A mobile computing device with a mobile operating system and desktop operating system running concurrently and independently on a shared kernel without virtualization. The mobile operating system provides a user experience for the mobile computing device that suits the mobile environment. The desktop operating system provides a full desktop user experience when the mobile computing device is docked to a secondary terminal environment. Applications of the desktop operating system communicate with applications and services of the mobile operating system through a cross-environment communication framework. The cross-environment communication framework may include interfaces to remotable objects allowing processes in the mobile operating system and processes in the desktop operating system to share memory in a thread-safe manner. The mobile computing device may be a smartphone running the Android mobile operating system and a full desktop Linux distribution on a modified Android kernel.