4 ms·
Yes. Linux is a kernel, and you don't have to use a traditional GNU userland with it. Maybe I'm missing something, as I'm not too familiar with android, but I
by apgwoz 17y ago
Yes. Linux is a kernel, and you don't have to use a traditional GNU userland with it.
Maybe I'm missing something, as I'm not too familiar with android, but I thought that android apps were compiled to Dalvik, which is Java based? I fail to see how any traditional userland software would work anyway...
- vetinari 17y agoNot only that, Android applications respond to event like "you are about to be killed, please serialize your state" or "please restore your state", something that "classic" linux applications do not support. Android is not typical linux - it is not supposed to run on devices with gigabytes of fast memory running off AC outlet. When your memory bandwith is two orders of magnite lower, you have 128MB of it (on G1, 64MB of memory is used by the radio) and you are on battery, putting GNU system there would be not very smart - if you want something usable and with battery life longer than few hours, that is.
- joezydeco 17y agoThe Android project uses Linux as a hardware abstraction layer, that's all. It was never meant to be a full Linux distribution. Most of the things that the presenter picks on (lack of SysV IPC, prelinked libraries, hand-optimized custom libc) were meant in the interest of performance, not portability.