Windows 11 and Android-support

[Wingnut]

As Microsoft Windows 11 will introduce native *Android support* now, although there will be two stores...
Do you see any use in creating actual Windows native apps, are there practical differences in let's say speed, I/O interactivty etc?

While Microsoft does that the rest of the marketplace is growing..

ChromeOS is shutting down in 10 months.. On top of that Google (after 5+ years of development) finally release their first real devices with their non-linux-based-OS..Fushia. I think they have began to replace the old OS CastOS on devices such as Google Nest Hub units this week actually.

So ChromeOS is out, Fuschia is in.. but Android can thankfully soon run on Windows machines, so there's always Android!

 

[MikeHart]

For me it is a nice gadget. But on a desktop, I want a desktop app. Mostlikely these Android Apps run in a Environment that will not know about the rest of the system. But I could be wrong here.

 

[Wingnut]

I see your point, and don't get me wrong I like the current packaging, and the existing installing worked much easier than I thought.

I'm just gonna add an icon now, becuase Linux'es never use icons in their executables, so I do a .desktop file to get one. I'm just experimenting right now but it's lot of fun to see it work so easily.. There's both good and bad with having AppImage I'm sure.

 

[MikeHart]

Wrong topic?

 

[ddabrahim]

ChromeOS is shutting down in 10 months..

What do you mean by that Chrome OS is shutting down and out? I could not find any info about that. By searching for Fuchsia, the only info I've found was that it is coming to Nest Hubs. No word on when to expect it on other platforms. I know the rumours are Fuchsia is going to replace Android and Chrome OS at some point in the future, but can't find any actual confirmation about that.

Regarding Android vs Windows. If I wanted to target desktop users, I don't think I would target Android but even if I wanted to target mobile users I'm not too sure if Amazon would be my first choice. I am not that impressed with this Amazon integration in to Win11 to be honest. It is certainly going to be nice to also able to use your Amazon apps on Windows. But I don't think it is worth to think about Amazon apps as a replacement for Windows apps. Microsoft certainly don't want developers to stop publishing native Windows apps in the Windows store. Most likely this is how Microsoft want to bring some popular mobile apps to Windows that developers did not care to release because of the small market share of Windows tablets and to also compete with Chromebooks. Amazon also certainly want to compete with Chromebooks, so a joint effort with Microsoft makes a lot of sense for both parties. But I don't think Amazon apps could replace native Windows apps really.

 

[Wingnut]

Google are not gonna support ChromeOS more than 9-10 more months now. You can read about it in many places but here is one I could find quickliy googling :

Chrome apps removal 2021 - Google Chrome Community

support.google.com

But the technology will keep exist inside Chrome-extensions at least.. Me personally Im just want a platform to experirment with webtechnology for UI so I will just find other ways doing it..

Fuschia has just began for real now and I don't think that you will hear too much about it just yet for a while. It's just something for the curious minds out there. I'm keen for real-time systems so I will probably be on the train when it arrives.

I'm not that impressed either with Microsoft's support and It's hard to see what they are trying to do but I like how the next generation of Visual Studio / .NET is able to do more and more. I think they have reliased that they need do be cross-platform to survive.

It's a messy time and everything is about business-based fragmentation..

I'm especially interested in Android now becuase of of it is a big market and as I don't own a Windows s machine anymore. I got some of the cheapest hw there is and I put Linux and I created everything from scratch to see if I could survive and maybe make a living making Android apps using the absolute minimum of resources. I would love to still be able to do some Windows software, so maybe it is possible, I'm not sure how the quality in their Android support will be. It's nothing that I count on for sure. But I do have hope..

 

[Wingnut]

Of course this doesn't mean that Chromebooks will be left for dead, which is why they're swapping out Chrome browser for Lacros on Chromebooks. They will be well kept up to date whenever ChromeOS is not updated anymore. So they will stay secure and additional functionalty can continue. So they will still be cost-effective productive machines.

In my mind Google are going from the focus of simulating an OS and apps using raw HTML CSS JS
into using compiled HTML CSS JS using their set of technologies which now are Fuschia Dart Angular and Flutter. These are the only ones who can use some of the newcoming low-level web API's are ChromeOS, Chrome extensions and probably Flutter, so I think this is what is happening.

They are not just learning from their mistakes with ChromeOS and trying to do it better, they are also reaching out to ios etc. This is gonna be Google's take on cross-platform is my guess.

 

[Wingnut]

But it does mean that I wasted $5 to beomce an ChromeOS-developer last month, that could have been donated to Cerberus instead.

 

[ddabrahim]

Ah, the Chrome apps yes I heard that one Chrome OS is dropping support for them. Yes I think Google have realised long ago people are not that interested in web apps but native apps and Google is about to transform the internal workings of Chrome OS significantly with a strong focus on using Android as the backend for now and later Fuchsia I guess.

I think in general it is worth to make Android your primary target, it is extremely popular and does not require lot of effort to port an Android app over to other variants like Fire OS and Harmony OS unless you have strong integration with Google services. So if you don't own a Windows machine and Android is your primary target, it is reasonable to ship Amazon apps even on Windows.
But since you have to publish in the one and only Amazon App Store which is primarily a mobile/tv market place, I am not so sure if you can publish traditional desktop experiences that is hard to use on mobile and tv devices. Maybe in case this collaboration between Microsoft and Amazon result in a new category for Win11 devices in the Amazon App Store so you can hide your desktop apps from tv and tablet users and avoid bad reviews, but I don't know about that.

As long you are developing casual mobile games, it is certainly not a problem. I would think it is more problematic if you would like to publish desktop apps that may even require some integration with Windows API's. I don't know how much support Microsoft offer there for Android.

 

[xaby]

From what I found, Chrome-Browser Apps are gone in the future, but Chrome OS becomes more like a second Android for desktops. And it will be much easier to run Android Apps on Chrome OS.

 

[Wingnut]

Yes, Android becomes available on Chrome OS, macOS and Win11.
Chrome OS devices are becomeing cheap Linux/Android development machines on top of being a good option for schools etc.

 

[Wingnut]

Chrome browser allow Chrome OS developers to use much of their knowledge for making plugins.
I think that's why they changed the browser in Chrome OS too into LaCross, almost as if they want to clog that hole of oppoortunity to develop code that way.