waydroid VS Proton

Compare waydroid vs Proton and see what are their differences.

waydroid

Waydroid uses a container-based approach to boot a full Android system on a regular GNU/Linux system like Ubuntu. (by waydroid)

Proton

Compatibility tool for Steam Play based on Wine and additional components (by ValveSoftware)
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waydroid Proton
179 1,448
6,877 22,655
4.2% 1.9%
7.3 9.6
10 days ago 3 days ago
Python C++
GNU General Public License v3.0 only GNU General Public License v3.0 or later
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

waydroid

Posts with mentions or reviews of waydroid. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-03-05.
  • Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
    7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 5 Mar 2024
    Android on the desktop works very well on Wayland with Waydroid and it even supports Google Play store. https://waydro.id/

    Great running apps not available on Linux with a touchscreen PC. It only seems to run Android apps compiled for x86, but it is very fast.

    There are practical use cases, and it is very usable. I haven’t tried it on WSL2, but it seems like a practical approach without reliance on Microsoft.

  • Sxmo: Linux tiling window manager for phones
    2 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 27 Jan 2024
    There's a piece of software called Waydroid[1] that allows you to run Android applications on GNU/Linux platforms - including the PinePhone. Sxmo, despite its name, can run Wayland instead of X and therefore supports Waydroid.

    Personally, I haven't managed to get Waydroid to work, a task hindered due to some massive initial downloads which are required to set it up. However, I haven't tried particular hard, and there are videos online by those more successful than me[2].

    [1]: https://waydro.id/

    [2]: https://tilvids.com/w/2b2f3a24-ae23-458e-a0fd-2f24a185a11b

  • Google Play Android Self-Certification
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 21 Jan 2024
    I thought it was uncharacteristic of to see a service like this offered by a large tech company, and wanted to share.

    Found whilst installing Waydroid: https://waydro.id/

  • Can I emulate android on my steam deck?
    2 projects | /r/SteamDeck | 8 Dec 2023
    Check out the Waydroid application.
  • Can I view Waydroid on a different display on a VNC viewer?
    1 project | /r/archlinux | 9 Oct 2023
    I have setup an Arch linux server on my old pc. i mainly use it for plex, transmission, docker etc and it works pretty well! I wanted to install Waydroid https://waydro.id/ on that server. Is there a way that I can view waydroid using a VNC viewer on my laptop on the same network? is it possible or would I have to install a GUI like xfce before installing waydroid to view the same on tigervnc or some other VNC viewer? Thanks & regards.
  • Run Firefox on ChromeOS
    3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 8 Aug 2023
    > I run Fedora Linux after removing ChromeOS

    Same here. Sometimes, it crashes on a measly 4 GB of RAM.

    > (the only thing I'm missing is running Android apps)

    I would recommend using Waydroid[1]. It runs fairly well in my use case, and runs LineageOS on top of it with the full LineageOS GUI.

    [1]: https://waydro.id/

  • migration to wayland from x11? for waydroid
    2 projects | /r/kdeneon | 6 Jul 2023
    i am using KDE Neon (user edition) on two machines (thinkpad laptops with intel). On mentioned machines i would like to try and use waydroid: https://waydro.id/ Waydroid required wayland as display server (it will probably not work on x11).
  • What application do you use to see and control the phone from Windows or Linux
    3 projects | /r/kustom | 2 Jul 2023
    Check (Waydroid)[https://waydro.id/]
  • Can I emulate Pixel Gun 3d?
    1 project | /r/emulators | 18 Jun 2023
  • Session manager Anbox
    3 projects | /r/ubuntuserver | 14 Jun 2023
    Waydroid is rebuilding the original idea behind Anbox with explicit focus on modern Wayland powered desktop environments.

Proton

Posts with mentions or reviews of Proton. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-04-22.
  • A New Era for Mixed Reality
    4 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 22 Apr 2024
    The "Metaverse" is a complete joke, and among gamers, Valve has a way better reputation than Meta. Why would they want to dilute that brand?

    They already have their own platform (Steam), OS (SteamOS), VR headset (Index), their own Windows translation layer (Proton, https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton), their own partnership with cloud gaming (Steam Cloud Play using GeForce Now , https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/cloudgaming), etc.

    IMO: As someone with thousands of games on Steam, there's no way in hell I'd want that linked to Facebook. I think they eventually removed the requirement to have a FB account to use a Quest, but they still require a Meta account. Yuck.

    This reeks of Facebook recognizing the Metaverse as the failure that it was and opening it up because it's no longer relevant...

  • Kerbal Space Program 2 is not playable on Linux with Proton
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 8 Feb 2024
  • Proton, a fast and lightweight alternative to Apache Flink
    7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Jan 2024
    Or Valve's Proton[0], a tool for playing Windows games on Linux.

    https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton

  • Proton 8.0-5 (Valve/ValveSoftware/Steam/SteamPlay/Wine/WineHQ/Linux/VideoGame)
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 23 Jan 2024
  • Red Dead Redemption not working
    1 project | /r/linux_gaming | 11 Dec 2023
  • Cyberpunk Issues
    1 project | /r/linux_gaming | 11 Dec 2023
  • Updated my citybuilder Trappist, switched to Vulkan, is anyone still dependent on OpenGL?
    1 project | /r/linux_gaming | 10 Dec 2023
  • NTFS messes up
    1 project | /r/pop_os | 10 Dec 2023
    Did you mount it with the correct flags?
  • How do I use multiple hard drives on Kubuntu for steam?
    2 projects | /r/Kubuntu | 10 Dec 2023
    there is a hack to try and use your existing windows game install from an NTFS drive, but i don't recommend it as steam will try to save file names that are not allowed on NTFS...plus ext4 is faster.
  • Game crashes within 10 seconds of launching unless I reinstall from scratch
    2 projects | /r/satisfactory | 9 Dec 2023
    From a quick search, here's what I found. It looks like you're encountering some common issues that can occur with games running on Linux through Proton, especially with the recent updates to games like Satisfactory that might affect compatibility. The log entries you're seeing related to D3DCompile2 failing to compile shader and the issues with Ternary operator and LinearToSrgbBranching not being defined, suggest that there's a problem with shader compilation. This can often be related to the version of Proton or the graphics drivers you are using. Some users have reported that the game does launch with the -vulkan option but with graphical glitches and lower performance, which indicates that the Vulkan renderer is working but possibly not optimally on your setup. From the discussions in the community, users have suggested ensuring that the latest drivers for your graphics card are installed and, if using an Intel GPU, that the Mesa drivers are up to date since Intel XeSS references were found in the logs. If you're using NVIDIA graphics, make sure you have the latest drivers and possibly set the PROTON_ENABLE_NVAPI=1 %command% to enable DLSS if you're under Vulkan. If you're using an Optimus laptop with both Intel and NVIDIA GPUs, make sure your Optimus setup is correctly configured. Some users have found success by specifying DXVK_FILTER_DEVICE_NAMES=GeForce to force the game to use the NVIDIA GPU. It's also worth noting that if you're encountering issues with DirectX 11, you might want to try forcing the game to use DirectX 10 if possible or look into DXVK configurations that could resolve compatibility issues. Lastly, if none of these solutions work, you could try running a trace with apitrace to gather more detailed logs that might point to the specific issue. If you're still stuck, it would be a good idea to report the issue to the Proton GitHub page or seek further assistance in the game's community forums where others might have encountered and solved similar issues. For more information and to find others who might have resolved similar issues, check out the community discussions on GitHub​​, Steam Community​​, and the DXVK GitHub page​​.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing waydroid and Proton you can also consider the following projects:

anbox - Anbox is a container-based approach to boot a full Android system on a regular GNU/Linux system

lutris - Lutris desktop client

anbox - sfdroid way of rendering within anbox. JUST A PROOF OF CONCEPT, CURRENTLY BEING REWORKED

proton-ge-custom - Compatibility tool for Steam Play based on Wine and additional components

redroid-doc - redroid (Remote-Android) is a multi-arch, GPU enabled, Android in Cloud solution. Track issues / docs here

dxvk-async

waydroid_script - Python Script to add OpenGapps, Magisk, libhoudini translation library and libndk translation library to waydroid !

mf-install - Media Foundation workaround for Wine

qemu-android-x86-runner - Quick Start on How to Run Android x86 in QEMU

yuzu - Nintendo Switch emulator

cage - A Wayland kiosk

gamescope - SteamOS session compositing window manager [Moved to: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/gamescope]