Today, September 4, 2016, Arne Exton has been happy to inform us about the release of the first build of his AndEX project based on Google's recently released Android 7.0 Nougat mobile operating system.

For those of you who have never heard of AndEX, it is an Android-x86 operating system for personal computers, and until today, it was based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. We have to admit that we were wondering when Arne Exton would start rebasing AndEX on Android 7.0 Nougat, and it looks like that has just happened.

"My compiled Android-x86_64 system (Nougat 7.0) can run live (from CD) on certain computers. It is best installed to a USB stick or to hard drive and running from there. The system can, however, be installed on almost all newer laptops (and some desktop computers)," says Arne Exton in the release announcement.

Powered by long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel, ships with GAPPS

The new AndEX build is tagged as version 160904, and taking a quick look under its hood, we can't help but notice that it uses the same long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel that's also used on the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system, as well as several other distros. The kernel package is named 4.4.19-exton-android-x86_64 and was patched to support some special hardware.

However, users are warned that they need to have a recent computer to run AndEX with Android 7.0 Nougat on it. Best of all, AndEX ships with the GAPPS package, giving users instant access to many of Google's applications and services, including but not limited to Google Play Services, Google Play store, YouTube, and Gmail. Additionally, you'll find many other apps, such as Aptoide App Manager for installing third-party ones.

Arne Exton also reminds users to be aware of the fact that not all the Android apps available in Google Play Store are compatible with an Android-x86 system, such as AndEX. Also, please note that AndEX is not free, as you'll have to pay the sum of $9 (€8) to download the ISO image or a zip archive that helps you install the OS on your personal computer if you carefully follow the instructions provided by the developer.