Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by Gabrys1 | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

Gabrys1

> Ubuntu is the most widely deployed Linux operating system

Nitpicking, but I thought Android was the most widely deployed Linux OS around...

View on HN

You are correct but in this context Linux means GNU/Linux.

Bit like how tomato is technically a fruit but everyone knows that in the context of a supermarket it’s a vegtable

Ironically, Ubuntu's efforts to replace its GNU components with non-GNU alternatives is very quickly going to turn it back into just Linux.

That's the logic Oracle uses to say Java is the most widely deployed language in the world, because it runs on phone sim cards and credit cards

I think that's alright?

I was Ubuntu user until they've introduced snap and started forcing it down everybody's throat. No more Ubuntu for me.

For me it was their begging for money on install.

Would you prefer the Microsoft way of begging for money before install?

Canonical has some interesting ways:

https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/11/microsoft_azure_ubunt...

I currently prefer Debian

I prefer the Arch way of "begging for money on install", which is to say, none at all.

>> I was Ubuntu user until they've introduced snap and started forcing it down everybody's throat. No more Ubuntu for me.

What issues did you have with snap packages?

I am not aware of any problems with snap packages.

They have some pretty nice features compared to traditional packages:

https://snapcraft.io/docs/get-started#p-19156-connect-an-int...

If snap packages have caused problems for you, what were the problems?

Big and slow.

Maybe "deployed" is the key word here. Android is treated like a fixture of mobile devices rather than a fungible Linux distro.

Linux kernel yes, there is very little GNU/Linux userspace on Android.

Android uses the Linux Kernel, but iirc (correct me if I'm wrong), it doesn't come with the required application to make it Unix and hence is not the Linux operating system. That would mean it's only using the same kernel as the Linux operating system?

Idk, just speculating to maybe get the thought process

> it doesn't come with the required application to make it Unix and hence is not the Linux operating system.

Linux is not a Unix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like

> That would mean it's only using the same kernel as the Linux operating system?

There's no "Linux operating system". Linux is the name of the kernel. Android is an operating system, GNU/Linux is, things like BusyBox/Linux are. They're all operating systems that use the Linux kernel.

Uh, didn't I say exactly that? Gnu/Linux Is just collegially known as "Linux" and the operation system suffix made it clear what he was talking about. I didn't come up with the usage of the term, I was merely trying to interpret their words.

there's competing specs, holy wars, etc. but POSIX is kind of like what you're describing. popular distros are usually mostly-but-not-completely compliant.

There was also the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Standard_Base , but unfortunately it wasn't particularly successful.

Linux is a perfectly good operating system. If you're motivated enough, you can boot Linux straight into your software without any other dependencies at all. Linux operates the system just fine all by itself.

There's this weird definition of "operating system" which means "some sort of platform with a shell and little commands like cp, ls, etc.". That's just what POSIX tells people an operating system is, not the ultimate truth. It doesn't have to be that way.

You kinda blew my mind just now. I never considered an operating system as a collection of packages before (conceptually speaking).

Some would say that Android isn't Linux OS[1]. It runs Linux, in same way Linux runs Wine. As a (POSIX) compatibility layer.

[1] because it doesn't abstract the hardware platform, doesn't multiplex hardware, nor protect software principals from each other https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36myc8wQhLo&t=8m48s

Reply on news.ycombinator.com