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I have three phones in front of me and
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every single one of them is running
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On this channel, I have made multiple
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videos about getting Linux on Android.
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This video is the honest answer to all
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Is Linux on a phone actually useful?
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Can it replace your PC?
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Let me break down what each of these
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phones is actually doing because they
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are not all the same thing. The first
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one is running Linux inside a container
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with full hardware acceleration. The
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second is running Linux through proot,
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basically a compatibility layer.
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And the third one is completely
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different. It is called the Android
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Virtualization Framework, a native Linux
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terminal built directly into Android.
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I have not installed any third-party app
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So, let's start with the third one. This
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phone is running Linux natively on my
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phone with complete kernel access.
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And when I plug it into a monitor, it
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becomes a full Linux desktop on screen.
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Inside it, I have opened
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LibreOffice, Blender, a terminal, and
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Chromium all at the same time.
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I even ran Docker inside it. A real
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Docker container running inside a
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Android phone is unexpected.
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App switching is fast. It runs Debian
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under the hood, so anything you can
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install on a normal Debian machine, you
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can install here, too.
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To actually test stability, I stress
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tested it for 15 minutes and I also left
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it running overnight with Linux active.
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It did not crash even once.
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I even built something real on it. A
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simple Python script that takes a
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YouTube channel name and pulls details
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like subscriber count, video count, and
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more. Written and tested entirely on
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The only real problem with this setup is
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that in my testing, it only works
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properly on Pixel devices and some
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Nothing phones. Not Samsung, not
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OnePlus, not most other Android devices.
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But before you close this video because
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you do not have a Pixel, there are other
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ways to get Linux on your phone. The
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ones I showed earlier in the video.
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I built a script that sets up Linux on
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almost any Android phone. It is already
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on GitHub with over 1.5 K stars and
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people are using it right now.
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There is also a one-click method called
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Userland that sets up Linux in a proot
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Now, back to rootfs. This is the Moto.
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Running Linux through a container with
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hardware acceleration. Same story. Plug
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it into a monitor and you get a Linux
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desktop on your screen. It runs
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LibreOffice, Wireshark, VS Code, Cloud
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Code, full terminal access, almost
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anything you would need for light work.
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And the best thing is this can run on
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almost any Android phone.
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If you have a Snapdragon phone, my
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script installs Mesa Zinc and Turnip
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Vulcan drivers for hardware
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acceleration. And even if you do not
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have a Snapdragon phone, it falls back
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to software rendering. Yeah, it is
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slower, but still usable and stable.
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Userland, on the other hand, is based on
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proot. I do not really recommend
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installing that anymore because I
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already added proot support to my own
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Inside a rootfs container, you can
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mostly install only Termux tools and tur
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packages. But with proot, you can
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install almost any Linux tool on it. And
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the best thing is my script can even
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enable hardware acceleration inside
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proot. I already made a dedicated video
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on that setup. You should watch it. You
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are probably going to love it.
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So, can your phone actually replace your
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laptop? If your phone supports display
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output and your work is mostly office
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tasks, browser work, scripting, or
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lightweight coding, then yeah, it can
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work as a portable Linux setup.
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Thermal limits are still there. Some
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desktop features are missing and the
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whole thing still needs a monitor,
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At which point you are basically
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carrying laptop accessories without the
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But But is the thing. I have genuinely
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used this for real work, not just
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testing, actual work. Spreadsheets,
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scripts, managing projects on the go, it
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holds up for that. And honestly, phones
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are more powerful than most people give
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Apple literally put a phone chip, the
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A18 Pro, inside the MacBook Neo and
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And on this channel, I already showed
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you an app that generates images locally
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No cloud, no server, just the phone.
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So no, it is not a full laptop
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replacement yet, but it is not a toy
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either, and it is only getting better.
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Installation links for both the root FS
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container and the Pixel native terminal
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are in the description. Check them out.
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Thanks for watching and see you in the
