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Cause throwing together a half-baked Android phone using the aged fork of Android that Mediatek provides, plus a few sketchy APKs with no comments or source is
by StudentStuff 8y ago
Cause throwing together a half-baked Android phone using the aged fork of Android that Mediatek provides, plus a few sketchy APKs with no comments or source is much easier than properly mainlining said fork of Android, then shipping a phone based on it.
Turns out, making the software to do cool stuff is most of the cost of building new products.
- amelius 8y agoAnd on the desktop everything is easier?
- krageon 8y agoLinux on the desktop isn't exactly the kind of no-nonsense experience that you want from a smartphone.
- Klover 8y agoYes. With your average Intel desktop almost everything is in the Linux kernel, you don't have cellular, and you use UEFI or BIOS to boot. With your average Android phone, you are lucky if you have kernel code. This does not include drivers for most things, and the code is of such quality that even when manufacturers try to update the kernel version they are having too much trouble.
- erikb 8y agoIt's arguably the same. For Linux also people need to write the driver code and mainline it. It's just that someone does it for most desktop parts we would consider buying, but nobody does it for semi shady Taiwan hardware which is mostly sold in China's countryside and Africa.