T

he concept of turning a smartphone into a full PC is being experimented by big players like Microsoft and Canonical. With a similar aim, Maru OS was unveiled earlier this year as a software project that allowed you to connect an Android smartphone to an external display and turn it into a Linux desktop computer. Initially, Google Nexus 5 was the only supported phone.

Recently, Maru OS made a debut on GitHub and offered its code to the open source community. Maru OS has now been made open source under the Apache License 2.0.

This sounds like an interesting development as some developers are already planning to port the software to support more smartphones. At the moment, the developers are focussing on Google Nexus devices and some older LG and Motorola phones. As Maru OS is now open, this list will surely grow.

The phone-desktop combos (Continuum, Ubuntu Unity phone OS) rely on a single operating system that operates differently for different hardware configuration. Maru OS employs a different approach by mixing Android and Debian Linux. These two modes share your phone’s hardware, storage, processing power.

Wondering how Maru OS works? Here’s what its GitHub page has to say:

“It’s based on the Android Open Source Project and focuses on mobile hardware. It uses lightweight OS virtualization (containers) on Android to spin up virtual systems on demand, and provides a bridge into Android’s I/O framework for interactivity.”

The fact that both desktop and phone environments run simultaneously makes Maru OS more interesting. Just use Bluetooth to pair a mouse and keyboard, and your desktop work environment is ready.

At the moment, Maru OS is able to run Linux desktop app (Firefox, LibreOffice, GIMP etc.) and perform simple tasks. As our smartphones continue to become more powerful (more processing power, more RAM), Maru OS can allow one to replace a desktop computer entirely.

— MaruOS on GitHub

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Also Read: Google’s New Open Source OS Fuchsia — What Can We Expect From It?