iSH Shell 17+

Excellent utility, if slow

Before I get into what I like, I'll mention my main dislikes. The most noticeable is speed: because it's JIT-like, you can tell that the performance is slower than native (for example, taking a few seconds to open an ssh key). Additionally, while many apps that I use (gcc, python, node, to name a few) work, not everything will work out of the box (for example, ip addr doesn't behave).

Despite these limitations, I would still give this app 5 stars: it just significantly improves the utility of my device. I mainly use it as an ssh/mosh box, but I can also do some basic programming locally. For fun, I even got a VNC server to run! Even as a basic tool for SSH, I can easily just use my own keys and I don't see noticeable delay once the connection is established. There's probably more interesting things I could do with it given the support of APK.

Excellent Port of Alpine Linux

I’ve been around since the project started and have followed the beta til now. The work involved in the creation of this app and the community standing behind it amazing and deserves credit for porting this over to iOS. Many man hours were put in by Theodore himself and others such as the creator UTM and other contributors that have given valuable insight to the community and have pushed the limitations of iSH in order to present a full features Alpine Linux experience right here on your iOS device which is no small feat. This application allows much freedom over file s creation, editing, and even movement of files and folders laterally to other application folders. It’s worth the download even if you just want to place games in the terminal or ssh into your devices. Enjoy!

Project Zer0

Great Linux app so far

This is a great app, and it has great potential. I've done some research on the web, and apparently there was supposed to be in APK package manager for this app under Alpine Linux. When I try to install APK packages, it says, "Ash, APK, not found". I was trying to compile Emacs from the source, but it requires the GNU make package which this app doesn't come with preinstalled. Other than that though, this is a great step forward to having Linux in your pocket. Though it's limited and sandboxed, and can't necessarily run directly on iOS hardware, this is something awesome too see. One thing I particularly like is the voiceover accessibility support. I was able to connect an external keyboard and start working with Linux on my iOS device. The only thing that could be improved is that it's a little slow when you're typing commands, but this is still an awesome app. I am looking forward to future development.

Developer Response ,

The latest version (iSH 1.1) includes APK. See go.ish.app/get-apk for how to activate it.