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Some of it has to do with hardware vendors like Qualcomm refusing to support older chipsets with newer kernels, or you know, just open sourcing their drivers.
by necheffa 6y ago
Some of it has to do with hardware vendors like Qualcomm refusing to support older chipsets with newer kernels, or you know, just open sourcing their drivers.
My pixel 1 is basically stuck on a 3.18 kernel forever, even if I go and compile AOSP myself, because of Qualcomm's nom-free drivers.
At a certain point, companies like Google have to decide how much they want to backport fixes to older systems. Apparently they've decided on 3 years.
- kevincox 6y agoYup, it is hard to commit to a long security patch lifetime if you can't patch around bugs in major hardware components.
- MBCook 6y agoIf only Google could make their own phone or phone OS so they were in control over these kind of issues. Wait... These are issues totally within their control. These excuses shouldn’t be acceptable.
- kevincox 6y agoI'm not saying that Google couldn't make their own processor but it is a serious undertaking. I don't think we can scoff at them for not doing it yet. Even in their datacenters they use third party CPUs. It's not surprising that they haven't made their own for phones.
- mywittyname 6y agoI think Google should start because I think the long-term viability of Android depends on it. They don't even need to design the chips themselves. They could partner with Samsung / LG / Motorola to form a hardware consortium.
- kevincox 6y agoI wouldn't be surprised if they have started. They have only been in the phone game for ~4 years which I imagine is quite quick to get a custom CPU into a shipping product.
- MBCook 6y agoThey don’t have to make their own CPU. They could use a CPU with a couple of years of guaranteed support. If Qualcomm doesn’t want to do that, choose someone else.
- Leherenn 6y agoWell, actually Qualcomm has 2 years of support, that's why most Android manufacturers also have 2 years usually. They need more like 5/6, but no one seems to be willing to pay for it.
- themacguffinman 6y agoI'm sure they would if they could, but almost everyone uses Qualcomm for a reason: Qualcomm has a practical monopoly on high-end smartphone chips and competition is difficult because of their patent ownership.