Anyone experimenting with Linux on Android around here?
I was having quite a hard time finding a decent IDE to use on DeX so Im just running a full desktop and coding on vscode. The performance is surprisingly good, just wish it was easier and more stable to set up gnome, as it just looks like it would fit a touchscreen and the android aesthetic really well.
I don't know about all solutions but Linux Deploy for example creates a chroot environment and runs the Linux distribution from there. That means that the distribution's process are running alongside android's process on the same kernel. No translation, no abstraction, directly on the kernel that runs android.
As far as the kernel is concerned, the android launcher and the Gnome environment are equal resident.
Android is already Linux-based, so that is just running regular Linux binaries while providing tweaks and shims to make those binaries play nicer with Android's setup. Things running in it don't have root access, they've only got the access that the base "UserLAnd" app has due to how Android handles security but that's more than enough to get you a "traditional" desktop with utilities.
It's more akin to installing and running all sorts of programs on a non-admin Windows account with all the "Install for only me" options instead of "Install for all users". Except instead of Windows, it's just Linux.
I use termux a bit as others have mentioned; not for anything particularly tech-y - I'm poking away at writing a book when I have time and I'm using a self hosted Gogs server to centralize it and keep track of changes, so I mostly use it for a text editor and git.
I have a bunch of self-hosted stuff so most linuxy-things I do I just use JuiceSSH/mosh/tmux and connect to a remote server. This has the benefit that when I get to a computer with a proper keyboard I can just switch over.
Is running VM's possible on more android devices now? I haven't kept up on that but remember the pixel devices having KVM support? I have been using the Opaque app + tailscale to connect to my proxmox VMs from my Galaxy tab if I'm travelling and need a full desktop for something. Works pretty well.
As long as you have like, +3gb of RAM you should be fine with something like andronix or userland. It has a few limitations, but for emergencies is quite nice.
The problem with most devices is the lack of HDMI thru USB-C, as most use USB C v2.0 and you need 3.1 for that to work, which is why I went with a Samsung flagship, dex is nice too.
If you have that, you can just stick it on a dock or hub and now you can use a monitor, keyboard/mouse easily.
Not sure, but I think there is already ways to run android apps on a Linux desktop, the thing I'm talking about is basically running a Linux container on Android and connecting in it thru VNC.