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Google created an Android userspace that requires Google services to do anything meaningful. This violates everything Linux stands for.

colordrops 4y ago
Not great, agreed, but they did at least architect the OS so that they are decoupled and you can build without them very easily. In fact the largest custom ROM doesn't bundle with them by default (LineageOS). What do you need Google services for?
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  LineageOS doesn't bundle Google Play by default because they're not allowed to, not because they don't want to. In fact they would like to because a majority of their users install it. But there's a lot of legal strings attached to it.
est31 4y ago
I think it's better to come up with replacements for those Google services and apps instead of rewriting the entire operating system. You need to solve the same problems on a linux smartphone as well, so Android gave you a lot of time savings, and I doubt the app sandboxing is even remotely as good on those non-Android linuxes. For Google Play for example there is F-droid, for push messages/FCM there is UnifiedPush, for Google Maps there is Osmand.
rrdharan 4y ago
Who decides what "Linux" stands for? Linus? RMS? "The community"?
- dannymi 4y ago
  Linux is a trademark owned by Linus Torvalds. So Linus decides.
- Dalewyn 4y ago
  My personal objective take is if it runs a Linux kernel, it's Linux. Any other factor is subjective and does not matter. Legally though, Linus Torvalds gets to define what Linux is because he owns that name.
morepork 4y ago
You can still have a useful experience on a pure AOSP build. You'll miss features like push notifications, Google accounts outside of the browser, an app store and various other features. But there's no reason the open source community couldn't add these, a package repo/app store equivalent and push messaging would probably be the deal breakers for me as a phone where chat apps don't work isn't useful to me. The binary blobs to get driver support are also a problem, but it's also true in desktop linux, see for example Nvidia's graphics card driver.

colordrops 4y ago

Not great, agreed, but they did at least architect the OS so that they are decoupled and you can build without them very easily. In fact the largest custom ROM doesn't bundle with them by default (LineageOS). What do you need Google services for?

GekkePrutser 4y ago
LineageOS doesn't bundle Google Play by default because they're not allowed to, not because they don't want to. In fact they would like to because a majority of their users install it. But there's a lot of legal strings attached to it.

est31 4y ago

I think it's better to come up with replacements for those Google services and apps instead of rewriting the entire operating system. You need to solve the same problems on a linux smartphone as well, so Android gave you a lot of time savings, and I doubt the app sandboxing is even remotely as good on those non-Android linuxes. For Google Play for example there is F-droid, for push messages/FCM there is UnifiedPush, for Google Maps there is Osmand.

rrdharan 4y ago

Who decides what "Linux" stands for? Linus? RMS? "The community"?

dannymi 4y ago
Linux is a trademark owned by Linus Torvalds. So Linus decides.
Dalewyn 4y ago
My personal objective take is if it runs a Linux kernel, it's Linux. Any other factor is subjective and does not matter. Legally though, Linus Torvalds gets to define what Linux is because he owns that name.

morepork 4y ago

You can still have a useful experience on a pure AOSP build. You'll miss features like push notifications, Google accounts outside of the browser, an app store and various other features. But there's no reason the open source community couldn't add these, a package repo/app store equivalent and push messaging would probably be the deal breakers for me as a phone where chat apps don't work isn't useful to me. The binary blobs to get driver support are also a problem, but it's also true in desktop linux, see for example Nvidia's graphics card driver.