Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline
1–10 of 121 posts
Re: Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline
#2I've always found this curious since Linux fans usually mention the high usage of Android as Linux usage. The people usually think of GNU/Linux when they think about using Linux but the truth is Android is far from that. Be it the lack of GNU utils, not using a mainline kernel or the myriad of blobs and proprietary stuff bolted on top.
Re: Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline
#3Nice to see that progress is being made on upstreaming the Android patches. Hopefully this will make it easier for ex. postmarketOS to work using a vanilla kernel, or at least to update the version used.
Re: Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline
#4I've always found this curious since Linux fans usually mention the high usage of Android as Linux usage. The people usually think of GNU/Linux when they think about using Linux but the truth is Android is far from that. Be it the lack of GNU utils, not using a mainline kernel or the myriad of blobs and proprietary stuff bolted on top.
It's not clear what you are curious about. You can run GNU/Linux with out of tree modules (e.g. proprietary nvidia graphics driver). That doesn't change the fact that you're running a (now probably tainted) Linux kernel.
I don't think anyone is thinking of a GNU/Linux desktop environment when they think "Android runs Linux!", they are quite literally thinking "Android uses the Linux kernel." They are not wrong.
Re: Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline
#5I've always found this curious since Linux fans usually mention the high usage of Android as Linux usage. The people usually think of GNU/Linux when they think about using Linux but the truth is Android is far from that. Be it the lack of GNU utils, not using a mainline kernel or the myriad of blobs and proprietary stuff bolted on top.
Agreed, the Linux kernel is nothing more than a board support package for Android. Android applications are not Linux applications. And Fuschia/Zircon are clearly efforts replace the kernel.
Re: Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline
#6Misread the title as "Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainframe". Since you can run mainframe emulators on Android, it only seems fair to run Android on mainframes. I wonder if the code is 36 bit clean?
Re: Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline
#7Nice to see that progress is being made on upstreaming the Android patches. Hopefully this will make it easier for ex. postmarketOS to work using a vanilla kernel, or at least to update the version used.
While hacking on postmarketOS off and on for the last year, the #1 issue was always dealing with crappy old kernels from manufacturers with out of tree patches that would no longer apply to the current mainline.
Unfortunately this problem will still exist with the proposal in the article, manufacturers will still be allowed to ship out of tree code. Being able to boot a mainline kernel on your device is practically useless if the code necessary for display, input, audio, etc are out of tree and thrown over the wall by the manufacturer with no intention of keeping it up to date.
Re: Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline
#8I've always found this curious since Linux fans usually mention the high usage of Android as Linux usage. The people usually think of GNU/Linux when they think about using Linux but the truth is Android is far from that. Be it the lack of GNU utils, not using a mainline kernel or the myriad of blobs and proprietary stuff bolted on top.
Unlike most other environments, though, it is very simple to create an Android application which embeds and launches a Linux userland, without any virtualization or syscall-ABI translation being required. See, for example, https://termux.com/
ChromeOS is also "Linux" in this sense, because of Crouton.
Re: Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline
#9I've always found this curious since Linux fans usually mention the high usage of Android as Linux usage. The people usually think of GNU/Linux when they think about using Linux but the truth is Android is far from that. Be it the lack of GNU utils, not using a mainline kernel or the myriad of blobs and proprietary stuff bolted on top.
It's not clear what you are curious about. You can run GNU/Linux with out of tree modules (e.g. proprietary nvidia graphics driver). That doesn't change the fact that you're running a (now probably tainted) Linux kernel. I don't think anyone is thinking of a GNU/Linux desktop environment when they think "Android runs Linux!", they are quite literally thinking "Android uses the Linux kernel." They are not wrong.
Of course. I wasn't talking about the population of HN, I mean it in a broader sense, people who know GNU/Linux is a thing but don't know or care enough to realise the differences.
I'm curious about what is there to celebrate in some huge corp using some free software in a completely cornered use that gives little to no freedom to its users.
I'm sorry if my points are not clear. As it has been evidenced english is not my first language.
Re: Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline
#10Are the binary blobs staying, or are they open source now too?