Google introduces Debian Linux terminal app for Android. My phone's a laptop at last!

Qualcomm claims that my Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus’ Snapdragon 8 Elite CPU is faster than the Intel Core Ultra 288V chip. My smartphone also has 12GB of RAM and 512GB of solid-state storage. In short, it’s more powerful than most of my laptops. So why not use it as a laptop?

Why not, indeed, says Google, which has introduced – at long last – a native Linux Terminal application in its March 2025 Pixel Feature Drop.

  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    7·
    9 hours ago

    This doesn’t sound like proper linux to me. I want to be able to plug in a USB (or what ever the storage device would be, microUSB for phones I guess) and boot from that. Where 1 image works for any device of the same architecture. This is the main thing I dislike about ARM currently.

  • Eagle0110@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    9 hours ago

    This is just a Linux VM just like th Crostini in ChromeOS, so I’d expect similar 40%+ performance loss compares to for example proot container through Termux running natively.

    The only thing this could probably offer would be giving you better OS GUI Integration into Android, like Crostini on a ChromeOS device. But if that is needed you might as well just use an Android port or an Android equivalent of your Linux software anyway, it’s not like you’d ever want to run Matlab, GIMP or OpenFOAM on your Android phone with its tiny screen anyway LMAO

  • dai@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    11 hours ago

    Man I feel I’d almost wiped the debian install and added NixOS (nix package manager works fine under debian) using nixos-infect

    A clean install and a night’s sleep and I’ll probably forget I was attempting this, but looks promising.

  • the_q@lemm.eeEnglish
    17·
    18 hours ago

    My dream has been to have a phone that works like a phone until I get home and plug in a monitor and kbm then it’s a full fledged PC. Think Dex but not shitty Samsung Android. While I’m dreaming while docked it could also utilize a desktop grade GPU.

    • Webster@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      9 hours ago

      Honestly the steamdeck shows we are getting close. It works like that, just in a slightly bigger form factor and without some of the phone hardware.

      A little more tech advancement and I think this won’t be that hard to do.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      21·
      10 hours ago

      IIRC you can do exactly that with the Nintendo Switch (carry it around like a handheld until you plug it into the TV and it becomes a stationary console), though i’ve never had a Switch myself so i don’t know for sure.

    • Diurnambule@jlai.luEnglish
      2·
      14 hours ago

      I join you on this. The closest I found is a and old surface pro with Linux and waydroid on it. It is nicer than all my previous try but far far from perfect, not even good. Just meh + +.

    • crabigno@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      9 hours ago

      Spanish BQ manufacturer sold Ubuntu phones a while ago. I had one, and it felt great. Unfortunately the phone itself (the screen in particular) was pretty low quality, and the customer support not qualitative enough. Mine broke just by sitting in the couch with it in my pocket. That was a huge lost opportunity.

  • JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    26·
    1 day ago

    Tested this on my Pixel 8a. Works as you would expect. Personally I have a little hard time coming up with use cases for this but I guess it’s kinda cool.

      • masterofn001@lemmy.caEnglish
        31·
        11 hours ago

        Termux can.

        You can run a full GUI install of the distro of your choice and even vnc or rtp into it.

        A bit tedious to set up, but follow the docs and it is no problem.

      • JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        3·
        15 hours ago

        Nope. But as mentioned in the article, some support for display servers might be coming in Android 16.

        Networking does work. I was able to install packages using apt and also ping machines on my local network. Could be useful.
        I guess in a pinch it could be used to ssh into other machines. However, I’m sure there are plenty of SSH clients available for Android, which are much more lightweight solution than running a whole VM.

    • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      7·
      24 hours ago

      Does it have access to the same filesystem as Android? I’ve been looking for Android apps that can do something like dropbox’s “online only” feature. Most cloud storage providers offer that on desktop but I’ve never found one that works on Android. It’s just photo syncing or nothing usually, and even that doesn’t work like I want.

      Also, can it run uninterrupted in the background or is android going to unceremoniously kill it randomly like it does with normal apps?

      • lka1988@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        20 hours ago

        It has access to /sdcard as a shared folder. And yes it can run in the background, though it’ll eat your battery if you keep it running for a while.

        • JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          3·
          17 hours ago

          It has access to /sdcard as a shared folder.

          How does this work? The app doesn’t seem to have any settings related to it yet. Under /mnt in the VM I noticed folder shared that seems to match the downloads folder on my phone, which seems odd

          • lka1988@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            16 hours ago

            …shit, I think you’re right, it might be the Downloads folder. Sorry! I’ll check mine next time I boot it up.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      I have a phone that acts as a grid outage resistant p2p webserver. runs stuff like syncthing, briar mailbox, etc. i can see this being useful for that kinda stuff.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    11·
    10 hours ago

    While interesting, that’s not really news.

    I have been running bash linux commands on my android device back in 2016 via Termux. it worked perfectly fine back then already, you could apt install applications and python3 your script.

    The problem is with other things. Android is dedicated to being actually usable on touch-screen devices. Installing desktop apps on Android would un-do that effect, so i guess it wouldn’t make a lot of sense.

    • perishthethought@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      343·
      1 day ago

      Its goog so:

      • you get Debian terminal, run whatever you want!
      • they get to track everything you do, remember your passwords for you and sell that data to everyone they can!
    • cron@feddit.orgEnglish
      8·
      1 day ago

      If this will be anything like the Linux environment in chromebooks, then it will lack hardware acceleration. This could result in linux programs feeling sluggish and slow.

  • lostbit@feddit.nlEnglish
    81·
    1 day ago

    oh i like this.

    too bad its still android with al there tracking and bloatware. Hopefully degoogled roms will follow

  • CassiniWarden@infosec.pubEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    Would be nice to have some alternative for my Note 10+ that is no longer getting updates. Seems it’s not popular enough to have an EOL root/custom rom made, so it’s just stuck. Seems a waste for a device with decent CPU/GPU and 12gb ram.