this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Android and iOS are walled gardens so they hardly count. Both are mostly proprietary these days with an "open core". When I think of Linux on the desktop, Linux for daily computing etc. I think of an experience that is interoperable, FOSS and respects my digital rights.
I would call iOS mostly proprietary, but not Android. It is entirely possible to have a fully usable Android system with AOSP, as shown by LineageOS and other free software Android distributions.
Meanwhile the available Darwin source code is nowhere near enough to build anything remotely resembling iOS, or even any usable operating system. OpenDarwin died in 2006. PureDarwin tried to become successor, but that hasn't gone so well. They got Darwin 9 working okay, but then got stuck porting to Darwin 10 (which is still from 2009).
Thanks, I wasn't sure what the situation with Darwin was. Android is definitely more free than iOS, but the spirit of AOSP is dead and many of the old AOSP apps have been discontinued. For example Google no longer maintains a calendar app and so LineageOS maintains its own fork. Google's proprietary suite is front and centre of a lot of the Android distros except for LineageOS and co.