Since https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1gdhy7u/experimental_flathub_release_of_newpipe_on_linux/ got a bit of traction yesterday, this is WhatsApp straight from Meta running on Linux desktop using android-translation-layer.

android-translation-layer (ATL) is a Wine-like approach to run Android applications on Linux. Rather than running an Android container like for example Waydroid does this instead implements the Android API. Note that right now it’s very much work in progress and almost no app will work yet, but the fact that they have apps like Newpipe and WhatsApp running already is very promising!

Join the Matrix chat at #android-translation-layer:matrix.org and follow along!

  • @ouch
    24•1 month ago

    Wine was first released in 1993. I hope our children are there to see the take off.

    • @[email protected]
      8•1 month ago

      I don’t think you should compare the two progresses. Technology is much better now. So, things will definitely move much faster than they did back in the 90s.

      • @deltapi
        6•1 month ago

        There is slightly more openness to androids layers than the win32 layers as well.

        I still remember symlinking to binaries in my windows system folder back in the late 90s to be able to run office 95 under Linux. (The MSFT system files permitted some things to work properly that just didn’t with the wine provided libraries back then)

    • Fonzie!
      1•18 days ago

      Didn’t it take off in the late 90’s within Linux communities?

      So I’d give this a few years, then.

          • @apostrofail
            0•10 days ago

            Really. Apostrophes are used for possession & contractions (not making words plural). In this case, you are omitting the 19 from the decade starting at 1990. What is plural is the years inside that decade, meaning the 10s place. All to say, it is 100% ’90s*.

            • Fonzie!
              2•8 days ago

              I meant to say it was pedantic, and thus a bit unnecessary.

              • @apostrofail
                0•8 days ago

                One man’s pedentry is another man’s pet peeve. This is a syntactic error that isn’t just a typo but a misunderstanding of the mechanics of apostrophes.

                • Fonzie!
                  1•7 days ago

                  I don’t see how it could ever be misunderstood.

                  A missing comma can change the literal meaning of a sentence; “let’s eat, grandpa” vs “let’s eat grandpa” comes to mind.
                  But even then anyone would understand what the second sentence is supposed to mean.

                  Given that, this apostrophe really wasn’t an issue.

                  • @apostrofail
                    0•6 days ago

                    Think of the phrase: about music. “90’s music” would imply music from specifically 90 (probably 1990 where we assume the writer was lazy about the initial apostrophe)—possessive form. “’90s music” uses ’90s as an adjective for the entire decade—and with the preceeding apostrophe makes it clearer 19 is omitted. 1 year versus 10 years as a big difference. Using an apostrophe in the right place clearly removes the ambiguity.

                    It was an error. It happens, and too many people do it so next time maybe you won’t with a good habit being formed.

    • bitwolf
      0•1 month ago

      Yeah but I imagine porting a JVM and an API using open source code is much easier than reversing the Windows API.