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25 new of 79 responses total.
remmers
response 55 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 25 14:18 UTC 2014

Ah, I appear to have been mistaken about the Ubuntu part. Was looking at 
this: http://elinux.org/Android_Architecture.
cross
response 56 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 25 15:11 UTC 2014

I've never heard of that site.
dtk
response 57 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 26 02:13 UTC 2014

Resp:55 Interesting. I'd not seen that, though it clarifies what I 
understood of the Android architecture. 


remmers
response 58 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 26 12:39 UTC 2014

Here's a capsule summary of the role of the Linux kernel in Android, 
written by Google software engineer Robert Love. Linux kernel with minimal 
changes, heavily redesigned user space.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/05/13/what-are-the-major-changes-
that-android-made-to-the-linux-kernel/ (http://goo.gl/Tr9nvy)
cross
response 59 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 26 17:27 UTC 2014

Robert sits a couple of desks down from me; really nice guy.  Anything in
particular you'd like me to ask him?
remmers
response 60 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 27 10:40 UTC 2014

Please ask him if Chromecast is going to support Amazon streaming.

Oh wait, that's probably not his department. Never mind.

Anyway, the main point of my original response was that in gauging the 
extent of OS usage, nowadays you should consider mobile devices as well as 
PCs and servers, especially since smartphones and tablets are being used 
for many of the same purposes as PCs. And if you're willing to consider 
Android as a flavor of Linux, then Linux deployment is really quite 
extensive and growing.
cross
response 61 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 27 11:45 UTC 2014

I guess I've been thinking that for the last half a decade or so, so it comes
as a surprise to me that that's something people are only recently starting
to consider.
remmers
response 62 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 27 15:31 UTC 2014

Not too surprising. People are often slow to shift mental gears in the 
face of rapid technological change.
kentn
response 63 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 27 17:31 UTC 2014

Mobile devices have been starting to hit the business world more and
more in the past couple years.  Before that, using personal devices
for work may have been disallowed (e.g. keeping company files and
information on them, not cellphone usage which has been around for a
long time).  Now, it seems businesses are starting to acknowledge that
personal smartphones and tablets may have a place at work (maybe even
to reduce the cost of company-supplied devices).  So, that would be
why, for people who do not work at more liberal companies, it seems
more recent.  And by the way, no, I can't use my own devices for doing
work, even today.  That may change; however, for regulated industries,
the need to control company files would argue against it (absent any
security measures to ensure those files don't end up in the wrong hands
or change inappropriately when on personal devices).  So, this does not
surprise me.
cross
response 64 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 28 18:59 UTC 2014

resp:62 The iPhone runs a modified Mach/BSD kernel as well (that is, iOS
uses some variant of the XNU kernel).

resp:63 Please tell me you aren't using a motorola flip phone still.  :-) 
Put another way, I think it has less to do with what's going on in businesses;
this is about consumer consciousness.

Linux shows up in a lot of seemingly surprising places in the consumer space,
in addition to industrial and business uses, but its use is often unseen,
either by design or just because it's not something people stop to think
about.  Wireless "routers", switches, firewalls, etc; many of the consumer
boxes you buy at Best-Buy run some variant of Linux.  Same (I believe) with
some set-top boxes and the like.  What OS does your fridge run?  Would anyone
even think to wonder that (I doubt I would).  And apparently, Linux can even
make coffee: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Coffee/#s2
kentn
response 65 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 28 19:02 UTC 2014

No I don't use a flip phone.  I have an Android smartphone.  I just can't
use it at all for any work-related activities.
cross
response 66 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 28 19:06 UTC 2014

But you know it boots a Linux kernel, right?  :-)
kentn
response 67 of 79: Mark Unseen   Mar 28 23:00 UTC 2014

Sure.  And having businesses provide or allow such devices just fuels
the demand.  So, that's why I mentioned it.   

Sometimes I want to go back to my flip phone, though :-)
ball
response 68 of 79: Mark Unseen   Apr 22 00:57 UTC 2014

    My LG Optimus has given me several years of good service
but the battery life has declined to the point where if I'm
not near a charger it will turn itself off before lunch
time.  It's also short of RAM and the processor's slow by
today's smartphone standards which hampers performance with
modern apps.  I have a company-issue smartphone that does my
work-related things (email, calendar, iperf, ssh etc.) so I
have been thinking of moving back to a simple flip-phone for
my personal use.
keesan
response 69 of 79: Mark Unseen   Apr 22 14:54 UTC 2014

Cell phone batteries can be very cheap on ebay.
kentn
response 70 of 79: Mark Unseen   Apr 22 15:12 UTC 2014

And they are cheap batteries, too.
keesan
response 71 of 79: Mark Unseen   Apr 23 03:12 UTC 2014

Mine for $2.50 works fine.
ball
response 72 of 79: Mark Unseen   Apr 23 23:24 UTC 2014

Re. 69: It has been years since I bought anything via eBay,
   mostly because of past disappointments there.  I
   considered a new battery but the phone has a some other
   issues that reflect its age.  I'm not complaining. It has
   given me good service over the years.  I'm quite tempted
   by the flip phone. My main reservation is that I wouldn't
   be able to use it as a WiFi hotspot on the days when my
   cable Internet connection isn't working.
keesan
response 73 of 79: Mark Unseen   Apr 24 02:06 UTC 2014

I just bought Jim a nearly new (returned in package) Virgin Mobile Kyocera
Rise for $20.50 including shipping.  It is very similar to what I paid $50
for last year but a year newer with Android 4 instead of 2.3.4.  For $12 I
could have had the same thing without the physical keyboard.  Wifi, GPS, voice
to text.  I am hoping he can use it to compose texts via voice.  It even has
a camera and speaker.  I have had very few problems with ebay, the most
notable being a Chinese American computer screen company that keeps listing
the wrong type of screen for our laptop.  They replaced it with another of
the same and show a photo of the wrong one and wasted their own money on
shipping both ways twice.  The $2.50 battery works fine.
ball
response 74 of 79: Mark Unseen   Apr 24 02:33 UTC 2014

    The flip phone I'm looking at is US$ 12 brand new.  I'm
going to miss being able to use the Internet while I'm
standing in the middle of a cornfield but it will suffice
for voice and text messages.
ball
response 75 of 79: Mark Unseen   Sep 20 23:06 UTC 2014

    I found the phone (a Samsung Entro) for $8 new
in Walgreens and was able to port my existing
smartphone account to it.  I get 300 minutes of
talk and unlimited texts for US$ 25/month.  I've
been pleasantly surprised by the reception and
audio quality and I charge it once or twice per
week.
keesan
response 76 of 79: Mark Unseen   Sep 25 15:33 UTC 2014

PagePlus gives you 250 minutes/month for $12, or 1200 for $30 with some data
as well.  Any Verizon phone.  But the support people at Verizon were unable
to help a friend 'program' a VN250 LG Cosmos that is known to work with Page
Plus - claimed it had no 'MIN' number to change.  $10/100 min (120 days). 
How did your garden do this summer?  No frosts here yet.
ball
response 77 of 79: Mark Unseen   Sep 25 23:44 UTC 2014

    If I change jobs and have to buy another smart phone for
personal use, I may be able to move my existing plan to it.
It has unlimited text and more-or-less unmetered data
(throttled after 2 Gbytes but not cut off).  I'm hoping to
hang onto this plan.
deejoe
response 78 of 79: Mark Unseen   Jun 2 21:43 UTC 2017

haha, cell phone discussion. Not that far removed from topicality, given that
Android uses the Linux kernel, at least.

ball
response 79 of 79: Mark Unseen   Jun 15 03:03 UTC 2017

If XNU counts as a BSD, then iOS is on-topic too.
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