Thread: The Epic Android Thread
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wmarone is offline wmarone
2011-05-10 , 15:19
Posts: 1,746 | Thanked: 2,100 times | Joined on Sep 2009
#3202
Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt View Post
As much as I would love to see a Traditional Linux (TL) tablet from a productivity standpoint, I don't think it's necessary.
Something derived from a traditional Linux style of distribution would necessarily be less dependent on the efforts of a single company for all the various components. Many vendors are eyeing the Google dependency as a weak point in their business plans.

The structure of the FS, traditional applications, a rich scripting environment, a modifiable kernel through modules, regular multi-tasking, etc, etc, etc.
All of which we've had, and are having to regain. The FS and many of the incompatibilities are a result of Android's originally closed source nature.

Rather than start from the beginning, why not extend Android? It already has mass distribution, and implementations on swaths of product.
As has been stated before, Android goes where Google wants it to go, and paramount on their list of tasks is where vendors that play along with them want it to go so long as it lines up with their goals.

At its core, Android runs a stripped linux kernel and standard libraries -- It's essentially linux, with some different software than is found in traditional distributions and a unique FS structure. It would be FAR more prudent, to create a bridge between the two OSs and fill in the feature gaps missing from Android, rather than start from scratch and hope for traction.
Google started from scratch, and got traction using their weight. Instead, I hear it suggested that the open source community somehow has nothing, and would be better off building on Android. That seems more than a little silly to me, especially when the community has no real hope of influencing Android's direction.

And please don't say that it's not possible. It has already been done with VNC and chroot.
Which is absolutely nothing special, and to a great degree needless duplication due to different libcs, windowing systems, and the inability to migrate Android video drivers to other Linux platforms.

A deeper integration may take creativity, but I assure you, if you can shoehorn Windows apps into Linux, you can certainly do the same with TL apps in Android.
Why can't it be the other way? Why not shove the lesser Android platform into a Traditional Linux context that was here first? Why do we have to create a WINE for Linux apps on Android? Why let Google come in and usurp all the progress of the last 20 years (inb4 bashing of Linux open source community.)

On the flipside, it would be great to give Android to TL in the same way that Android has been integrated into RIM's QNX platform. Imagine having access to the Android market on your Ubuntu distribution? Certain apps/games would be quite welcome. I would use it tomorrow, given the opportunity.
I reiterate my point that it should be the Android platform that is subsumed. And the Playbook support shows that Linux is irrelevant in the grand scheme of Android things. The only problem is adding userspace stand-ins for all the silly kernel dependencies that were added to Android long ago (back when it was closed source.)

It's all open source.
Not all "open source" is the same. Highlighted brightly by Google's withholding of Honeycomb, despite whatever comments they spout.

I don't believe that this Android vs. Linux needs to exist. I believe that they can quite literally coexist at the same time, on the same hardware, and much more quickly than trying to develop a mobile linux variant from the ground up and hoping that somebody will notice in this hugely competitive marketplace.
Android vs. Linux will exist, so long as Google is the sole holder and driver of the platform and all but a few of its parts. And you will definitely not get the Free Software types on board (of course, these days in the mobile space they are the enemy.)
 

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