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"Build another open source OS that can run Android app but not Android."

It's not as easy as it may sound like.

There have been attempts:

https://sailfishos.org/wiki/Android_Compatibility

https://github.com/anbox/anbox

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/04/new-project-brings-andro...

ChromeOS Android container approach is probably the best, but isn't fully open source to my knowledge.

That's not to say that a state actor like China couldn't pull it off. It would actually be quite interesting if the outcome of these developments was significant effort into a Linux distro that runs well on multiple devices, and is capable of also running Android apps seamlessly.



It's doable to a good extent. I had a Blackberry Passport from 2014 that ran BBOS, which was a non-Android OS. Around 2016, BB added a "Android compatibility layer" (not sure how it works), that allowed for the install of APKs for Whatsapp, Instagram and a number of other apps BB users didn't have native equivalents for. Worked fine, but I'm sure app firmware updates caused issues.




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