You are talking about the OS while the person you are discussing with is speaking about the kernel.

The Linux kernel has its own merits outside standard Linux userspace.

I agree, saying that the fact standard Linux distros and Android share the same kernel has no single meaningful implication really undervalues the Linux kernel.

I also agree that it's important to keep in mind the two OSes are mostly incompatible.

The two OSes sharing the kernel have practical implications, including (theoretically) seeing improvements coming from Android dev in the kernel that can benefit standard linux distros, and things like Termux or Waydroid.

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ravenstine a day ago | parent | next [-]

Compiling the mainline Linux kernel myself really taught me that the kernel does way more than people give it credit for. Sure, it can be debated as to whether two distributions of Linux can really be considered the same OS, but acting like the kernel is a relatively minor detail comes off to me as ignorant.

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philistine a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You’re keeping a discussion on technical reasoning for why Android and Desktop Linux are separated in a list like that, but the reason is not technical. It’s wholly for convenience. We want to know the performance of Desktop Linux separate from Android. Whether or not they are a different OS or not is irrelevant.

	▲	jraph 13 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> We want to know the performance of Desktop Linux separate from Android ... Because they are a different OS. > You’re keeping a discussion on technical reasoning for why Android and Desktop Linux are separated in a list like that Mind you, my motivation to have them separated aren't that technical. Actually, I'd be more interested in the philosophical / social aspects of the question. That doesn't mean the technical aspects aren't interesting and this subthread is technical, and I've been snipped by the technical inaccuracies present there. In a way, the philosophical discussion also has less risk of being clouded by technical inaccuracies too, and more chance of succeeding in the technicalities are sorted out, especially in presence of people who know the technical details. You are free to spark a nontechnical discussion in which you motivate why, technical details aside, we should be interested in having the two separated. Please do! Actually, I did this a bit there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44580682#44583693

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fsflover a day ago | parent | prev [-]

So when somebody says "Linux reaches X market share", are they talking about the kernel? Why does it even matter how much the kernel is used? Would you count WSL?

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jraph a day ago | parent [-]

I'm not sure why you are asking me all this, this is beside my points.

> So

I reject the link here.

> when somebody says "Linux reaches X market share", are they talking about the kernel?

Likely not.

> Why does it even matter how much the kernel is used?

Why not? Depends what's your concern.

> Would you count WSL?

Depends what you want to evaluate.

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fsflover a day ago | parent [-]

> Depends what you want to evaluate.

This is exactly my question. You said the discussion's about the kernel. Why do you want to evaluate its usage? Which conclusions are you going to draw?

Because when talking about the OS, you can conclude that Windows and MacOS start falling behind the free software.

	▲	jraph a day ago \| parent [-]
		> Why do you want to evaluate its usage? I never implied this. This subthread is about countering your affirmation that Android being based on the linux kernel has no single meaningful implication. It's not anymore about evaluating usage and counting stuff. This all started with a commenter writing "Android systems don't even run the linux kernel in any real sense", which is wrong, or at least highly misleading and confusing (I do agree with this commenter about the fact that we are talking about forks that don't upstream their shit, which does have severe implications). You could say that Android systems usually don't run mainline Linux kernel. > you can conclude that Windows and MacOS start falling behind the free software. I wish :-) And I wouldn't generally include Android in the free software family, few people run Replicant or some Android flavor without the Google services, let alone without proprietary blobs. (I would count blob-free Android)