- Microsoft ending support for Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
- WSA designed to run Android apps from Amazon Appstore on Windows 11
- Support for WSA will end on March 5, 2025; no impact on Windows Subsystem for Linux.
[deleted]
Microsoft Ending Support For Windows Subsystem For Android
Submitted 8 months ago by AnActOfCreation@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Microsoft-Dropping-WSA
Comments
kadu@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Rentlar@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Microsoft’s really trying to steal Google’s thunder with that move.
Quexotic@infosec.pub 8 months ago
It’s interesting that you should say that. Maybe they had to cancel it because they realized there were some legal implications and that the new antitrust enforcement environment would keep them from being able to really follow through with the WSA.
M500@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
The amazon app store didn’t have a complete app store and it was a big workaround to get apps to run that are not on the amazon store.
They halfbaked the release and killed it becuase of that.
LiveLM@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
My exact reaction lol. These companies are so focused on the short term it’s ridiculous.
mlg@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
zurohki@aussie.zone 8 months ago
TIL there’s an Amazon app store.
Quexotic@infosec.pub 8 months ago
Lol. Yeah, they’ve got quite the wall around their garden. It’s hell getting the play store running on their hardware.
Pantherina@feddit.de 8 months ago
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
Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The Android 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 need to develop an Android version of every app in the windows store.
mlg@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
pycorax@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Man what in the world are they doing.
TWeaK@lemm.ee 8 months ago
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.
goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
To the surprise of no one when it was limited by needing to use the Amazon App store
Boozilla@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Microsoft is working hard at sucking, from what I’ve seen the past few years.
essteeyou@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I think they’ll be happy with their OpenAI investment.
uzay@infosec.pub 8 months ago
yearsdecades
EpicFailGuy@lemmy.world 8 months ago
They’re probably doubling their efforts on native ARM apps
wolfruff@pawb.social 8 months ago
Lmao just another thing Linux does better anyway.
AnActOfCreation@programming.dev 8 months ago
What’s the easiest way to run Android apps on Linux?
wolfruff@pawb.social 8 months ago
Waydroid
julianh@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Waydroid
Extrasvhx9he@lemmy.today 8 months ago
Think there’s also an official emulator from android studios but I could be wrong
DODOKING38@lemmy.world 8 months ago
So could theoretically install waydroid in WSL?
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
yoz@aussie.zone 8 months ago
That was quick
dbilitated@aussie.zone 8 months ago
lol I didn’t realise it had been released
Backfire@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It really hadn’t rolled out across the globe yet, so no, it wasn’t even really released before getting pulled.
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I knew WSL was a thing but had absolutely no idea about WSA.
yamanii@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
Joosl@feddit.de 8 months ago
It worked well. But only with Amazon AppStore apps, so nothing useful
Fumbles@lemmy.world 8 months ago
This is what gets me. If they actually just let people install Android apps. It might have worked.
baseless_discourse@mander.xyz 8 months ago
What about waydroid? is it heavy as well?
Grain9325@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
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
9point6@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Damn, this was going to be my workaround for using authy now they’re discontinuing the desktop app inexplicably.
Midnight1938@reddthat.com 8 months ago
Host a vaultwarden for free somewhere
smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Aegis, Bitwarden (now has 2FA in free plan), KeePass…
theredhood@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Can confirm KeePassXC works. But Aegis is android only and Bitwarden TOTP code generation is still paid right now.
Discover5164@lemm.ee 8 months ago
bitwarden now has free otp??
this information got to me ~2h too late. i just switched from authy to 2FAS
Quexotic@infosec.pub 8 months ago
You could use BlueStacks. It’s a bit ad laiden, but it’s not bad.
LiveLM@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
Hard disagree. They (and most other Android emus) are sketchy as hell, I believe using them for anything authentication related would be dangerous
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 8 months ago
BlueStacks is so fucking heavy though. I only have it so I can view a single camera from my desktop, but it’s amazing how much ram it gobbles up while running.
theredhood@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I tried to use it for a few apps but the WSA susbsystem takes up too much RAM for me.
RicoBerto@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
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.
Fisch@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Pantherina@feddit.de 8 months ago
Psssst, come to the side of the funny penguins.
RicoBerto@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
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!
atocci@lemmy.world 8 months ago
This was my exact use case for WSA also. Guess I need to work something else out soon.
Hexarei@programming.dev 8 months ago
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)
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
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.
InFerNo@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Windows Phone, Windows Mobile, Family Room, Zune, Expression. When products don’t create enough revenue they get axed.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
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.
Mistic@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
jayandp@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
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.
ByteMe@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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
jadedwench@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
atocci@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
small44@lemmy.world 8 months ago
That was fast
HogsTooth@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Without the only app store that matters, this was dead on day 1 for me.
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 8 months ago
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!
cammelspit@lemm.ee 8 months ago
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.
tigerjerusalem@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Did Microsoft just pull a Google on a Google product? Mind blowing.
Atemu@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Must’ve gotten infected when eating the Android sweets.