[pjmlp]

No. Android is a Java based OS that happens to use Linux as a kernel.

The majority of APIs are not exposed to NDK users, only to OEMs.

Google could release lets say Android 8 with another POSIX compliant kernel and the only apps that would notice are the ones using non official APIs.

[lisivka]

Some Linux distros are already using non-linux kernels, e.g. GNU Debian/kFreeBSD, so Debian Linux is not Linux then.

Currently, Android is released using Linux kernel, ELF executable format, POSIX API's, and so on. There is no Android/kFreeBSD, nor Android/NT.

Android games can be launched on Linux using android libraries (not all, but some works pretty well, see: http://www.shashlik.io/showcases/ ).

Linux tools can be launched on Android systems (including X based tools, if X server is running).

For most of practical purposes, Android is Linux.

[pjmlp]

Nice try playing word games.

Debian user space isn't the same thing as a kernel.

Android kernel doesn't expose the same syscalls as a standard Linux.

I am really keen in having Google replacing Linux with Magenta, then we can carry on this discussion about what Android is supposed to be.

[lisivka]

Currently, Android can be ran at vanilla kernel: http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-7-2013/general/android...