The phrase "A real linux OS phone" is pretty frustrating considering Android exists and is supposed to be "real Linux". What are the main reasons Android is not "real Linux"? (Its hard not to be upset with Google for this situation if the reason is what I think it is).
Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
21–30 of 44 posts
Re: Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
#22Re: Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
#23Whether these succeed or not, I simply don't get it. Android is open source. Fork it. Improve it. Why build something completely new. Is it just to keep a brand name like "Ubuntu" and "Firefox"?
Android is not really open-source, you can only get source code for old versions, never the latest release.
Re: Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
#24Whether these succeed or not, I simply don't get it. Android is open source. Fork it. Improve it. Why build something completely new. Is it just to keep a brand name like "Ubuntu" and "Firefox"?
As far as I understand it actually is a fork of Android in the sense that it runs the Android-flavoured Linux kernel.
Haven't they merged the "android kernel" into the linux kernel recently?
Re: Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
#25Wouldn't a real Linux OS on a smartphone be every developer's dream? I will definitely get a Ubuntu phone. Think about the the variety of options you'll have... However I am not sure if the mainstream market will be as interested.
It would not be my dream. But I don't like writing POSIX software anyway, so perhaps I am not a developer?
Re: Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
#26I'm really tired of those articles. Tired enough to complain in a comment. That's classic FUD.
Re: Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
#27Wouldn't a real Linux OS on a smartphone be every developer's dream? I will definitely get a Ubuntu phone. Think about the the variety of options you'll have... However I am not sure if the mainstream market will be as interested.
Android is a real Linux
Android does use the linux kernel and does have some of the GNU stack, but it's not directly comparable to Ubuntu.
I believe that we are going to be using our phones as our desktop computers in the not-too-distant future, and what Ubuntu is doing is one of the first steps to achieve this. Android has tried to do this in the past (Atrix), but the desktop experience was abysmal because the experiences were inconsistent.
I'm very excited to see how this develops, but Canonical is going to need some good endurance to see this to a point where it can compete commercially.
Re: Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
As far as I understand it actually is a fork of Android in the sense that it runs the Android-flavoured Linux kernel.
This, and also Android's overall userspace design is kind of idiosyncratic. I'm sure there are other legitimate designs of a Linux-based mobile OS, which don't rely so heavily on Java and a virtual machine. Ubuntu will be Qt-based, for example. That throws out the possibility to reuse the Android application framework.
If I remember correctly then it can also run Android apps in the same WM together with other apps. It actually shouldn't be too hard to replace Android's WindowManager with some other implementation (say, QT-based) due to the nature of Binder (Android's IPC mechanism).
Re: Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
#29Wow, that was disappointing.
It says something about the fashion sense of a reporter if they approach the question this way. You should ask, "What capabilities are we going to want in our phone going forward?" and work from there, but fretting over brand awareness seems, well, a bit shallow.
Do you only buy a car because it has a "Hemi" V8 engine ? And wonder, "Do we really need another engine for cars?" Of course you don't. I would love a smart phone that was less susceptible to malware (the tension of programmability meets actual exploits against my bank account). If the current OS makers can do that, fine, if there is a new OS that does this better, that is ok too.
Re: Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
#30Whether these succeed or not, I simply don't get it. Android is open source. Fork it. Improve it. Why build something completely new. Is it just to keep a brand name like "Ubuntu" and "Firefox"?
Android is not really open-source, you can only get source code for old versions, never the latest release.
4.2.1 is the current version and the source was available on the day it released.