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posted by
janrinok
on Friday March 14 2014, @01:35PM
from the is-that-the-sound-of-desperation-that-I-hear dept.
from the is-that-the-sound-of-desperation-that-I-hear dept.
skullz writes:
"Hot on the heels of Microsoft easing up access to the Windows Phone OS are rumors of dual Windows / Android phones, able to boot into either OS.
- Huawei Confirms Dual-OS Android-Windows Smartphone
- Huawei Might Launch Dual-OS Android-Windows Phone Handsets Too
The narrative so far is Android for personal use, Windows for BYOD to the office. I can see a company locking down a Windows Phone install so it can connect to Exchange and the company wifi but what would the two OSs share? Contacts and pictures? Would a bit of malware on one OS be isolated from the other?
It used to be that you would dual boot your Windows box with Linux, now that trend has reversed itself for your mobile. How far we have come."
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Windows / Android Dual Boot Phones
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I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth.
-- Fry
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NCommander on Saturday March 15 2014, @08:07AM
Er, have you ever actually looked at Google's fastboot oem unlock?
When the device is jailbroken/S-OFF/unlocked, you gain full control of the boot chain post-bootloader, and can run non-Android operating systems. The bootloader requires signed binaries to be reflashed in what I assume is an effort to prevent people from bricking their devices, but nothing prevents you from chainloading bootloaders (Debian for the NSLU2 is a RL example of that methodology; boots RedBoot into APEX). I ran a fullblown Ubuntu instance for a lark on my Nexus One (to prove the concept), and you can reflash qutie a few Android phones with Ubuntu Phone (Galaxy Nexus/Nexus 4 officially supported last time I checked; semi-support for Nexus 5).
There's absolutely nothing you from preventing a different kernel or full blown operating system if you care to port it. The biggest problem is ARM (AArch32, 64-bit is a bit different) doesn't have a standardized boot interface which means every single device requires a modified kernel for it.
Say what you will about Google, but this is one area where they do it right.
Still always moving
(Score: 1) by Subsentient on Monday March 17 2014, @06:59AM
Nexus phones and tablets are usually what I explicitly exclude from "show me a working tablet/phone with Linux" arguments, because they are pretty much the only ones out there that permit what you describe. I get people saying this all the time, and I always tell them "Find me something non-nexus, modern, and mainstream, and try that again."