PenguDroid and Drion take the same broad approach: no Android system to boot and no container, each app its own Linux process in its own Wayland window, on Android’s own runtime and framework code, with the system services behind them replaced. They differ in how far that goes. PenguDroid answers only some of those services, minimally, and runs apps with your user’s access. Drion implements the system services apps need and puts each app in its own sandbox.
Minimal system services, and apps with your user’s access. An early experiment.
Drion’s own system services, and a kernel sandbox for each app.
Both keep the parts an app talks to, Android’s runtime and framework, and replace what a phone runs behind them. The difference is how much of it. PenguDroid, with a small daemon brokering graphics, audio and Android’s inter-process calls, answers minimally for services such as the package and activity managers: its docs list no package manager and no activity lifecycle yet. Drion provides its own implementation of the system services apps need.
In both, each app is a separate Linux process. PenguDroid runs it with your user’s full access by default: its documentation calls that “the opposite of Android’s process-per-app isolation” and says not to run untrusted APKs. Drion puts a kernel boundary around every app and keeps its own services outside all of them.
Each app is its own process with your user’s access. An optional mode blocks 33 system calls, but your files stay open to the app. The network is shared with the host.
The Linux kernel walls off each app’s processes and private files from the host, other apps and Drion’s own services. The network is shared with the host.
Both projects are changing fast. The PenguDroid column describes PenguDroid as of 1 November 2026 and may be out of date; the Drion column describes the closed alpha as of 1 November 2026.
99701cf3, from 1 November 2026: PenguDroid is an open experiment, and you can follow it commit by commit. Drion is built to run apps you install from app stores, each in its own sandbox.
PenguDroid is open source under Apache-2.0 and changes daily, with its progress logged in the open. It suits developers who want to study or extend it, with apps they trust.
Each app in its own kernel sandbox, with Google Play or other app stores, a standard adb endpoint and arm64 apps on x86_64.
Email us to join the closed alpha.