Nix-on-droid: Nix-enabled environment for your Android device (termux-based)
github.com
github.com
Another such gem: userland.tech (let's you run full distros or apps on linux, including Debain and Arch). I use it to run LibreOffice on my Android Tablet.
HN seems to be mostly Apple & iOS users which are probably not very up to date on what's going on in the Android ecosystem, so HN is a good agregator to learn about these things.
I've run various terminals and even cut down distros on Android since all the way back in the Android 2.1 era. Maybe people have simply forgotten, maybe they don't care because they're stuck inside Apple's ecosystem, but there's nothing new here.
The biggest news is that Google is actually trying to cut down on running downloadable executables for security reasons, which is one of the reasons why the Termux release on Google Play can't be updated anymore. The devs would be required to target modern Android, which would drop all compatibility workarounds, which would break running most executables these tools provide. Luckily, the F-Droid version still remains usable.
I've watched projects like this come and go for like 12 years now, and I've always thought that it's an interesting problem with interesting solutions.
There's a termux equivalent package called proot-distro you can install, if you're fine with CLI.
preload based unprivileged chroot exists (libfakechroot), but doesn't work for static linked binaries.
I am guessing it is avoiding all the android-lockdown problems besetting termux... though termux still works for me on android 11...
It uses proot - doesn't that come with a substantial performance hit?
termux doesn't use proot - its distribution has all paths rewritten (usually in source) to cope with the android filesystem (and other changes). I'm always surprised that this hackery works so well!
Therefore, I'd expect identical programs to be slower in nix-on-droid.
Probably. But modern phones are well beyond the power needed to run linux programs at useful speeds. Termux first came out over a decade ago, IIRC. Back then phones were much less powerful.
it’s quite a marvel, way beyond termux. performance is good even on poorish hardware.
in fact you could have mine for 100 GBP - I've realised how little I use it - harry @ skh . am if you are interested.
https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium https://privsec.dev/posts/android/f-droid-security-issues/
1) F-droid has been around for a long time and it's proven to be well governed.
2) F-droid tells me if the software is still maintained, if it's a fork of another project, if the opensource software is using non open service as a backend, etc..
Size and freshness.
(*) Not a scientific estimate.