14 DAY TRIAL // Chih-Wei Huang from the Android-x86 project was proud to announce the availability of the first Release Candidate (RC) build of the upcoming Android-x86 6.0 operating system.
Android-x86 is an open source and freely distributed project that aims to port the latest version of the Android mobile operating system created by Google for numerous smartphones and tablets, as well as many other wearables and embedded devices, to x86 PCs, including any laptop and desktop computer out there.
Android-x86 is the original project that lets users run Android on their PCs, on which many other operating systems are based, including the popular Remix OS and Phoenix OS. Android-x86 6.0 has been in development for the past few months, but there haven't been any Beta or RC releases until now, only the regular daily builds.
Based on the latest Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow release
Powered by Linux kernel 4.4.12 LTS, Android-x86 6.0 RC1 is based on the latest Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow-MR2 release (technical version number is 6.0.1_r46) of the mobile operating system. It includes many exciting new features, such as support for both 64-bit and 32-bit kernel and userspace, OpenGL ES 3.x hardware acceleration support for Intel, Nvidia and AMD Radeon GPUs, and SecureBoot (UEFI) support.
The final Android-x86 6.0 release promises to bring support for multi-touch, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Camera, Audio, Sensors, and Ethernet, but only DHCP is supported. Additionally, it can automatically mount SD cards and external USB drives, and supports ARM and AArch64 (ARM64) architectures through a native bridge mechanism that can be enabled via Settings -> Apps Compatibility.
Among other noteworthy features coming to Android-x86 6.0, we can mention OpenGL ES 3.x hardware acceleration for QEMU and VMWare-based virtual machines. At the same time, there's also OpenGL ES 3.0 support for no-GPU devices and graphics cards not mentioned above via software rendering, as well as support for installing the OS on EXT4, FAT32, and NTFS filesystems through the CLI installer.
The upgrade process from previous Android-x86 releases has been improved as well, and when you attempt to upgrade to Android-x86 6.0, the respective EXT2 or EXT3 partition will be automatically converted to the EXT4 format. Android-x86 6.0 RC1 is available for download right now via our website, but please try to keep in mind that some known issues are present.