On Tue, 2011-07-05 at 01:11 +0000, Bart Trojanowski wrote: > On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 00:34, Rob Echlin <rob [ at ] echlin [ dot ] ca> wrote: > > Not Linux? > > I think what you are asking here is "Android is not Linux?" And > technically it's not. Linux is a kernel. Android is a platform. > One could technically, then, refer to it as Android/Linux. It is no different than referring to the majority of other Linux systems out there as GNU/Linux, giving a nod to Richard Stallman. > I cannot possibly dispute that Android is based on Linux -- it is. > Every Android device out there uses a Linux kernel (although it > doesn't have to, to still be Android). True enough just as GNU need not be run on top of Linux to still be GNU. > Anyway, that's not where I was going, and not at all what I said. > What I am saying is that Microsoft is not writing apps for Linux. > "running on Android" cannot be taken as "running on Linux". > I disagree. If it is running on Android/Linux, then it is running on Linux. If it were running on, say, Android/Windows CE, then that would be a different story. > Android apps run on Dalvik not on Linux ABI. Dalvik is a Linux app. > Bing is not a Linux app. > Bing is a Dalvik app. Dalvik is a Linux app. Therefore, Bing is a Linux app. Simple syllogism. > > - isn't it using the Gnu utilities? > > Well, since you asked... no, Android is not using standard GNU > utilities. With a very few exception, there is little in common > between a "Linux distribution" and the Android platform. > Android/Linux uses Busybox like many other Linux-based embedded systems. You are engaging in a bit of sophistry here. You seem to be saying that if a system is not GNU/Linux, then it's not Linux. That can be said of that vast majority of embedded systems out there. Android is an embedded system platform that utilizes Linux as it's main operating system. That is no different than another embedded system that uses Linux in the same way. > > Why do you say it is not Linux? > > I didn't. > > -Bart Android is, like so many other embedded systems out there, most certainly Linux. >>>--fja->