But if you’re curious what a desktop version of Android might look like, Remix OS 2.0 is a good start. This didn’t always run smoothly - as you’d expect, for an alpha - and it’s definitely not ready for serious use. Launch an app and it appears in a resizable window, with PC-like minimize, maximize and close buttons.įire up another and you can multitask, just as you’d expect, and app management is similarly familiar: buttons appear on the taskbar, click or use Alt+Tab to switch between them, or maybe right-click for more options. The File Manager will also seem familiar to Windows users, its left-hand panel of common locations (Documents, Pictures, Music, Desktop, more) taking them wherever they need to go. There are icons on the desktop, a taskbar, a Start Menu available if you click bottom-left, a Windows 10-style notifications panel if you click bottom right.
If you just want an easy way to run Android apps on your PC then you’re still better off with an emulator. It can run everywhere from small embedded systems or desktop class machines to Cloud solutions. The tool is absolutely cross-platform and is available for Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS systems. However you launch Remix, it won’t take long to notice a problem: this build doesn’t have the Play Store. VirtualBox for Mac OS X is an extremely popular virtualization application with an amazingly rich functionality. You can try the release in VirtualBox, too, although be careful to select a 64-bit operating system when first creating your VM (VirtualBox will probably hang after the Guest/ Resident mode screen if you choose a 32-bit option).
