Remix 0S experience: See how Android revolutionizes Windows

It is not a new thing to move the x86 architecture processor commonly used on PCs to mobile phones, but if the Android system for mobile devices is brought to the desktop platform, it will definitely bring a different experience.

Although Google has no plans to bring authentic Android to the PC field after releasing mobile versions of Android, Android TV, and even Android Auto, there is always a shortage of people who want to be the first to try it, such as the Remix OS that has recently sparked heated discussions.

The underlying layer is Android, but it works like Windows

The open source and open Android system can be said to provide fertile ground for the growth of countless new ideas, and Remix OS is based on this.

The method of installing Remix OS for PC is very simple. Burn the system files to a USB flash drive, restart the computer, and then select Guest mode or Resident mode in the BIOS interface of the PC. The Guest mode here means a trial version, which will not record the relevant operations of users entering the system later.

Some people say that the interface design of Remix OS is very similar to that of Microsoft Windows 10. In fact, it is better to say that this is due to Microsoft's emphasis on mobile devices in the past two years, which has produced a great change in the system design concept, resulting in more similarities between Android, which is close to Windows, and the revamped Windows.

The usage logic of Remix OS's desktop icons, start menu, and right sidebar will make Windows 10 users feel familiar. Of course, the overall look and feel of the icons and interactive interface is still the Material Design that Google promotes on native Android.

The desktop is the most external manifestation of an operating system's productivity. From this point of view, there is almost no big difference between Remix OS and Windows. Arbitrary rectangular selection boxes, multi-window overlapping, full-screen scaling of mobile apps, combined with traditional operations such as double-clicking the mouse to open and right-click menus, allow PC users to get started seamlessly, and can also perform basic operations such as copying, pasting, and creating new folders.

In terms of file management, Remix OS also follows a classification method similar to Windows, but it is slightly particular about partitioning. Since it runs directly on a USB flash drive, Remix OS divides the USB flash drive capacity into three parts: system area, storage area, and public area. Taking the 16GB USB flash drive in our hands as an example, the public area that can be read by any system occupies 3.5GB, and the storage area that stores the storage used by the operating system occupies 7.7GB. It can be further inferred that the system area occupied by the system itself is about 4GB. In addition, user files when using Remix OS can be taken out with the USB flash drive through the public area.

Remix OS is not perfect yet

Frankly speaking, considering the completion and aesthetics of Remix OS 2.0, which is developed based on Android 5.1, many people are surprised that an Android system built for PC can achieve such a level. Some even think that the Android system may dominate all platforms in the future. However, this does not mean that Remix OS, which is still in the Beta stage, is perfect.

First of all, in terms of storage media requirements, the Remix OS installation USB flash drive needs to have a storage capacity of 8GB or more, meet the USB3.0 specification of a write speed greater than 20MB/s, and the storage format is FAT32. Although such a USB flash drive is not difficult to find, the system itself does not support the NTFS storage format, which is the most common storage format in the current Windows system, without modification. In addition to being unable to access single files with a capacity greater than 4GB, the system also has a barrier in front of other NTFS format hard drives.

In addition, in terms of compatibility and adaptation, the running performance of Remix OS on PC still needs to be improved. For example, some game apps will report errors at the beginning. In terms of the combination of software and hardware, although Remix OS perfectly recognized the resolution of the PC screen used in this trial, the external wireless network card could not be recognized, which also resulted in the inability to run any networking projects under the system. The system's built-in MXplayer video player cannot call hard decoding when playing MKV files, and there is obvious lag when playing 4K video files under soft decoding.

Finally, Remix OS, which is oriented towards the desktop platform, is limited by the properties of the Android system. In most cases, only the versions developed for tablets can be used. For example, WPS Office. The new document button added in the lower right corner took a while to find on the large PC screen. Although there is no problem with typing using the Google Input Method, the office software functions are greatly reduced compared to the desktop version. This is something that Remix OS alone cannot solve.

What's the point of Android for PC?

Just like the third-party ROMs that were popular in the smartphone industry before, now, third-party systems including Remix OS and Phoenix OS have appeared one after another, making Android for PC gradually become a new way of playing.

Someone may ask, since there are already Windows tablets such as Surface on the market, what is the value of Android for PC?

From the official perspective of Remix OS, the manufacturers who developed this system are promoting Android PC micro-host devices based on this system. However, judging from the current market response of the products, the hardware parameters lack highlights and are far less enthusiastic than users who provide ROM flashing for traditional PCs or other niche Android products.

The concept of Android for PC is inseparable from PC. With PC, there seems to be no reason for ordinary people to give up the full-featured Windows and install an Android system with a USB flash drive.

However, it is worth affirming that the emergence of products like Remix OS has allowed people to see the prototype of Android's challenge to Windows or Mac computers, which is much more reliable in terms of system than iPad Pro and Google's own Pixel C.

Moreover, a portable system made of a USB flash drive also meets the needs of some users for a relatively independent, secure and closed personal portable system. In addition, Remix OS can also complete basic tasks related to documents and videos. It is hard to say whether this will happen to become a powerful tool in some business occasions.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.