Linux is just a kernel in the same sense that a disto is just a package manager and an init system. Technically that's the case but colloquially a distro is any set of curated, pre-configured packages with an install script.
Idk I know they don't fit into the usual open source box of Linux but I'd consider Android and ChromeOS as Linux distros, a distro is just a collection of software distributed with the Linux kernel as far as I'm aware. If someone doesn't consider them "Linux distros" it's probably due to the proprietary nature of some of the software surrounding the kernel. No idea why kde thinks neon isnt a distro when it literally is.
Edit: in the case of chrome os it's not even just built around the kernel, it's based on a distro.
My understanding is that is has to have a certain level of the GNU core utilities in combination with the Kernel but yeah not really, it's hard to define, maybe the use of a package manager? Definitely nothing to do with GUI, probably a philosophy in mind, not sure at all to be honest.
It is hard.
We had Chimera Linux posted here yesterday, which has no GNU code at all.
None of the early Linux distributions had package managers.
The best I can tell, "pms" (package management system) written for Bogus Linux in 1993 was the earliest, but package management didn't hit the mainstream until at least 1995.
Slackware didn't get a package manager until the mid-2000s.
But we still all consider them distributions.
(Right?)
Does Android really even use the Linux Kernel anymore? I thought they forked it about 15 years ago and at this point it has diverged so much its not even really the Linux kernel anymore.
Dude literally months ago smartphones with android 12 were affected by dirty pipe, that was available only for kernel versions between 5.8 and 5.10.101!