You can now run Android on a Windows PC using Jide's Remix OS 2.0

Jide, the company that was previously best known to end customers as the manufacturer of an Android tablet that could pass for a Surface slab based on its design, has just made Remix OS 2.0 freely available for download on its website. With Remix OS 2.0, you can now essentially dual-boot between Android and Windows/Mac on virtually any PC out there.

Remix OS is a forked version of Android built upon the Android-x86 project, an unofficial initiative that attempts to port the Android operating system for use on x86 chipsets, such as the ones that you can find powering most PCs currently out there. Jide says that this is an alpha build aimed at developers and enthusiasts who won't mind "a bug or two". Since we have yet to test-drive Remix OS 2.0 for ourselves, we can't figure out the state of the OS just yet. However, once we get to spend some time with the forked Android version, we'll let you know if the OS is workable in its current version.

In theory, Remix OS 2.0 should allow access to the vast range of apps available in the Google Play Store from a Windows PC. Although this is by far the most interesting aspect of the Android-based OS, the developers say that they've included some productivity-oriented features, ones that should come in handy given that you're going to use the OS on a PC.

Using a tool that's available for download from Jide's website, interested users are now able to flash Remix OS 2.0 on a USB drive. Once that's done, the OS can be booted from the USB drive. The best thing about this procedure is that you can take your USB drive with you and use the Remix OS on any other PC you happen to encounter.