[HN Gopher] Lindroid
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Lindroid
        
       Author : LorenDB
       Score  : 243 points
       Date   : 2024-06-17 13:46 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | hggh wrote:
       | Readable version:
       | https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1802331845633212554.html
        
       | Y_Y wrote:
       | > full hw accelerated Linux on your Android as an app
       | 
       | Might be worth adding that excerpt to the title, as well as
       | changing the link to hggh's thread reader version without which I
       | can't see anything.
        
         | LorenDB wrote:
         | Unfortunately I can't edit the title at this point. As for the
         | link, HN wants posts to link to primary sources instead of
         | alternative front ends (archive.today, Nitter, Thread Reader).
        
           | ptero wrote:
           | I think linking source is a general preference, not a hard
           | rule. In this case (convenient full view vs clicking on
           | chunks) it is easy to justify ignoring this preference.
        
       | fsflover wrote:
       | > full hw accelerated Linux on your Android as an app
       | 
       | At this point, you can just run full GNU/Linux on a phone. Sent
       | from my Librem 5.
        
         | kennywinker wrote:
         | There is a unique use case for running linux as an app vs as
         | the base OS. Seems to me it's a lot like the difference between
         | booting linux and using WSL to run linux inside windows.
        
           | fsflover wrote:
           | "Unique" as in "reuse my old Android", which may not be
           | secure after the support has ended. I see no other use cases.
        
         | bsimpson wrote:
         | "Is it any good?" is its own question.
         | 
         | I went down this rabbit hole trying to see how to make the non-
         | gaming side of a Steam handheld feel like a tablet, and was
         | surprised/disappointed at how spartan the touch-based Linux
         | ecosystem is. There are half a dozen projects trying to make it
         | happen, but they're all really small and mostly independent.
         | There's one guy working on GNOME for mobile, one working on the
         | Maui system for Nitrux.... Canonical gave up on Ubuntu for
         | mobile, so some guy revived that. I haven't been able to try
         | Plasma Mobile 6 because it's not packaged for NixOS, but v5
         | wasn't usable. Phosh was poorly packaged as well, so I didn't
         | invest much effort there.
         | 
         | Making a good touch UI is a ton of work, but the space so far
         | seems to be mostly filled with people doing hobby projects (or
         | closed ones like Sailfish).
        
           | fsflover wrote:
           | > Phosh was poorly packaged as well, so I didn't invest much
           | effort there.
           | 
           | Phosh comes with some OSes by default:
           | https://phosh.mobi/faq/
           | 
           | > "Is it any good?" is its own question.
           | 
           | Depends on your needs. Daily driver for me.
        
         | talldayo wrote:
         | For a lot of handsets that don't have an unlocked bootloader
         | this is literally not true, even if it _does_ have working
         | Linux drivers.
        
         | discordance wrote:
         | Yeah great, although I am keen to see if this eventually will
         | run on something like an Amazon Fire Stick or one of those old
         | Androids in my drawer.
        
           | fsflover wrote:
           | It won't, due the closed specs and proprietary drivers.
        
         | roywashere wrote:
         | Sure, but most people might need their phone to do banking apps
         | or apps like WhatsApp, Spotify or Maps which are not available
         | on your phone. This allows people to run GNU apps on their
         | android phone so they can have both
        
           | fsflover wrote:
           | You can do it with Waydroid (if your bank doesn't force you
           | into the duopoly, at which point you should complain or
           | switch).
           | 
           | See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40714592
        
             | 4ggr0 wrote:
             | > at which point you should complain or switch
             | 
             | if only switching banks for such things was easy and
             | realistically doable...
             | 
             | hate that banking apps are such a hassle to live with, but
             | i do kinda get why they're very protective.
        
               | fsflover wrote:
               | > i do kinda get why they're very protective.
               | 
               | I am not sure if a typical Android with a bunch of
               | (preinstalled!) crappy apps is more secure than a
               | GNU/Linux phone relying solely on FLOSS repos.
               | 
               | Changing banks can be easier or harder, depending on your
               | country. People do it:
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40678203
        
               | 4ggr0 wrote:
               | isn't it just about banks not wanting to open-source
               | their apps or connection details for supposed security or
               | other reasons?
               | 
               | > changing banks can be easier or harder
               | 
               | well the process of changing banks is not the problem, i
               | did leave UBS and Credit Suisse a couple of years ago.
               | but now i'm with a bank i specifically chose because
               | they're actually not financing wars or other unethical
               | things, instead of just saying so for greenwashing
               | purposes. this aspect is more important to me than them
               | open-sourcing their infrastructure.
        
               | fsflover wrote:
               | > isn't it just about banks not wanting to open-source
               | their apps or connection details for supposed security or
               | other reasons?
               | 
               | Not exactly:
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40715542
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40714796
               | 
               | Indeed, finding a bank reasonable from every side is much
               | harder.
        
           | fsflover wrote:
           | Banking apps won't work with Lindroid either:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40714796
        
       | tetris11 wrote:
       | (I suppose I must be blind)
       | 
       | Where are the APKs?
        
         | aadhavans wrote:
         | From the Twitter thread, their github appears to be
         | https://github.com/linux-on-droid. I don't see APKs in any of
         | the repos, though.
        
         | LorenDB wrote:
         | I don't think they've released APKs yet from how the Twitter
         | thread is worded.
        
           | freedomben wrote:
           | I think you're right. Also, I think I have a different
           | definition of "ready" than OP
        
       | figmert wrote:
       | I'm currently in the process of trying to see if Samsung DeX is
       | able to replace my laptop. It is running directly on Termux, as
       | opposed to using something like proot. So far it seems promising,
       | and the biggest thing issue I have is that the Termux-X11 session
       | essentially acts like a VM in that shortcuts are not seemless.
       | 
       | I'd love to know how this compares to that. Or maybe there's a
       | way to make that more seemless. E.g. if apps would be shown as
       | Android apps as far as the launcher is concerned.
        
         | anonzzzies wrote:
         | I work a lot in Dex and VNC via vr glasses and the shortcuts
         | are the biggest issue. That's why I want full Linux; I would
         | like a phone size device without a screen running Linux with
         | unlocked bootloader and usb vo (otherwise it's still
         | worthless), but, while trivial hardware wise (there are plenty
         | of boards), this formfactor is not there it seems. And the
         | slightly bigger ones that are there, are made for a reason
         | (usually gaming) so they don't care about battery life. My
         | android phone gets well over a day while powering my glasses
         | and me working.
        
           | sriacha wrote:
           | Can you share which glasses and what kinds of environment you
           | use with Dex? Termux?
        
         | Y_Y wrote:
         | Emacs-termux is awkward to get working initially, but it gives
         | you more-or-less full emacs as an Android app, but sharing
         | storage/namespace with termux so that they both have access to
         | the same binaries and documents.
         | 
         | There isn't a good project page, it's based at this sourceforgw
         | page and has a surprisingly comprehensive readme.
         | 
         | https://sourceforge.net/projects/android-ports-for-gnu-emacs...
        
           | qwertox wrote:
           | SourceForge [0]... the Sony [1] of software development.
           | 
           | [0]
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SourceForge#Adware_controversy
           | 
           | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_ro
           | otk...
        
         | antifa wrote:
         | I'm annoyed that Firefox for android doesn't have hot keys at
         | all and chrome for android is also missing enough hotkeys/mouse
         | behaviors that I'll usually notice very quickly.
        
       | janice1999 wrote:
       | Video about the project from Volla Community Days:
       | https://www.youtube.com/live/7vF5647gNbo?si=NC_QytRezsgDCQV5
        
         | brunoqc wrote:
         | Do you have a timestamp?
         | 
         | EDIT: https://youtu.be/7vF5647gNbo?t=14340 maybe
        
       | john01dav wrote:
       | Is there somewhere where I can sign up to be emailed or otherwise
       | notified when this is ready? I want to try it but from the lack
       | of APKs or other introductory materials, it seems to not be
       | ready.
        
       | fock wrote:
       | "needs root and patches to AOSP". So there go the banking apps
       | mentioned elsewhere and you can just use postmarketOS.
       | 
       | Still cool though!
        
         | bboygravity wrote:
         | I have a rooted phone and when you hide root (using Magisk app)
         | all banking apps work just fine?
        
           | kiney wrote:
           | Some, not all. Last time I checked magisk wasn't able to fake
           | safetynet hardwareattestation
        
             | igor47 wrote:
             | Yup. I gave up on trying to get Google wallet / Android pay
             | to work on my lineage device. I got it working sometimes
             | but it broke after update and just wasn't reliable enough
             | to keep trying when paying for stuff. I'm not really sure
             | whom they're protecting with this stuff -- the credit card
             | processing companies, maybe?
        
               | JonChesterfield wrote:
               | wallet doesn't work reliably on a non-rooted pixel phone
               | with approximately zero software installed on it either,
               | you may not be doing anything wrong
        
               | kotaKat wrote:
               | As far as I also understand Google Messages now uses this
               | as well to gatekeep access to _carrier_ RCS.
               | 
               | https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/1/24087418/google-
               | messages-b...
        
               | phh wrote:
               | How do you know it's carrier RCS? To the best of my
               | knowledge they are only gatekeeping access to Google
               | Messages private network, not carrier RCS? (Considering
               | the very little number of carrier RCS that's not very
               | relevant though)
        
               | crms1496 wrote:
               | I have found Play Integrity Fix [1] with playcurl [2] is
               | reliable enough for passing Play Integrity in Wallet and
               | other apps. My current issue is that Google Messages has
               | its own integrity checks that are stricter than Play
               | Integrity, and will silently stop handling RCS messages
               | if it fails those checks. I currently have RCS disabled
               | because it is too unreliable.
               | 
               | [1] https://github.com/chiteroman/PlayIntegrityFix [2]
               | https://github.com/daboynb/PlayIntegrityNEXT
        
               | LoganDark wrote:
               | Huh, I don't have issues with RCS on my rooted OP7Pro. Is
               | my version just sufficiently out of date not to have
               | those extra checks?
        
               | freedomben wrote:
               | I also have OP7Pro (what an amazing phone btw), and yes,
               | we're pretty much sufficiently out of date that they
               | still work - a wild but true reality we find ourselves
               | in.
        
               | LoganDark wrote:
               | I mean my Messages app. I installed it years ago and
               | never updated, because why would I ever updated an SMS
               | app, the only thing that can ever happen is for things to
               | break that used to be working, lol. I don't even know if
               | I run A12.
               | 
               | I do know, though, that the OP7Pro is one of the last
               | Android devices that are whitelisted by Google to pass
               | SafetyNet without hardware-backed attestation. Shame that
               | TWRP wiped my working setup. I've been trying to get them
               | to add any basic protection against that for over three
               | years: https://github.com/TeamWin/Team-Win-Recovery-
               | Project/issues/...
               | 
               | It is an amazing phone. Notchless, relockable bootloader
               | (not just unlockable, but custom AVB key support!!), in-
               | screen fingerprint sensor, 90Hz AMOLED, and great build
               | quality.
        
               | sangnoir wrote:
               | > because why would I ever updated an SMS app, the only
               | thing that can ever happen is for things to break that
               | used to be working, lol.
               | 
               | Text parsing/rendering is a security Achilles' heel, and
               | SMS app vulnerabilities are commonly exploited entry
               | points for persistent malware from the likes of NSO. All
               | things being equal, should update SMS apps for the
               | security updates.
        
               | LoganDark wrote:
               | > I'm not really sure whom they're protecting with this
               | stuff -- the credit card processing companies, maybe?
               | 
               | (small nit: does "whom" even go there?)
               | 
               | They're protecting the TEE because they do not want third
               | parties to be able to automate Google Pay through
               | modified software. This isn't necessarily just about
               | normal end users but more like smartphone farms.
        
               | nobody9999 wrote:
               | >They're protecting the TEE
               | 
               | Why do Transesophageal Echocardiograms[0] need
               | protecting, and from whom do such diagnostics require
               | protection?
               | 
               | I expect I'm missing something, but a web search for
               | 'TEE' only returns that diagnostic test.[1]
               | 
               | [0] https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/atrial-
               | fibrillation/tran...
               | 
               | [1] Moral: Don't assume everyone knows what a particular
               | acronym means. Just because it's in _your_ head doesn 't
               | mean everyone else knows what you mean.[2] E.g., if I say
               | 'JRE' I mean 'Java Runtime Environment' and not 'Joe
               | Rogan Experience'.
               | 
               | [2] According to Piaget[3], people are able to identify
               | that others don't know what's in their heads sometime
               | between ages two and seven.
               | 
               | [3] https://psychcentral.com/health/piaget-stages-of-
               | development...
        
               | LoganDark wrote:
               | Sorry, TEE stands for Trusted Execution Environment. It's
               | where stuff like DRM executes with access to secrets that
               | the HLOS (Android) can't tamper with. On ARM SoCs the TEE
               | is usually provided as part of TrustZone. No need to
               | patronize.
        
               | nobody9999 wrote:
               | >Sorry, TEE stands for Trusted Execution Environment.
               | 
               | No apology necessary. I was just a little confused.
               | Thanks for straightening me out!
        
               | Nexxxeh wrote:
               | I think, probably unintentionally, you've misjudged or
               | ignored the tone your message is likely to be read as
               | having.
               | 
               | To me, your comment comes across as having a rude and
               | insulting tone.
               | 
               | I think the person you were replying to read it in a
               | similar tone to me based on their response. ("No need to
               | be patronizing.")
               | 
               | Is that the tone you intended?
               | 
               | A better way of handling it may have been with a simple,
               | "What does TEE mean in this context please? Googling it
               | didn't help me."
               | 
               | I'm asking the question rather than assuming it was
               | intentional, as you put more effort into your comment
               | than is necessary to just be rude.
               | 
               | It feels like you may have been trying to be helpful and
               | just misjudged the tone. Maybe as a fellow neurodivergent
               | person.
        
               | LoganDark wrote:
               | I feel like this part of their comment:
               | 
               | > According to Piaget[3], people are able to identify
               | that others don't know what's in their heads sometime
               | between ages two and seven.
               | 
               | is a little far to be a simple misjudged tone, even if it
               | was intended as a joke. I did find it a bit funny but it
               | still felt a bit insulting too.
        
               | nobody9999 wrote:
               | >is a little far to be a simple misjudged tone, even if
               | it was intended as a joke. I did find it a bit funny but
               | it still felt a bit insulting too.
               | 
               | No. Not a joke. Just pointing out something you already
               | knew: That I (or anyone else) don't know what's going on
               | inside your mind unless you tell me.
               | 
               | That you ignored such a simple truth and didn't think to
               | define your terms was a waste of _my_ time. As such, I
               | felt insulted at your (apparent) complete lack of respect
               | for the time and attention of others.
               | 
               | Take that as insulting if you wish, and if you find it
               | insulting enough, please ignore me completely going
               | forward. I promise you I won't mind.
               | 
               | Have a good day!
        
               | LoganDark wrote:
               | > That you ignored such a simple truth and didn't think
               | to define your terms was a waste of my time. As such, I
               | felt insulted at your (apparent) complete lack of respect
               | for the time and attention of others.
               | 
               | My neglecting to define it was not because I was
               | _ignoring_ that not everyone knows everything I do.
               | 
               | There are quite a few acronyms that are widespread enough
               | _on HN_ (or in programming in general) to be used without
               | defining them anew every single time (such as, say,
               | "API"). I hadn't considered that of those, "TEE" is not
               | one. That doesn't mean I _don 't understand the concept
               | of individual knowledge_, only that I don't always put a
               | complete effort into my drive-by comments, and evidently
               | had not into that one.
               | 
               | Even at that point, it would have taken less time for you
               | to ask for a definition _without_ additional remarks that
               | imply I should have known better. Who are you to imply I
               | didn 't know better? I'd say _that_ was the real waste of
               | your time, considering it makes up over 50% of the
               | comment.
               | 
               | Additionally, I don't have a "complete lack of respect"
               | for others' time and attention. I would've edited the
               | comment to fix it if it had still been within the edit
               | window. I apologized for having left the definition out
               | because that was an honest mistake, and it was never
               | meant to waste anyone's time or attention. Even before
               | the apology, I don't think it's reasonable for you to
               | have assumed that the waste of time was intentional, and
               | replied in the way you did.
               | 
               | > Take that as insulting if you wish, and if you find it
               | insulting enough, please ignore me completely going
               | forward. I promise you I won't mind.
               | 
               | I don't generally ignore people until I have nothing left
               | to say to them. But yes, people (myself included)
               | generally find it insulting when you assume bad faith of
               | them. If this was truly your intention, then it is not
               | just my fault for "wishing" to take it as insulting. Your
               | tone has an impact on how others perceive you.
               | 
               | To be blunt, if you are rude on purpose and proceed not
               | to care about how it makes others feel, that behavior
               | isn't welcome here. I can understand if you felt
               | _frustrated_ that I didn 't define my acronyms, but
               | that's no reason to lash out about it, even when it's in
               | the form of mere patronizing remarks.
               | 
               | You have a good day too.
        
               | Nexxxeh wrote:
               | Yeah, I'm sorry that they spoke to you like that. It was
               | unwarranted, as was the subsequent benefit of the doubt I
               | gave them. It's apparently just the attitude they
               | communicate with others with. Unfortunate.
        
               | nobody9999 wrote:
               | Your assumptions were mostly incorrect.
               | 
               | That said, thank you for your thoughts on this. I'm glad
               | you shared them. Good on you.
               | 
               | That said, I don't need you (or anyone else, for that
               | matter) to tell me how I should or shouldn't interact
               | with others -- as that's _incredibly_ condescending (and
               | incredibly rude as well) and makes a number of
               | unwarranted (as I mentioned) assumptions.
               | 
               | Again, thanks for your thoughts. I'll give them the
               | attention they deserve.
               | 
               | Edit: Fixed prose.
        
               | protonbob wrote:
               | I'm pretty sure you told the GP how they should or should
               | not interact with others by telling them not to use
               | acronyms. I'm don't understand how that's any different.
        
               | nobody9999 wrote:
               | >'m pretty sure you told the GP how they should or should
               | not interact with others by telling them not to use
               | acronyms. I'm don't understand how that's any different.
               | 
               | Except I did nothing of the sort. I took the information
               | given and attempted to interpolate (unsuccessfully, I
               | might add) what OP was talking about.
               | 
               | While I did make the point that OP should have realized
               | that others don't know what they're talking about if they
               | don't tell us, I most certainly didn't say they shouldn't
               | use acronyms.
               | 
               | Rather, I chastised them for not _defining ambiguous
               | terms_ , which wasted my time and energy trying to figure
               | out what they were going on about.
        
               | Nexxxeh wrote:
               | >I took the information given and attempted to
               | interpolate (unsuccessfully, I might add) what OP was
               | talking about.
               | 
               | You could have used your brain and just Googled "TEE
               | Android". But by all means, despite not having either the
               | domain-specific knowledge nor the common sense to manage
               | to Google it competently, feel entitled to be an arse
               | about it. I trust you can read my tone here?
        
               | Nexxxeh wrote:
               | I see the benefit of the doubt was unwarranted. Righto.
        
         | ga2mer wrote:
         | >you can just use postmarketOS
         | 
         | Only if your device is fully supported
         | 
         | I have about 5 "post market" devices and only two of them have
         | any support in postmarketOS: Redmi 4x, in which hardware
         | acceleration does not work and I have not been able to run any
         | DE on it and Pixel 4a, in which judging by the pmOS wiki page
         | works just about everything except the most important part of a
         | modern phone - touchscreen
        
           | linmob wrote:
           | postmarketOS provides tooling, documentation and a helpful
           | community ... at some point, you'll need to put in the work,
           | or sell your used devices and buy other, better supported
           | used devices to work around this.
           | 
           | Is it really unfortunate that there's no (known)
           | mainline/close to mainline touchscreen driver for the Pixel
           | 4a? Absolutely. But it won't magically appear without
           | somebody putting in the necessary effort.
        
         | calgoo wrote:
         | As it's Linux could we run android in a vm and simulate a safe
         | device? That's my hope for the future of mobile devices, safe
         | VMs that we can run on top of the spyware (government enforced
         | stuff too) infested phones.
        
           | franga2000 wrote:
           | Unfortunately, most of those misguided "device integrity"
           | checkers detect VMs and the best of them (luckily still not
           | used very often) are essentially unbeatable (unless there's a
           | critical bug) due to hardware-backed attestation.
        
             | gigel82 wrote:
             | *worst
        
             | phh wrote:
             | > essentially unbeatable (unless there's a critical bug)
             | due to hardware-backed attestation.
             | 
             | FWIW Google started enforcing those attestations like one
             | month or two ago, and there are many critical bugs. I
             | haven't kept scores, but some other people did :
             | https://x.com/wanghan1995315/status/1803063996204912873
             | 
             | And please note that they only list big brands leaks. Since
             | you can use any OEM's attestation key, /any/ OEM leak can
             | break those so-called "security protections". Even after
             | all security flaws, there is still social engineering. I
             | guesstimate that you could ask an ODM's engineer for an
             | attestation key for like 1k$ and share it to like 20
             | persons. (200 would probably still remain under the radar,
             | but you need to be capable of keeping a secret with 200
             | persons)
             | 
             | Though the conclusion shouldn't be that attestation keys
             | are insecure and we need a secure variant (because a secure
             | variant is indeed coming). The conclusion must be that
             | users own the device they bought. Not Google, not Apple.
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | > And please note that they only list big brands leaks.
               | Since you can use any OEM's attestation key, /any/ OEM
               | leak can break those so-called "security protections".
               | 
               | Inevitably though, the price of these will rise, the most
               | capable eyes on the planet will have a few very thorough
               | looks at all the TPM chip firmware they can get their
               | hands on, and eventually platforms will be so secure and
               | the price will be so high the only ones left to have them
               | are three-letter agencies (if even these).
               | 
               | Anti tamper measures have their place - I'd _really_ love
               | to have a device that cannot have a persistent backdoor
               | implanted - but the very second the state of the anti-
               | tamper measure becomes visible to user-level
               | applications, they become an arms race between Big Money
               | (=DRM rightsholders and big game studios) and my freedom.
        
               | mindslight wrote:
               | > _I 'd really love to have a device that cannot have a
               | persistent backdoor implanted - but the very second the
               | state of the anti-tamper measure becomes visible to user-
               | level applications, they become an arms race between Big
               | Money (=DRM rightsholders and big game studios) and my
               | freedom._
               | 
               | The two can be reconciled by not having any privileged
               | keys baked in by the manufacturer. It's only the
               | manufacturers keeping records of the baked in
               | attestation/signing key(s) that allows for remote
               | attestation to be scaled up into treacherous computing.
               | Otherwise if device owners could generate/load new
               | attestation/signing keys and have them be
               | indistinguishable from any original ones, then that same
               | process can be emulated. This would likely require
               | legislation to reign in manufacturers' desires to retain
               | backdoors, but the point is that it is possible from a
               | technical perspective.
        
         | unicornhose wrote:
         | There's a place for DRM and similar protections, I don't think
         | they're going anywhere.
         | 
         | But I'm still hopeful that phone, email, web, voip, videochat,
         | photo and video editing, location, maps, document sync, etc,
         | will one day work seamlessly on FOSS devices.
         | 
         | I do think that the apps will have to be recreated as FOSS,
         | existing apps will always be antagonistic because they get a
         | lot of revenue from being able to control how/when/where the
         | software is run.
        
       | zokier wrote:
       | Neat project, but hate the branding. Android _is_ Linux. I think
       | it 's really important to recognize that. Linux is not just not
       | the one traditional POSIX style system, it's a platform to build
       | all sorts of systems, including Android.
        
         | denysvitali wrote:
         | I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering
         | to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/LInux, or as I've recently taken
         | to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system
         | unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully
         | functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell
         | utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as
         | defined by POSIX.
         | 
         | Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system
         | every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of
         | events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often
         | called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is
         | basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
         | 
         | There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it
         | is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the
         | program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to
         | the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential
         | part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only
         | function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux
         | is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system:
         | the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or
         | GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really
         | distributions of GNU/Linux.
        
           | pta2002 wrote:
           | Ironically, in this specific instance (Android), it actually
           | _isn't_ GNU/Linux. Distros like Alpine also aren't GNU/Linux.
        
             | denysvitali wrote:
             | True, but it was still worth the meme (:
        
           | eps wrote:
           | PS. https://www.gnu.org/gnu/incorrect-quotation.en.html
        
             | aniviacat wrote:
             | > It is OK to call it "GNU" when you want to be really
             | short, but it is better to call it "GNU/Linux" so as to
             | give Torvalds some credit.
             | 
             | I love this line
        
         | burnte wrote:
         | Americans, Chinese, and Nigerians are all humans, but it's
         | sometimes useful to subdivide the large group for the sake of
         | reference. This is why we say Android and not just Linux, as it
         | helps us avoid "which Linux is it?"
        
       | user070223 wrote:
       | See also @kdrag0n 's work; putting Virtualized linux (and
       | windows) on Android phones.
       | 
       | Our phones might be our next Desktops/Laptops/main personal
       | computing device: 1. local first (you do go to the bathroom/gas
       | station with your phone) 2. portable 3. reduce ewaste, money
       | spent
       | 
       | The lack of convenience in the form of larger screen might be
       | mitigated using smart glasses, projector(unihertz tank 3 has
       | built in), or just connect to an external monitor
       | 
       | Snapdragon 8 gen 3 performs like cpu from 2020 and midtier gpu
       | from 2016 AVF might ship with android 15 as Mainline module (One
       | need kernel 5.10+)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30322035
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30328692
        
         | fsflover wrote:
         | > Our phones might be our next Desktops/Laptops/main personal
         | computing device
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19328085
        
         | user070223 wrote:
         | Forgot to mention windows on arm is progressing (qcom
         | snapdragon elite chipset on microsoft surface devices), qcom
         | gunyah hypervisor, MediaTek's GenieZone hypervisor, winlator
        
         | dTal wrote:
         | I just want a GPD Micro PC with a cell modem...
        
       | jacek wrote:
       | I would love to try it out on my Android tablet. Being able to
       | run Linux with a real desktop browser and development environment
       | would be really amazing.
        
       | karussell wrote:
       | How does it compare to Termux / UserLAnd? See https://termux.dev
       | and https://userland.tech
       | 
       | For my purposes Lindroid seems less powerful as it requires root
       | and AOSP patches.
        
         | nolist_policy wrote:
         | Userland is dog slow since it's based on proot.
         | 
         | Termux needs to patch most of it's packages and is limited in
         | what it can run since everything links to bionic libc.
        
           | karussell wrote:
           | Interesting. For me Userland is usable and not really slow.
        
       | Dwedit wrote:
       | Can it run Wine + FEX Emu?
        
         | unixhero wrote:
         | Well it is Linux
        
       | unixhero wrote:
       | When is this a useful thing to have?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-06-18 23:01 UTC)