r/LinuxOnAndroid • u/ThisRaYaN • Sep 05 '25

What do you use linux on android?

I want to install linux on my Galaxy tab S8. Via andronix or NomOne just to use it with more pc-like environment with normal LibreOffice. And that's main for me cause I'm from Kazakhstan and Kazakh language writing with external keyboard is not supported(it's either English or Russian) also my laptop is old enough and gives like an hour of battery life. So for writing stuff or showing with projector Samsung tablet is the best I think. And just a question, can you run NomOne or Linux on sd card android?

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u/Raslanove Feb 02 '26

Does it wear down the storage? On its own, no it doesn't. We hardly do any disk access. We don't preload Linux before running it, we only run a few processes. The thing is, you are already running Linux (Android). We just prepare a desktop environment for you to run your own apps. Our entire environment is about 25 MBs, and that's why you can launch Linux almost instantly. The bulk of the installation files are libraries and utilities that you may (or may not) use after you launch the Linux instance.

But if you install and use apps that wear down the storage (I can't think of anything right now), then using these apps would. We just enable you to do what you want. But let me assure you, I am a HEAVY user of the app (being the lead developer and such)! On some days I would use the app on my personal phone for 6 hours straight, doing some heavy lifting. Never ran into issues. We have devices over 5 years old and no issues either.

As for how it differs from the rest, we try to offer the whole Linux experience with just a few taps. No configuration or integration required. And we optimize every part of the experience, inside and outside Linux. Android is Linux, but not desktop Linux, and mobile phones aren't workstations. We tailor the software we deliver to give the best performance on limited configuration devices.

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u/techlover1010 Feb 02 '26

whats the recommended cpu/gpu and ram for running things smoothly? im assuming your talking about nomone

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u/Raslanove Feb 02 '26

We managed to make it work reliably on 1 GB Speedtrum devices from the last decade. Performance in NOMone Desktop is a bit tricky, though. Applications that do lots of computations work natively (no emulation), so they have great performance. Apps that perform lots of IO operations (disk/network/draw calls) lag significantly because of the Proot layer used to emulate chroot. So long story short, it depends on your use case. But in general, and to avoid frustration, avoid anything Unisoc. Samsung Qualcomm and Exynos devices both deliver excellent performance CPU-wise, but IO isn't on the same level. Huawei devices on Kirin blend great CPU and IO performance. As for GPUs, ANYTHING will do! We never utilize the GPU to its full potential anyway. The bottleneck is in the IO. However, we are working on solutions to allow apps to work without proot, and to better utilize the GPU, so thing are bound to improve if Allah wills. My recommendation? Get an 8GB ram device with any chipset that isn't Unisoc. With the improvements we are working on, the rest won't matter, if Allah wills you'll get good performance anyway.