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Because it's a mobile platform and "GNU+Linux" is laughably terrible in this space. It's almost like Android has put millions of expert dev hours into making i

by gf000 2mo ago

Because it's a mobile platform and "GNU+Linux" is laughably terrible in this space. It's almost like Android has put millions of expert dev hours into making it the most used OS in the world. Like GNU+linux on laptops only works the way it does because of android-upstreamed battery saver kernel features. But a mobile is also people's most used devices with all of their data, bank accounts etc there - it has to be safe. And GNU+linux has not even a single thought about security, while android just has it worked out (every app runs as its own user, so it's even built on standard UNIX security). A mobile OS also has to race to suspend and for that it needs cooperation from "apps" -- desktop apps just run, they don't care about anything besides SIGKILL. That's not a workable model on a mobile and android solves it. And I say all that as someone who runs linux everywhere I can and I absolutely love it. It's imo the best kernel out there -- but the userspace is not where it should be and if anything, the correct question would be what can we take from Android and add to GNU+Linux. (And nix is fantastic, but it's a packaging solution, I don't really see how it comes into question here. I can run nix on my android phone just fine by the way)

tfrancisl 2mo ago
Nix comes in because im tired of dealing with procedural solutions to things that should be solved declaratively. I run NixOS everywhere I can because I can actually reason about what is installed on the system. "Package management" like apt and pacman and even app stores has never done it for me. As to your other userspace concerns... these are all solveable. Perhaps with some elbow grease, but devices like the Steam Deck prove that mobile linux isnt as much of a problem re: userspace as you claim. Ed.: I'd also like to add that the fuss around security is _mostly_ Google propaganda. Android is not meaningfully more secure, _without application level changes_ than Linux.
- qlte 2mo ago
  > but devices like the Steam Deck prove that mobile linux isnt as much of a problem re: userspace as you claim. So.... by relying on yet another company with multiples of $10B in revenue who spent a lot of time and money to build (and maintain) an entire custom frontend/compatibility layer to provide a stable UX for managing apps without intimidating non-tech savvy users? Where security isn't even a distant priority as it's a restricted store in a proprietary walled garden exclusively for games (and not your banking app or crypto wallet or browser tabs)? SteamOS, very similarly to Android, entirely depends on a corporate benefactor leveraging a parallel user space that happily bypasses the "normal" community-supported parts of a typical Linux desktop distro wherever they present an obstacle. It proves that a company with deep pockets could indeed create a new mobile Linux distro (by writing lots of checks and cutting out large chunks of desktop Linux in favor of custom implementations entirely under their control).

by gf000 2mo ago

tfrancisl 2mo ago

Nix comes in because im tired of dealing with procedural solutions to things that should be solved declaratively. I run NixOS everywhere I can because I can actually reason about what is installed on the system. "Package management" like apt and pacman and even app stores has never done it for me. As to your other userspace concerns... these are all solveable. Perhaps with some elbow grease, but devices like the Steam Deck prove that mobile linux isnt as much of a problem re: userspace as you claim. Ed.: I'd also like to add that the fuss around security is _mostly_ Google propaganda. Android is not meaningfully more secure, _without application level changes_ than Linux.

qlte 2mo ago
> but devices like the Steam Deck prove that mobile linux isnt as much of a problem re: userspace as you claim. So.... by relying on yet another company with multiples of $10B in revenue who spent a lot of time and money to build (and maintain) an entire custom frontend/compatibility layer to provide a stable UX for managing apps without intimidating non-tech savvy users? Where security isn't even a distant priority as it's a restricted store in a proprietary walled garden exclusively for games (and not your banking app or crypto wallet or browser tabs)? SteamOS, very similarly to Android, entirely depends on a corporate benefactor leveraging a parallel user space that happily bypasses the "normal" community-supported parts of a typical Linux desktop distro wherever they present an obstacle. It proves that a company with deep pockets could indeed create a new mobile Linux distro (by writing lots of checks and cutting out large chunks of desktop Linux in favor of custom implementations entirely under their control).