Debian For Android Installer Released

dooberrymctavish writes "You can now download an installer and bootloader for getting Debian running on your Android (G1 at the moment) device; the whole install process will take you about 10 minutes, and leaves you with access to the full plethora of programs available in Debian and lets you continue using your phone as it was intended to be: as an Android device with all the capabilities thereof. Here's a look at it running.

Ok.

[drolli]

That would be a reason to buy this phone....

Re:This is why linux/opensource sucks.

[Orange Crush]

^The same sort of people who take things apart to see how they work, and tinker with things because they actually enjoy doing so.

Don't worry, your iPhone will not wink out of existance because somebody with different preferences buys a different phone, or prefers cars without the hoods welded shut.

The video sucks

[amRadioHed]

Just shows Debian booting. What can you do with it?

Re:This is why linux/opensource sucks.

[SanityInAnarchy]

Yeah...

Can I buy an unlocked iPhone for a reasonable price, yet? How about deals with networks other than AT&T?

Can I install custom software yet? Oh, I have to jailbreak it. That makes sens... Oh wait, you're asking me to crack my own phone.

Alright, I'll develop an iPhone app. I'll write it in Python, or maybe Erlang, download updates on the fly... Not allowed, [wikileaks.org] you say? I wonder why? Only Apple knows...

Maybe I'll make it run in the background, so I can have something play music while users do something else... Nope, not allowed. When the user taps away from my app, I have to shut down, completely, so as not to drain the battery. That's not just a good best practice, it's actually enforced by Apple.

Yes, it's prettier. Yes, there are things it does better. But as long as Apple keeps such a stranglehold around what's available and what isn't, the iPhone will fall behind. There is no question of that -- there will be killer apps written for Android, even for Windows Mobile, which cannot be ported to the iPhone because of Apple's restrictions.

Why would you want a system so closed, inflexible, and proprietary that it makes Windows look good?

Re:Must resist.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad I don't have a whole country full of deceitful, greedy kikes [resist.com] stealing all my water and land anywhere near me. Fucking Jews [resist.com] can't just live in peace. They have to steal other people's land. Our [resist.com] national economy is collapsing from the Jew [resist.com]banks doing their usual Jew [resist.com]thing. You see, with Jews [resist.com], you lose. That's how THEY win. They WIN by making YOU lose. So let's lose the Jews [resist.com].

Global warming could be swiftly solved if we incinerated all of the Jews [resist.com]. Their ashes would be ejected into the upper atmosphere, where they would block some sunlight from hitting the earth. The economy would improve thanks to the absence of Jewish [resist.com] predatory lending, and it would buy us time to deal with climate change. Two birds, one stone.

Fun with Facts:

• Isreal [resist.com] has a Jewish population of 5,309,000.
• America [resist.com] has a Jewish [resist.com] population of 5,275,000.

Guess who really owns America [resist.com]? Hint hint, it isn't the Americans [resist.com].

this is just debootstrap

[joey]

All the video shows is debootstrap being run in a terminal on, presumably, a G1 phone.

Since debootstrap is a shell script that builds a debian chroot and is designed to be run on any linux system, that is not a significant accomplishment, is it?

That's the "installer" portion. The "bootloader" portion would appear to consist of something like:

#!/bin/sh
chroot /debian

Anyway, it's nice to see interest in running Debian on these devices, I guess..

Re:Ok.

[Anonymous Coward]

Those red things all over your body are the broken, unresolved dependencies from the godawful RPM(red pustulation manager). Apt is the cure.

Re:The video sucks

[wcoenen]

It is not booting. The video shows apt-get downloading and installing some packages on the phone.

Re:This is why linux/opensource sucks.

[Bob9113]

Don't worry, your iPhone will not wink out of existance because somebody with different preferences buys a different phone, or prefers cars without the hoods welded shut.

hehe - indeed. I have a Mac laptop, a Linux workstation, and a Linux media center at home. Each is brilliant for its intended purpose. Viva La Difference!

Re:The video sucks

[nine-times]

Probably not, but being able to run apt-get is a big step in being able to run anything you damn well please.

Really uninspiring

[NekoXP]

Well, you boot Android, get Debian on it and the video we're treated to is... ... running apt-get to drag down packages.

Am I the only one who thinks this is totally pointless?

Re:FTL!

[mixmatch]

Aside from the cool geek factor, why load Debian? It's a distro optimized for servers.

Who told you that? My experience is that Debian's strength is in its versatility, rather than a focus on servers. Thats why it is seen in using for anything from the firmware-based Linksys NSLU2 [cyrius.com] to being the base of some of the most popular desktop distros of the past few years, suck as Knoppix and Ubuntu.

Re:You can take a nigger out of the jungle,

[grimwell]

Try changing your threshold to zero or higher. Then you won't see the trolls.