Android Is Not an Operating System

I may be wrong, but in my view, Android is a Linux distribution.

Admittedly blended with lots of android-specific kernel code. But fundamentally the operating system (OS) really is Linux.

Android should probably be called “Android/Linux”, same as we use “GNU/Linux” to refer to other Linux distributions generally.

The english Wikipedia page, entitled “Android (operating system)” 😳, gets it mostly wrong:

Android is a mobile operating system […] based on a modified version of the Linux kernel […]

but later

Android is a Linux distribution according to the Linux Foundation, Google’s open-source chief Chris DiBona, and several journalists.

Phew I’m not the only one!

There is an argument to be made that an operating system is a complete system, not just the kernel. Considering BSDs, they deliver kernel, device drivers, userland utilities and documentation. But the kernel definitely is the main component of the project. Which is not the case for Android/Linux: Google builds upon an external core component, the Linux kernel, which is pretty much what other Linux disros do.

The expression “Android operating system” is a fallacy as it’s masking the Linux project and all its values to the public.

Interestingly Google has since developed their own kernel Zircon as part of their new mobile OS Fuchsia.