> Indeed, these cores and their firmware usually explicitly sandbox Linux on a corner of the chip (the “application cores”), preventing it taking any meaningful

> Indeed, these cores and their firmware usually explicitly sandbox Linux on a corner of the chip (the “application cores”), preventing it taking any meaningful role in managing and securing the platform. On an Android phone, Linux is effectively an application runtime. The reason Linux is sandboxed into a corner of the system on an Android phone is because the phone is more interested in not trusting you than it is not trusting the SIM chip's processor, cellular radio, etc. Google don't want you: * getting unrestricted access to digital content they or others sell and make available on the platform. Hollywood won't let them sell movies on Play Store if Google can't guarantee you won't be able to make a copy of the files on the device, or output HDMI to a recording device. Ditto for Netflix. Ditto for record companies/RIAA. Ditto for magazines and newspapers. The list goes on. Your smartphone, no matter what anyone tells you otherwise, is primarily designed as a media consumption device. Its secondary purpose is a cloud services consumption device (Google or Apple) and last on the list is "a device for you to use however you want." For example, on iOS, the Files app and any file save dialog always defaulting to your iCloud folder, and the inability to set a default save location, is not even remotely an accident. Apple forces you to, every single time, select somewhere else if you don't want to save to iCloud. * disabling the methods they use to track you or opting out of the data collection they perform wholescale and continuously. * disabling the methods application publishers use to track and collect data about you.