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You seem quite happy with your Nexus 5, but most people don't want to root their phone and install another OS on it. I'm happy to trade some control over my pho

You seem quite happy with your Nexus 5, but most people don't want to root their phone and install another OS on it. I'm happy to trade some control over my phone for assurances that it will have an up-to-date OS that gets security updates in a timely manner. Other reasons to spend $1000 on a new phone are a larger screen or nicer screen, waterproofing, more than 2GB ram for better multitasking, better performance in 3D games, better camera, more than 32GB of storage, etc, etc. Many (possibly most) people also pay for their phones monthly over two years, so the difference between a $1000 phone and a $700 phone is only $10 a month. That's a much smaller commitment than $300 up front.

kyboren 9y ago
> I'm happy to trade some control over my phone for assurances that it will have an up-to-date OS that gets security updates in a timely manner. Unfortunately, you have things just about perfectly reversed. Using stock firmware on Android devices typically leaves a few months' lag time between upstream AOSP patch release and OTA updates for your phone. In contrast, LineageOS devices get updates every week; sometimes LineageOS beats even Google at issuing security updates. Further, OEMs often discontinue updates after a couple years, while LineageOS will support your device for years and years. Your tradeoff is really to lose control over your phone for a less-up-to-date OS, (frequently) months-old unpatched vulnerabilities, and a short support period. Your point about users not wanting to root their phones and install another OS still stands, but I dispute your perceived advantages to using stock Android crapware. PS: Check out the Moto G4 Plus. It has a decent processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a microSD card slot, all the bells and whistles (fingerprint reader, GPS, LTE, etc.), full LineageOS support, and all for ~$220 on Amazon.
- wilsonnb 9y ago
  The phone that I was referencing with my comment is my Pixel 2 (and the Pixel I had before it) which gets OS updates faster than any other Android phone. Possibly not quite as fast as LineageOS gets them, but I imagine they are pretty neck and neck in that regard. I used to use a Samsung Galaxy S4 with CyanogenMod for the security reasons you mention, though. I agree that LineageOS is more secure than most Android phones because the update model is so bad. Sometimes I forget because it's actually quite nice on the Pixel line.

kyboren 9y ago

> I'm happy to trade some control over my phone for assurances that it will have an up-to-date OS that gets security updates in a timely manner. Unfortunately, you have things just about perfectly reversed. Using stock firmware on Android devices typically leaves a few months' lag time between upstream AOSP patch release and OTA updates for your phone. In contrast, LineageOS devices get updates every week; sometimes LineageOS beats even Google at issuing security updates. Further, OEMs often discontinue updates after a couple years, while LineageOS will support your device for years and years. Your tradeoff is really to lose control over your phone for a less-up-to-date OS, (frequently) months-old unpatched vulnerabilities, and a short support period. Your point about users not wanting to root their phones and install another OS still stands, but I dispute your perceived advantages to using stock Android crapware. PS: Check out the Moto G4 Plus. It has a decent processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a microSD card slot, all the bells and whistles (fingerprint reader, GPS, LTE, etc.), full LineageOS support, and all for ~$220 on Amazon.

wilsonnb 9y ago
The phone that I was referencing with my comment is my Pixel 2 (and the Pixel I had before it) which gets OS updates faster than any other Android phone. Possibly not quite as fast as LineageOS gets them, but I imagine they are pretty neck and neck in that regard. I used to use a Samsung Galaxy S4 with CyanogenMod for the security reasons you mention, though. I agree that LineageOS is more secure than most Android phones because the update model is so bad. Sometimes I forget because it's actually quite nice on the Pixel line.