waydroid VS GmsCore

Android on the desktop works very well on Wayland with Waydroid and it even supports Google Play store. https://waydro.id/

Great running apps not available on Linux with a touchscreen PC. It only seems to run Android apps compiled for x86, but it is very fast.

There are practical use cases, and it is very usable. I haven’t tried it on WSL2, but it seems like a practical approach without reliance on Microsoft.

There's a piece of software called Waydroid[1] that allows you to run Android applications on GNU/Linux platforms - including the PinePhone. Sxmo, despite its name, can run Wayland instead of X and therefore supports Waydroid.

Personally, I haven't managed to get Waydroid to work, a task hindered due to some massive initial downloads which are required to set it up. However, I haven't tried particular hard, and there are videos online by those more successful than me[2].

[1]: https://waydro.id/

[2]: https://tilvids.com/w/2b2f3a24-ae23-458e-a0fd-2f24a185a11b

I thought it was uncharacteristic of to see a service like this offered by a large tech company, and wanted to share.

Found whilst installing Waydroid: https://waydro.id/

Check out the Waydroid application.

I have setup an Arch linux server on my old pc. i mainly use it for plex, transmission, docker etc and it works pretty well! I wanted to install Waydroid https://waydro.id/ on that server. Is there a way that I can view waydroid using a VNC viewer on my laptop on the same network? is it possible or would I have to install a GUI like xfce before installing waydroid to view the same on tigervnc or some other VNC viewer? Thanks & regards.

> I run Fedora Linux after removing ChromeOS

Same here. Sometimes, it crashes on a measly 4 GB of RAM.

> (the only thing I'm missing is running Android apps)

I would recommend using Waydroid[1]. It runs fairly well in my use case, and runs LineageOS on top of it with the full LineageOS GUI.

[1]: https://waydro.id/

i am using KDE Neon (user edition) on two machines (thinkpad laptops with intel). On mentioned machines i would like to try and use waydroid: https://waydro.id/ Waydroid required wayland as display server (it will probably not work on x11).

Check (Waydroid)[https://waydro.id/]

Waydroid is rebuilding the original idea behind Anbox with explicit focus on modern Wayland powered desktop environments.

I, an engineer, am not doing this myself, too. There is a middle ground though: just use a privacy-oriented Android build, like DivestOS. [1]

There are a couple caveats:

1. It is still a bit tricky for a non-technical person to install. Should not be a problem if they know somebody who can help, though. There's been some progress making the process more user friendly recently (e.g. WebUSB-based GrapheneOS installer).

2. There are some papercuts if you don't install Google services on your phone. microG [2] helps with most but some still remain. My main concern with this setup is that I can't use Google Pay this way, but having to bring my card with me every time seems like an acceptable trade off to me.

[1]: https://divestos.org/

[2]: https://microg.org/

I have been running de-googled LineageOS since before it renamed/reformed from CyanogenMod, so since somewhere around 2013/14. That has looked rather different depending on what exactly I need from my phone but I'll share what my current set up looks like.

First, I have don't use any kind of Google/Samsung/Apple Pay wallets so if you do, this may not be helpful; I've never looked into trying to get any of those working. Also, by "de-googled" I mean that I don't have GApps installed on my phone. I do have microG[0] installed as a Magisk[1]/LSPosed[2] module; this allows a few apps to believe I have GApps while most apps do not see/have access. I do not turn on microG for any apps (i.e. no connection to the Google servers/services via microG).

Most of my apps come from F-Droid[3], a few from Aurora Store[4] (a 3rd-part frontend for the Play Store that does not require either an account or GApps installed), a very few from FFupdater[5], and have played with using Obtanium[6] but currently only have one (weather) app updating via it. I have several different repositories configured in F-Droid but I don't generally keep mental track of which repository I am dependent on for which apps; the default, IzzyOnDroid[7], Bitwarden[8], NewPipe[9], microG[10], and Collabora[11] are some of them.

I have two banking apps installed via Aurora Store, one of which requires microG and root-hiding (via Magisk module) while the other doesn't require either. My browsers (Firefox, Firefox Klar, Brave) come from FFupdater and none require microG. My texting (QUIK SMS), email (K-9 Mail), TOTP authenticator (Aegis), password manager (Bitwarden), GPS/Maps (OsmAnd), file syncing (Nextcloud), notes (Nextcloud Notes), HN reader (HN), and Contacts/Calendar sync (DAVx5, ICSx5) apps all come via F-Droid (either the main repo or others). I have many others apps which come from F-Droid or Aurora Store but the above are my most used.

For file, calendar, notes, photo, & contact syncing, I have a Nextcloud server set up and find it to work quite well; the Nextcloud apps are also quite good. Someone who doesn't want to run their own could use a hosted account[12]. Contacts & calendars are synced to Nextcloud via DAVx5 & ICSx5.

The primary challenges I am aware of at this point are hardware (it is increasingly difficult to install LineageOS on most hardware due to bootloader locks), and navigation (OpenStreetMap data usually doesn't include addresses in the USA). For hardware, the solution is essentially just to properly research the phone you want to buy; I always make sure the model is well supported by LineageOS before purchasing and then tend to hang on to it for several years. For navigation, I usually find the address on my desktop or mobile browser (via DuckDuckGo) and then manually input the location into OsmAnd before the trip but I also keep WeGo Here maps installed in case I don't have time for that (it usually takes <2 minutes and rarely more than 5 to manually find & enter the address). Additionally, getting the one banking app to work without GApps was a pain in the butt initially (requiring testing several Magisk & LSPosed modules), but now it just works and I don't really think about it.

Overall, I don't find my version of de-googled to be a detriment; my phone is useful and I have more control over my data and over annoyances (such as unnecessary notifications) than I would otherwise.

[0] https://microg.org

Is anyone here daily-driving microg and can share their experiences? https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/wiki/Implementation-Status does not exactly inspire confidence.

...will need to be rewritten to avoid Google Play Services.

Not true.

All that needs to happen is for open source developers to "re-implement Google’s proprietary Android user space apps and libraries".

https://microg.org/

microG itself connects directly to Google: https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/wiki/Google-Network-Connec...

No shit, of course they do.

>In general, we obviously try to minimize the connections to Google, but some services strictly rely on them and would just not work without.

What exactly do you think they should do instead?

MicroG

In release notes for GmsCore v0.2.29.233013 (https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/releases/tag/v0.2.29.233013), I also see:

Yes, the Xposed module is one way. There are also other ways

Which one should I use? Is this MicroG's official website right? (https://microg.org/)