SteveO

I'm certain the vast majority of us know about Android to some degree or another and how it's mainly a mobile operating system platform. Since the Android project is open source I have an idea. Instead of having Android running purely on mobile devices with ARM- and Tegra-based processors why not port it to x86 and/or x64 architectures as a secondary UI layer or an alternative operating system for netbooks (like Jolicloud or something)? All Android really consists of is Linux (the Dalvik virtual machine) that runs the Android system, so it would be relatively simple (conceptually speaking...it will be a bit more difficult to actually accomplish) to have Dalvik (and consequently Android) run as a separate process and then define some hotkeys to bring the UI layer into the foreground and send it back into the background. I see it running similar to the Expose feature on OS X in my mind. This is just an idea; I recently came across a project that has ported Android to the x86 platform so it's just a matter of seeing how useful an Android port could be on normal machines (like laptops, netbooks and desktop towers instead of just tablets, phones and other mobile devices). I'm sure others have thought of something like this before, but I want to see how others think such a project could turn out since Android is a pretty versatile and customizable product...and given it's popularity I personally think a port as a secondary UI layer (similar to how the Windows 8 demo looked a few months back) has the potential to be successful. Thoughts? Comments? I just thought this up.

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12mrsaturns

Well I think that android doesn't have anything more to offer than any other linux-based OS. Except for perhaps it is more known due to many phones using it. Other than that I don't see any clear advantages to having a laptop with android running on it to a laptop running ubuntu or fedora.

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King

I also don't see what Android offers over the current Linux distros. Android is fine on your phone, but it is far too limiting for running on your netbook, laptop, or desktop (at least for me). I find it too locked down, even for a phone (I found Maemo to be a far better and more open mobile OS).

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Targaryen

I have to agree with the guys on the fact that Android can`t really offer anything that any other linux based OS can... However, there is the question of a"unified platforms OS" [I hope I named that well] - one system for all products... Windows 8 will be the first, but also the worst [in my opinion Metro is awful in the desktop segment - ugly, simplistic in a bad way and just plain kindergarden stuff]... Linux based programs offer the chance to build together some really cool and working OS for all devices... And not just any, but a really revolutionary one...
I`ve been thinking a lot for the last couple of months about the future of the GUI in operating systems... For more than 20 years we`ve had the same GUI [just more flashy every version]... Time for revolution is what I say... Kinect and similar technology is coming and there`s no stopping it, but the proper OS is still not in sight...

P.S. Sorry for the slight OfTopic

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titaniumdecoy

Looks like Android isn't so open source anymore... no word of if or when Google will release the Ice Cream Sandwich source code. I wouldn't be surprised if Google chose to withhold it indefinitely, if only to prevent Amazon from forking it into another Kindle. Of course, I hope I'm wrong.