4 ms·

It's interesting that you say this. If POSIX was all that there is to it, then isn't Apple iOS/Mac OS the same as Android and (insert-your-favorite-distro-here)

by sdkmvx 15y ago

It's interesting that you say this. If POSIX was all that there is to it, then isn't Apple iOS/Mac OS the same as Android and (insert-your-favorite-distro-here) Linux? I think ultimately the differences between user-facing (and even developer-facing, API-level stuff) components are way more important than the fact that POSIX is so common. After all, we would't describe two computers as basically the same because they both have a CPU/RAM/Storage unless we were comparing them to say, a car.

ajross 15y ago
All I'm saying is that by any complexity metric you want to pick (lines of code, whatever) Android and "Linux" are far, far more alike than different. The layer you are picking as "way more important" only seems more important to you because it's the layer you live in. The rest of the software is really important too (where would you be without the networking stack or video codecs, for example?) and to those people (and there are lot of us!) bringing up software on Android is more or less the same as doing it on desktop linux.
- comex 15y ago
  > All I'm saying is that by any complexity metric you want to pick (lines of code, whatever) Android and "Linux" are far, far more alike than different. Citation needed. The Android-specific stuff makes up a lot of code.
  - ajross 15y ago
    A quick "du" over a fairly stale source tree shows the "external" tree as larger than the rest of the source trees added together. And that's not including the kernel, which is (by far) the largest single component. Really: you need to get your head out of app space if you want to talk about platforms. There's an immense amount of code in a modern system that you never see. And Android (correctly) sucked it all in from linux instead of reimplementing it.
    - sdkmvx 15y ago
      > Really: you need to get your head out of app space if you want to talk about platforms. Do you know that comex has written several jailbreaks for iOS? I think he's more qualified to talk about mobile platforms than either of us. When we compare two systems, we should look at the code that is different. Everything about desktop Linux and Android is different except for the stuff that all computers need to do. Basic OS services are a solved problem, and that's why you don't see too many people writing OSes today.

by sdkmvx 15y ago

ajross 15y ago

All I'm saying is that by any complexity metric you want to pick (lines of code, whatever) Android and "Linux" are far, far more alike than different. The layer you are picking as "way more important" only seems more important to you because it's the layer you live in. The rest of the software is really important too (where would you be without the networking stack or video codecs, for example?) and to those people (and there are lot of us!) bringing up software on Android is more or less the same as doing it on desktop linux.

comex 15y ago
> All I'm saying is that by any complexity metric you want to pick (lines of code, whatever) Android and "Linux" are far, far more alike than different. Citation needed. The Android-specific stuff makes up a lot of code.
- ajross 15y ago
  A quick "du" over a fairly stale source tree shows the "external" tree as larger than the rest of the source trees added together. And that's not including the kernel, which is (by far) the largest single component. Really: you need to get your head out of app space if you want to talk about platforms. There's an immense amount of code in a modern system that you never see. And Android (correctly) sucked it all in from linux instead of reimplementing it.
  - sdkmvx 15y ago
    > Really: you need to get your head out of app space if you want to talk about platforms. Do you know that comex has written several jailbreaks for iOS? I think he's more qualified to talk about mobile platforms than either of us. When we compare two systems, we should look at the code that is different. Everything about desktop Linux and Android is different except for the stuff that all computers need to do. Basic OS services are a solved problem, and that's why you don't see too many people writing OSes today.