1y ago

World’s biggest PC vendor takes first step that could establish Android as Windows biggest rival ever — and eliminate Google ChromeOS at the same time

www.techradar.com World’s biggest PC vendor takes first step that could establish Android as Windows biggest rival ever — and eliminate Google ChromeOS at the same time

Lenovo will soon begin to distribute devices powered by the Esper Foundation OS

World’s biggest PC vendor takes first step that could establish Android as Windows biggest rival ever — and eliminate Google ChromeOS at the same time

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AlmightySnoo 🐢🇮🇱🇺🇦 @lemmy.world

1y ago

World’s biggest PC vendor [Lenovo] takes first step that could establish Android as Windows biggest rival ever — and eliminate Google ChromeOS at the same time

www.techradar.com /pro/worlds-biggest-pc-vendor-takes-first-step-that-could-establish-android-as-windows-biggest-rival-ever-and-eliminate-google-chromeos-at-the-same-time

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22 comments

It's Lenovo. Stupid click bait titles.
Lenovo has the green light to see a portfolio of new enterprise-focused devices powered by Esper Foundation – a custom Android operating system – and bundled with a complementary mobile device management (MDM) platform.

The firm’s first device running Esper Foundation is the Lenovo ThinkCentre M70a, an all-in-one desktop PC fitted with an up to 12th-Gen Intel Core i9 CPU, alongside 16GB DDR4 RAM and up to 512GB SSD. It’ll be followed by the Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q, M90n-1 IoT, and the ThinkEdge SE30 v2 machines by the end of 2023.
What are you going to do on such a device running android?
Esper Foundation is based on Android 11 and has customizable branding, peripheral compatibility, quarterly security patches, and three years of support. The MDM system, meanwhile, remotely deploys, manages, and updates devices from a single view.
It's based on 3 years old android. Promises quarterly security updates and provides only 3 years of support. I fail to see why any business in their right mind would get this instead of a decent specs chromebook or even a windows computer.
- Longer term updates aren't a big deal when the hardware gets replaced in a corporate environment.
  
  Still, I fail to see the point of running android on a desktop vs. chromeOS, Windows, or even linux; which get decades of updates, and have desktop apps supported natively for all your workflow. How or rather why would anyone get this instead of buying one of those. What android apps would you run on a large screen anyway?
  
  Most corporations are vastly reducing the cadence at which they replace hardware, given that new hardware lifecycles are much longer both in terms of reliability of the hardware and the performance compared to newer hardware.

Is this really better than proper Linux in any way? Other than native play store, which means you can run shitty phone apps stretched fullscreen. Not sure I see the benefit.
- Today.
  Once devs see the use-case, maybe they'll build support for larger screens.
  I use Android Subsystem for Windows on my laptop to run some Android apps that have data sync but crappy (or no) web clients. It's way better than a website, even with a non-native screen layout.
  I can also see a lot of younger folks who grew up with mobile devices preferring the simpler UI/functionality of mobile interfaces (as frustratingly limited as I find them).
  I hate to admit it, but I see a real use-case for this. Using something that's between a tablet and a laptop, with tablet battery life and weight, but a real keyboard and mouse, be great for say sales, techs, etc.
  Guess we'll see.

Intresting idea for sure. I don't really see this working out on "normal" laptops and desktops, for the simple fact that mouse and keyboard support on Android Apps is usually terrible. But for 2 in 1 devices that are used a lot in tablet mode this could be great. But then again ChromeOS offers exactly that.

This is interesting. I’ve been wanting to move to Linux forever with my work machine. I can’t due to a critical piece of software not working. It does work on android though. I wonder if I’ll need able to install this on another thinkpad.
- FYI: https://blissos.org/
  
  Thanks! This is really interesting. I’m going to see how my work apps will run on it.
- What software is that? A lot of software works on Wine, which is very, very good these days. Unfortunately, its compatibility with USB devices is still not good, so if your software requires that, yeah, you're probably SOL.
  
  Thanks! But Linux is about the inky platform they are not on.
- I use a Tab S9. The key for me was Nextcloud+OnlyOffice+Code Server. So yea, it requires a Linux server for me to use Android, but it works for me.

It's okay for enthusiasts, but when you take this to people who handle finance and accounting, the first thing that they ask is 'where is excel?' It would be a failure, if there is no Microsoft Excel, in the corporate world.
Oracle couldn't force their employees to use open office, eventually moving to the Microsoft office.
I know this comment will be down voted but that's the reality.
- where is excel?
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.office.excel
  
  Mobile excel is a pretty stripped down version.
- most "enthusiasts", other than some android app developers, perhaps, won't even look twice at something like this
- I'm thinking they mean for these systems to be used as niche kiosk machines but I could be wrong.
  Edit: I work in IT and I said what I said, these things are for a niche market and aren't going to be successful for mass adoption. Y'all can down vote me all ya want but nobody wants an Android desktop.

LOL at its chances of actually pulling that off

22 comments