this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
25 points (96.3% liked)

Linux

10668 readers
337 users here now

A community for everything relating to the GNU/Linux operating system (except the memes!)

Also, check out:

Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I've recently distro hopped to Bazzite, and saw that it comes preloaded with Waydroid. I'm curious what you fine folk find useful to run that doesn't already have a Linux native version.

The only one I can currently think I'd use would be Symfonium.

top 5 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] CCMan1701A@startrek.website 2 points 4 hours ago

I installed Khan kids for my child to use without needed a tablet.

[–] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 8 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Do you have a TV in the same room as your PC? Or maybe have you connected it to your Living Room?

I've setup a Android TV image, installed Jellyfin and SmartTube.
Paired with a cheap bluetooth remote, it makes a pretty sweet media consumption setup for the couch.

Now obviously, you don't need Waydroid for this at all, you could use native applications but

  • The native Jellyfin app for Linux is just a wrapper around the web UI, so you need a mouse to use it, making it annoying to interact with from the couch
  • You can use Kodi with Jellyfin plugins, but the default Kodi skin sucks so you'll find yourself taking a loooot of time configuring a third-party skin before you're happy with the UI
  • You can get browser extensions that trick YouTube into loading their TV interface, but the stock YouTube TV UI sucks compared to SmartTube

So yeah in the end I've found this setup to be my favorite "10-foot UI" for media consumption yet.
You turn your desktop into an Android TV box except it's the fastest you ever used and it has 0 bloat.
Only thing it won't do is full quality streaming from Netflix or other streaming services because DRM, but I don't really care about that.

[–] darcmage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 hours ago

That is a really good use case.

[–] hallettj@leminal.space 10 points 11 hours ago

I haven't tried it, but I know people use it to run Minecraft Bedrock Edition. Although I'm reading reports that that broke recently, so I'm not sure if it's working at the moment.

Minecraft BE is very frustrating - there is a native Linux build for Android, that works great when you can get it to run on a proper computer. But Microsoft's authentication system makes it very difficult to do that. Minecraft Java Edition works without problems, and is probably the better Minecraft; but the two editions don't interoperate without server mods, a lot of people run BE, and the kids want to be able to play online with their friends.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 7 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Nothing really. We have all necessary productivity tools in Linux and the Android phone is on my desk anyway. I mean don't get me wrong, Waydroid is nice. And I tinkered around some. But there isn't anything I'd use it for. Maybe if my bank had some weird companion apps or I needed some other proprietary app or messenger.