14 DAY TRIAL // Android-x86, a port of the famous Android operating system for the x86 platform, has reached version 4.4 RC2 and comes with numerous features.
Some of you might not know this, but Android is actually based on the Linux kernel, although the Google developers are releasing it with a modified version of the kernel. This has been the case right from the beginning and the Android source has been released under a number of open source pieces of software.
This doesn't mean that any company can get the source code and start shipping devices with the OS just because it is open source. The problem is a little more complicated than this and it has to do with the type of license. The source code may be open source, but if you plan to make money off it you will need to cut Google a part of your pie, if by any chance you are going to also use services like Gmail or any other proprietary software.
This is one of the reasons why this type of distributions, like Android-x86, is not under the threat of Google – because the author doesn't make any money off it. This is basically just a port of the regular Android system, but made to work on x86 processors.
You might ask yourself why you would need such as system. Well, there are a number of devices out there that have this kind of processor and their users might want the new system from Google to work on them. This also enables users to install the distribution on laptops and other devices that have sim and 3G capabilities.
“The 4.4-RC2 release is based on the Android 4.4.2 (KitKat-MR1 release) with a lot of x86 specified code to let the system runs smoothly on x86 platforms, especially for netbooks or tablets. Except the features and bugfixes since 4.4-RC1, there are more features in this version,” said the developer.
For example, the Linux kernel has been updated to version 3.10.40, which is a far cry from the custom kernel used in the normal Android, the distribution will now mount automatically ntfs/exfat/ext4 in the external storages (usbdisk/sdcard), the sensors support (including Intel sensor-hub and Pegatron Lucid Tablet Accelerometer) has been enhanced, the launcher and file manager from CyanogenMod have been added, the 5-point touch calibration app from 0xdroid has been implemented, suspend and resume functions have been improved, and the rtl8723au wifi driver has been added.
You can download the Android-x86 4.4 RC2 Linux distribution from Softpedia and run it in VirtualBox, if you want to give it a spin.