[OT]: Smartphones and Python?

[Lie Ryan]

On 02/18/2012 12:51 PM, Michael Torrie wrote:
> On 02/16/2012 10:25 PM, 88888 Dihedral wrote:
>> Android is a customized linux OS used in mobile phones. I don't think
>> any linux systm has to be locked by JAVA or any JVM to run
>> applications.
>
> Getting waaayyyy off topic here, but...
>
> I guess you aren't familiar with what Android is (which is ironic, given
> that a lot of people on this list think you must be one!).  Android is
> not simply a customized linux distribution.

Strictly speaking, Android *is* a customized Linux distribution; what it 
is not is Android is not a GNU/Linux distribution.

> It's a special application
> environment (an OS in its own right) that is based on the Dalvik virtual
> machine.  Dalvik does depend on the Linux kernel to talk to the
> hardware, but Linux very much is not a part of Android, at least from
> the developers' and end users' points of view.  Linux is just not a part
> of the user experience at all.  It is true that Dalvik can call into
> native linux code, but native linux applications typically aren't a part
> of the Android user experience.

Android does have a full Linux experience; what it lacks is the GNU 
experience. Unlike "normal" Linux distros, Android does not use GNU 
userspace, instead it have its own userspace based on bionic, toolbox, 
and dalvik. Linux is a core part of Android's user and developer's 
experience.