One of the more exciting developments out of CES 2016 was from a company by the name of Jide and their Remix OS. While the company has designed products specifically for this Android Lollipop based OS, the company is also offering you the ability to download Remix OS and install it on an old PC or Mac, turning it into an Android device. It is a very clever solution and gives you all the ease of Android and benefits (like a great app store) while breathing new life into that old computer you have sitting around the house.
Remix OS is our state of the art Android-based operating system. We mean it when we say you get a PC experience unlike anything on Android and an Android experience unlike anything on a PC.
Today you can now download the OS for PC free of charge from their website and install it on your older computer, effectively turning it into an Android “PC”. But as you would expect, there are some caveats that you need to be aware of before you take on the task.
The first thing to consider is that Remix OS for PC is still very much in development and the company is quite clear about this as you download the installer for it.
This is an alpha version intended for developers and early adopters who don’t mind a bug or two.
Remix OS for PC
Android was designed for touchscreens and as there isn’t a touchscreen on most PCs, we want you to be aware that apps may perform differently. We’re asking for developers and testers to help us optimize Remix OS for Android PCs.
In fact you have to acknowledge you are a developer and are okay with all of this prior to you downloading the installer. The download itself is 692MB in size.
As for the minimum requirements, here is what you will need:
- A USB 3.0 flash drive that supports FAT32 format, with a minimum capacity of 8GB and a recommended writing speed of 20MB/s.
- A PC with USB legacy boot option.
Once you download the installer you can insert the USB drive into your Mac or PC, go to the boot option and install it there. Yes, you can dual boot.
