this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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231
Your Android phone will run Debian Linux soon (like some Pixels already can) (www.zdnet.com)
submitted 19 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
48 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 minutes 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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 55 minutes 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

there's this thing https://furilabs.com/ but not FOSS; hopefully some of their hacks can make it into mobian or sumsuch

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 hours ago

Sorry Google, PostmarketOS will scratch that itch and soon enough eat your lunch: https://postmarketos.org/

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 hours ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 minutes ago

I do this today with my Librem 5 and a 1 TB uSD

[–] [email protected] 1 points 52 minutes 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 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 + +.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

That would be the life.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Is there an official source for this?

The article links to this blog post, but I did not see anything relevant in it:

https://blog.google/products/pixel/pixel-drop-march-2025/

[–] [email protected] 41 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

That headline got me really excited before I realized they meant “in an app”.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 minutes 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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It's just virtualization, the same way you would run a Debian VM under Windows or whatever.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

yeah, but being able to replace Android would have been nice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 51 minutes ago

Why would you want to not use Android? Can't you just de-google your android if that's your concern? Android is made for mobile devices.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Why do we want this when we can already install it via Termux?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago

This is native while termux is emulated, I think.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago

Life is full of choices, isn't it.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

So does it run X? Or GNOME? Can you make a call from it? Can you receive a call? And does the internet work?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 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.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Looks very similar to termux

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago

Probably hella nerfed in comparison.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 15 hours ago

It has been called 8 elite so that people think they bought an X elite?

That's not very nice...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Isn't that Termux?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, except google is slowly killing Termux with a thousand cuts, while they will kill this only after a few years.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 12 hours ago

They do? Can you elaborate?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

What's the catch

[–] [email protected] 30 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

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!
[–] [email protected] 38 points 19 hours ago

The GrapheneOS devs have been working on enabling this with all their hardening tweaks

[–] [email protected] 15 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Everything you want, except sudo! That's freaking dangerous for you!

[–] [email protected] 24 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

This incident will be reported.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 17 hours ago

To Santa!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 18 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

oh i like this.

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago

I'm pretty sure I saw this is going to work on graphene

[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Zomg, you have Lineage OS!

LineageOS A free and open-source operating system for various devices, based on the Android mobile platform.

Your phone will feel snappier than ever, you'll get latest Android stuff (I'm sure official support for 15 is coming), and security updates.

You can also easily google or degoogle it.

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/d2s/
(Or if it's the 5G variant)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Only if they have the Exynos variant. Won't work on the Qualcomm variant, annoyingly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Bingo, it's the Qualcomm variant unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 25 minutes ago

Oh nyoo :(