22
Is Android's kernel holding it back?
(self.askandroid)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
22 points (86.7% liked)
Ask Android
2213 readers
5 users here now
A place to ask your questions and seek help related to your Android device and the Android ecosystem.
Whether you're looking for app recommendations, phone buying advice, or want to explore rooting and tutorials, this is the place for you!
Rules
- Be descriptive: Help us help you by providing as many details as you can.
- Be patient: You're getting free help from Internet strangers, so you may have to wait for an answer.
- Be helpful: If someone asks you for more information, tell us what you can. If someone asks you for a screenshot, please provide one!
- Be nice: Treat others with respect, even if you don't agree with their advice. Accordingly, you should expect others to be nice to you as well. Report intentionally rude answers.
- No piracy: Sharing or discussing pirated content is strictly prohibited. Do not ask others for a paid app or about how to acquire one.
- No affiliate/marketing links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.
- No URL shorteners: These can hide the true location of the page and lead people to malicious places.
- No lockscreen bypasses: Please do not comment, link, or assist with bypassing lock screens or factory reset protection.
- No cross-posting: Please take the time to make a proper post instead of cross-posting.
Other Communities
- !android@lemdro.id
- !androidmemes@lemdro.id
- !google@lemdro.id
- !googlepixel@lemdro.id
- !xiaomi@lemdro.id
- !sony@lemdro.id
- !samsung@lemdro.id
- !galaxywatch@lemdro.id
- !oneplus@lemdro.id
- !motorola@lemdro.id
- !meta@lemdro.id
- !apple@lemdro.id
- !microsoft@lemdro.id
- !chatgpt@lemdro.id
- !bing@lemdro.id
- !reddit@lemdro.id
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
This is my opinion as a random person on the internet: no. The kernel only affects what hardware it can be ran on. Everything else that would make a difference to end users is basically done in userspace.
The thing holding Android back is its JVM layer between the kernel and the userspace. This adds overhead, meaning your phone needs more RAM or it will have performance issues. You also need slower default animations to cover up the increased loading times from this overhead, which make the system seem slow, especially when compared to iPhones.
I agree with the Runtime being slower. These days Android doesn't technically use the JVM anymore but the Android Runtime, ART for short, that actually performs ahead of time compilation to native code for the byte code for increased performance. Still, the Java Runtime it implements is very heavy and comes with it's own overhead, so native Android code written in Java/Kotlin is generally slower than native iOS code written in Objective C/Swift.
The kernel architecture does influence more than just the hardware it can run on though. Microkernels for example are generally more secure but slower than monolithic kernels
So, would it even be possible to change this?
It's possible to change anything, the main question is the cost of doing so.
Google has already created something called Fuchsia which is reportedly very fast and potentially more secure than Android. But Google already has nearly 20 years of an existing ecosystem in Android that they would effectively be giving up because app manufacturers would have to make new apps for the new system.
They've probably ran the numbers to see how much it would cost to perform the new roll-out vs how much income it would bring, and I would guess that making such a massive change just wouldn't be worth it.
Hmm... That's true.
What about custom implementations? ROM devs?