real_username56What operating system do you primarily use on mobile devices?
ShimitarGiven how many years people is answering LineageOS or GrapheneOS, I would like to state that “LineageOS” or “Graphene” means Android.
Yeah, those are all android under the hood.
Maybe customized to various depths and details, but still it’s android.
It’s much more correct to say that Lineage or Graphene are Android than saying that Android is Linux.
Both Lineage and Graphene would not exists and could not exists without Google developing the AOSP.
While they improve stock Android quite a lot, they are still Android.
I stress this because lots of people think that those could be alternatives to Android and the Google monopoly, but it’s not true. Only a true Linux mobile OS would be.
It’s much more correct to say that Lineage or Graphene are Android than saying that Android is Linux.
Both of these are correct. LineageOS and GrapheneOS are AOSP; AOSP is Linux.
Linux is a kernel. Any Linux OS is “real Linux.”
I was not precise. I should have said gnu-Linux to differentiate from Linux as just the kernel, my bad. It’s gnu-libux that gives you that feel you are on the family even if you have ubuntu or Gentoo.
But I beg to differ: AOSP cannot be called Linux in any way. It happens to use Linux as a kernel as you say, but lacks everything that make an SO typically Linux(or gnu-linux):
- starting from the base of the system, AOSP doesn’t use libc s system library like gnu-Linux
- even the C++ STD library of AOSP is incompatible as it lacks RTTI
- doesn’t use anything like systemd or the init system (unless mod-added)
- has a totally different HAL which is not compatible between the two
- has a totally different network tooling stack
- has a totally incompatible GUI layer
- Most of android drivers have a thin kernel layer plus a huge proprietary AOSP layer libraries which are not gnu-Linux compatible
- the entire ecosystem of AOSP is kotlin/JavaScript instead of just being language agnostic
So no, you cannot say at all that AOSP is Linux after all. While you can run gnu-Linux binaries on android, and viceversa, you must provide a complete environment around them, like termux. It’s more a container like approach.
They only share a kernel and there have been plans to replace that too.