You have it backwards. Linux is the kernel. That’s it. The distribution isn’t Linux. A distro includes the Linux kernel as well as extra user land applications. Anything that uses the Linux kernel is Linux. Android uses the Linux kernel, that makes it Linux. Yes, it’s a restricted and locked down version of Linux, but it’s still Linux.
To use a simple analogy, the Linux kernel is like the engine of a car. A Linux distro is everything else around that engine. You can take the same engine and place it into many different shells. While the engine remains the same, the surrounding components can vary wildly.
That’s why there are dozens, if not hundreds, of different Linux distros.
A company like Google can take the Linux kernel and build an operating system like Android around it, resulting in the fragmented mess it is today.
However, saying that Android is Linux is an oversimplification. It is more accurate to say that Android is built on the Linux kernel, not that it is Linux in the same sense as a traditional GNU/Linux distribution.
The people that literally created Linux disagree with you. They all say that Linux is the kernel.
You can stop trying to explain your point of view. I understand exactly what you’re saying, it’s just incorrect. No amount of explaining is going to change that
You have it backwards. Linux is the kernel. That’s it. The distribution isn’t Linux. A distro includes the Linux kernel as well as extra user land applications. Anything that uses the Linux kernel is Linux. Android uses the Linux kernel, that makes it Linux. Yes, it’s a restricted and locked down version of Linux, but it’s still Linux.
No.
I will try and explain.
To use a simple analogy, the Linux kernel is like the engine of a car. A Linux distro is everything else around that engine. You can take the same engine and place it into many different shells. While the engine remains the same, the surrounding components can vary wildly.
That’s why there are dozens, if not hundreds, of different Linux distros.
A company like Google can take the Linux kernel and build an operating system like Android around it, resulting in the fragmented mess it is today.
However, saying that Android is Linux is an oversimplification. It is more accurate to say that Android is built on the Linux kernel, not that it is Linux in the same sense as a traditional GNU/Linux distribution.
The people that literally created Linux disagree with you. They all say that Linux is the kernel.
You can stop trying to explain your point of view. I understand exactly what you’re saying, it’s just incorrect. No amount of explaining is going to change that
You sound like a flat-earther insisting you know the truth when the evidence clearly contradicts you.
I don’t need to prove anything to you, I can rely on verifiable facts.
The Linux kernel used in Android has been significantly modified to meet Google’s requirements.
Android does not behave or function like a conventional Linux distribution.
Android is fundamentally different from other operating systems, aside from portions of the kernel that remain unchanged.
Android is “Linux” only at the kernel level, which is insufficient to classify it as Linux in any meaningful, user-facing sense.
What a subset of developers choose to call Linux is irrelevant here, this is a straightforward equivocation fallacy.