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Android doesn't feel like Linux because Android throws out everything Unix-y about it, not because it isn't GNU. The Nokia N900 wasn't a GNU system at all—the
by amyjess 8y ago
Android doesn't feel like Linux because Android throws out everything Unix-y about it, not because it isn't GNU.
The Nokia N900 wasn't a GNU system at all—the userland was a mix of a non-GNU libc and BusyBox—but it still felt like a Linux distro because the UI used X11 with GTK+ and Qt, it had a terminal with all your familiar *nix command-line utilities (thank you, BusyBox!), and app distribution was done through an apt frontend. A good many apps for the N900 were straight-up ports of existing Linux apps, too... the ecosystem was almost entirely FOSS.
Android goes out of its way to hide the terminal, the GUI is based on nothing from the desktop, and it has its own packaging and package distribution format.