Fun with Android emulators

[Jason]

So I'm still working on my Android development course. Presently working on the look and feel of Android apps (Material Design, it's called) and in the course, we compare how this has changed over different Android versions.

In the screenshot attached, you can see emulators running Nexus 4 images using Android APIs 16,21 and 26 (Jellybean, Lollipop and Oreo) on the right-hand screen and watching the lecture on the left with the system monitors. Also the first time I've seen that much swap used on a desktop in a long time, it was up over 500 MB by the time I was done my session. So yes, it's still a good idea to have some swap, the system does use it even before it runs out of RAM.

I was surprised it actually worked as I only have 12 GB of RAM (it was recommended to have 16 GB or more for Windows) but Linux handles it with more than a gigabyte to spare!

[ssfc72]

Thanks Jason, for posting about the Android course you are working on!  It looks to be a very interesting course.

Bill

[fox]

I must be missing something. Is there supposed to be a difference between the three phone screens on the right side of the image?

[Jason]

I must be missing something. Is there supposed to be a difference between the three phone screens on the right side of the image?

Yep. The changes are very subtle but there is a difference between the first and the second screens and one between the second and third screens. The changes are in the colours, nothing else. Although my post was less about that and more just about how efficient Linux is compared to Windows. One of the instructors in the course who answers most of the questions actually uses Linux quite a bit.

For anybody interested, you can find the course here.