With Jide’s announcement that they’d stop working on Remix OS for the consumer market, focusing on the enterprise market instead, people who like to use Android as a desktop OS lost an option. Luckily, others have not given up on the concept yet, and Phoenix OS 2.1 based on Android 7.1 with desktop improvements has just been released for computers based on Intel/AMD 32-bit and 64-bit x86 processors.
Phoemix OS user interface is a mix between Windows desktop with a desktop, a taskbar, and a start menu, and Android with notifications, and Back/Home/Recent buttons. The OS also supports Android apps, multi-window, window resizing, better multi-tasking, and so on.
Changelog for Phoenix OS 2.1:
- Keyboard mapping updates to version 2.5 with smart casting for Strike of Kings.
- The bug that window size won’t be saved after restart has been fixed.
- Enhance the hardware compatibility, including: sound card, network adapter, etc.
- “Start Phoenix system” shortcut supports legacy boot now.
- Optimize the Phoenix OS downloader.
If you want to go ahead you can download a 32-bit or 64-bit installer or ISO file. Phoenix OS is installed on a separate partition and should not interfere with your current operating system according to the x86 FAQ. Some people have commented in the announcement post linked in the introduction, and some people appear to have issues with games, installation on specific hardware, and Wifi reconnect after resume, so it may not be perfectly stable or mostly bug free yet.
Via Liliputing
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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The king is dead, long live the king. It was only a matter of time before someone else filled in the gap.
Is there source code available for this? Why would anyone be more interested in this compared to Remix OS?
Because Remix OS is no longer being developed or supported.
Still no root, no google play (which is not possible w/o root)
What about Phoenix OS 2.1 for ARM?
@Pepe
You could be interested in the work here. https://fsfe.org/campaigns/campaigns.en.html
Also in Google Play look for Sentio Desktop and Leena Desktop ( both have in app purchases )
@theguyuk
I don’t think @Pepe is interested in Free Android, as he wants to use Google Play in Phoenix OS.
@Pepe
No idea what I did wrong then, yet I have all my favorite apps and games installed from Google Play Store.
There is a Chinese OS based on Android x86 which has a Chinese language home page but it seems you can chose English when installing
OPENTHOS is the OS name.
@ML2MST Yup it has Google Play fully functional by default. Also camera works in some machines.
BTW you must choose english/chinese lenguage at instalation, but you can change/delete lenguages later, and install your own. (Tested with russian, japanese, spanish and greek)
What we need is a comprehensive list of all the trash it has installed by default, to choose what needs uninstalling and what not.
Had this on my to do list for a while and now that I heard about them releasing their kernel sources I finally made time to test PhoenixOSInstaller_v2.2.0.207_x86_x64 on a baytrail device. Wifi works. Graphics accelerated properly and responsive. System stable… Honestly not sure what to say. It’s been, what?! 3 years since I gave up on this thing over being a Windows only dust trap? Last time I managed to run anything stable on it was with Debian on a 3.16 kernel…
Well, hopefully android-x86 will catch up to their kernel patches eventually seeing how this CPU will never see mainline support.
Thanks for the tip!