Discovering Termux some years back (probably around 2015/2016) was an absolute watershed for me. It was and remains the one Android app which does not specifically and precisely suck[1].

Commenting on the LWN treatment: do install from F-Droid (I believe this is the only real option that works for now). The Termux-API package is particularly useful, especially the clipboard interactions (I've mapped these to aliases / shell functions / scripts 'xc' (copy) and 'xp' (paste) respectively), and the ability to invoke "open" on specific arguments (e.g., ebooks in multiple formats, or URLs). It's also worth emphasizing that most of your Termux updates are going to be through its package manager (apt or pkg), rather than by updating the underlying Android apps. Effectively you're installing an environment and package manager, and it's these which you'll be using as on a Debian-based Linux distribution to install and update specific packages.

With pip (python's package manager) I also gain access to mpv and yt-dlp, which enable me to play videos (or more accurately, the audio stream from them) from a terminal session rather than as a full-screen application. Given that I'm almost always on an e-ink device for which video which, whilst possible is almost always subobptimal, that's a major win. It also avoids YouTube ads ;-)

Other development package managers (e.g., Ruby, Perl, Rust, etc.) are also available.

The sheer number of available packages is also impressive, well over 2,500 within apt/pkg alone (and far more under additional language-specific repos). That's still a small fraction of a full Debian distro's 70k or so distinct packages, but includes a large and quite useful portion of the actual usable userland tools, including significant dev tools.

I've also found that stability of Termux sessions (that is, avoiding getting reaped by Android's memory garbage collector / process reaper) has improved tremendously over the years, and is rarely a concern (though it may still occur occasionally for a long-stagnant session).

Paring Termux with a larger screen (Android-based e-book / e-ink devices are excellent) and an external bluetooth keyboard is also hugely useful.

There remain limitations: access to full Android storage, root access, an unusual path prefix, many unavailable packages, limited access to systems space (e.g., /proc and /sys, networking, and the like), as well as the underlying Android weirdness do still intrude if you try to stretch limits. But Termux is absolutely useful and an absolutely welcome addition to any Android system.

For those familiar with extending Linux userlands to Windows prior to WSL, it's similar in general spirit to Cygwin.

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Notes:

1. As I've noted (with some variation) for years: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>. I'll admit that EinkBro, an e-ink optimised browser, is giving Termux a run for its money however: <https://github.com/plateaukao/browser>, which has some truly useful features (such as "save to ePub": <https://toot.cat/@dredmorbius/107958709435468728>). Multiple raves and comments: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>.