Google’s Linux Terminal performs an enormous half in turning Android into a real desktop OS

When Google launched a Linux Terminal app earlier this yr, it generated a number of buzz amongst fans and builders. Regardless of the joy, Google has been quiet in regards to the launch, even declining to say it at its annual I/O developer convention. Lately, nonetheless, Google revealed documentation for the Terminal app, revealing its bold plans for the function.

With the Linux Terminal, Google goals to let builders construct Android apps straight on Android units. Finally, the corporate plans to permit customers to run full-fledged graphical Linux apps and video games. The final word purpose might be to rework Android right into a first-class desktop platform that rivals macOS and Home windows — and we couldn’t be extra excited.

The Linux Terminal app arrived within the second quarterly launch of Android 15, which Google rolled out this previous March. It makes use of the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) as well a Debian OS picture in a digital machine (VM), offering customers with a terminal interface to run Linux instructions.

Google just lately up to date its official documentation for AVF, highlighting the Linux Terminal app as a key use case. The documentation addresses a long-standing limitation, noting that “Android has historically been the one main working system that doesn’t let customers develop apps on the platform itself.” Not like on macOS or Home windows, constructing apps for Android has at all times required a separate laptop as a result of the event instruments aren’t natively out there on the OS.

By introducing the Linux Terminal app, Google can “present a Linux-based improvement setting to Android customers who’re builders.” That is essential as a result of many improvement instruments, together with Google’s official Android Studio, can be found for conventional Linux distributions.

Whereas Android Studio is out there for Linux, there’s a caveat: it doesn’t at present help the ARM-based CPUs that energy the overwhelming majority of Android units. To allow true on-device improvement, Google will doubtless want so as to add ARM help to the Linux model of Android Studio, permitting it to run in a digital machine on Android units very similar to it already does on Chrome OS.

Extra apparently, Google plans to allow OEMs to “implement progressive VM use instances like working graphical consumer interface apps and even video games.” To perform this, the corporate has been working so as to add graphics, audio, and {hardware} acceleration help to AVF.

This work is already bearing fruit. The Android Canary construct launched final week permits the Terminal app to run graphical Linux functions. We examined this new functionality over the weekend and efficiently ran a number of full-fledged Linux apps — together with the desktop model Chromium, GIMP, and LibreOffice — on a Pixel 8 Professional.

In comparison with our preliminary exams again in January, the Terminal app now runs Linux apps much more reliably, although efficiency continues to be sluggish. Once we ran the Speedometer benchmark contained in the VM, for instance, it scored lower than half of what it did natively. Google nonetheless has a number of work to do to repair bugs and enhance efficiency, but it surely’s spectacular how far the function has come since its preliminary launch.

If applied properly, the Linux setting may even present the means for Android to turn out to be a desktop gaming platform. Chromebooks can at present run Home windows video games by way of their Linux setting because of the Proton compatibility layer, so the identical may theoretically be accomplished on Android. Nonetheless, the CPU structure would once more pose a problem, as Proton doesn’t help ARM-based CPUs — at the least, not but. Valve is rumored to be engaged on ARM help for Proton. If true, this might open the door to working many Home windows video games on Android by way of its new Linux setting.

The addition of AVF and the Linux setting introduces a wealth of recent prospects, and we’re excited to see Google proceed this work. These options might even be key to Google’s long-term ambition of merging Chrome OS and Android right into a single, unified platform. For Android to actually compete with macOS and Home windows on the desktop, it must be greater than only a blown-up model of its cell OS. It must win over the builders and avid gamers who demand a strong, versatile platform, and these new options are a vital step in that path.