Welcome Back GNU! My Revenge on Android

This blog has moved, click here for the post on the new blog.

In my last post I discussed that the lack of GNU on android devices was limiting the software available and didn’t bring new libraries to linux. Unfortunately for me I don’t have a MeeGo device and am stuck with the Java beast.

One of the things that bothered my the most was that I could not sync my music using Unison like I do across my other three computers. If I was on MeeGo it would be as simple as apt-get install unison.

The solution for this was installing GNU on my phone, the basic concept is that you have a Linux kernel so if you install the user-land you can simply chroot into that environment and enjoy the true GNU/Linux experience.

Linux on Mobile Devices, “You’re Doing it Wrong”

This blog has moved, click here for the post on the new blog.

To start off, I would like to clarify what I mean when I say “Linux”.  In the title, I meant all forms of Linux, both the kernel and the GNU/Linux OS.  From now on I will explicitly say the Linux kernel and when I just say “Linux” I am probably referring to the GNU/Linux OS.

The most popular form of “Linux” in the mobile space is Android.  Android is not really Linux but a Java OS running on a Linux kernel.  So what’s wrong with that?  The fact is that we are developing drivers and applications that run off of Android instead of Linux.  Very simply, we are doing more work than we have to and we aren’t letting our work be used in more that one place.  I know, you could run Android on your desktop and when that happens the situation will be a little better.  The fact is that we are doing more work for less gain, wasted man hours.