Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on news.ycombinator.com

Our great sponsors
  • WorkOS - The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS
  • InfluxDB - Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale
  • SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews
  • termux-app

    Termux - a terminal emulator application for Android OS extendible by variety of packages.

  • Termux singlehandedly makes me feel like I'm living my childhood dream of having a full computer in my pocket. I use git to blog from my phone, I have ffmpeg and yt-dlp installed to download videos for when I am going to be away from internet access for a while, and I even have some home automation scripts setup that control the lights over the local network. But I am concerned about the direction Android is headed, Google policies have been aligning closer to Apple's. I don't like having to stay on a previous generation OS just to make sure I don't lose "power user" fuctionality. Just recently I had to install a root mod to allow apps complete access to SD cards, a recent update caused me to get the dreaded "To protect your privacy, choose another folder" while trying to give a gallery app permissions. I am grateful for Termux devs for working hard to maintain functionality via workarounds.

    https://github.com/termux/termux-app/issues/2366

  • termux-packages

    A package build system for Termux.

  • In old Android devices, or installed via alternative ways.

    https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-An...

  • WorkOS

    The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

    WorkOS logo
  • proot-distro

    An utility for managing installations of the Linux distributions in Termux.

  • Folks who want a more traditional linux environment and libraries then what termux comes with might find proot-distro[1] to meet their needs. Basically it allows running an actual arm linux distro in a pseudo container created by (ab)using the ptrace syscall to emulate root privileges. This has a fairly big performance impact, but it works if you want to run arbitrary arm linix binaries.

    [1] https://github.com/termux/proot-distro

  • proot

    An chroot-like implementation using ptrace. (by termux)

  • I understand the sentiment, but I disagree. From the last time I checked, the big compromise with GNU/Linux phones is still the lack of social media and messaging apps and appstore ecosystem. Android, with root, is every bit as much a computer as a Pinephone and Librem 5, but the opposite isn't true. Termux has PRoot, a user-space implementation of chroot allowing a full distro install. I personally don't have any problem depending on Google, I have a problem with things being locked away with no alternative. Given the option, I will happily accept the risks and void my warray to root.

    https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/PRoot

  • tergent

    A cryptoki library that uses Android keystore as the backend

  • Take a look at https://github.com/aeolwyr/tergent

    tergent is a ssh agent for termux that uses the Android keystore, meaning your private keys are kept in your phone's secure enclave for a bit of nice extra security.

  • ish

    Linux shell for iOS

  • nix-on-droid

    Discontinued Nix-enabled environment for your Android device.

  • If you do like the nix ecosystem (and all its benefits like reproducible envs) or just want to give it a try to a "NixOS" like thingy, you should absolutely try https://github.com/t184256/nix-on-droid. It's somewhat rough, but it's very nice and has nix flakes and home-manager support.

  • InfluxDB

    Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale. Get real-time insights from all types of time series data with InfluxDB. Ingest, query, and analyze billions of data points in real-time with unbounded cardinality.

    InfluxDB logo
NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

Suggest a related project

Related posts