Today we are proud to announce a new operating system, a port of Google's famous Android platform for the x86 (32-bit) architecture. Simply named Android-x86, this Live CD Linux distribution is designed mostly for the Eee PC netbooks, but can also run on any other 32-bit (x86) platform. The current stable version of Android-x86 is based on Android 1.6 (Donut) and it's powered by Linux kernel 2.6.29 with kernel mode-setting (or KMS for short) enabled. It has support for the EXT3, EXT2, NTFS and FAT32 filesystems, and can be run directly from the CD (yes, no installation required)! But, if you like it and you want to install it on your hard drive or on a USB stick, we have a short tutorial for you at the end of the article.

"The original plan was to host different patches for android x86 support from open source community. A few months after we created the project, we found out that we could do much more than just hosting patches. So we decide[d] to fork our code base that will provide android x86 support on different x86 platforms, and set up a git server to host it. To reflect this major change, we create this new project." - the developers behind the Android-x86 project said on their website.

The main desktop

Highlights of Android-x86 1.6:

· Based on Android 1.6 (Donut); · Linux kernel 2.6.29 with KMS enabled; · Support for Wi-Fi connections; · Graphical user interface for Ethernet configurations; · Hard drive installer; · Support for suspend/resume functions (S3 mode); · Shows the status of the battery on netbooks; · Support for mouse wheel/cursor; · ALSA driver for better audio; · Support for the native resolutions of netbooks; · Support for netbook's webcams (via V4l2); · Support for external monitors; · Automatic mount of external disk drives; · Support for Bluetooth; · Busybox; · Proxy support.

Until now, Android-x86 was tested on the following Eee PC models: 701, 701SD. 900, 900A, 901, 904HD, 1000, 1000HE, 1000HD, 1005HAG, S101, T91 (VESA mode, touchscreen works), Eee Top 1602C (VESA mode, touchscreen works) and Lenovo ThinkPad x61 Tablet. As you can see, except for the T91 and Eee Top 1602C models, which run only in VESA mode, all the other models enumerated above can run in their native resolution (1024x600 or 800x480) thanks to the i915 Intel video driver.

How to install Android-x86?

Below is a quick guide that provides you with instructions about how to install the Android-x86 Linux distribution on your Eee PC or home computer. It can be installed on a local/external hard drive or a USB flash drive. If you don't have an external/internal CD-ROM on your system, you can write the ISO image to a USB stick by following our "How to Run Linux from an USB Flash Drive" tutorial.

Insert the CD or USB drive and boot from it (check your BIOS settings for that). At the boot loader select the last option: "Install Android-x86 to harddisk."

Download Android-x86 right now from Softpedia.