Windows 11 will be free with a touch of Android

Almighty in the 90s until the early 2000s, Microsoft missed the turn of the mobile. Well, not really. We will say that he did not know how to manage it well. It should be remembered that Windows Mobile dates from 2000 (Android will not be released until eight years later) and that even before that, the butterfly firm was already interested in OS embedded with Windows CE. A bit like with the tablets she invented (eh yes !), Microsoft was perhaps too far ahead of its time.

The rest we know: a Windows Mobile which does not appeal, a nice Windows Phone / 10 Mobile, but which arrives too late. Since 2017, Microsoft is therefore gradually opening up to Android. Unthinkable a few years ago when Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft, compared Linux to cancer or when he wanted to “bury Eric Schmidt” and ” kill google“.

The hatchet is therefore buried and we even saw a timid rapprochement last year with the Assistant Your Phone application – Link with Windows which allows you to retrieve your photos, access your apps and even make a phone call from his PC without taking his smartphone out of his pocket.

Android comes to Windows

But during the official presentation of Windows which took place yesterday, Microsoft unveiled an interesting feature: the Microsoft Store will integrate Android applications through a partnership with the Amazon App Store. The latter has a very good catalog of applications that work without GApps, Google’s proprietary applications.

These different apps created to run on ARM systems, will run on x86 without touching the code thanks to the technology of a long-standing partner, the Intel Bridge. There are still a few points to be clarified. How will the apps that require a gyroscope or even a geolocation chip react? Will we be able to install APKs? But where is Ornicar? We will soon have the answer since the OS that comes out at the end of the year will be accessible this Monday June 28 via a “Preview” version that can be downloaded by registering for the program. Windows Insider.

Read also: The Android / e / system: how to exclude Google from your privacy

And the other novelties?

The good news is that the OS will be free, like Windows 10 was for holders of a Windows 7 license. Until when will it be free? We don’t know yet, but Microsoft is making a program to find out if your machine will be able to run it.

The look of Windows 11 will also be completely revised. It must be said that between the legacy of Windows 7, the icons of Microsoft Office and the tiles of Windows 8, Windows 10 looks more like a counterfeit product than a real modern OS. We will therefore have the right to transparency, rounded windows and a taskbar centered as on MacOS or certain Linux distributions. As with the release of Windows 8, it is already activated to find a way to find a Start menu “normal and left”. Note also the native integration of Teams for cross-platform video with the iOS and Android versions. Finally, gaming takes an increasingly important place at Microsoft with the integration of “cloud games” (formerly xCloud) and Xbox Game Pass in the Xbox application.

Also read: Samsung “Link to Windows”: view and control your phone from your PC!