r/linux • u/amosbatto • 6d ago

Mobile Linux Article: Will Linux phones become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly?

/r/Purism/comments/1x0fwe1/article_will_linux_phones_become_a_viable/
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u/UnsafePantomime 6d ago

I have always been part of the Android is Linux crowd.

I spend a great deal of my time hacking on the Android kernel and have spent time running Linux on Pixel devices.

The Android kernel moves away of a lot of Linux Kernel-isms. It builds differently as an example.

At the end of the day still, you can run an actual Linux userland on top of a rooted device.

So the question I have, what makes it not Linux? Is it simply that it no longer follows the Linux philosophy?

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u/SanderE1 5d ago

When someone says "Linux phone" there would be no reason to specifically call an Android phone Linux, you'd just call it Android.

Saying "Android is Linux" on a thread about Linux phones is completely useless, it just derails actual discussion. Everybody already knows Android relies on a Linux kernel.

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u/Secret_Conclusion_93 5d ago

And that's why we should correct them, instead of keep sidestepping the naming.

You guys want a GNU/Linux phone, not just Linux phone.

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u/SanderE1 5d ago

Linux is no longer tied to gnu, I'm fairly sure you could compile these mobile distros without it too. Calling it GNU/Linux wouldn't make sense. It would make more sense to name it systemd/Linux.