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Discussion on: Intro To Linux [For Beginners]

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amarok24 profile image
Jan Prazak

With the arrival of Google Android it should be clear to everyone why Richard Stallman always insisted on saying "GNU/Linux" operating system instead of simply Linux operating system. Android is so much different than GNU/Linux that I personally don't even think that Android is one of Linux OS distributions.

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rashil2000 profile image
Rashil Gandhi • Edited

Extremely well said!
Android, as it is today, is nothing but a disrespect to whatever principles Linux stands for, especially with the introduction of SafteyNet APIs etc. It's saddening that users have no real choice apart from Google's Android or Apple's iOS when it comes to mobile devices, unlike on PCs where they actually have the freedom to use/run whatever they want.
I really think people should start calling it Google Android instead of just Android. Some might argue that there are custom fully open source ROMS out there for Android devices, but as is clearly evident from Google's attitude towards them, it's becoming more and more difficult to run apps on them that require device and OS verification (examples - finance apps, security apps, banking apps, apps that use the Play Services API etc.).

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amarok24 profile image
Jan Prazak

Exactly. Users of Google Android are not owners of the system and that's a big problem (and vast majority of people is not capable of getting a free smartphone and installing a custom build on it, I've tried it and I failed). They can modify only what Google allows them to modify. This fact alone shows the huge difference between GA and GnuLinux. I don't even want to mention the huge amount of ads in most apps which are at the same time proprietary and not opensource.