Web site: www.android.com
Origin: USA
Category: Mobile Phones/Smartphones/TV
Desktop environment: GUI
Architecture: x86, x86_64, ARM64/ARMv7
Based on: Linux
Wikipedia: Android
Media: Install
The last version | Released: Active
Android – an operating system with a Linux-based kernel for mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, tablets (tablet PCs), and netbooks. In 2013, it was the most popular mobile operating system in the world.
In July 2005, Google acquired Android Inc., a small California-based company.
The company’s founders, who began working at Google, included Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications, acquired by Orange in 2000), Nick Sears (T-Mobile), and Chris White (one of the original engineers at WebTV). At the time, little was known about Android Inc. other than that they developed software for mobile devices. Google’s acquisition sparked rumors that Google intended to enter the mobile device market, but it was unclear what role it intended to take within that market.
At Google, a team led by Rubin had already created a Linux-based mobile operating system for mobile manufacturers and mobile operators. Google had already identified partners in the hardware and software worlds and signaled its willingness to collaborate with mobile operators.
The core of the system is open source and free software. This project is called the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The project consists of the kernel and some other components adapted for Android. These are released under the Apache 2.0 license and the GNU GPL (the Linux kernel itself). Android, however, does not contain any code from the GNU project. This distinguishes Android from many other existing Linux distributions. It was initially developed by Android Inc. (later acquired by Google), and later moved to the Open Handset Alliance.
Android brings together a large community of developers who write applications that extend the functionality of devices. As of August 2014, there were over 1.3 million applications available for this system on Google Play (formerly Android Market).
The source: Wikipedia; License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.
The screenshot source: Wikipedia; License: Apache 2.0.
