Google says Android-powered laptops are coming in 2026. Will they actually matter, though?
  • 1984@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    1 month ago

    With the way things are going on the mobile Android side and hope Google get fucked.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
    5·
    1 month ago

    No it’s not largely because of Google mocking around with it.

    Just install Linux stop trying to make Android desktop a thing. It’s not going to be a thing and no one really wants it to be a thing anyway. Move on.

    • Typhoon@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      1 month ago

      But Google can’t control Linux. They can control Android. That’s the only reason they’re pushing it.

  • ohlaph@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 month ago

    They could. If it’s anything like the Android TV platform, it will be laggy and full of junk.

  • demonsword@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    30 days ago

    I guess there is a market for those who wants notebooks deeply buried in some hellish corporate walled garden. Not me, though.

  • anon5621@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    1 month ago

    Android will never be a serious desktop operating system, and the reasons are pretty fundamental. You don’t have admin rights by default, which means you can’t truly control your own machine the way you can with any real desktop OS. Everything has to go through Java interfaces in the end, even when you try to use the NDK for native code. There’s this constant layer of middleware sitting between you and what you actually want to do, adding overhead and limiting what’s really possible.

    Compare this to Linux, Windows, or macOS where applications can directly access system resources when needed. You can compile native code that runs at full speed without virtualization layers. You can modify system files, install kernel modules, and actually own your computing environment. Android treats you like a guest on your own device. But the real dealbreaker is the complete lack of proper driver support. Try plugging in a WiFi dongle, a professional scanner, a printer that isn’t mainstream, or a racing wheel. You simply can’t install drivers for custom devices the way you can on Windows, Linux, or macOS.

    Android’s driver model is closed and locked to specific devices, not open to the kind of hardware ecosystem that desktop users have always relied on. On a real desktop OS, manufacturers can write drivers, users can compile them, and the community can support obscure hardware for decades. Android doesn’t work that way and never will.

    The whole architecture was designed for mobile consumption, not desktop creation. Professional software needs low-level system access and real performance without layers of abstraction getting in the way. Desktop OSes give you real file systems you can navigate freely, package managers or installers that put files where they need to go, and proper background processes. Android hides all of this behind its sandboxed app model. People keep talking about Android on desktops, but bolting on some desktop features doesn’t fix these fundamental architectural problems. It’s a mobile OS, and that’s what it will always be.