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People don't call Android a "real linux" because you, as a user, aren't in actual control of the system: you can't root, you cant choose which system apps run

People don't call Android a "real linux" because you, as a user, aren't in actual control of the system: you can't root, you cant choose which system apps run on your system nor can you disable them, you can't change the underlying linux kernel. You effectively are locked in by the OEM, who is the one that has higher privilege than the user. A real linux would allow the user to have actual control over their own system.

vitarnixofntrnt 2y ago
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AshamedCaptain 2y ago
Termux does absolutely nothing to improve any of this. I guess "real Linux"'s most arbitrary but concrete definition applicable for TFA is "glibc". I am very much against this trend by major vendors to push Linux but just as a "VM" or similarly contained crap. MS is doing it (WSL), Google is doing it (pKVM Terminal), etc.
- flykespice 2y ago
  > I am very much against this trend by major vendors to push Linux but just as a "VM" or similarly contained crap. MS is doing it (WSL), Google is doing it (pKVM Terminal), etc. I guess they are reasonable if you want to use a unix-like terminal environment but don't want go your way to flash your hard drive to install an entire new OS. I myself use linux under WSL because my SSD capacity is very small already and I can't afford reducing it futher partitioning for another OS.
  - AshamedCaptain 2y ago
    For the record, "partitioning it" is exactly what you did if you used WSL2.
SapporoChris 2y ago
"You effectively are locked in by the OEM, who is the one that has higher privilege than the user." Anyone that has ever rooted their phone and installed a different OS would strongly disagree with you. https://itsfoss.com/open-source-alternatives-android/ https://itsfoss.com/open-source-alternatives-android/
cykros 2y ago
Are people that bristled by RMS that they're this obstinate about refusing to call it GNU/Linux? Seems to be a No Real Linux fallacy...
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
  I don't follow. Android isn't GNU/Linux. This makes it tempting to say GNU/Linux is what we want, except that ChromeOS is GNU/Linux (it's a Gentoo derivative) and Alpine isn't (it uses musl+busybox) so "user controlled Linux" really is probably the best term.

vitarnixofntrnt 2y ago

[dead]

AshamedCaptain 2y ago

Termux does absolutely nothing to improve any of this. I guess "real Linux"'s most arbitrary but concrete definition applicable for TFA is "glibc". I am very much against this trend by major vendors to push Linux but just as a "VM" or similarly contained crap. MS is doing it (WSL), Google is doing it (pKVM Terminal), etc.

flykespice 2y ago
> I am very much against this trend by major vendors to push Linux but just as a "VM" or similarly contained crap. MS is doing it (WSL), Google is doing it (pKVM Terminal), etc. I guess they are reasonable if you want to use a unix-like terminal environment but don't want go your way to flash your hard drive to install an entire new OS. I myself use linux under WSL because my SSD capacity is very small already and I can't afford reducing it futher partitioning for another OS.
- AshamedCaptain 2y ago
  For the record, "partitioning it" is exactly what you did if you used WSL2.

SapporoChris 2y ago

"You effectively are locked in by the OEM, who is the one that has higher privilege than the user." Anyone that has ever rooted their phone and installed a different OS would strongly disagree with you. https://itsfoss.com/open-source-alternatives-android/ https://itsfoss.com/open-source-alternatives-android/

cykros 2y ago

Are people that bristled by RMS that they're this obstinate about refusing to call it GNU/Linux? Seems to be a No Real Linux fallacy...

yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
I don't follow. Android isn't GNU/Linux. This makes it tempting to say GNU/Linux is what we want, except that ChromeOS is GNU/Linux (it's a Gentoo derivative) and Alpine isn't (it uses musl+busybox) so "user controlled Linux" really is probably the best term.