Windows to another world - Dev uses Android 13 improved virtualization to run Windows 11, Linux distributions on Pixel 6

[Lightwreather]

Is this worthy of tech news? This is a question I must mull over on a daily basis…

Summary

A developer has managed to get Windows 11 Arm running in a virtual machine on their Pixel 6.

Well, that's a really long picture. More Screenshots in the tweet source

 

Quotes

Quote

Android web and app developer Danny Lin, going by the Twitter handle kdrag0n, has shown off Windows 11 Arm running in a virtual machine on a Google Pixel 6. The phone was indeed running the Android 13 DP1 update.

Lin adds that Windows 11 was “really usable” although hardware GPU acceleration isn’t supported. In fact, he even posted a video showing Doom running on the Windows 11 VM.

Windows 11 wasn’t the only operating system the developer got running on the Pixel 6, as he also showed off various Linux distributions booting up on the device.

 

Quote

But why did Google enable virtualization in Android? It’s unlikely they just wanted to let users install Linux or Windows on the phone. Mishaal Rahman addressed this issue about two months ago:

Quote

  This is because hypervisors may or may not be present on a device, and when they are, they’re often not even used for their intended purpose, which is to run an operating system in a virtual machine! Instead, they’re used for things like enhancing the security of the kernel (or at least trying to) and running miscellaneous code (such as third-party code for DRM, cryptography, and other closed-source binaries) outside of the Android OS

 

My thoughts

Ayy, the windows phone is back. Jokes aside, it's really interesting whenever a dev takes advantage of a system protection feature to do something it definitely wasn't supposed to do. It should be noted that virtualisation is enabled in EVERY android phone on the market or even the latest ones. 

 

Sources

AndroidAuthority

CNX Software

kdrag0n - Twitter

Esper - Mishaal Rahman

[Thijsvu]

That's pretty dope!

[HanZie82]

Thats pretty cool, but then whats this:

 

 

[Doobeedoo]

Really wish we see a modern WP though.

[Mark Kaine]

ok i really want windows on my phone now … sick of android. 

but no vm, the real thing hah.

 

actually, microsoft is weird they have no phone version , seems like a no brainer.

 

 

[Quackers101]

now you can get windows android apps on your phone!? omg.

[WolframaticAlpha]

14 minutes ago, Quackers101 said:

now you can get windows android apps on your phone!? omg.

Hush!!! You are too evil for this world.

[williamcll]

22 hours ago, HanZie82 said:

Thats pretty cool, but then whats this:

 

 

That's native Win11ARM, which doesn't involve the VM that Android13 uses.

[Kisai]

23 hours ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

 

 

 

My thoughts

Ayy, the windows phone is back. Jokes aside, it's really interesting whenever a dev takes advantage of a system protection feature to do something it definitely wasn't supposed to do.

I wouldn't say "wasn't supposed to do", that's actually it's intended purpose. Just on a mobile phone it's not used that way, because why would you?

 

I think this does open a potentially useful use case, Microsoft may or may not want it to, but this would be a way to put "something other than Android" on a Android piece of hardware.

 

But then again, why not have Samsung just release Smartphones that give you an OS selection ballot when you first turn it on, and thus you can run Windows 11 on a a supported device. 

 

[LAwLz]

On 2/14/2022 at 11:31 PM, Mark Kaine said:

ok i really want windows on my phone now … sick of android. 

but no vm, the real thing hah.

 

actually, microsoft is weird they have no phone version , seems like a no brainer.

Microsoft used to have a phone OS. Windows Phone, which evolved into Windows Mobile. It was awful and barely any used it.

 

There is no point spending time and money developing something nobody uses, so they scrapped it. 

[Fnige]

28 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Windows Phone, which evolved into Windows Mobile

psst

Im pretty sure its the opposite way around

[LAwLz]

2 minutes ago, FnigePython said:

psst

Im pretty sure its the opposite way around

Has to look it up and you're right, Windows Mobile was their first phone OS and then they replaced that with Windows Phone. However, with Windows 10 they brought back the mobile branding. 

 

So it went like this:

Windows Mobile

Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 8

Windows 10 Mobile

[Heliian]

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

Windows Mobile

Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 8

Windows 10 Mobile

At least they tried. 

With all the work they do on the tablet devices having a phone os isn't far off, I wouldn't be surprised if they have one on the backburner.