Termux: terminal emulator and Debian-style userland as an Android app
I&#x27;ve been using Termux for about a year and a half now, and can very honestly say that it is the single best and most useful capability I&#x27;ve yet found on Android.<p>I can <i>also</i> say that it&#x27;s not entirely there, and has a number of significant limitations as compared to a full-featured Linux desktop or laptop.<p>My equipment:  A Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9&quot; tablet, with a Logitech &quot;Type-S&quot; self-supporting folio case&#x2F;keyboard combination.  <i>I have major reservations against both pieces of hardware and can recommend neither on the basis of capabilities, vendor support, and artificially-imposed limitations.</i><p>That said, the <i>form factor</i>, <i>display</i>, and <i>battery performance</i> are exemplary.  The tablet runs virtually all day on a charge, the keyboard for months, under heavy use.  I&#x27;ve long sought a highly-flexible, lightweight, portalbe, long-battery-life system, and in terms of the fundamental physical package, this is almost completely there.<p>The keyboard has had physically-damaged keys since the beginning, Logitech first refused, then temporised, and finally claimed it did not <i>have</i> a suitable replacement product.  (Why a keyboard&#x2F;case should be dependent <i>at the model-number level</i> with specific hardware kit is entirely beyond me, and shows a desperate need for industry standardisation.)<p>Samsung&#x27;s Tab A has proved resistant to rooting or re-ROMing, <i>including the ability to make a back-up of the system prior to such activities so as not to lose critical data</i> in ways that can only be described as deliberately user-hostile.  I was not aware of this at the time I purchased the device, under exigent circumstances, and would not do so again.<p>Termux allows breaking out of many of the limitations of the Android &quot;ecosystem&quot; (I prefer to think of it as a toxic waste dump, but that&#x27;s another story.)  Be aware that Termux itself has a number of components, <i>including</i> base Termux, the Termux API Android App, the Termux package repository (based on app), and multiple third-party repos (e.g., pip for python).  Collectively these provide a basic terminal environment, nearly 800 packages (a small count by Linux standards, but a surprisingly useful selection), and many more utilities through third-party utilities.<p><i>Not</i> provided are a system root, full access to external storage media (I have a 128 GB microSD card, but can only make very limited use of it thanks to Android stupidity), or full access to the Android side of the house, though some interactions, including application intentions and clipboard interaction, <i>are</i> supported <i>and are tremendously useful.</i><p>Another major limitation of Termux appears to be its terminal implementation itself.  This is good so long as you&#x27;re going forward, but is <i>painfully</i> slow in any back-navigation actions -- e.g., scrolling backwards in less and other pagers.  Delays can be <i>of many seconds.</i>  I&#x27;ve learned to quit out of files and re-open them from the start rather than going backwards.  Experimenting from other Android console apps suggests this is a fault within Termux itself.<p>I&#x27;ve also had many lag and freeze issues using Termux for remote SSH access -- it&#x27;s OK for quick or noninteractive (e.g., remote command-execution) interactions, but <i>not</i> for prolonged SSH sessions.  This is tremendously disappointing as Termux, unlike other SSH tools I&#x27;ve used, <i>doesn&#x27;t</i> map the &lt;back-navigation&gt;&#x2F;&lt;esc&gt; key to &quot;navigate out of the application&quot;.  Critical when editing files in vim, and making apps such as SSHBot entirely useless.<p>I&#x27;ve found the community and developers helpful (excepting the two major issues above, I&#x27;ve seen multiple small issues fixed rapidly), and again, compared to the sheer uselessness of stock Android as a Real Computing Platform, this is a transcendental leap.<p>But it&#x27;s Still Not Full Linux, and if that&#x27;s what you&#x27;re hoping for, you&#x27;ll be disappointed.<p>On that point:  Samsung shocked the motherlovin&#x27; stuffin&#x27; out of me last week in announcing (and reported here on HN) that they would be supporting full Linux distro installation on future Android devices.  That would be a welcome development.<p><i>Stuff that absolutely rocks under Termux</i><p>Bash for file management.  <i>Every goddamned Android file manager in existance sucks balls.</i><p>mps-youtube.  Install via pip.  Provides console-mode, backgroundable, youtube video access.  mps and mvs are related applications which can play other remote or local audio and video files (generally just the soundtrack).  <i>Media can be backgrounded, lists can be compiled and saved, content can be downloaded, and much, much, much more.</i><p>The Termux-API App.  This provides access to the clipboard, application intents, and various Android capabilities.  <i>You need to install the &quot;termux-api&quot; package as well under apt.</i>  The ability to find specific files (say, from my 6k+ PDF library) <i>and launch them to a PDF reader</i> is just ever-so-slightly useful. (The degree of fail of Android Apps in this space is ... staggering.)<p>APT.  God I&#x27;ve missed this.<p>vim, emacs, python, perl, ruby, ...  An amazingly complete package set.<p>SSH.  Limitations noted, it&#x27;s vastly superior to App-based SSH clients.