At its core, Android is just Linux. But Android provides a runtime and various other libraries that applications depend on, so you can’t just install Android apps on Linux and expect them to work. Open-source project Shashlik is attempting to bridge the gap, and now offers a preview release that can run many Android applications on Linux today.
Essentially, Shashlik runs Android in the background on your Linux system. (Shashlik developers are working on stripping down Android as much as possible.) OpenGL and graphics code are rendered directly on your Linux system for speed, but Shashlik provides an Android activity manager, daemons, and intents so Android apps will work properly.
Read more at PCWorld
