It's based on Linux with a huge chunk of Java and Google spyware dumped on top of it. Java is horrible and inefficient, I spent many years avoiding anything to do with Java until I got an Android phone, at that point I remembered why I avoid Java. The apps in the Google store are a complete bloat-fest, compare the installation size to the free software apps on F-Droid and you'll see what I mean.

Android doesn't use partitions properly and it's usually very specific to devices. It's also designed for touch screens, personally I can't stand touch screens but even if you can, doesn't seem like it's suited to a PC/Laptop.

I've used Android x86 version on KVM and Virtualbox, it's horribly slow, better than the emulator with the SDK but it's still not great so hopefully they've optimised this properly for x86...but why bother? Android is mostly used on ARM, why mess around getting it to work efficiently on x86 when you can just install Linux which works perfectly on x86?

Arch Linux will install on anything this will install on plus a lot more, compile your own kernel if you want to really slim it down, though personally I wouldn't bother these days. I have Arch on a really old EEEPC netbook, latest kernel from the repo, latest packages, works fine, runs better than Android ever has on my dual core phone which must have at least 5 times the spec of my netbook. Android seems extremely poor at using hardware to its full potential, probably done deliberately to encourage people to buy new phones all the time.

Use something like ArchBang if you think you're incapable of following the Arch installation guide, though you'll be missing out on a good educational experience.

Nice idea, be great for my Dad's old laptop. :smile:

I actually thought their end user agreement was a joke. All it's missing is an extra point on the bottom reading "All your base are belong to us"

JOKER!!, hahaha.

interesting..

how do you get the usb tool to work with macs :/

Wish I was more tech minded but this looks good - hope it comes with basic instructions for people like myself x

From the privacy and freedom point of view, you might be better off with Windows 10....wow, I NEVER thought I'd say that

End User Agreement........

"you're not allowed to spread rumor, disturb social order, or undermine social stability," :confused::confused: and "you agree that you irrevocably waive any and all ownership, legal and moral rights to your user content," :confused::confused: bow down to your new Chinese masters

We seem to be spoilt for choice nowadays compared to the time when we were running Win 95.
With technology advancing every month there seems to be no point in parting with ones cash for hardware that will rapidly become second best very quickly.
The Android X86 project for PC seems to be headed towards 64 bit processors.
A number of decent OS's much to my amazement have bitten the dust like CrunchBangLinux.
Win 10 manages to boot up on my netbooks in one to two minutes which is great.
Mint & Unbuntu are holding their own with a number of decent smaller OS's fading away.
Only a matter of time before The Remix Mini halves in price.
In the meantime I shall stick with my old netbooks.

Couldn't add my google account nor add any other apps - waste of time

I've got an old 32bit netbook that's got an SSD and 2gb ram so would be perfect for this if they release a 32bit version. If not I might have to give mint a try

Think I'll stick with AmiDUos. It works well within windows and both 32 and 64 bit PCs.
If you have a dual monitor set up and a PC with a bit of power, you could run Android and Windows smoothly at the same time.

I tried it briefly earlier on a virtual machine as it wouldn't run on my MacbookPro (booting from Refind). I must admit what I saw did disappointment as the videos and article I had seen gave me the impression the operating system was further developed. I could have installed Google Apps I suppose but didn't have time. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this but it does need more work.

Downloaded the official version, installed to stick, and rebooted. I cannot add my Google Account and although the standard apps appear to be installed, there are no icons and there seems no way of accessing them. There is no Play Store icon either. I have also installed it to a FAT32 partition on my SSD and the results are the same. Baffling. I think I'll probably stick with Bluestacks.

This will be great once there is a way to install this onto a HDD/SSDD rather than a boot USB. That way, there wont be any higher spec requirements like USB 3 or issues with slower read/write speeds of USB 2 etc. Also think that a 32 bit version should be available seeing as most older machines are 32 and more than capable of running a lean OS. Fingers crossed for a hack or future releases.

Anyone had a go with the official release version and have an early verdict?

The official release is out:
http://www.jide.com/en/remixos-for-pc#downloadNow

I tried the leaked version...that didn't work.

This any good? Android runs like crap compared to windows 10 on a similar spec system (can only compare with 1gb ram and atom x86 CPU) so will be interesting to see if it improves over something like XP.

Well, I think some of you might want to get another hybrid OS under your belts which has just been released. It is also from the X86 project & became available last week.

http://www.phoenixos.com/download_x86

Apparently it is a 32 bit clone of the Remix OS.

Hopefully, it will makeup for the disappointment of today.

Well I have just followed my own instructions & guess what - yep it is for 64 bit processors despite the 32 bit title. I think we have a Chinese coup of two parties here. I am used to the Chinese pinching IP from other companies but this looks like an insider job ?

Think I'll wait for the official release.

Apparently this is the English link with Google Apps (rather than the chinese version that had a different play store). I'm just downloading this and haven't tried it yet (so make sure you check it for viruses etc...)

https://otacdn.jide.com/ota/Remix_OS_for_PC_64_B2016011102_Alpha.zip

It's 12th..... where's the download?

It should work off a USB 2 as USB 3 only has two extra pins for speed. In fact USB 3 is 10 times faster. The problem is the OS spec which requires a 64 bit processor again for speed. That rules out most netbooks.
So for someone like me who only buys low spec hardware it will be a matter of waiting for the Remix Mini to drop in price.

Incidentally should any of you have queries on the Remix OS you can register on the community forum at Jide.com. I notice that a post has already been left concerning support for Intel 32 bit processors & is awaiting an answer.

This looks awesome, but one flaw unless I am understanding the tech spec requirements wrongly; its massive selling point, is that it will run super smooth on an old machine, HOWEVER it requries a USB 3.0 port to work? Most older machines wont do.

Does any one know if this will work off a USB 2.0 port and drive?

Wasn't aware of this link? (I feel old!, hehehe), thanx, lol. :-)

Waiting for the stroke of midnight so I can download this little baby, & so what its like & stuff ..... lol. :-)

Old news
http://liliputing.com/2015/07/remix-os-1-5-now-available-android-5-0-with-serious-multitasking-tweaks.html

....and yeah I have loads of 'old' PC's lying around with 64-bit & USB 3.0 ports....


So how old does your Windows have to be on your 64-bit & USB 3.0 port PC before it grinds to a halt ....more Spyware, no thanks.

this comes out 12th jan

No Guest means it doesn't save anything but Resident is supposed to save your settings to the USB stick only - your hard drive isn't supposed to be touched. They are supposed to be looking at installing to the hard drive and dual boot options later.

I don't know what went wrong. Maybe I was just unlucky - my laptop has an Fn button to get the function keys so I was switching the laptop off again and again...to find the BIOS, to switch into legacy mode, to activate the legacy boot menu - maybe all that switching off and on corrupted the MBR.

But anyway RemixOS looked like a V1 - version 1 product. I will wait until its a bit more mature. And I will make sure I have a recovery disk just in case....

OK....
I tried this and I have to say......DON'T TRY THIS ON YOUR MAIN PC!!!! I am currently on holiday so I used it on my laptop. I couldn't boot back into Windows afterwards as I think it had corrupted my MBR. I chose the Resident installation rather than the Guest. The Resident isn't supposed to touch the main hard drive only the USB but....I was getting an error message that the drive where Windows is installed is locked. Fortunately i have an Android tablet so I googled this and ran a chkdsk /r which fixed it.

Lifesaver....

From the little I saw of the RemixOS it wasn't very good anyway. The fonts were very very small - my laptop screen is fullHD so it might be better on a 720p screen or worse. Bluetooth didn't work and the whole thing seemed buggy and slow. I didn't spend much time with it as I was going out. When I came back I wanted Windows but couldn't get back in.

Maybe the official version will be better.

Would the Amazon app store work with this?

This did look interesting but I don't think you could breath life into an 'old' PC using this, most won't have a USB 3.0 port, possibly not 64 bit either, if those are recommended. I was hoping to use it on an old dual core Celeron 1.7Ghz PC but I don't think it will meet the spec's. I may have to revert to looking at either Linux Mint or Pinguy for my old PC unless its possible to use USB 2.0 and a 32 bit machine?

Although the Remix OS is said to install on PC's with Intel processors I fancy that the ordinary Atom is probably excluded. The Atom is 32 bit (excluding the hybrid processors) & the Remix I believe is for 64 bit processors.
I did install X86 Android for PC about a year ago (KitKat) with no problems except the Grub Menu had to be edited. (Eee 901),
So if you manage to install on a MSI Wind model (Remix) I think a lot of peeps would like to know.
Early days yet.

Just confirmed the 32/64 bit problem.
Unless there is a leaked 32 bit download, tomorrow it will have to be.

This is the x86 version that I've used:

http://www.android-x86.org/download

You'll need virtualbox or KVM to use it. VMWare probably works too and some physical hardware if you're lucky. It runs pretty poorly though. Genymotion will download and setup a virtual machine for you and runs better than using the x86 iso. With either of these approaches installing the google play store and other apps (GAPPS) is quite hit and miss.

I don't know about this RemixOS, hopefully it's better optimised for x86. I wouldn't be surprised if the google play store and services are difficult/impossible to get though, I think google restrict that quite heavily with licensing and things.

You should also be able to run RemixOS in a virtual machine to try it out, virtualbox is easiest for a windows user and free.

Ah I see. Fair enough. I'm the opposite, I spend my working life using Windows. Glad to get back to osx when I can

Someone above wanted the OS now :

https://www.droidmen.com/remix-os-leaked-download-remix-os-usb-tool/

It's a work Macbook so I didn't have any choice and I do still need MacOS for some things, but I'm free to do with it whatever I like... Well within reason.

Have to ask why use a Macbook then? Why not sell it and just get a Windows laptop??

dar72, busterdan, anyone? .. other then the OP's Android RemixOS, where else can i get myself a copy of the Android O/S please? (in either APK, ISO, EXE Format?, or otherswise ..... ) thanx in advance. :-)

Oh WOW!, WOW!, WOW! .. JUST WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR SOME DAYS NOW!, OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!, hehehehe, thanx OP.

Gonna bite my tongue for this for the next few days, then see what this little doozie has offer me too, huh ..... :-)

I've been trying to find me an actual Android O/S to play with for ages! (Adroid APK?, ISO?, EXE?, or otherwise!), but .....

This little baby will do me just FINE until such time as perhaps theres a Google Android O/S out there I can raher have/to play with either as well 7/or instead or something?, lol. :-)

This looks kinda promising still ..... :-)

I would also recommend people try Ami Duos - it allows you to run X86 Android on Windows and the best thing is its very fast. If you like it, then it costs $15 but you can try it for free for a month. Its an easy way of turning your touch screen laptop into a huge Android tablet

https://amiduos.com/#

I will certainly be trying this RemixOS a try

I use Android on my mobile just because it's the closest match to my needs that's available cheaply, yes I know about things like Sailfish but I'm reluctant to pay more than £150 for a phone, preferably closer to £100. I might try Ubuntu Touch but buying a device just to try it out is expensive.

If you want to run Android in a VM, Genymotion seems to be a lot better than trying to set it up yourself, it uses Virtualbox in the background.

You clearly know what you are talking about and like you I have used Android in VM's and it's not good, I've also used Arch, Kali, Mint... etc. and my kids have a new distro on their Intel based Chromebooks called Gallium.... it's really lean and works very well indeed!

As mentioned I have access to Macs through my work but I hate OSx, personally I really like Windows 10 (hence using Bootcamp), but on mobile at least Android is where it is at for me. I am certainly keen to try this and I wont be going into it blindly I have high expectations and if it doesn't meet them then that USB stick will very quickly be wiped!!

It's based on Linux with a huge chunk of Java and Google spyware dumped on top of it. Java is horrible and inefficient, I spent many years avoiding anything to do with Java until I got an Android phone, at that point I remembered why I avoid Java. The apps in the Google store are a complete bloat-fest, compare the installation size to the free software apps on F-Droid and you'll see what I mean.

Android doesn't use partitions properly and it's usually very specific to devices. It's also designed for touch screens, personally I can't stand touch screens but even if you can, doesn't seem like it's suited to a PC/Laptop.

I've used Android x86 version on KVM and Virtualbox, it's horribly slow, better than the emulator with the SDK but it's still not great so hopefully they've optimised this properly for x86...but why bother? Android is mostly used on ARM, why mess around getting it to work efficiently on x86 when you can just install Linux which works perfectly on x86?

Arch Linux will install on anything this will install on plus a lot more, compile your own kernel if you want to really slim it down, though personally I wouldn't bother these days. I have Arch on a really old EEEPC netbook, latest kernel from the repo, latest packages, works fine, runs better than Android ever has on my dual core phone which must have at least 5 times the spec of my netbook. Android seems extremely poor at using hardware to its full potential, probably done deliberately to encourage people to buy new phones all the time.

Use something like ArchBang if you think you're incapable of following the Arch installation guide, though you'll be missing out on a good educational experience.

Looks awesome! Thanks OP :smile:

but how many people own a cash machine? :smirk:

Android is a horrible OS, get real Linux instead, installs on pretty much anything

been looking into this when they had the remix mini on kickstarter. Looking forward to testing this out on a very slow windows 10 laptop. Might also give it a try on my Macbook Pro.

This Remix has been leaked. I downloaded it on utorrent & installed on a USB 2 stick. It loaded on the flash drive okay & than booted it to a netbook.
Well, it started & the kernel decompressed but no Remix OS followed in either mode, Guest or Resident.
I can only assume it may be because my netbook is 32 bit although Android is not supposed to be fussy. No doubt all will become clear next week.

I agree with some of the comments that this post was a little early considering its not available for a couple more days, but I'd never heard of it before now so heat from me.

It's not recommended, sounds like mandatory to me:
Minimum System Requirements

A USB 3.0 flash drive that supports FAT32 format, with a minimum capacity of 8GB and a recommended writing speed of 20MB/s.
A PC with USB legacy boot option.

I'd be interesting to see how it runs on a Linx 10 tablet. I can't say I'm fond of Windows 10 on a Linx 8 tablet.
Great find, thanks OP.

This looks good. How are they making money on this if its free? Ads?

This thread is well worth a follow.
Have an unused PC or two.

True but I'd try to stick with USB 3 if possible otherwise it may be really frustrating.

Can I install it to my external hard drive and boot from there? Because my internal hard drive is failing and I'm gonna need a os for the time being before I replace it

It doesn't need to be USB 3.0, it is recommended you use that because of its speed. I imagine USB 2.0 will work just fine, it might be a bit slower at loading but will definitely work if you don't have USB 3.0.

No although you can assign the OS to your primary boot drive on your PC If you want that outcome otherwise this will boot off a USB stick keeping your existing OS intact

Does this wipe the previous os. and replace it with android. ?

Android 6 (Marshmallow) does support 64 bit architectures so I doubt it will be long. OpenCL I'm not sure, it's basically android, so productivity tends to take a back seat to user experience and just having fun. I think the possibilities with this are endless and it could be huge. The way they want to make money as I understand is to get a user base in the first instance then use it to sell through OEMs, licensing it on their hardware as an alternative for the likes of Windows and MacOS. I really like the simplicity of Chromebooks but it could also make them obsolete. If Remix became popular I think Google will buy the company and rebadge it as their own (or imagine if a competitor, Microsoft? was to do that).

Only 32bit Bit, and no OpenCL driver support.

It looks like Windows 10 with a few different things.. I'll try it anyway. But got a feeling Microsoft will probably have something to say about it

I'm gonna put it on my 1210's

Hot BTW

I'm genuinely interested in how Android is 'resilient'. I'm not being funny at all, just curious.

I've got it running on a remix-mini, it's a great OS.

The linked page also states:-

It'll be freely available... here's another LINK to a Gizmodo article

Ah okay I just saw this: "Disclaimer: Remix OS is only licensed to authorized business partners and pre-loaded on specific product models of those partners;it's not intended for personal use."

Pretty sure its only for supported devices ATM and you can't download yet unless you apply as a manufacturer

Sorry I've made my post clearer... it's available from the 12th Jan.

So not available yet, so technically not a freebie

Is this available yet?
It says from mid January.
Great find though
Heat added