6 ms·
I think you're lumping platforms with kernels, they're not interchangeable terms. "Linux" isn't a platform because no one has defined what "Linux" is supposed t
by jcastro 13y ago
I think you're lumping platforms with kernels, they're not interchangeable terms. "Linux" isn't a platform because no one has defined what "Linux" is supposed to be.
Android and Ubuntu can be platforms because someone can say "An Android app does these things" and then point to an SDK. Ubuntu is doing the same thing.
Anyone can take a Linux kernel and then build whatever userspace they want on top of it. Android existing hasn't hurt Linux, it's the dominant mobile OS and is bringing in hardware manufactures to work on the kernel.
Sure user space apps are different as you point out, but that's what happens when you give people Lego blocks, not everyone is going to use the same blocks.
- Pxtl 13y agoThis is splitting hairs. The mainstream desktop Linux distros all run a similar stack of technology that provides a running environment for the major desktop OSS projects I listed. They all brand themselves as Linux. Yes, technically Linux is only the kernel, but being pedantic about it only muddies up the conversation. When somebody says "this computer runs Linux" they mean Gentoo/Fedora/Ubuntu/Whatever. Everybody knows I meant "mainstream desktop Linux distro software". Correcting that abbreviation adds nothing to the conversation.