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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

+OS

Android 13 virtualization lets Pixel 6 run Windows 11, Linux distributions [cnx-software.com]

The first Android 13 developer preview [cnx-software.com] may have felt a bit underwhelming, but there's a hidden gem with full virtualization possible on hardware such as the Google Pixel 6 smartphone.

What that means is that it is now possible to run virtually any operating system including Windows 11, Linux distributions such as Ubuntu or Arch Linux Arm on the Google Tensor-powered phone, and do so at near-native speed.

[...] But why did Google enable virtualization in Android? It's unlikely they just wanted to let users install Linux or Windows on the phone. Mishaal Rahman addressed this issue [esper.io] about two months ago:

... This is because hypervisors may or may not be present on a device, and when they are, they're often not even used for their intended purpose, which is to run an operating system in a virtual machine! Instead, they're used for things like enhancing the security of the kernel (or at least trying to) and running miscellaneous code (such as third-party code for DRM, cryptography, and other closed-source binaries) outside of the Android OS.

Original Submission