Yesterday Librem announced in a blog post that the Android compatibility layer, Anbox, is runnable in the Librem 5 Linux phone. They reportedly had to fix a few bugs, and they show a screenshot of a listing of apps – it is odd to notice that most apps shown (Firefox, Music, Camera…) really should have a native Linux application that works.
I recall years back that Ubuntu Phone had considered such a step, yet folks backtracked on the idea as it could segment their phone and potentially just let all developers “make an app for it” with Android programming. Due to legal issues there is little chance that the Google services (push notifications etc.) will be usable here, and note that Fdroid replaces Google-Play, with a way to install open-source apps. Let’s hope that the ability to use Anbox doesn’t add more complexity and make the Linux phones second-class citizens if software makers simply decide to make an Android app, point to some compatibility layer and “call it good”? Thankfully many connected apps have an online-web-app version that should work well on any device.