Anbox, do you program Android on PC without emulation?

[cobito]

Well, in the last few hours I've read on several sites that this program is capable of running Android programs on Linux without emulating anything. The reason they give is that it uses the same kernel as Android. Until now the only way was through a virtual machine that isolated the Android system from the rest of the PC.

Although the information has been seen in several quite popular media, the truth is that I am reluctant. How is it going to work without emulating anything? It is supposed that Android apps do not run on mobile devices on a virtual machine nor are they interpreted code. If Android programs are compiled, then how are compiled programs for ARM going to work on an x86 machine without any kind of emulation?

The truth is that there is something that does not add up to me and for the moment I have not seen anyone using the program.

[Bm4n]

@cobito recuerda que x86 has been around for a long time on Android, not everyone is ARM, although I think not everything is compatible with x86, I suppose there will be quite a few things.

[kynes]

As far as I know, Android uses Java, previously with a JIT virtual machine, now with precompilation the first time you run the app, which is why the files are universal regardless of the processor architecture.

[Bm4n]

@kynes yes, the problem must have been in the system itself and the drivers, I imagine that's what they had to make work on x86.

Anyway, the android dependencies will have to be installed for it to work on Linux. It sounds like Wine to me.

[cobito]

@kynes said in Anbox, run Android programs on PC without emulation?:

As far as I know, Android uses Java, before with a JIT virtual machine, now with precompilation the first time you run the app, which is why the files are universal regardless of the processor architecture.

The truth is that I had no idea that it worked that way. I know that the development environment works on Java but not that the programs were Java.

I know there is a project that compiles Android for x86, but I have never tried it and I had not checked if it is possible to install the same apks as on ARM.

[Bm4n]

@cobito initially there were many restrictions, it wasn't everyone, but I think now x86 is much more implemented. I don't know why they needed to port. And then the problem often comes with the drivers that don't work 3D apps etc.