
- A Google employee has revealed why the company recently added a Linux Terminal app to Android.
- According to the Google employee, the main purpose of the Linux Terminal feature is to bring more Linux apps to Android but not to bring yet another desktop environment.
- This is because it would be confusing to present users with multiple desktop mode options, as Android will soon have a better desktop-class windowing system.
Since late last year, we’ve been tracking Google’s efforts to let you run Linux apps on Android. Google has been working in the open on improvements to the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) since last year, culminating in the creation of the new Linux Terminal app that we first showcased in October. While the source code for Google’s virtualization efforts has been publicly available, the reasoning behind those efforts has never been disclosed. We speculated that Google was adding this Terminal feature to prepare for the future migration of Chrome OS over to an Android stack, as the feature enables an experience similar to how Linux apps operate on Chromebooks.
For a bit of context, the Terminal app only provides the Android host device with a text-based command line interface to the Debian VM. By default, it doesn’t launch a desktop environment interface where you can run graphical apps. However, there’s nothing stopping you from installing a Linux desktop environment like XFCE or GNOME so you can effectively turn your powerful Android phone into a portable Linux PC.
It sounds like Google doesn’t plan to place any restrictions on the installation of Linux desktop environments. Therefore, it’s plausible an OEM will ship a Linux desktop environment by default on one of their upcoming Android devices, a hypothetical that the Google employee “wouldn’t be surprised” occurs.
Here’s the full comment from the Google employee:
“We usually don’t share our feature plan, but I have seen some expectations that I feel like should be corrected before they go wild.
The main purpose of this Linux terminal feature is to bring more apps (Linux apps/tools/games) into Android, but NOT to bring yet another desktop environment. Android, as speculated by the public, will have better desktop-class windowing system. We think it would in general be bad to present multiple options for the window management on a single device. Ideally, when in the desktop window mode, Linux apps shall be rendered on windows just like with other native Android apps.
This however doesn’t mean that we prohibit the installation of any Linux desktop management system (xfce, gnome, etc.) in the VM. I just mean that those won’t be provided as the default experience as you would expect. But, because Android is an open-source project, I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be any device maker who ships such a Linux desktop management system by default.
And GPU acceleration is something we are preparing for the next release. Stay tuned! :)”