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OpenThos is the Android-based operating system which can provide a full-fledged Android X86 experience on PC with additional apps and functions. It is based on free and open source (Foss) Android OS called Android-X86, although the base of both PC Android operating systems is same, look and feel is quite different. The OpenThos looks very professional with Windows 10 like interfaces such as Taskbar, My computer icon and right side notification panel.
The OpenthOS is developed by Chinese developers and it is also an open source project. If you are a developer, the source code of OpenthOS is available on GitHub.
Personally, I have tried a couple of Andriod PC operating systems but this one is easy to use and quite stable than others. If you want to know about other available Android OS 32bit or 64-bit then here is the article:4 Best Foss Android OS for PC 64 bit or 32 bit
Well, coming to OpenThos, the latest version of this operating system while writing this article was 2.0. Officially this Android PC OS is present in both Chinese and English language which one can choose while installing it.
Foss OpenThos Features
Secure and easy to use
Application security sandbox
Data partition file with access verification
Pre-installed applications such as Microsoft office, Command Terminal, WPS office, VLC player, Note, and more…
Free, open source OS based on Android-x86
Linux/Windows 10 like Taskbar, Notification panel, File Explorer and icons.
Great performance
60FPS drawing frame rate
Intuitive Graphical user interface (GUI)
Full disk encryption available
UEFI Boot Manager (support for Windows, Linux and OS X)
Apps optimization
Sync with mobile devices login with the same Google account
It supports Android apps and Linux apps in multi-Windows
OpenThos requirements of a system
Need x86-based CPU
64-bit support
At least 2Gb RAM recommended 4GB
8GB Storage at least if you are planning just for testing it. For personal or commercial use you need more to save files and apps installation; at least 50G-100G free space.
Download OpenThos OS for PC
The latest image of the OpenThos which is available to download is in Disc image file format i.e IMG not in ISO which might be a problem for someone. However, the older version 1.o is available in both ISO and IMG, I hope soon the 2.0 will also be available in ISO. Here is the link for OpenThos Download.
Create OpenThos bootable USB Drive
Step 1:
Once the download is completed, its time to put the OpenThos on a USB drive, so that we can install or use it live where ever we want.
Download Android X86 For Ubuntu Windows 7
Step 2:
Take at least 8GB of Pen Drive and insert into the Windows 10 or Mac system.
Step 3:
Balena Etcher software to flash the OpenThos.IMG to Flash USB drive. It is available for both Windows and Mac. Here is the Download link for Etcher
Step 4:
Install the Etcher and run it. From its screen, click on the Select Image option and select the above-downloaded image of OpenThos and then select the USB drive which you want to make bootable. After these two things finally, click on the Flash button.
Step 5:
Once the flashing of Openthos OS is done. Eject the Pen drive and insert to the System where you want to install it.
How to install Openthos
Insert the Openthos bootable USB drive to laptop or PC and boot it.
Note: You need to set the first boot priority to Removable drive.
When the OpenThos booted the first which appear with some Chinese text but don’t worry it will install in the English language.
Press F11 to get different booting option for OpenThos such as OpenThos Live boot, Live (DEBUG) and OpenThos Installation.
To experience this Android OS without installing select the Live option and to install on the Hard Drive use the Installation. After that just follow the guided instruction and it will install on the system.
OpenthOS review: Free Android PC OS
Design
The OpenthOS is one of the best Android PC OS, I have ever used. Even the Android x86 which is the based of this operating is not useful and optimized, like it. After the installation, the first screen which comes at the front is really awesome. The friendly Desktop environment as you can see in the below screenshot. Same familiar taskbar, Mu Computer icon and start button which are very much like the Windows OS. So, those are used to Windows or Linux operating systems will not going to get any kind of problem in the OpenthOS free Android operating system.
Apps
Next thing is the access to apps. This is a cake of Pie, well designed and easy to use. Just like Windows, when you click on the Start button given on the left bottom side you will all installed apps including Settings, File Manager and Power option like Windows 10. The best part is the apps. Out of the box, the system contains or should I say pre-installed all the basic apps which one needs in daily tasks such as a browser, command Terminal, WPS office, Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint; VLC player, Sound recorder, calculator and more.
If you need any special Android app then you have two stores there: One is our regular Google play store and another one is Chinese AppStore, however, the Appstore would not feasible in usage for English language users because most of the available apps in it are in the Chinese language.
Performance
We have installed and tested the latest Verison of the OpenThos which was available while creating this article: Version 2.0. It based on the Android 5.1.1(Lolipop). The Gigabyte motherboard and Intel Pentium R process 3.2GHz and RAM 4GB was the test system of ours.
At this configuration, the OpenThOS Android PC operating system was quite smooth without any lags. Yes, while heavy multitasking some time the UI gets crashed and all running apps closed; which sometimes could be a problem for heavy multitasking users. However, if you are a moderate user then no problem at all. Another issue which we faced, it could not recognize my sound card by default. And to enable it, we need to run a couple of commands from the Terminal available in it. Also, few things such as Display Brightness control and other hardcore settings feature didn’t work obviously because they natively meant for smartphones.
As I said you can install any app from the available Google Play store but the big question rises which so many users are looking for? Can OpenthOS run the PUBG? So, the answer is NO.
I said this because it perfectly had downloaded the PUBG in my case but after the installing, it was unable to run. When I tried to run it, the Game opened and automatically stopped. I tried 8- 9 times but same the has happened…
Android X86 Iso
So, you can’t run the PUBG but other normal games including Asphalt can be run on it. However, this problem will not be with apps, almost all apps run normally and fluently.
Linux Apps
Apart from Android apps, one can also install and use the Linux apps. As it supports Debian or Ubuntu base software. I tried to install the VIM and Nano text editor on it and didn’t find any issue.
Even you can download and run the Apache server on it using command Terminal.
To install and update packages the command is:
It supports Ubuntu’s Advanced Packaging Tool (APT)
So, overall being a free and open source system, we don’t have any complaints because it is better than Phoenix and original Android X86 OS. If you compare the Openthos and Phoenix os both are popular Andoird operating system and based on the original Android X86 project. The OpenthOS is better because of functionality and ease of use including performance. The thing which might be put newbies in a bit chaos is its Disk image file i.e is available in IMG format not in ISO; I am saying this because most of the Virtual Machines support this format. So, even for testing this Android operating system; we have to make OpenthOS bootbale pendrive first. But I am sure, in the upcoming months, the ISO image of its latest version will be available too.
Other Resoruces
To install and experience the Android x86 on PC you nee two things VirtualBox or Vmware software and Android x86 ISO image or Android x86 VM image.
Android, the most popular operating system, now not only just limited to your smartphones. If you have the curiosity to use it on your personal computer (PC) then you can do it. Now, the users those have a spare machine to test the Android operating system on PC can use the Android ISO image. You just need to make a bootable USB drive using the downloaded ISO images of Android 7.0, 8.0, 9.0 or whatever the version you want. However, if you don’t have the extra system to test the Android then another option which available is Virtualization. The most popular Virtualization software are VirtualBox and Vmware. The VirtualBox is an open source tool and available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. While the other one Vmware is also available for the OS mentioned but it is proprietary software.
You can either use the Android ISO image to install the Android OS on VirtualBox / VMware or simply download the pre-configured Android x86 Virtual machine image (VM). The benefit of using Virtual Image is, you don’t need to configure storage, Ram, other hardware configuration for the OS on Virtualization software. Just download the Android VM image and it simply boots as a preinstalled machine. It saves a lot of time.
Prerequisites to install Android x86
To install and experience the Android on PC you nee two things VirtualBox or Vmware software and Android x86 ISO image or Android x86 VM image. Here in this tutorial, we are going to use the VirtualBox and to save time and make it easy to install the Android on PC, the Android x86 VM image.
Here are the Links to download the above-mentioned prerequisites software.
VirtualBox: Link
Android X86 VM image: Link( VM image available while writing the article are: Android-x86 8.1-RC2 Oreo, Nougat, Marshmallow (R3), 5.1 (RC1), Android x86 4.4 r1 and more)
Download Android X86 Installer
Android x86 ISO image: Link(For those don’t want to use the Andriod VM image)
Install Android OS on VirtualBox and VMware
Note: It doesn’t matter which operating system you are using it could be Linux, Windows or Mac because the process of working with Virtual or Vmware is the same for all of them. While writing article Android OReo was the latest build.
Step 1: Download VirtualBox or VMware player
First of all, download and install the VirtualBox on your PC machine ( Linux, Windows or Mac).
Step 2: Get Android Oreo OS VM image
After the installation of the Virtualbox, you need to download the VM image from the link given above given in this article. On the website, you will find two images one is for VirtualBox and other is meant for Vmware. According to your software select that. As we are using the VirtualBox, so we downloaded the VirtualBox image. While writing this the article the latest Android VM image available on the website was Android-x86 8.1-RC1 Oreo.
Step 3: Extract Android X86 VM image file
Download Android X86 For Ubuntu Mac
The downloaded the Android X86 VM image file will be in a 7z archive format. After downloading you need to extract the Android VM image from using the normal Winrar or 7zip or any other archive/ compression software.
Step 4: Run the VirtualBox.
Click on the NEW button from the VirtualBox menu.
Give some name to your Android virtual machine, like we have given Android test H2s.
From Type’s drop-down select the Other and Version = other/unknown.
Select the size of memory you want to provide your operating system. We have assigned 2GB for fluid functions.
From the Hard disk section, select the option- Use an existing virtual hard disk file.
Click on the Folder icon.
Step 5: Select the extracted Android X86 VDI image which you downloaded above.
Step 6: Click on the Create button.
Step 7: Select the created Android x86 Virtual machine from the left panel of VirtualBox.
Step 8: Now Click on the START button given on the VirtualBox menu.
Remix Os
Step 9: The Android Virtual Machine will start.
Step 10: Select the normal mode- Android X86 8.1-rc1
Step 11: Android x86 is installed
The OS has been installed and it will boot to provide you with a familiar screen like your smartphone.
We tried to install the PUBG on the Android x86 Virtual Machine on Linux PC and it worked…