Android Remix OS review for personal computers
More recently, on January 14, 2016, an operating system for an Android PC called Remix OS from Jide was released . The company was founded by ex-Google employees. The system is free and there is freely available alpha version for developers.
On the product page you can find a description of the new OS, system requirements and download the distribution kit with a utility for writing to a flash drive. There is also a link to Google services GMSInstaller.apk , which are not preinstalled on the system. Without services, you won’t have a Play Market and you simply won’t be able to download applications.
So, in order to try the new OS, I used the low-power ASUS X102BA netbook with a Transcend USB 3.0 16GB flash drive.
The system signed up for flash in 2 minutes. After rebooting and selecting the BIOS boot from flash, the process of checking the drive for write speed and other checks went.
The first start takes a little longer than the following, then the OS asks for the language of the system. You can choose from English, Chinese and another Asian. We read the agreement, which is quite voluminous, so I didn’t read it, I just scrolled and clicked OK. There is a proposal to connect an available Wi-Fi network.
Next, we find ourselves on the desktop, whose design is very similar to the design of Windows 10, it is worth taking a look at the taskbar and notification area to see this. What does android have such a notification bar appeared earlier than in windows 10, so it’s already clear who borrowed it from someone.
Minimalist start, nothing more. Once again, Google services are not preinstalled. By default in the start list:
The video is played back by the MX player normally.
With the sound, too, everything is in order. The test is a program for creating music called Caustic, which is available both under android and under windows.
The OS is multi-window, not surprising since it is designed for PC, it would be foolish if it were different. In some android shells, this has long been implemented on tablets.
The browser works, both standard and Chrome. I do not use another, I think there will be no problems with the others either.
Perhaps enough of the simple, file manager and other applications work by default. Difficulties can arise with installed applications, for example, with office or games, and with any others. Google docs, sheets and other office document editors can be cut down by themselves, or stupid. Perhaps products from other manufacturers will work better, but "how would kind of Google apps" work poorly. Of course, not bad applications, but just a damp system.
There are applications, including games for android that work or download content via WI-FI, that is, “they don’t know” about the release of a new android-based OS into which you can now insert a network wire. So, in fact, data is transmitted over the same protocols simply in different environments. Now it is up to developers who remove this limitation to make both types of connections at the software level equal.
The network connection through the wire is active, but are all the applications friendly with it? For example, the Asphalt 8 game asks to turn on Wi-Fi, does not want to download content over the wire. How many such moody programs? Complex issue. By the way, Asphalt 8 didn’t work for me, it all ended in the loading picture of the GAMELOFT studio.
There were two games in total, asphalt 8 and need for speed no limits. The latter pleased that it worked, and it worked quite normally. I did not delve into the settings, but I do not think that there is a setting for the keyboard. Fortunately, there is a touchscreen on my netbook and it turned out to play by clicking on the screen with my fingers.
We check settings and about. We see what we can configure in this OS and what it is built on. Its foundation is android 5.1.1.
The Antutu benchmark results are not encouraging, although it is difficult to say how adequate this performance rating is. It is unlikely that the program is designed for PC. Maybe the computer is just weak or the drivers are damp, after updating the drivers and the release of a stable version of the system it will be clear.
Now let's talk about the bad. Applications often crash into a quick reboot or into a black screen. I think in the first case, just something went wrong, not according to the scheme. I imagine this as a bad branching in the OS code, that is, if the system "does not understand" what happened, well, it doesn’t have an option for such a development of events - it quickly reboots. The black screen is most likely caused by a reboot of the video driver. This of course is just my reasoning, in fact, the reason may be different.
In conclusion, I would like to note that this operating system has a future. For owners of low-power or old PCs this will be a gift at what is free, you can play android games if there are not enough resources for demanding windows games. There will be an opportunity to update a piece of iron with new software. With drivers already in the alpha version, not everything is so bad, the network, sound, touch, mouse work, and you don’t need to look for anything, everything clings to itself. If Remix OS gains popularity it will obviously affect the labor market in IT, new vacancies will appear for those who are already writing under the “bucket” or just starting. Of course, there are always disadvantages, for example, nothing will replace the Microsoft Office in Windows, it can most likely be delivered using a crutch-like thread like wine, but this kind of “entertainment” is no longer for the average user.
If you want to contribute to the development of the system or just discuss this product, join the Google group - Remix OS for PC.
On the product page you can find a description of the new OS, system requirements and download the distribution kit with a utility for writing to a flash drive. There is also a link to Google services GMSInstaller.apk , which are not preinstalled on the system. Without services, you won’t have a Play Market and you simply won’t be able to download applications.
So, in order to try the new OS, I used the low-power ASUS X102BA netbook with a Transcend USB 3.0 16GB flash drive.
The system signed up for flash in 2 minutes. After rebooting and selecting the BIOS boot from flash, the process of checking the drive for write speed and other checks went.
The first start takes a little longer than the following, then the OS asks for the language of the system. You can choose from English, Chinese and another Asian. We read the agreement, which is quite voluminous, so I didn’t read it, I just scrolled and clicked OK. There is a proposal to connect an available Wi-Fi network.
Next, we find ourselves on the desktop, whose design is very similar to the design of Windows 10, it is worth taking a look at the taskbar and notification area to see this. What does android have such a notification bar appeared earlier than in windows 10, so it’s already clear who borrowed it from someone.
Minimalist start, nothing more. Once again, Google services are not preinstalled. By default in the start list:
- Browser standard Google
- Calculator
- Camera
- Clock
- Downloads
- File manager
- MX player with ads, most likely you need to buy or remove it
- Music
- Settings
- Widgets
The video is played back by the MX player normally.
With the sound, too, everything is in order. The test is a program for creating music called Caustic, which is available both under android and under windows.
The OS is multi-window, not surprising since it is designed for PC, it would be foolish if it were different. In some android shells, this has long been implemented on tablets.
The browser works, both standard and Chrome. I do not use another, I think there will be no problems with the others either.
Perhaps enough of the simple, file manager and other applications work by default. Difficulties can arise with installed applications, for example, with office or games, and with any others. Google docs, sheets and other office document editors can be cut down by themselves, or stupid. Perhaps products from other manufacturers will work better, but "how would kind of Google apps" work poorly. Of course, not bad applications, but just a damp system.
There are applications, including games for android that work or download content via WI-FI, that is, “they don’t know” about the release of a new android-based OS into which you can now insert a network wire. So, in fact, data is transmitted over the same protocols simply in different environments. Now it is up to developers who remove this limitation to make both types of connections at the software level equal.
The network connection through the wire is active, but are all the applications friendly with it? For example, the Asphalt 8 game asks to turn on Wi-Fi, does not want to download content over the wire. How many such moody programs? Complex issue. By the way, Asphalt 8 didn’t work for me, it all ended in the loading picture of the GAMELOFT studio.
There were two games in total, asphalt 8 and need for speed no limits. The latter pleased that it worked, and it worked quite normally. I did not delve into the settings, but I do not think that there is a setting for the keyboard. Fortunately, there is a touchscreen on my netbook and it turned out to play by clicking on the screen with my fingers.
We check settings and about. We see what we can configure in this OS and what it is built on. Its foundation is android 5.1.1.
The Antutu benchmark results are not encouraging, although it is difficult to say how adequate this performance rating is. It is unlikely that the program is designed for PC. Maybe the computer is just weak or the drivers are damp, after updating the drivers and the release of a stable version of the system it will be clear.
Now let's talk about the bad. Applications often crash into a quick reboot or into a black screen. I think in the first case, just something went wrong, not according to the scheme. I imagine this as a bad branching in the OS code, that is, if the system "does not understand" what happened, well, it doesn’t have an option for such a development of events - it quickly reboots. The black screen is most likely caused by a reboot of the video driver. This of course is just my reasoning, in fact, the reason may be different.
In conclusion, I would like to note that this operating system has a future. For owners of low-power or old PCs this will be a gift at what is free, you can play android games if there are not enough resources for demanding windows games. There will be an opportunity to update a piece of iron with new software. With drivers already in the alpha version, not everything is so bad, the network, sound, touch, mouse work, and you don’t need to look for anything, everything clings to itself. If Remix OS gains popularity it will obviously affect the labor market in IT, new vacancies will appear for those who are already writing under the “bucket” or just starting. Of course, there are always disadvantages, for example, nothing will replace the Microsoft Office in Windows, it can most likely be delivered using a crutch-like thread like wine, but this kind of “entertainment” is no longer for the average user.
If you want to contribute to the development of the system or just discuss this product, join the Google group - Remix OS for PC.