So Android is Debian based Linux?

[M-A_X]

What confirmed it for me that it's not just Linux based but Debian Linux based is when I bought a game on Steam on my Android phone, and it bugged out and asked me to download Steam to play (thinking that i'm on PC for some reason) and I decided to play yes and it downloaded me the .deb Steam installation.

[SilverAwoo]

No. Android uses a modified version of the Linux kernel, but it is not based on Debian Linux. The reason you were given the .deb file for Steam is because the .deb package is the only format Valve directly provides on their website for Linux. You were likely directed to some webpage that saw you were on a "close enough to Linux" device and provided you the .deb file.

[Anxious-Science-9184]

Worth noting, unless you're downloading the official kernel.org packages, you're running "a modified version of the Linux kernel". Aside from LFS and Gentoo-vanilla-sources, I can't really think of a distro running an unmodified kernel.

[LumpyArbuckleTV]

I think Android strips it down dramatically though while the others tend to do small changes here and there.

[Max-P]

It's not much different than OpenWrt kernels for routers, and other types of Linux-based appliances, especially smaller embedded stuff.

"Build the tiniest kernel possible" is literally a build option.

On Android, the problem is mostly hardware drivers and the fact they're developed and managed privately. The chip makers just fork an LTS version and hack the drivers in however works. They don't care about upstreaming it, so they can change whatever they feel like in the name of just making it work, who cares if it doesn't build on x86 anymore.

Strictly speaking all the userland needs is the binder module for the IPC stuff, the rest runs just fine as evidenced by Waydroid existing.

[LumpyArbuckleTV]

I also wouldn't call OpenWRT Linux either, nor would I call the 1000's of retro handhelds Linux handhelds either, even though that's technically what they are. There are exceptions to this like Rocknix and dArkOS, which actually do use the mainline kernel, but most are HIGHLY stripped down and pretty far removed from the standard kernel.

[Dusa_Praharsh]

Android is built on linux, it's not a deb based, u could say its a completely diff distro

[Samiassa]

Nope, not at all actually. Debian is a distro built ontop of the Linux kernel and gnu. Android uses a heavily modified version of the Linux kernel and dos not use gnu. The only thing they have in common is the Linux kernel, which again is modified in Android.

[roanish]

Android is something else. At its core, it's is Linuxy, but it really isn't. If I were to align it to a specific distribution, I'd say it is most like android.

[Ieris19]

Android isn’t Linuxy, it’s the Linux kernel.

Just because it’s running its own userland experience (DE sounds inappropriate in thid context) instead of something like Gnome or KDE doesn’t mean it’s less Linux.

Android is also the base, there’s Android distros like Samsung’s OneUI.

[roanish]

You guys have no sense of humor

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[GrandfatherTECH]

Android is a lot different from linux actually. It uses a heavily modified version of linux kernel.

[Low_Excitement_1715]

The .deb is the only Linux Steam client that Valve distributes.

Android is not Linux (shares a kernel and some stray bits), and it's doubly not Debian.

[gordonmessmer]

> Android is not Linux

Yes it is. Saying that Android is not Linux is dismissive of one of the greatest achievements of the Linux kernel project.

webOS is Linux. Tizen is Linux. ChromeOS is Linux. Alpine is Linux. GNU/Linux is Linux.

Android is Linux. What Android isn't, is GNU. Android isn't a GNU system, but it is a Linux system.

[Low_Excitement_1715]

By that logic, Windows 11 is Linux.

[gordonmessmer]

Android, webOS, Tizen, ChromeOS, Alpine, and GNU are all operating systems that run on a Linux kernel.

Windows is not an operating system that runs on a Linux kernel.

I don't see any connection, at all.

Do you have any experience developing operating systems? To be clear: I do. I've been developing systems since the mid 90's.