[jarin]

Android isn't successful because of Linux, it's successful in spite of Linux. Google chose Linux as a base on which to build what is essentially a new operating system (much like Apple chose BSD to build iOS on).

This is what a cellphone looks like when it's developed entirely by the open source community: http://www.openmoko.com/

[aristidb]

Android certainly is successful _because_ of Linux (the kernel), because that let Google concentrate on the upper layers, being able to use a mostly finished kernel.

[regularfry]

In a discussion of Linux on the desktop, I don't think people are concentrating on the kernel.