[E 2015 General] discord:
Hi [MENTION=5133884]ecaslak[/MENTION] ,

I will try your suggestions. Most recently I've tried GNURoot Debian, which uses proot. However I was unable to use the open ssh server I installed on it. However, I will still stand by my petition.

A significant portion of the Android community spends great effort trying to root their devices, many with only the desire for common functionality that we have from any core linux distribution. While having root itself on a device would be great, it should be expected that google provide all device owners with basic functionality found in most core linux distributions for the last 20+ years. Not including an option for basic user utilities ( ssh / wget or curl / most of what is included in busybox, a fairly powerful common shell such as bash or similar ) , that most non-root accounts have on practically all systems, limits the freedom of expression and ability to create that users have come to expect from a GNU Linux distribution.

While root can be enjoyed on many devices, this is often only available to a small segment of the population who either pays a significant amount more for a unlocked device with a free bootloader, or spends a significant amount of time trying to root their device. Android does seem to provide a small set of simple userland utilities such as ls, cat, but not much beyond that. This is a request to provide a set of utilities similar to what is found on most any common Linux distribution.

While their is some concern for manufacturers or communication companies to lock their users devices down, there should be no concern allowing basic utilities on all android devices. To be specific, what harm does allowing somebody to download a file through a terminal using wget or curl, or to ssh into a host , or the phone itself? Similar functionality to these kind of operations are provided to developers in the form of the Android SDK, and or libraries and programs that can be installed on all android platforms. However having simple system shell utilities is quite different that writing an application. Then there should be no harm in making them more accessible to the Android community, in said form. Finally the communications companies will benefit from increased usage, and therefore data billings from providing these features.

This petition requests that Google compile / create / maintain / distribute a set of common linux shell utilities to be included with the device, or provided through the play store for all Android versions moving forward. The people who are signing this petition believe that any owner should be able to use common *nixy functionality on any personally owned android device, regardless of device manufacturer or communication company.

Furthermore, we believe that by creating a standard distribution for these tools will reduce the effort of many people doing the same thing in their own time. That a standard will improve the tools themselves, and improve the Android experience to the community at large.

Google Android has stood on the back of giants, and taken the Linux kernel and wrapped a nice system and SDK around it, with the exception of removing some of the core functionality included in most any Linux system. Thus Android is significantly limiting the freedom of users. This is a proposal for the middle ground, which will allow a better system for everyone, even people who have no root or unlocked device.

Finally I Had a look at the kbox project, I think this sentence from their site underscores the challenge users face:

"Android is not Linux, as Google repeatedly tells us — and getting ordinary Linux desktop utilities to work in Android can be a chore, to say the least."