Android Mobile Operating System

Android is a mobile, linux like, operating system based on a modified Linux Kernel (long-term support LTS branches) and primarily designed for mobile devices and touch screen devices such as mobile phones, tablets and other similar devices, includding Chromebook. It is the most used mobile operating system in the world in the last 10 years, having a large market share.

Latest Release: Android 13, as of 15 August 2022

License: OpenSource Apache (Version 2.0)

Written in: C, C++, Java

Android - a mobile operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance and commercially sponsored by Google

It is free and open source software. It's source code is known as Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The "Android" name and logo are trademarks of Google which impose standards to restrict "uncertified" devices outside their ecosystem to use the official branding.

The first version was launched in September 2008. Since 2008 the Android operating system was evolving a lot and in only 4 years after first launch - as of 2012 has become the number one mobile operating system used on a very large number of devices, includding derivate devices such as game consoles, barcode scanners, media players, POS like devices and more.

This mobile operating system uses the APK format for the software application packages that can be installed directly (download) or using an official application store such as Google Play.

Free and OpenSource Software ported to Android:

There are some OpenSource / Free Software software applications ported over the years to the Android operating system.

A list of notable applications (apps) that run on Android which meet guidelines for free software and open-source software can be found here List of free and open-source Android applications.