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So... Android is built on the Linux kernel... and these people were making an "Android" PC OS? How is that not essentially just another Linux distro? What exac
by mfoy_ 9y ago
So... Android is built on the Linux kernel... and these people were making an "Android" PC OS? How is that not essentially just another Linux distro?
What exactly, was the point?
- opayen 9y agoAccess to all Android apps maybe?
- mfoy_ 9y agoSo it's a Linux distro that offers native Android app support, sans-emulator? Was that the whole thing? Considering how... entrenched the OS market is, it's not easy to have a solid value proposition for creating a _new_ OS.
- NikolaeVarius 9y agoI mean ChromeOs is a thing right? They wanted to beat Google to the Apps on Desktop game
- roneythomas6 9y agoIt was more of an flavour(fork) of android than a linux distro. First they made installing android on x86 easy as installing linux or windows. Second they added desktop like launcher for android. So multiple apps can be open at same time and do window resize.
- digi_owl 9y agoBesides the kernel, there is very little of "desktop" (or should i say GNU/Linux) present in Android. They used Busybox (switched to Toybox at some point) for the core utils for example. And the GUI stack is all custom to Android. No X11 etc (You can however install some APKs that allow you to run X11 programs locally. A reminder of the flexibiliy of X11, imo). To get Android apps running on ChromeOS (based of Gentoo, iirc), both developed by Google, they had to "containerize" the Android environment. This should be a good indication of how divergent from desktop Linux Android has become.
- bitmapbrother 9y agoTo run Android apps that a Linux distro couldn't.