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Yeah, this is answer is kinda overly focused on semantics. Linux syscalls are _officially_ part of the Android API layer, so much that the Fuschia team has to a

Yeah, this is answer is kinda overly focused on semantics. Linux syscalls are _officially_ part of the Android API layer, so much that the Fuschia team has to add compatibility for them.

Brian_K_White 6y ago
You could just as easily and just as truthfully say it's merely semantics to say it's based on linux just because it happens to use linux now. The argument "Fuscia has to emulate linux, that shows it's hard-tied to linux" is countered by "it has already switched kernels, that shows it can switch kernels". Today, nothing is really indellibly based on anything. Everything can be emulated/replicated/spoofed/pacified so well, and native stacks are so tall now, that there is hardly any functional difference between "native" and anything else now. What's the difference really amid 13 layers between some hardware and some application code, if one of those layers happens to be wine or linuxulator or java or hyperv? The mere semantics is the idea that there is even any consequential meaning to the very phrase "based on" any more.
pjmlp 6y ago
Not really, they aren't documented as belonging to NDK stable APIs. Google doesn't give any guarantees that they work across devices or version upgrades.
dafoex 6y ago
I would disagree, I think this answer is not focussed enough on the semantics. For better or for worse, the "Linux" name has become synonymous with the whole OS and not just the kernel, and the person answering seems to take the assumption that this is what the person asking the question believes. While its interesting to know there's heritage from DangerOS in Android, the answer could have quite easily just been the last bit: "because the Android founders didn't want to spend time writing a new kernel from the ground up". As a tangent, why do people say "GNU/Linux" anyway? We don't say "Windows/NT" or "macOS/Unix", and I think saying "GNU" when we mean GNU and "Linux" when we mean Linux would solve a lot of the problems with translation of assumptions when novices and experts interact.
- kleiba 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU/Linux_naming_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU/Linux_naming_controversy

Yeah, this is answer is kinda overly focused on semantics. Linux syscalls are _officially_ part of the Android API layer, so much that the Fuschia team has to add compatibility for them.

Brian_K_White 6y ago

You could just as easily and just as truthfully say it's merely semantics to say it's based on linux just because it happens to use linux now. The argument "Fuscia has to emulate linux, that shows it's hard-tied to linux" is countered by "it has already switched kernels, that shows it can switch kernels". Today, nothing is really indellibly based on anything. Everything can be emulated/replicated/spoofed/pacified so well, and native stacks are so tall now, that there is hardly any functional difference between "native" and anything else now. What's the difference really amid 13 layers between some hardware and some application code, if one of those layers happens to be wine or linuxulator or java or hyperv? The mere semantics is the idea that there is even any consequential meaning to the very phrase "based on" any more.

pjmlp 6y ago

Not really, they aren't documented as belonging to NDK stable APIs. Google doesn't give any guarantees that they work across devices or version upgrades.

dafoex 6y ago

I would disagree, I think this answer is not focussed enough on the semantics. For better or for worse, the "Linux" name has become synonymous with the whole OS and not just the kernel, and the person answering seems to take the assumption that this is what the person asking the question believes. While its interesting to know there's heritage from DangerOS in Android, the answer could have quite easily just been the last bit: "because the Android founders didn't want to spend time writing a new kernel from the ground up". As a tangent, why do people say "GNU/Linux" anyway? We don't say "Windows/NT" or "macOS/Unix", and I think saying "GNU" when we mean GNU and "Linux" when we mean Linux would solve a lot of the problems with translation of assumptions when novices and experts interact.

kleiba 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU/Linux_naming_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU/Linux_naming_controversy