Android isn't an OS; it's a linux distro

@enkiv2 Android totally is a Linux distro.

How is a Linux distro not an OS, though?

@kellerfuchs
I mean, it's not some separate OS.

I see "OS comparisons" where they list "linux" as a category and "android" as another category. I also have seen a lot of people say "I'm writing my own OS" when they're actually just making a distro.

@enkiv2 @kellerfuchs They really should specify that they believe the ecosystem is divergent enough that there is an equally meaningful difference between Android/Linux and @gnupluslinux as between Plan 9 and Windows

@USBhump @kellerfuchs @gnupluslinux
The kind of person who makes this kind of mistake typically doesn't know what plan9 is.

@enkiv2 @USBhump @kellerfuchs @gnupluslinux If you're counting more than the kernel, which I do, I'd totally call Android a different system from a GNU/Linux system. I don't count Mac OS X as a Unix System either, though. I count Darwin as one with a Unix userland and all that on top of it, but OS X is basically its own thing that runs atop it.

@Azure @USBhump @kellerfuchs @gnupluslinux
Android has a linux userland and a complicated graphical shell on top based around Java. OSX has a bsd userland and a complicated graphical shell on top based on objective c. But, we don't consider a linux system running scratch to be no longer linux (even though smalltalk images can be more complex than a NeXT GUI).

@gnupluslinux @kellerfuchs @USBhump @Azure
Basically, I consider a distinct kernel a necessary (but not sufficient) attribute for a distinct OS. A kernel with no userland is not an OS, but anything that runs the same kernel is the same OS.

This is mostly because I look at it from the perspective of osdev. Writing an OS presents a really unique set of challenges that even complicated front-ends don't involve.