RemixOS -- Android for the PC
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So... I got the Remix Ultratablet. It is still running the 1.5 release of their Android OS (5.0.2). So far, I've got a few of my usual apps installed, and it appears to work fine. There's not a lot of bloat on it, but it does come with its own email and calendar clients, and WPS Office. Nothing that seems outrageous to me. (The calendar client integrates flawlessly with my Gmail account.
It does come with Google Play loaded, so the sky is the limit, pretty much. Google Play will tell you if an app isn't compatible with your device or not. (I tried to install Cortana, but it didn't let me, lol).
The system comes with a screen protector, physical keyboard (magnetically connected, like the iPad covers and Surface keyboards), charging cable and a USB OTG connector so you can hook up a standard USB device (USB hard drive / keyboard / mouse. It may support a powered USB hub or an SD card. I haven't tested this yet. If the battery holds out nicely, this could be a neat little device.
Using it as a laptop will pretty much require a flat surface. It has a kickstand that runs at 40 or 80 degrees. It is a tablet, but it feels kinda heavy. I haven't used it as a tablet much yet, but it definitely feels solid. It's not light like an iPad either.
I have run into a couple of little niggles that could make IM applications less fun to use. In Facebook Messenger, if I hit enter, it creates a new line, and does not send the message. I'll have to test with Skype and a couple of other ones as well.
Overall initial impression is 9/10. I'll bash it around some tonight and see if that changes... oh, and I'll nab some pictures too.
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Is android remix alot faster than Linux Mint or Ubuntu on old hardware?
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@IRJ said:
Is android remix alot faster than Linux Mint or Ubuntu on old hardware?
I haven't been able to get it to work on the two laptops or VM I have tried it on.
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@IRJ said:
Is android remix alot faster than Linux Mint or Ubuntu on old hardware?
My guess is that it is faster but not much faster.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@IRJ said:
Is android remix alot faster than Linux Mint or Ubuntu on old hardware?
My guess is that it is faster but not much faster.
You could also try a Straight up Android x86 install to test.
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Well, I have the Remix Mini http://www.jide.com/en/mini bought at the Kickstarter campaign and I'm really enjoying it. I don't have any PC (or Mac) at home because I don't use much and it is being my home computer for when I want to see something on a bigger screen (despite of the Nexus 6P screen be huge!).
The only think that I don't like is that the user experience is really laggy. Although I have the 2GB version (with 16GB of storage), it clearly need some more RAM (3GB or even 4GB). That's why RemixOS for PC should be a good approach.
Regarding the OS itself, when the hardware isn't trying to keep up, the usage is very good and the multi task windowed launcher is really well made. I can see a great future for Remix OS, but I'm really excited about Microsoft Continuum!
If you guys are looking for some alternatives for Remix OS, you could try the Phoenix OS [http://www.phoenixos.com/] (http://www.phoenixos.com/). It is also based on Android x86 and have similar features as the Remix OS.
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@thiagolima said:
The only think that I don't like is that the user experience is really laggy. Although I have the 2GB version (with 16GB of storage), it clearly need some more RAM (3GB or even 4GB). That's why RemixOS for PC should be a good approach.
My guess is that the interface is laggy due to the low power of the CPU. The lag would only be occasional if caused by memory. If it is regular, it is CPU. 2GB is not very much, but for an interface without lots of things running it should be just fine. Even Mint, Ubuntu and Fedora will run in 2GB decently - it's having lots of browser tabs open that run the memory out.
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@thiagolima said:
If you guys are looking for some alternatives for Remix OS, you could try the Phoenix OS [http://www.phoenixos.com/] (http://www.phoenixos.com/). It is also based on Android x86 and have similar features as the Remix OS.
I tried both, neither loaded for me
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@scottalanmiller said:
I tried both, neither loaded for me
I managed to get RemixOS to finally boot after several tries but was very disappointed in the speed and response of the system. But I was running from USB stick.
@thiagolima said:
If you guys are looking for some alternatives for Remix OS, you could try the Phoenix OS [http://www.phoenixos.com/] (http://www.phoenixos.com/). It is also based on Android x86 and have similar features as the Remix OS.
Might give that a go when my 2nd USB stick appears tomorrow.
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@hobbit666 said:
I managed to get RemixOS to finally boot after several tries but was very disappointed in the speed and response of the system. But I was running from USB stick.
Would only affect things if you were loading apps, but once they were up and running it would only affect you if you were swapping to the USB stick. It would not make the system itself feel slow.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@hobbit666 said:
I managed to get RemixOS to finally boot after several tries but was very disappointed in the speed and response of the system. But I was running from USB stick.
Would only affect things if you were loading apps, but once they were up and running it would only affect you if you were swapping to the USB stick. It would not make the system itself feel slow.
That's what I thought, but just the general feel and set-up seemed sluggish
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@hobbit666 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@hobbit666 said:
I managed to get RemixOS to finally boot after several tries but was very disappointed in the speed and response of the system. But I was running from USB stick.
Would only affect things if you were loading apps, but once they were up and running it would only affect you if you were swapping to the USB stick. It would not make the system itself feel slow.
That's what I thought, but just the general feel and set-up seemed sluggish
What hardware did you give it? It might be that Remix OS is just slow.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@hobbit666 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@hobbit666 said:
I managed to get RemixOS to finally boot after several tries but was very disappointed in the speed and response of the system. But I was running from USB stick.
Would only affect things if you were loading apps, but once they were up and running it would only affect you if you were swapping to the USB stick. It would not make the system itself feel slow.
That's what I thought, but just the general feel and set-up seemed sluggish
What hardware did you give it? It might be that Remix OS is just slow.
Tried it on a i5 8GB RAM laptop using a USB3 drive rated at:- Up to 130MB/s Read / 30MB/s Write (64GB)
Was temped to install on Harddrive see if that improved as I was testing to use on a Media PC instead of OpenELEC. But been to busy with project work to sit down and play. -
Sounds like the OS is just laggy.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Sounds like the OS is just laggy.
I've noticed that with the Mini a bit. It's not super performant, but I didn't expect much from a $70 computer either.
Raspbian is faster on a Pi 2 though.
Since Android N will have freeform windows, I wonder if there is a reason to keep using Remix other than the hardware?
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Android N definitely needs to go after the traditional desktop, that's an important part of the Android ecosystem and should not be left to third party players to fragment.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Android N definitely needs to go after the traditional desktop, that's an important part of the Android ecosystem and should not be left to third party players to fragment.
I agree. It's in the code, and I've seen pictures of it. Looks like they will have split screen apps for the phone, and then a full desktop with window tiling also.
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I've got the Tablet with 2GB of ram. It doesn't seem laggy at all. But like @scottalanmiller , I wasn't able to get the PC version to boot on any of my computers (AMD or Intel).
It might be worth investigating Android N since it looks like that one will have multiwindow stuff built in.
