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This "Android is not Linux" meme is pretty silly. "Android contains the only Linux component - the kernel" can also describe any distribution/OS using Linux.

by jcastro 11y ago

timdiggerm 11y ago
Shouldn't it be "Android is not GNU/Linux"? Then it'd be true.
pjmlp 11y ago
Google could replace Linux with any POSIX kernel and only OEMs and NDK users that use unofficial APIs would notice.
izacus 11y ago
So how does classifying Android as being Linux help anyone? Who does that definition help? The most important drivers (video, camera) aren't compatible with desktop, userspace isn't either, most binaries won't work properly due to use of libbionic, etc. So what kind of useful definition is "Android is Linux" when you can't really reuse any Android components on desktop Linux distributions?
- jcastro 11y ago
  It's just completely arbitrary. Other than "It uses a linux kernel" there's no list anywhere of what makes something "a real Linux". Everything around the kernel is a pile of reusable components that make up an operating system. As far as I can tell there's no gatekeeper that says "Tool A in combination with the kernel is a real linux, but android components don't count." And no one could be that gatekeeper because Free Software lets people use what they want. So who draws that line? This is a list of complaints of what happens when putting certain blocks that make an OS not work like a cohesive whole. One vendor (Android) decided to use an entirely different set a blocks (as is their right), and then people are like "Well that doesn't count." How does it not count? If you don't like the set of blocks that are out there you make your own blocks, that seems to be a fundamental point of using OSS in the first place, the right to say "I want to use different blocks". It's not any less a Linux than my Ubuntu machine or my Nest thermostat or whatever flavor is on my router.
Zigurd 11y ago
Technically correct. But no Linux distro has so radically altered the userland as Android: One runtime and one UI stack for all apps. That might not be the only way to make Linux into a widely used consumer OS, but it is, by several orders of magnitude, the most successful approach so far.
- sunnyps 11y ago
  There's another distro like that: ChromeOS :)
  - Zigurd 11y ago
    I was about to say that ChromeOS is a lot closer to being a conventional desktop Linux, with X11, blah blah blah... Good thing I checked that! I had not been paying much attention to ChromeOS and was surprised to learn of Freon.

This "Android is not Linux" meme is pretty silly. "Android contains the only Linux component - the kernel" can also describe any distribution/OS using Linux.

by jcastro 11y ago

This "Android is not Linux" meme is pretty silly. "Android contains the only Linux component - the kernel" can also describe any distribution/OS using Linux.

timdiggerm 11y ago

Shouldn't it be "Android is not GNU/Linux"? Then it'd be true.

pjmlp 11y ago

Google could replace Linux with any POSIX kernel and only OEMs and NDK users that use unofficial APIs would notice.

izacus 11y ago

So how does classifying Android as being Linux help anyone? Who does that definition help? The most important drivers (video, camera) aren't compatible with desktop, userspace isn't either, most binaries won't work properly due to use of libbionic, etc. So what kind of useful definition is "Android is Linux" when you can't really reuse any Android components on desktop Linux distributions?

jcastro 11y ago
It's just completely arbitrary. Other than "It uses a linux kernel" there's no list anywhere of what makes something "a real Linux". Everything around the kernel is a pile of reusable components that make up an operating system. As far as I can tell there's no gatekeeper that says "Tool A in combination with the kernel is a real linux, but android components don't count." And no one could be that gatekeeper because Free Software lets people use what they want. So who draws that line? This is a list of complaints of what happens when putting certain blocks that make an OS not work like a cohesive whole. One vendor (Android) decided to use an entirely different set a blocks (as is their right), and then people are like "Well that doesn't count." How does it not count? If you don't like the set of blocks that are out there you make your own blocks, that seems to be a fundamental point of using OSS in the first place, the right to say "I want to use different blocks". It's not any less a Linux than my Ubuntu machine or my Nest thermostat or whatever flavor is on my router.

Zigurd 11y ago

Technically correct. But no Linux distro has so radically altered the userland as Android: One runtime and one UI stack for all apps. That might not be the only way to make Linux into a widely used consumer OS, but it is, by several orders of magnitude, the most successful approach so far.

sunnyps 11y ago
There's another distro like that: ChromeOS :)
- Zigurd 11y ago
  I was about to say that ChromeOS is a lot closer to being a conventional desktop Linux, with X11, blah blah blah... Good thing I checked that! I had not been paying much attention to ChromeOS and was surprised to learn of Freon.