this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
280 points (96.4% liked)
Linux
48323 readers
667 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
No, it's kinda linux.
It's based off of linux but not literally linux and why if you call it a linux distro you'll be questioned. Just like English is based on French but if you start telling people you speak French because of it you'll have confusion.
It's common for Linux distros to make changes specific to their distro. Adding and removing modules, adding custom changes, and offering those changes back to mainline. This is how Linux works and what makes it so great.
It's not as though Google hard forked Linux 15 years ago and have just done their own thing ever since, they're regularly merging Linux LTS. Here's a diagram from Google of what that looks like.
MacOSX is a hard fork from Mach, which fits your French analogy more accurately. Android is more like a Boston accent; it's a dialect but never very far from it's origin.
You do realize that kinda linux right? You're right it's closer to a boston accent but if you generally ask people about the american accent it's not going to be boston they think of. I'm not denying it is based on the linux kernel because it is but Android is the most popular OS in the world, it can be it's own label as opposed to saying it's linux. To nit-pick further is some real "It's not linux, it's GNU/Linux" energy.
Yeah, I feel like at this point you're not even disagreeing, you're just saying I'm wrong because you don't want to be wrong. You didn't even give me anything to refute this time. That's fine, you're right, cheers.
I'm not saying you're wrong, you're totally right. I'm saying that you don't understand colloquialisms. The type of person who would hear someone refer to salt intake in food as "sodium" and go on a tirade about how it's sodium chloride and ignore that they fully understood what was meant but chooses to be as difficult as possible because they want to be right. Generally the type of stuff that would get people shoved in lockers.
Lol man, we're just so far off topic from the point I was trying to make though, which is that a user friendly mobile experience built on linux is totally possible, it doesn't have to be a "build-it-yourself" headache, it doesn't require interfacing with a CLI, and we don't even have to wonder if that's true because it's been done and is massively successful. That's all. If you'd like to nitpick whether it's "actually Linux" or "kinda Linux" I'm just gonna give you a swirly.
I initially said it was based off linux not kinda linux and we're here. I'm saying it's kinda linux because Android is never referred to as a linux phone but an Android phone.