Jide announces Remix OS 2.0, a fork of Android Lollipop that is designed to run on x86 PCs, alpha build will be available as a free download on January 12
The excellent Remix OS is bringing Android to every old x86 PC (and Mac) for free — When I first tested the Remix Mini at the end of last year, I was blown away.
Context & Ripple Effects
Jide, founded by three ex-Google engineers who built the Surface-like Remix Ultra Tablet, spent 2015 proving Android could carry a desktop interface in its own hardware. Remix OS 2.0 flips that strategy: instead of selling you a device, it hands the same desktop-style Android to any x86 PC or Mac as a free alpha download.
The move matters because Google had no official answer for Android-on-the-desktop at the time — and the corpus shows where both bets landed: Jide discontinued Remix OS for PCs within eighteen months, while Google itself later began migrating Chrome OS fully onto Android.
First-order effects
- Owners of old x86 PCs and Macs can install a desktop-windowed Android for free starting January 12, turning machines otherwise headed for retirement into Remix devices.
- Jide pivots from selling Remix hardware (the Remix Mini, the Ultra Tablet) to distributing its operating system directly, betting downloads rather than devices grow the platform.
Second-order effects
- As a Lollipop-based fork shipping a major version behind current Android, Remix OS depends entirely on Google tolerating its access to Play services and app compatibility — leverage Google controls unilaterally.
- Free desktop Android on legacy hardware gives Windows OEMs and Microsoft a low-end competitor they don't collect revenue from, pressuring the cheap-PC price floor.
Third-order effects
- The fork-vs-platform asymmetry is structural: independent reimagineers of Android must chase Google's release cadence and goodwill forever, which is exactly the squeeze under which Jide ultimately exited — while Google retained the option to build Android-for-PC itself.
- If Android keeps absorbing desktop duties — from third-party forks like this to Google's own Chrome OS convergence — the phone/tablet/PC OS boundary erodes around whoever owns the app ecosystem, not whoever ships the interface.
The trend: Android is expanding beyond phones toward desktop computing, first through third-party forks like Remix OS and ultimately through Google's own platform decisions.