Why are phones so bad at updating? >Windows is supported for 5-10 years and receives updates like twice a month. Can upgrade OS if hardware is capable. >Linux kernels are supported for about two years and some distros offer support for about 5 years or more. Regular security updates. Can upgrade OS if hardware is capable. >Phones are typically supported for 2, max 3 years. Updates are highly irregular with very little notice or info. Cannot upgrade OS without manufacturer and carrier permission unless you root the phone and install a new bootloader.
How the fuck is this acceptable? The two year upgrade cycle is unsustainable, you can already see sales starting to fall due to complete market saturation and rising prices.
It's all the SoC vendors' faults. >vendors don't upstream their drivers to Linux/Mesa/AOSP >Android can't update without a newer kernel >oops, just buy a new phone: ^) Smartphones don't have a fallback raw framebuffer driver like PCs do with the VGA console, so this is a hard problem to solve. Ideally Google would sue all the OEMs for GPL noncompliance, but China's weak legal system makes that almost impossible.
Cooper White
Planned obsolescence
Thomas Hall
That's why I'm waiting for Sailfish or PureOS
Joseph Wood
This, vendors are the ones that ruined the shit out of the Android ecosystem, Google has been tightening stuff to fuck them over and to monopolize their platform but it was never enough, and they pretty much gave up with Treble
Andrew Bell
>only other option is to buy an iPhone
Easton Ramirez
We really do need an actual competitor in the field Microsoft was a joke because the platform had no developers and they were late to the game trying to force people into their ecosystem and not being compatible with Android apks like they should have went Linux on a handheld would be ok if they could get it stable and able to work on a WIDE variety of chipsets like Android, but seeing as the only companies that could do that, Canonical and Mozilla, have abandoned that it really only leaves Sailfish The problem with Sailfish is that it, like the Linux portable OS, only works on very specific hardware, and Jolla is a tiny fucking company Hopefully the Russian govt will give them enough cash to stay afloat and maybe they'll make a marketable OS that works across hardware but who knows, the way governments and corporations follow the data fed business model they'll probably do whatever they can to stifle the development if a mobile OS that actually respects user privacy
