

Facts about Android - jaywalker
http://www.androided.me/5-interesting-facts-about-android/

======
mda
He is playing with words.

"Fact 1: Android runs Linux. But it’s not “the Linux.”" No, It IS "the Linux".
A lot of distributions do not use vanilla Linux kernel. You are free to change
whatever part you want. It does not change the fact that it is still Linux.

"Android was not developed by Google!" Does he think current android platform
is developed by only the original members of the Android inc? It has been 5
years.

~~~
jaywalker
Your views may differ. But I would take the statement "not developed by
Google" as "not born at Google." I would compare that to SQL Server which
wasn't born at Microsoft amongst a lot of other things.

Also, the fact that Android is not Linux means that you can't take a Linux app
and port it to Android...it won't work...amongst other things there is no
glibc; there is no windowing system; etc.

~~~
rlmw
This discussion is somewhat turning into pedantry, but if it depends purely on
linux then you can probably run it as a native app. The problem is that you're
missing a lot of the system dependencies that are extensively used on Desktop
linux.

Many linux deployments are servers, and they won't run a windowing system -
that doesn't make them any less of a 'linux' distro. Programs like Apache for
example are a fundamental part of the ecosystem and aren't dependent on X.

~~~
lukeschlather
When we talk about Linux, we're usually talking about GNU/Linux. Android/Linux
is a very different beast, and it's not pedantry to draw a distinction between
them. The capabilities of GNU/Linux are closer to BSD than Android/Linux.

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
Except they're really not different. Just because Android runs a distinct
userspace and windowing system doesn't make its Linux kernel any less Linux.
You can easily install a Busybox userspace on a rooted Android device, and on
top of that you can start building an entire GNU/Linux userspace, complete
with package managers and X server. Install a VNC viewer in Android, and you
can even connect to your local X server and have a fullscreen X session.

~~~
lukeschlather
By that logic BSD is also exactly the same thing as Linux.

~~~
jaywalker
Even Mac is like a PC, then!

------
runjake
Summary:

1\. Android is a Linux derivative with non-mainline changes, suck as "wake
locks".

2\. Android uses a non-Java ME (the official Java for mobile devices) Java
environment. It's closer to Java SE.

3\. And it doesn't use the JVM, it uses Dalvik.

4\. Android was not initially developed by Google. It was acquired by them.
The company was composed of former Danger staff who worked on the Sidekick and
such. [I'd argue this point, as Android is a completely different best than
the builds that were coming out around acquisition time. The only thing that's
practically the same is that both used the Linux kernel).

5\. SQLite is pervasive in Android.

------
Tichy
Oh come on. First, these are not new at all. Second, they are not interesting
facts, they are irrelevant facts.

~~~
CodeMage
Oh, come on. First, nobody claimed they were new, just interesting. Second,
since when must something be relevant to be interesting?

Fine, it might not me interesting to you. It might not be very important or
relevant, either. It's easy enough to "vote with your feet" against it. No
need to be hostile. Bring something to the table, instead.

~~~
Tichy
I just don't understand how it got to spot #1 on HN. Maybe vote spamming? I
can't imagine any of the regular readers of HN could have been exciting by
this list.

------
statictype
_It’s widely believed that Oracle has shot itself in the foot by filing this
lawsuit._

Is it really widely believed? And how did Oracle shoot itself in the foot with
this lawsuit?

~~~
jaywalker
Here is what James Gosling had to say about one of the patents Oracle alleged
Google infringed:

Oracle finally filed a patent lawsuit against Google. Not a big surprise.
During the integration meetings between Sun and Oracle where we were being
grilled about the patent situation between Sun and Google, we could see the
Oracle lawyer’s eyes sparkle. Filing patent suits was never in Sun’s genetic
code. Alas….

I hope to avoid getting dragged into the fray: they only picked one of my
patents (RE38,104) to sue over.

source:
[http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/the_shit_finally_hits...](http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/the_shit_finally_hits_the)

------
bonaldi
I can smell the nerd from the first comment, which uses characters to
distinguish differing pronounciations of "th". Is that a peccadillo of his
own, or is it a thing?

~~~
elblanco
You should see the unreadable mess in his blog.

<http://thedutras.blogspot.com/>

When did English drop those letters? 400 years ago? If he really wants to use
those letters, he should also use the grammar and vocabulary constructs.

<http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8102/pg8102.html>

(all that being said, I would mind a few more letters to use in English,
particularly the schwa <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa> would make
everybody's life easier w/r to spelling).

------
jaywalker
Do you think any of the "facts" mentioned on the page are drawbacks for
Android? Let's recap: forked Linux, competing with Java ME within Java eco-
system and having a non-JVM virtual machine to run the programs.

~~~
CodeMage
I didn't get the impression that the author was presenting any of these as
drawbacks for Android. I think he or she discovered some interesting things
about Android and thought it would be fun to share them with those who didn't
know about them.

