UBports’ Marius Gripsgård has announced the availability of a new project titled Anbox – which will allow its users to run Android applications on top of their current Linux Distros.
Work in Progress
Anbox is described by its creator as a container based approach to boot a fully functional Android OS on top of a Linux Distro. Right now though, it is limited to Ubuntu. The project utilizes Linux Containers technology to achieve this. Alongside this, it also promises an integration of every Android app into the existing desktop environment of your Linux distro. Thus making them seem like any other application. Additionally, Linux namespaces are used to isolate the Android operating system from the host.
“Back in 2015 I started working on a prototype of what I call Anbox today. It was born out of the idea of putting Android into a simple container based on LXC and bridging relevant parts over to the host operating system while not allowing any access to real hardware or user data, said Simon Fels in the announcement.”
To provide OpenGL ES for those Android apps that depend on it, Anbox seems to be borrowing pieces of code from the official Android emulator, which it uses to serialize the command stream that’s being sent over to the host machine to be mapped on existing OpenGL or OpenGL ES implementations.
Devices
Marius sent out a Google+ post as per which it appears, that Android apps will be implemented on various versions of the Ubuntu Phone devices maintained by UBPorts. The first device expected to get this support might be OnePlus One.
However, they did point out that the project is still in its developmental stage. And early development stages means bugs and crashes should be expected.
Download the application below and start using android apps on your linux machine
