Porting Android apps to run on UT
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I've been doing a lot of thinking on this topic as I know that many are against the idea of emulating android apps in UT as sailfish does. But what if the apps themselves can be ported over? Kinda like how a console game gets ported to PC or some other method?
Under Canonical this was a real issue that they were trying to find a solution to and seems to be a ongoing issue in the Linux/Android world as a whole. There was however a "solution" at the time and looks like the code is still out there.
Would continuing work on something like this be worthwhile?Sources:
http://www.channelfutures.com/open-source/ubuntu-devs-work-porting-android-apps-ubuntu-linux
https://code.launchpad.net/ndr -
I dont think porting will work out.
Android APIs are so much different from what is in an Ubuntu system, plus its Java, plus the whole intent/permission system...Then, how to port Apps without source code? Mostly this is a question for having Apps in UT that are not available otherwise.
https://anbox.io/ is a proof-of-concept to run Android apps in a container, but currently there is not much happening on their side. Not that this is not our project.
BR
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So is this something off in the horizon as far as potential development? I have seen anbox as well as other projects that have tried to take on the goal. I just noticed that NDR (unlike Anbox) was something that allowed to import the frameworks then build the rest of the app from there giving devs a base to build from so that they don't have to totally rewrite all the code.
It would be nice if an android app could be easily ported to UT as I see the biggest issue for devs is not wanting to support the platform due to such a small market. By giving them an easy way to port android apps over this would solve several long term issues. Even if there is a way to convert android apps into snaps (not sure if that's a thing or not). Any kind of porting or conversion process is better than nothing.
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If you want or need an OS which can execute android apps then android, android-like or sailfishos are the right ways to go.
For now and for the visible future, UBports UT is (very) usefull for people who don't care about android apps.
