Friday 6 November 2009

Android... is it Linux ?

This i just something that I saw on LWN (from Harald Welte) and felt needed a little more visibility here at maemo.
The presentation shows how Google has simply thrown 5-10 years of Linux userspace evolution into the trashcan and re-implemented it partially for no reason. Things like hard-coded device lists/permissions in object code rather than config files, the lack of support for hot-plugging devices (udev), the lack of kernel headers. A libc that throws away System V IPC that every unix/Linux software developer takes for granted. The lack of complete POSIX threads. I could continue this list, but hey, you should read those slides. now!
 The slides

As usual the commentary at LWN raises some interesting counters.