Is Android Linux?

Android has always been based on Linux.

Android is so much more than just Linux though, it is a layer on top of Linux with Java based Dalvik virtual machines and all together it is called Android. Yet nonetheless Android is completely based on Linux.

Android is just as much Linux as any other Linux distribution, including Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, etc... Linux is a kernel. You can:

• bundle it with a bunch tools from GNU + glibc and others (essentially all desktop/server distributions) and call it Red Hat, Ubuntu
• bundle it with Busybox and ulibc (many router linux distributions) and call it DD-WRT, Tomato, etc
• bundle it with a Dalvik virtual machine and custom, steamlined libc, and call it Android

All these distributions have just as much Linux in them as the other (same kernel). There is nothing that makes Red Hat more Linux than Android or DD-WRT.

In Linux there are many application packages that are a layer on top of the Linux kernel including rpm (Red Hat), dpkg (Debian/Ubuntu), tgz (Slackware), ipkg/opkg (lightweight system and embedded), apk (Android) etc, etc...Yet all of these are packages for Linux kernel.

Android has always been Linux, but for years the Android project went its own way and its code wasn't merged back into the main Linux tree. As of Linux 3.3 code it is the main Linux tree.

The Linux Foundation views Android as Linux so yes, Android is Linux.