Lepton appears to be the new official name for Valve’s version of Waydroid (Android in a Linux container).
We still don’t have a whole lot of details about how this is all going to work, outside of Lepton enabling Android APKs for developers on the upcoming Steam Frame VR kit, but it’s now that little bit more official with a proper name and even a logo.
I can’t wait to use this on a Linux phone
Aw man, at first I thought this was an Android desktop OS. Android being in Google’s pocket is trash, but you gotta admit the Android permissions system would be an enormous privacy/security upgrade over nearly all other Linux distros, especially factoring in ease of use/understandability (speaking as someone with a functional Qubes setup).
Lepton to match Proton, I guess? Very interesting! I wonder what they’re going to do next…Boson? Photon? Gluon? Graviton?
Electr- no, wait.
Biggest two issues with Waydroid are x86 to ARM translation and correct GPU passthrough:
https://github.com/waydroid/waydroid/issues/2115
In theory, you should be able to just play Fortnite on linux this way, but I haven’t been able to get it to launch like this guy did.
People have also been calling Waydroid dead for a while now which I dont know how true it is.
This is more for their VR headset that’s coming out. It will be running ARM, so no concerns there. It will allow devs to port their existing Meta Quest games (which are Android APKs) very easily.
For ARM to x86 I was using LibHoudini, for x86 to ARM I don’t see the point. I mean, most apk are built for ARM.
Ah I said it backwards lol.
Yeah same with libhoudini. Problem is I could only get fortnite to execute with libndk, but it would crash when trying to do stuff with Vulkan. Would seem to complelty ignore libhoudini which was weird.
And before anyone asks, not because I want to play Fortnite, but because I inadvertently left some poor kid on Fedora where they can play all of their favorite games perfectly fine except fortnite lol.
An interesting looking frog there. No doubt an in-joke from a certain Linux developer Discord server.
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Wait, so it’s possible to run Android apps in a lightweight container similar to docker on Linux?
Has been for a long time with Waydroid. This is probably gonna make it easier to use.
That’s the greatest thing about this. I’ve tried multiple times to set up Waydroid and it never worked properly, and had a ton of issues with my system for reasons I still can’t figure out.
If there’s one thing Valve’s incredibly good at, it’s providing easy to use services. Proton is damn easy to set up, and once it is, you can run all sorts of shit you would otherwise have a hard time running.
I have a feeling Lepton will be very similar, and that’s what makes it so cool compared to regular 'ol Waydroid.
I used to play Bloons this way back in the day (just not on Linux)
Yes, but don’t think you’re going to be automatically playing games with a keyboard and mouse if they don’t already support that 🤣
I feel like there should be some way of mapping things so you can.
Actually I’m more interested in apps like bank apps and tax authorities login apps. But I guess it’s more similar to Graphine OS where it also doesn’t work because of lack of google libs?
Not simple libs, an entire trust chain from boot to running app that is supposed to improve security and integrity. It also happens to have the side effect of making the entire chain dependent on Google, which I’m sure Google is totally not happy about you know.
There are certain utilities, but it’s generally not useable.
Also most games where k/m would give you an edge over touch controls run detection and ban accounts anyway.
This seems like a big deal
It could bridge the app gap when Linux phones become viable daily drivers
It was a big deal when they announced it several weeks ago. It just flew under the radar for some reason. This is just putting a name to it.
it can eventually turn into one if the project gets a lot of support. the problem is the current intention is to help occulus rift devs port their games to steam, and VR is a reletively niche audience, so its not going to get the development time it needs if it wants to explode.
tangently related, I do see a future where valve goes the route of game native and opens up steam officially on android, but its not quite there at the moment.
Steam storefront for Android, sounds very interesting.
Epic is already selling Android games. Would be dumb of the others not to do the same. I’m honestly astonished they haven’t jumped on that train earlier. Especially with those big Android ports of older PC games a scheme of buy once play everywhere is pretty obvious. But apart from Itch nobody is doing that.
The Epic v Google case was settled recently, in November, I guess they were waiting for that.
