At this point any Android device you buy is a fork of Linux.
And, frankly, if Google decided to swap out Linux for, say, DragonflyBSD, almost no-one would notice or care.
And, frankly, if Google decided to swap out Linux for, say, DragonflyBSD, almost no-one would notice or care.
Where in Android, you just get Java and a tiny bit of C and C++.
Check the NDK documentation, Google provides a list of the set of APIs any NDK application is allowed to use.
Since many used to ignore that list, starting with Android 7, any app that uses unauthorised native libraries will get killed.
Fork Android OSP and fix that. I'm sure that CyanogenMod will allow me to use native libraries as much as I want.