms of user OS's and developer / production OS's.
Which nicely solves the problem of ease of use without dumbing down the interface of the latter. Microsoft can roll back all the ui crap of late when they finally realise where their value lies, and so can the eager beaver self professed user-friendly 'linux distros.
- Well it's one POV anyway.
Tell that to Google who already do use it and lots of other companies that do use it and all the Linux admin guys I know are using it on the desktop (bearing in mind that more than 60% of Azure is running Linux as a server now), and YES android is Linux.
However, the vast majority is not using it so that justifies the phrase that it is still not the year of the Linux desktop.
Well, nobody is making you switch so take your time but you don't want to be the last person like the lame boy in the Pied Piper of Hamelin do you?
*"...that doesn't mean it's here now, is coming soon, or will ever arrive at all...."*
I wouldn't be so sure about that. The big advantage this has over Linux per se, is that a huge number of people are already running Android on their phones. Never under-estimate the attraction of familiarity for the non-tecchy user.
Asking someone to dump their familiar [presumably] Windows desktop in favour of something new [Linux] is a far bigger leap into the unknown than asking them do they fancy being able to run the same software they know and love on their phone —on their desktop or laptop.
I say "know and love on their phone" because, in my [admittedly anecdotal] observation I find that most non-tecchy folks love their phones, but tend to slightly fear their computers, due to the perceived increased likelihood of "doing something wrong" and breaking it. So, replacing "scary" windows with "friendly" Android might actually seem a very attractive proposition.
Also, with Photos, Google Docs, Gmail and Chrome built in "out of the box", Android [and by extension ReactOS] probably covers a huge number of such people's day-to-day computing needs, anyway.
Get a couple of OEMs on board and get this on a few cheap netbooks and I could see it being a winner. I wonder if ReactOS could get the Asus girl out of retirement, to front the publicity campaign?
I've never found a big problem with the difference between Windows and Linux desktops. I am not sure it would be a huge problem if you were being supported by an IT dept. which were handling the sysadmin side, maintaining hardware and updating drivers and such.
But if you need to manage the connection between your desktop and the internet, the differences start to matter.
The wittering about the desktop is, I think, a bit of a red herring.
Totally agree about the UI differences but Linux is in fact easier to maintain with regards to updates and everything else because updates install while you are working and you only need to reboot if the kernel has been updated but soon even reboots for that will be unnecessary - you do not need to wait for the updates to complete before the computer shuts down so no more "Please do not power off the computer" crap. Think about a company the size of Google that uses their own remix of Ubuntu called Goobuntu, lots of governments and of big companies have switched too - Linux desktop is easy to maintain!
Asking someone to dump their familiar [presumably] Windows desktop in favour of something new
most non-tecchy folks love their phones, but tend to slightly fear their computers, due to the perceived increased likelihood of "doing something wrong" and breaking it
And right there, Sparky, lies the nub of the argument! From my perspective, as a old-timer user who works with elderly friends (including my spouse!) there really is no longer a familiar ... Windows desktop! Most all the folks I know got well-accustomed to the XP experience; they bought all the "Dummies" books and struggled to learn the Windows "Way" of doing things. Then Microsoft proceeded to throw all of their skills in the shitter by needlessly fecking around with the interface, until finally the users begin to look at their PC with all the love and adoration they'd give a turd in the punchbowl.
And I've been asked to "fix" their PC's because "it broke!" and it's all fecked up and won't do anything anymore, all because they fell into the Venus flytrap of digestive sludge that is the Windows OS that doesn't get tweaked, cleaned, deloused, defragmented, and de-virused on a weekly basis. Arcane Linux? Without exception every Senior whose Windows OS I've replaced with Linux is happy! The OS sits in the background, never intruding, while they do Email (T-Bird), Browse (F-Fox) and write letters to Social Security (L-Office).
A new variant of L'nx on an affordable gadget? Hell yes! Goodbye, MS Win, you can kiss our gnarly ol' asses goodbye whilst we snatch up our walkers and leave yer unholy mess o'confusion behind!
And right there, Sparky, lies the nub of the argument! From my perspective, as a old-timer user who works with elderly friends (including my spouse!) there really is no longer a familiar ... Windows desktop!
In reality we as techies think too much about the OS. In fact the OS is almost irrelevant. It's the short step between booting and launching the application. The productivity happens in the application, not the OS. As long as people can start, launch app (shortcut) switch between running apps (alt-tab) and the apps handle the file system then there's not much more to know.
"Oh but I can install Linux much easier than I can install Windows".
Who installs Windows? It comes pre-installed.
"Oh but my 97 year old grandfather was constantly on the phone asking question about wIndows problems, I was 24x7 support, so I installed Linux Mint and now my 98 year old grandfather is a primary IT consultant for NASA missions and CERN LHC physics research. He also wrote the software that controlled the SpaceX landing on a barge at sea (obviously the successful one, not the failures)".
"Who installs Windows? It comes pre-installed."
on all the consumer PCs I have seen recently, Windows is not "pre-installed" properly - normally just set up to automatically run the user through a dreary long slow install.
A proper "pre-install" would have the Windows OS installed already and you would just need to add user(s), maybe do a bit of network config and choose any "optional" non core software to add and good to go.
Android IS Linux! Linux is the kernel and the bit that you are talking about is the GNU part. Android has parts to it that other GNU/Linux distributions do not have but the thing you need to understand is that you can make "ordinary" Linux distributions e.g. Ubuntu or Fedora etc, look and feel like any other operating system e.g. Windows or MAC OS with very little effort.
Normal users would not know the difference (until they looked under the hood) and further, ordinary people do not struggle with slight differences in UI design anyway!
I have installed the Mate remix (so I have not attempted to make it Windows like) of Fedora and Ubuntu to various members of my family who are not all technically minded and I have not given them training on how to use Linux and I have not had to fix anything - they all said how much they liked it because it works so well!
In these days where every OS seems to want to keep phoning home with all sorts of data about what the user is doing it sems to me only sendible to know what the policy is in this area? Does it still send everything to Google?
What about updated? As Android gets a lot of updates but many company don't pass them onto their users, a clear policy on updates/patches would be useful for many people when looking at this sort of OS.
This post has been deleted by its author
nothing gets sent to Google without your knowledge
That may be true, but if you look at the privacy policy you will see that's quite a lot that can get sent to Google. I also doubt that Microsoft is sending anything from Windows 10 without your "knowledge", they probably have a similarly broad policy that lets them collect almost any data on you.
"Android gets updated just fine, and nothing gets sent to Google without your knowledge (unlike windows 10)...."
Not a win10 fan here, but did you look at the all the google services running behind your back? ATM Google Play Services has 388, Google Play store 38 and Google Service Framework 12, and that's on Android 4.4.
Do yourself a favor and install DisableService and see for yourself the shitload of info Google gets WITHOUT your knowledge.
"..., but they chose to found the company in the innovation hotbed of China, close to the engineers and supply chains they needed."
And the money... the easy to get funds in a region full of cash-heavy bettors. With huge infrastructure projects and other big bets shutting down due to govt controls, where is one to put all that western money that has piled up? When people are climbing over each other to give you money, why wouldn't you found a new company there?
But... there should be some obvious resonances with some other areas and recent times with overheated industry sectors. All eyes *have* "turned East", but the ears are listening for crashes.
"There are a few issues to address, as we found out. The main one is that to use Remix OS effectively on a PC, you must sideload Google’s Play Store, then wave a dead chicken over the PC. Jide says it’s working with Google to ensure Play Store is bundled."
There are other app stores. Amazon would bring a lot of cash if they were the native store, especially if this is Foxconn hardware. F-Droid can provide some basic connectivity to google. A launch without Play is feasible.
That would also lock them into using Google Search and allowing Google to do their data collection. Since they are former Googlers maybe they'll play ball, but I agree they might get a better deal shopping it around and it would definitely be better for the future of the internet to avoid concentrating even more power in Google's hands.
If someone really wants to try out that style of desktop then that option is already easily available and installed with OSes like Cub Linux (formerly Chromixium - a somewhat coercive Google intervention forced the name change) where there's also access to all the extra software options that run on Ubuntu.
Have we heard that claim before? hahaha. Nobody cares about android. You can't get it to work right, you can't get everyone on the same page, it's full off malware, and google is the the devils way of destroying humanity. I'm not saying apple is perfect (especially el crapitan) but at least you know what you are getting... it's a known quantity. Micro...who?
*"...More importantly, does this send your data to some place in China?..."*
To be honest, I think I'd rather my data was slurped by China than the USA. At least they [the Chinese] have the decency not to try and make me subject to their laws –regardless of where I live on the planet.
Interesting to me is that Apple released Swift as open source a while ago, and Google is now considering its adoption for Android development, while MS is/has created a compiler of iOS. Perhaps the future is all API's and compiler flags as the unifying theme for mobile apps with wide platform support. And in agreement with the thread, mobile is growing into the desktop space, but cheap hardware isn't the only driver.
I'd like to see the sunset of both x86 and OS X as the legacy cruft is quite deep in both; time to burn the fields!
“There’s a saying of Alan Kay's: ‘People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware’.”
What Alan Kay is saying is that software people, not electronic engineers should design instruction sets. This was the revolutionary approach of Bob Barton with the B5000 which had a true overall system design and the best instruction set. Kay was a student of Barton.
http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/afips/1961/5058/00/50580393.pdf
So it's less easy to install, less capable and doesn't even have a bundled appstore, unlike the dozens of Linux variants already out there, yet for some reason the author assumes it will succeed where Linux has not - killing MS Windows - just because three ex-Googlers told him so.
Yeah, right! Lubuntu with an SSD (if you can be bothered to pay for the speedy boot) is an already tried and trusted alternative, thanks.
Has a fair few kinks to work out, such as mobile apps instead of their tablet versions coming through the app store (notably facebook) when I tried it on my ol' spare laptop.
UI navigation was still fraught, touchpad would do unexpected things, so clearly need a touch interface on any device this is to go on thusfar, plus the ironic lack of screen relestate as everything's blow up (ironic in things like chrome lose a good eight of my 11" screen to the the chrome) and niggles like youtube apps fullscreen still displays the taskbar.
Elephant in the room though was, why? Why am I trying to get a clearly mobile OS to work as a desktop one, with all the caveats it brings, when I have a perfectly good desktop OS on the other partition that doesn't have the oddities, idosyncracities, caveats and workarounds that this does.
Maybe with work and time it'll get there, but, still feels like a compromise. Apps are thrown as the big plus for this, yet most don't work as well as there desktop counterparts or are websites wrapped in apps where, on a desktop, accessing the site is preferably to the app experience. I also lose out on all my existing great desktop apps. so struggling to find a reason for this over the incumbant.
How did Valve F it up? I don't think they really had a chance of really making it work because most developers (particularly the big ones with investor pressures) are averse to taking a leap of faith. Plus many have actually tried and plenty found it too daunting. Bethesda Softworks (Fallout 4) went on record saying developing on Linux was too mercurial, with no consistent target that helps to keep development on track. This sounds like an industry that, if Valve were to get too pushy, may respond by bailing out of Steam. That would be the last thing Valve would want.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
