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There's basically 2 ways for them right now: 1) Make the GNU/Linux stuff work on Android. That's what Tizen does, AFAIK. It's a lot of work. Advantage: everyth

by zobzu 14y ago

There's basically 2 ways for them right now: 1) Make the GNU/Linux stuff work on Android. That's what Tizen does, AFAIK. It's a lot of work. Advantage: everything works with it, and it's well understood. 2) Glue stuff up to work with whatever Android does. That's what they're aiming for. Advantage: less work.

zanny 14y ago
Yet in the end, you pull the entire Linux FOSS community towards whatever whimsy Google is going on at any given time. If they suddenly redid the graphics API and threw out their current binary blob batch, the FOSS space would have to get back up and try again after getting the rug pulled out from under them. I don't see it as good if Google can lead FOSS desktop development around by a leash.
- gillianseed 14y ago
  Are you saying that Canonical is the 'entire Linux FOSS community' ???
oneweekwonder 14y ago
Why didn't the Android team make the GNU/Linux stuff work on Android; Because it is a lot of work? Why should another company then spend resources to do that work. I don't understand what you mean with your second statement. But that might just be because I'm dead tired. But I can not stop myself from reading and typing!!1
- adestefan 14y ago
  > Why didn't the Android team make the GNU/Linux stuff work on Android; Because it is a lot of work? Because it's GPL licensed. That's it. Google has spent a lot of time and work ripping out perfectly good pieces of code that are GPL licensed and replacing it with (sometimes inferior) BSD or Apache licensed pieces. At some point, the only piece of GPL code will be the Linux kernel.
- cpeterso 14y ago
  Device manufacturers' lawyers are very paranoid. That's (part of) the reason Android has its own BSD-licensed libc, "bionic", instead of glibc. When Google ported Chrome to GoogleTV, which runs Android, they ported glibc, too. Apparently, it was easier for them to port glibc to Android than port Chrome to more limited bionic.
- marcosdumay 14y ago
  Funny thing is that Debian is already at Google Play.

by zobzu 14y ago

zanny 14y ago

Yet in the end, you pull the entire Linux FOSS community towards whatever whimsy Google is going on at any given time. If they suddenly redid the graphics API and threw out their current binary blob batch, the FOSS space would have to get back up and try again after getting the rug pulled out from under them. I don't see it as good if Google can lead FOSS desktop development around by a leash.

gillianseed 14y ago
Are you saying that Canonical is the 'entire Linux FOSS community' ???

oneweekwonder 14y ago

Why didn't the Android team make the GNU/Linux stuff work on Android; Because it is a lot of work? Why should another company then spend resources to do that work. I don't understand what you mean with your second statement. But that might just be because I'm dead tired. But I can not stop myself from reading and typing!!1

adestefan 14y ago
> Why didn't the Android team make the GNU/Linux stuff work on Android; Because it is a lot of work? Because it's GPL licensed. That's it. Google has spent a lot of time and work ripping out perfectly good pieces of code that are GPL licensed and replacing it with (sometimes inferior) BSD or Apache licensed pieces. At some point, the only piece of GPL code will be the Linux kernel.
cpeterso 14y ago
Device manufacturers' lawyers are very paranoid. That's (part of) the reason Android has its own BSD-licensed libc, "bionic", instead of glibc. When Google ported Chrome to GoogleTV, which runs Android, they ported glibc, too. Apparently, it was easier for them to port glibc to Android than port Chrome to more limited bionic.
marcosdumay 14y ago
Funny thing is that Debian is already at Google Play.