Ubuntu Developing Its Own Calculator, Calendar, Etc

[dh04000]

If I recall correctly when the audio player was opened Ubuntu was configured to automatically ask the user to download necessary codecs if playing some unsupported format.

Same with flash player, video drivers, etc. I don't remember my grandma telling me she needed to apt-get anything But of-course, later other distros applied the same techniques

Something that I am truely thankful for. The automagic decection of drivers an installation, another ubuntu focus, is something else I'm really happy with and continue to use Ubuntu for. I love how no one ever mentions these Ubuntu ideas that were quickly coped by the community distro's. Don't feed back my ass. Writing Xorg and Kernel code isn't the only to measure giving back to the community.

[Hamish Wilson]

How exactly is Canonical downplaying the importance of linux community? They never say anything about it as a marketing strategy just like google. The never say that Android is based on linux since linux frightens people since everybody knows linux as that shitty operating system for geniuses that can't play an mp3.

You say that Ubuntu is useful as it gets people on Linux which no on has heard of, and yet you now say that everyone knows it and is afraid of it. You can not have it both ways. We are either mediocre or infamous - take your pick.

As to not playing an mp3, the people at fault here are the mp3 patent holders, not Linux. You can only blame Linux for this if things were always on a proper even playing ground, which they certainly are not.

[Hamish Wilson]

They don't talk about it to end users because it's bad for people to know that it's powered by linux if you want to sell them linux. Why don't you say that android downplays linux? Oh right, google is not canonical and canonical is evil.

But the thing is that Android is not Linux as far as things go (they do acknowledge that the kernel is based on Linux, which is about all you can expect from them, even if I am not a big Andorid fan). Ubuntu was based almost entirely on community Linux components, so it was arrogant of them to dismiss them like they have.

[jayrulez]

But the thing is that Android is not Linux as far as things go (they do acknowledge that the kernel is based on Linux, which is about all you can expect from them, even if I am not a big Andorid fan). Ubuntu was based almost entirely on community Linux components, so it was arrogant of them to dismiss them like they have.

Android is as much Linux as Ubuntu is Linux. Linux is just the Kernel running in each of those OSs. Do you perhaps mean GNU and other FOSS components?

[Hamish Wilson]

Android is as much Linux as Ubuntu is Linux. Linux is just the Kernel running in each of those OSs. Do you perhaps mean GNU and other FOSS components?

While I can agree to your semantic distinction when it comes to GNU and the other FOSS components, Android does not actually use the Linux kernel or the commonly accepted userland that usually surrounds it.

[locovaca]

While I can agree to your semantic distinction when it comes to GNU and the other FOSS components, Android does not actually use the Linux kernel or the commonly accepted userland that usually surrounds it.

Uh, what kernel does Android use then? And what is the "commonly accepted userland"?

[Hamish Wilson]

Uh, what kernel does Android use then? And what is the "commonly accepted userland"?

Android uses it's own kernel which is based on Linux but is now quite divergent of it. And by commonly accepted user-land, I mean the rest of what makes up Linux distros, including the display server, desktops, tool-kits, bash shell, etc. Most are not used on Android.

[locovaca]

Android uses it's own kernel which is based on Linux but is now quite divergent of it. And by commonly accepted user-land, I mean the rest of what makes up Linux distros, including the display server, desktops, tool-kits, bash shell, etc. Most are not used on Android.

Sorry, you're drawing lines in the sand which don't exist. Android uses the Linux Kernel. The fact they have their own patches which are not upstream doesn't change this.

Plenty of embedded devices ship with a minimal, customized kernel and minimal userland binaries. OpenWrt barely has a userland, is compiled with uClibc, and is still considered "Linux".

[jayrulez]

Android uses it's own kernel which is based on Linux but is now quite divergent of it. And by commonly accepted user-land, I mean the rest of what makes up Linux distros, including the display server, desktops, tool-kits, bash shell, etc. Most are not used on Android.

Is there a line that when crossed Linux is no longer Linux but another kernel based on Linux?

I don't know what kind of authority you purport to be on this matter but Android uses the Linux kernel, albeit modified, but Linux nonetheless.

[dee.]

Android uses it's own kernel which is based on Linux but is now quite divergent of it. And by commonly accepted user-land, I mean the rest of what makes up Linux distros, including the display server, desktops, tool-kits, bash shell, etc. Most are not used on Android.

To be fair there is work being done to merge the Android kernel back to mainline. The next major version (5.0) of Android could already be using a vanilla Linux kernel.

About the userland you're totally correct of course.