Quotes of the week

Quotes of the week

Android is technically a kind of Linux system but I would argue that one precondition for being considered part of the »Linux community« is knowing that you're actually running Linux, which a large percentage of the »Android community« is unlikely to be aware of. Many other people are using Linux on other consumer electronics appliances (like FRITZ!Box routers or Sony TVs) but probably wouldn't self-identify as members of the »Linux community«, either.

The difference between Android and Linux-as-we-know-it is that, unlike traditional Linux, Android does have a central authority in the shape of Google. Google has decreed that there will be an app store for Android and that it will be the prime method of getting content (not just apps, these days) onto Android devices, and there we are. For traditional Linux, not even Linus Torvalds, who is the closest thing to a universally respected figure that the community has to offer, has that sort of clout.

(We can quibble about how it is possible, or, depending on your device, even mandatory, to use another supplier's app store in place of the Google one, but the idea is always that there is one single company in charge – whether that is Google, or Amazon, or Samsung, or what have you. We can also quibble about how it is possible to install stuff on Android devices from other places, or indeed by uploading APK files via USB, but again this is something that the vast majority of users is unlikely to be doing on a regular basis.)