Microsoft Ending Support For Windows Subsystem For Android
Did Microsoft just pull a Google on a Google product? Mind blowing.
Must've gotten infected when eating the Android sweets.
If they hadn't locked into amazon appstore, I feel like they could have made it work.
Either cough up money for Playstore or better yet just make windows store compatible with android and easier to use.
I mean, Waydroid works fine with Aurorastore and even Playstore. Sure that may break, but all that capitalist "we buy licenses" BS of course costs money
The Amazon app store is the most mature app store outside of Google Play. It's not just as simple as converting the Windows store to Android because of course they would need to develop an Android version of every app in the windows store.
I meant just allowing people to publish APKs to the windows store, not converting every app.
Although WSA let you sideload apps anyway so I'm thinking maybe Microsoft just didn't see any big profit potential which is why they're shutting down.
Man what in the world are they doing.
Windows Subsystem for Android hasn't been as nearly as popular as Windows Subsystem for Linux itself and its scope was limited given the focus on the Amazon Appstore for obtaining Android apps.
Sounds like no one was using it.
They're probably doubling their efforts on native ARM apps
That was quick
lol I didn't realise it had been released
It really hadn't rolled out across the globe yet, so no, it wasn't even really released before getting pulled.
Lmao just another thing Linux does better anyway.
So could theoretically install waydroid in WSL?
someone did that before microsoft had even released WSA but I don't see anything about people doing it recently. probably someone is working on it right now though, given this news.
I knew WSL was a thing but had absolutely no idea about WSA.
WSA was.
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Damn, this was going to be my workaround for using authy now they're discontinuing the desktop app inexplicably.
Host a vaultwarden for free somewhere
I tried to use it for a few apps but the WSA susbsystem takes up too much RAM for me.
You could use BlueStacks. It's a bit ad laiden, but it's not bad.
Was it ever actually supported? I was waiting for it to be ready to switch to Windows 11 since android emulators are all extremely heavy, I just remember it being on a preview version.
What about waydroid? is it heavy as well? I think vanilla OS Beta even have fdroid built-in to install android app.
In my experience, Waydroid kinda sucked. It used more resources than an Android Emulator on Windows did with less performance in games. Of course, they're different technologies (containerized vs VM) but the experience was vastly different. It lacks so many QoL features. You can't dynamically change resolution. Can't bind keys by default (need to install something for it) etc Wayland requirement was also a trouble for me (It didn't work quite well and I kept running into issues) Intel > AMD > Nvidia for Waydroid
Nice, I actually used this to make a nice time of reading manga and comics on my surface with tachiyomi. Now I have to find a different workflow.
Btw, Tachiyomi isn't being developed anymore after the cease and desist they got. The fork that replaced it is Mihon.
Psssst, come to the side of the funny penguins.
I recommend a silverblue-surface image from ublue.it
My lemmy app decided to not show me this reply, but that is already something I was thinking about but hadn't looked into where to start. It looks like that will actually be perfect to just install and go so thank you!
This was my exact use case for WSA also. Guess I need to work something else out soon.
I host my own Suwayomi server and use the web interface, bonus points that it keeps progress synced with my other devices (Using Tachij2k now that Tachiyomi is defunct)
Both expected and unexpected. WSA was a major feature announcement when it was originally released, and M$ isn’t normally like Google when it comes to dropping projects.
Windows Phone, Windows Mobile, Family Room, Zune, Expression. When products don't create enough revenue they get axed.
While absolutely true, Google has a reputation and history of killing off huge swaths of projects widely adopted by end users, even if they were theoretically profitable.
That's not always true.
There are a few reasons as to why one would keep low/no profit or even completely unprofitable projects going.
It's all tied to their value proposition. For example, if you can sustain a no profit project, it will bring you new customers despite creating no revenue. A glaring example of high-value yet unprofitable product would be Twitch, all because it brings in data.
Whelp, even less reason to upgrade to Windows 11 when Windows 10 is retired. Microsoft doing its best to convince me to switch to Linux full-time.
I hate this. I like wsa and it was one of the main reasons I went to w11. Well.. whatever, we can't have nice things I guess
I almost panicked and thought it was WSL until I got to the Android part. Never knew it was a thing. Still sucks for developers who depended on it.
That was fast
Dang, I'm really disappointed by this. It's the reason I decided to go with a Surface Pro X over a Galaxy Tab when I was looking to buy a tablet.
Without the only app store that matters, this was dead on day 1 for me.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Microsoft announced today they will be winding down their support for Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), which is similar to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) but was designed to run Android apps from the Amazon Appstore atop Windows 11.
Windows Subsystem for Android hasn't been as nearly as popular as Windows Subsystem for Linux itself and its scope was limited given the focus on the Amazon Appstore for obtaining Android apps.
Microsoft announced this morning on the WSA page: "Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android™️ (WSA).
As a result, the Amazon Appstore on Windows and all applications and games dependent on WSA will no longer be supported beginning March 5, 2025.
Customers that have installed the Amazon Appstore or Android apps prior to March 5, 2024, will continue to have access to those apps through the deprecation date of March 5, 2025."
This change is only in reference to Windows Subsystem for Android with no apparent changes around Windows Subsystem for Linux that continues to be quite popular for enjoying Linux desktop and CLI apps within the confines of Windows 11, especially among developers and those forced to use Microsoft Windows due to corporate/employer requirements.
The original article contains 232 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 14%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
One of the main reasons I made the switch from 10 to 11 and I used it constantly. I have several services that simply don't work right from the web interface because of the drm BS. Being able to use the android apps worked great even if side loading an alternative store was a little bit of a pain on initial setup.
I am even more glad I recently made the switch to a 100% Linux environment at home. I have a simple waydroid install and it works much easier and is equally integrated into the desktop experience when compared to WSA. Only hassle is making sure you have a Wayland compositor since it won't work with x11 but that's just confirming a configuration essentially so par for the course really.
Regardless, this would be very disappointing if I hadn't already had an alternative.
Talk about a "oh no, anyway" moment. I used the feature for about two days, saw no benefit from it, and completely forgot it was even there.