Hi all,

I have came across the statement that "Android is based on the Linux kernel". So what does it mean?
> is Android a layer on top of the linux kernel? i.e., Does Android actually work in the user space and, if it want to access physical device, it needs to make Linux system call on device nodes such as 'open','read','write'?
> Or Android is actually a modified version of the Linux kernel, so itself works in the kernel space and has direct access to physical devices?
> Or Android is both. i.e., it is a user space layer that manages the apps, and it works on top of a modified version of the Linux kernel?

Thanks,
Dave Xu

my newbie understanding is it is more firmware, written for specific devices and designed to pester the crap out'ya' for your credit-card number.... You can run linux distro's on said devices although there are not many, you can run some linux process's on top of Android...

Check out f-droid if you want to stay native....

Android is a special Linux distribution adapted to mobile devices architecture.