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sacentre
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Posts: 2,119
Re: Who actually wants or needs Windows Subsystem for Android?
CAcreeks wrote:
sacentre (Trevor) wrote:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/android-on-windows-11-is-it-worth-the-effort/
I read that one too. I was basically looking for a clear advantage of WSA over an emulator and haven't seen one yet. I don't know the tech stuff but my guess is that WSA is basically just another emulator anyway. It's early days yet so maybe later MS will allow access to Google Play store. Till then I'll stick to the emulator that allows me to run a favourite app I am anxious to keep (LDPlayer/Lollipop). It has a few wrinkles in that some of the functions don't work but I can live with that. When WSA finally arrives, it'll be interesting to sideload the SDK for this app and see if/how it works.
I've noticed that Android emulators come and go. It's probably difficult to implement one that doesn't break when Microsoft makes some security enhancement or so-called feature.
My experience has been that out of all the emulators I tried (and I think I tried all of them over the years) the only one that refused to work except with certain graphics hardware (intel 620 graphics and one or two Nvidia versions) was AMIDuOS). It's a pity because this one happened to be the one that worked and looked exactly the way I wanted. Unlike all the others, it wasn't aimed at gamers but simply made the PC look and function exactly like an Android Lollipop device. American Megatrends stopped supporting it in 2018 but some of the other emulators out there are even older and they still work ok even on recent graphics hardware like the Intel Iris Xe on my Windows 11 tablet.
Every other emulator from Bluestacks (all versions) on down worked fine on all my Windows PCs - desktops, tablets etc but they are all plastered with game ads and shortcuts. LDPlayer which I'm using now can actually be tweaked to get rid of those so you get a clean Android desktop.
With WSA you'll be assured of having the same emulator in the years ahead.
A perfectly valid point and I shall look forward to trying it out - when it finally comes!
Similarly, I don't know anyone who is using Windows subsystem for Linux, and it has been available for years. Saves money on VM software, anyway.
I've never bothered trying Linux on a Windows machine but keep a spare PC running Fedora just to tinker with. If I ever decide I've had enough of Windows, it would make a good alternative.