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As the article says, Google can't force manufacturers to follow strict update policies because manufacturers can just fork Android like Amazon did. I can't thi

As the article says, Google can't force manufacturers to follow strict update policies because manufacturers can just fork Android like Amazon did. I can't think of any open source software vendor that is able to force its customers to accept strict policies, because forking is always an option. Windows updates work for years because manufacturers maintain Windows drivers for their hardware. The Android ecosystem is more like the Linux desktop one -- each manufacturer sells a different Android distribution with their own custom stuff mixed in.

ebg13 7y ago
> manufacturers can just fork Android like Amazon did This is a pretty weak argument against doing the right thing by taking control of system updates. Even stock Android devices stop getting updates very quickly because of how tightly coupled to the hardware drivers Android is. It doesn't have to be that way.
- twblalock 7y ago
  Even if the driver situation was improved, manufacturers just don't want to provide support for older devices.
maxerickson 7y ago
Windows has a relatively stable driver ABI. Old drivers can run on new builds of the system. Linux doesn't. So OS updates leave behind old drivers. So manufacturers don't have to do anything for their drivers to continue working on Windows, and it is often the case that updates will stop shortly after hardware is released.
- lostmsu 7y ago
  Why can't Linux provide a stable driver ABI for compatibility? E.g. in addition to the unstable one. Like FUSE.
  - flomo 7y ago
    Redhat EL provides this. There are various engineering reasons for why they don't care for it in the Linus kernels. So it seems nobody wants to invest the engineering effort to do this for Android.
    - pjmlp 7y ago
      They did it already, Project Treble.
  - teddyh 7y ago
    “You think you want a stable kernel interface, but you really do not, and you don't even know it. What you want is a stable running driver, and you get that only if your driver is in the main kernel tree.” — Greg Kroah-Hartman <greg@kroah.com> https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/stable-api-nonsense.html https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/stable-api-no...
scarface74 7y ago
Android phones wouldn’t sell in the west without Play Services. Google has a lot of control over Android manufacturers. They were just forced into a consent decree by the EU - because they were forcing manufacturers to not sell non Google Android forks if they wanted to sell phones with Google Services. Amazon is doing okay with cheap tablets but their phone was a failure.
scarface74 7y ago
Google can force a lot of things. Android manufacturers can’t realistically sell a phone outside of China without Google Play services. Google just got in trouble with the EU for strong arming Android manufacturers with respect to making Google the default search engine and not allowing them to both sell official Google Android phones and forks.

ebg13 7y ago

> manufacturers can just fork Android like Amazon did This is a pretty weak argument against doing the right thing by taking control of system updates. Even stock Android devices stop getting updates very quickly because of how tightly coupled to the hardware drivers Android is. It doesn't have to be that way.

twblalock 7y ago
Even if the driver situation was improved, manufacturers just don't want to provide support for older devices.

maxerickson 7y ago

Windows has a relatively stable driver ABI. Old drivers can run on new builds of the system. Linux doesn't. So OS updates leave behind old drivers. So manufacturers don't have to do anything for their drivers to continue working on Windows, and it is often the case that updates will stop shortly after hardware is released.

lostmsu 7y ago
Why can't Linux provide a stable driver ABI for compatibility? E.g. in addition to the unstable one. Like FUSE.
- flomo 7y ago
  Redhat EL provides this. There are various engineering reasons for why they don't care for it in the Linus kernels. So it seems nobody wants to invest the engineering effort to do this for Android.
  - pjmlp 7y ago
    They did it already, Project Treble.
- teddyh 7y ago
  “You think you want a stable kernel interface, but you really do not, and you don't even know it. What you want is a stable running driver, and you get that only if your driver is in the main kernel tree.” — Greg Kroah-Hartman <greg@kroah.com> https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/stable-api-nonsense.html https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/stable-api-no...

scarface74 7y ago

Android phones wouldn’t sell in the west without Play Services. Google has a lot of control over Android manufacturers. They were just forced into a consent decree by the EU - because they were forcing manufacturers to not sell non Google Android forks if they wanted to sell phones with Google Services. Amazon is doing okay with cheap tablets but their phone was a failure.

scarface74 7y ago

Google can force a lot of things. Android manufacturers can’t realistically sell a phone outside of China without Google Play services. Google just got in trouble with the EU for strong arming Android manufacturers with respect to making Google the default search engine and not allowing them to both sell official Google Android phones and forks.