TL;DR
- Google has added a tabbed interface to the Terminal app in Android 16 Beta 3.
- The Terminal app lets you run Linux apps in a virtual machine on your Android device.
- Adding tabs makes it easier to multitask, as you can issue commands without having to wait for a process to complete.
So I tried this just now, and it works. It looks pretty good at first glance. Proper Debian VM, can listen on ports, can access files under Downloads. It just takes 10-20 seconds to start and a few to stop.
Wait, you can access local files on your phone’s storage in the VM now? Is that a new addition? On the Android 15 version of this, you don’t have any local access at all.
I’m on the standard Android 15 on 8 Pro. The shared storage is mounted at
/mnt/sharedwould you switch over from termux for this? for performance or something else?
For things that don’t work on Termux. The only advantage of Termux is that it starts way faster and it consumes significantly less resources. Other than that, the VM would be superior. So if I had to connect via SSH to a machine, I’d probably use Termux.
It’s a debian VM, much better than messing with the android system. All I want now is bridged mode for the network adapters
It appears to be running behind NAT but it’s already have an easy port forwarding feature where I was able to connect to a server running on the VM by connecting to localhost in Termux.