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A comment on Will Linux phones stay around this time?. Parent comment

Re:Will Linux phones stay around this time? by dspillett on Saturday May 01, 2021 @07:00PM (#27010692)
Depends what is being meant by Linux. Yes they run a variant of the Linux kernel, and there is some commonality in parts of the common libraries, but there are significant differences atop that which makes it quite different to your average desktop Linux.

The overall Android environment isn't Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat, ..., or other GNU/Linux environment.

(the downvotes you currently have there given the graying text are a bit misguided IMO, your misconception is a very common one, one that people in some circles even seen to encourage)

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Re:Will Linux phones stay around this time? by m4rtink on Saturday May 01, 2021 @11:09PM (#27012045)
Android could be called Android/Linux as Google replaced most of the GNU GPL licensed stuff with BSD licensed alternatives, often self developed (bionic, surface finger, binder, stagefright, etc.) so that they (and vendors) are not bound by GPL obligations and can sit on one changes for ever if they want to.

Kernel is the major thing under GPL left and while there are some theories they might want to replace it with the Fucsia micro kernel I don't think they have a chance in hell given the ministered and number of parties involved in cooperative Linux kernel development.

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Re:Will Linux phones stay around this time? by rbanffy on Saturday May 01, 2021 @08:09PM (#27011146)
Android is running Linux as much as my router is. Or my TV. Or all those docker containers with a thin image and a Go application.

It’s not a desktop Linux OS, of course. But it’s still Linux.

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Re:Will Linux phones stay around this time? by heavyset_go on Saturday May 01, 2021 @08:53PM (#27011373)
The Android kernel has some changes that weren't upstreamed, has features that Linux doesn't, and is missing some features, as well. For example, SysV IPC isn't supported on Android's Linux kernel[1].

Often, for specific devices, the kernels they run are forks with changes that aren't upstreamed. Some of those changes can be significant enough that porting those changes to an updated kernel snapshot is nearly impossible, so it never happens, despite the kernel fork's source being available under the GPLv2.

[1] https://android.googlesource.com/platform/ndk/+/4e159d95ebf2...

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Re:Will Linux phones stay around this time? by augusto-moura on Saturday May 01, 2021 @08:28PM (#27011245)
Yes, my router is Linux, and my TV is also linux (containers not quite, because they don't emulate the kernel, except for Windows and macOS machines, that NEED to emulate at least one kernel instance, but whatever). And is pretty clear to me those limitations. More than my router, or my TV, or any embedded system for that matter, Android does try to follow other systems specifications, it has a own libc implementation, you can still utilize most of linux that we are used of: filesystems, syscalls, networking, even containerization (all of them limited and various levels, of course).

That is what makes a linux distribution too me in my opinion, in the same way I can run a linux with musl libc, and busybox, I can run Android

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