Android-x86 Just Might Make a Good Linux Desktop Alternative

I remember in Android's early years, Mark Shuttleworth demo'd the ability to run a few Android apps on Ubuntu. Why is no one working on what should be a relatively easy translation layer? What a way to sell Linux that would be! Here run all of your Andoid apps, plus a full desktop operating system.

I can see it now!

AINE: AINE is not an Emulator.

derived from, Andriod Emulator.

Well, wouldn't the primary requirement be a Dalvik runtime enviroment? I wonder if one exists.

OK, some quick research reveals this article, which may be what Mark was doing: http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Android-on-Ubuntu-Linux-with-...

I would love to see Dalvik (or the new Android virtual machine, Art) ported to Linux for x86, but a Free Software version of such a thing does not seem to be forthcoming.

Unfortunately, it's not as easy as just putting the existing Dalvik for x86 on Linux because the C library and low level support software for Android is incompatible with a conventional Linux distribution. The Android virtual machine would actually have to be ported to GNU/Linux. Since all the software involved is open source there is nothing actually stopping this from happening except the fact that it is a far from trivial task. Still I would have expected more rumblings of it than I've actually heard. Right now the best you can do is either the Android Development Environment/SDK or else Android for x86 on a virtual machine.