As far as I understand the comment on Wikipedia, Android can be seen as a Linux distribution, but not as a GNU/Linux distribution which we commonly understand as ‘real’ Linux.
Android is a Linux distribution according to the Linux Foundation, Google’s open-source chief Chris DiBona, and several journalists. Others, such as Google engineer Patrick Brady, say that Android is not Linux in the traditional Unix-like Linux distribution sense; Android does not include the GNU C Library (it uses Bionic as an alternative C library) and some other components typically found in Linux distributions.
I use Alpine Linux quite a bit, which is a Linux distro that doesn’t use the GNU coreutils or glibc.
Also even giving GNU such a high level in the name on a distro like Arch makes little sense imo because other components like systemd are arguably much more important than one of many libc libraries you can optionally use and a bunch of coreutils you can also optionally use.
So it should be the some other components which don’t make Android a ‘real’ Linux according to some definition.
Personally I agree, that the Linux kernel makes a system a Linux system. However, the choice of a specific C library is important as it ensures some kind of binary compatibility between distributions, i.e. download a generic ‘GNU/Linux’ binary and run it is possible.
Android is not really Linux, as has been explained about a bazillion of times. It uses a Linux kernel, doesn’t make it a Linux distribution.
Then what would be needed to make it a Linux distro, instead of “just” a Linux-based OS?
As far as I understand the comment on Wikipedia, Android can be seen as a Linux distribution, but not as a GNU/Linux distribution which we commonly understand as ‘real’ Linux.
I use Alpine Linux quite a bit, which is a Linux distro that doesn’t use the GNU coreutils or glibc.
Also even giving GNU such a high level in the name on a distro like Arch makes little sense imo because other components like systemd are arguably much more important than one of many libc libraries you can optionally use and a bunch of coreutils you can also optionally use.
So it should be the some other components which don’t make Android a ‘real’ Linux according to some definition.
Personally I agree, that the Linux kernel makes a system a Linux system. However, the choice of a specific C library is important as it ensures some kind of binary compatibility between distributions, i.e. download a generic ‘GNU/Linux’ binary and run it is possible.
I use Debian btw. ;-)
The Android kernel is a mess (I’m looking at you, hardware vendors)
Yes, it does. It’s not a GNU/Linux distribution, though.