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Wow. So normally we say: Linux is the kernel and GNU is the userland. (Remember GNU/Hurd?) So, what is Android? Does Linux run the Android userspace, or does A

• teddyh 5y ago
  > Linux is the kernel and GNU is the userland No, “GNU” is the operating system project, which includes the userland components, the kernel, and everything else. Just like “Windows” is not ntkrnl.dll, nor is “Windows” the sum of explorer.exe, cmd.exe, etc. – “Windows” is the overarching project name. “GNU” is the same. People who think of “GNU” as userland components likely are influenced by the accident of 1990’s history that was the prevalence of SunOS (etc.) systems with added GNU command utilities. But the GNU command line utilities were originally meant to be for a (yet to be written) complete GNU operating system, including a GNU kernel, Hurd. But since the GNU operating system was to be compatible with Unix, and the command line utilities were good, people liked to run the command line utilities on proprietary Unix variants, and later the same happened when a Linux-based Unix system was cobbled together; the GNU utilities were there for the taking, and they were very useful in creating a complete Unix-based system, based on Linux. This probably created the confusion that GNU = userland utilities and Linux = operating system, even though almost the opposite being true.
  • cuillevel3 5y ago
    Right, I meant ".. in most Linux distributions". The kernel is Linux and the most important userland parts are from GNU. Therefore they are really GNU/Linux distributions. The GNU project has more to offer than coreutils, like Hurd.