Since https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1gdhy7u/experimental_flathub_release_of_newpipe_on_linux/ got a bit of traction yesterday, this is WhatsApp straight from Meta running on Linux desktop using android-translation-layer.
android-translation-layer (ATL) is a Wine-like approach to run Android applications on Linux. Rather than running an Android container like for example Waydroid does this instead implements the Android API. Note that right now it’s very much work in progress and almost no app will work yet, but the fact that they have apps like Newpipe and WhatsApp running already is very promising!
Join the Matrix chat at #android-translation-layer:matrix.org and follow along!
I can feel it in the air. This is going to take off just like how wine and proton took off. We are going to go through another “Linux gaming” rush all over again and this shit is going to be fun. Let’s go!!!
Wine was first released in 1993. I hope our children are there to see the take off.
I don’t think you should compare the two progresses. Technology is much better now. So, things will definitely move much faster than they did back in the 90s.
There is slightly more openness to androids layers than the win32 layers as well.
I still remember symlinking to binaries in my windows system folder back in the late 90s to be able to run office 95 under Linux. (The MSFT system files permitted some things to work properly that just didn’t with the wine provided libraries back then)
Didn’t it take off in the late 90’s within Linux communities?
So I’d give this a few years, then.
in the late ’90s*
Username checks out ig, but really now?
Really. Apostrophes are used for possession & contractions (not making words plural). In this case, you are omitting the 19 from the decade starting at 1990. What is plural is the years inside that decade, meaning the 10s place. All to say, it is 100% ’90s*.
I meant to say it was pedantic, and thus a bit unnecessary.
One man’s pedentry is another man’s pet peeve. This is a syntactic error that isn’t just a typo but a misunderstanding of the mechanics of apostrophes.
Interesting! The UI looks like it uses GTK for drawing widgets?
Looks fantastic but how much are apps sandboxed? I don’t want WhatsApp to see all my files for example.
This Android Translation Layer looks amazing for Linux phones. Waydroid is already pretty awesome, but it’s just running full fat Android on top of your Linux system and has all the limitations that brings (poor to no notification integration with the host system, poor integration of filesystem, extra resource usage for all of the Android services, issues with power management and suspend, inability to change resolution on the fly, poor integration with host onscreen keyboard, etc). I’ve used Waydroid on postmarketOS and it’s nice to be able to have Android apps available, but it almost feels like still carrying around a second phone, just that second phone is virtual. Something like ATL sounds like it properly integrates Android apps into the host OS. I need to give this a try soon.
Should have been called AITL (AITL Is a Translation Layer)
AITLNGNU AITL is a translation layer and not GNU that is not Unix
ATL can be “ATL is a Translation Layer”
Well, the only use of this, for most people, would probably be minecraft.
We have minecrafts on linux. One useful-ish thing that I can think of (and currently use waidroid for) is myscript’s nebo, a handwritten note-taking app with quite good OCR. Since myscript don’t build their SDK for Linux, let alone apps, it’s somewhat the only way currently, I guess… Unless you can run wpf-s via wine somehow?
Well, we don’t have bedrock and don’t even think about mcpelauncher (it’s not even foss anymore + licensing bullshit).
