Hi guys,
I've talked personally with a few people who seem to think android support isn't really necessary for a strong Pinebook community. Even if Android support seems like the most obvious thing in the world to you, there are people who are firmly against using Android on their device. For this reason, I thought I'd try to enumerate some reasons why I think we really need to get it going.
1. Android provides easy access to Microsoft Office.
Linux users might groan at this, but the Android version of Microsoft Office is surprisingly full-featured. It provides much more than Office Online and many people, even Linux users, still have to use Office to some extent.
2. Access to games
The Pinebook will never be a gaming powerhouse, but if we can get Google Play working reliably, the Pinebook is powerful enough to play a wide variety of Android games.
3. Fills a niche
Considering the low-end specs of the Pinebook, one of the best ways to maintain healthy development for the device is to increase it's lateral utility. Being able to boot into a baremetal armv8 android install would be a strong incentive for hobbyists, developers, and mobile gamers who can't really get that experience from another laptop.
4. Access to Google proprietary video codecs
The Pinebook struggles with 1080p video streaming. There are many android devices with far inferior specs to the Pinebook that can manage it just fine on android.
I'm sure there are more, but these are some of the biggest reasons I don't want to see this area of the forum languish with only three posts.
I've talked personally with a few people who seem to think android support isn't really necessary for a strong Pinebook community. Even if Android support seems like the most obvious thing in the world to you, there are people who are firmly against using Android on their device. For this reason, I thought I'd try to enumerate some reasons why I think we really need to get it going.
1. Android provides easy access to Microsoft Office.
Linux users might groan at this, but the Android version of Microsoft Office is surprisingly full-featured. It provides much more than Office Online and many people, even Linux users, still have to use Office to some extent.
2. Access to games
The Pinebook will never be a gaming powerhouse, but if we can get Google Play working reliably, the Pinebook is powerful enough to play a wide variety of Android games.
3. Fills a niche
Considering the low-end specs of the Pinebook, one of the best ways to maintain healthy development for the device is to increase it's lateral utility. Being able to boot into a baremetal armv8 android install would be a strong incentive for hobbyists, developers, and mobile gamers who can't really get that experience from another laptop.
4. Access to Google proprietary video codecs
The Pinebook struggles with 1080p video streaming. There are many android devices with far inferior specs to the Pinebook that can manage it just fine on android.
I'm sure there are more, but these are some of the biggest reasons I don't want to see this area of the forum languish with only three posts.
