Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Two main points:

no one unified distro to keep things simple (thread OP)

people don't care. Someone else needs to advocate, sell, migrate, and support (medium term) Linux (whichever distro they want) for the intermediate term (few months at least) - thread response).

I think a lot of the 97% desktop market share is like this, instead of the hands on 2-3%.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's open-source merely to comply with the GPL license of the kernel, but the fact is that an Android image built only from open source components will be extremely crippled or, depending on your point of view, basically useless. Such an image will not even boot on the majority of devices ; you'll need those sweet proprietary driver blobs if you want your phone to do anything, and a bunch more closed source binaries in order to use Play services.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not sure exactly how many blobs I need to install Linux on my pc. I know there's proprietary stuff for my Nvidia card (optional) and possibly NIC, but most hardware is supported by the kernel these days?

Also, the play store. That's my biggest issue with Android. Everything depends on the store.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Did you try Aurora store (interface to Google play store, trying to hide your installs) or the more Linux like repository manager f-droid?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Linux has a similar issue though

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Don't know why this is downvoted. Even distros like Debian, that are 100% FOSS otherwise, will (often) load some proprietary firmware because otherwise it would barely be functional on any modern computer.