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This isn't wildly impressive. Looking at the wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_

by nickcw 6y ago

This isn't wildly impressive. Looking at the wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history you can see a new Android is released every year around August. So what Samsung seem to be saying is that we will support your Android device for 3-4 years. That is a definite improvement but not a lot of support for a $1000+ device. > For example, the Galaxy S20 lineup, announced in February 2020 powered by Android 10, will get support for three OS upgrades starting with Android 11 to give users a refreshing phone experience. The Galaxy S20 line-up will also be the first Galaxy devices to receive the Android 11 upgrade later this year5, with other devices to follow shortly thereafter. I had an original Samsung Galaxy Note which I loved as being one of the first big phones. The OS support was abysmal though which was one of the reasons I switched to the Nexus/Pixel line. Now Google hard cuts the support off at 3 years for the Pixels which I resent immensely on a very expensive device.

botto 6y ago
Depends on which upgrades you are concerned about. I agree that having new os versions supported for longer than 3-4 years would be good, but at least it looks like they will be supporting security updates for longer now, 6 years of security upgrades if I'm not mistaken.
- dogma1138 6y ago
  How will they support security updates for 6 years when Google isn’t supporting that? Google usually deprecates support after 2-3 years. Also some security fixes require new kernels so there’s that. For Samsung to do that they’ll essentially will have to fork Android.
  - botto 6y ago
    So they are supporting three generations of android version, so if a phone comes out on 8, that means it will receive major upgrades to 10, so that's 3 years there and then Google seem to support 3 more years of security of 10 after it comes out. I'm aware android 8 is old now, just using it as an example.
coucou 6y ago
Looking at Nougat has no more security fixes (3yo), is Google the bottleneck here? Edit: Previous versions tend to live up to 3 years only. If Google doesn't have initiative to update the service, I guess it has downstream impact to manufacturer to be less motivated to do so.

by nickcw 6y ago

botto 6y ago

Depends on which upgrades you are concerned about. I agree that having new os versions supported for longer than 3-4 years would be good, but at least it looks like they will be supporting security updates for longer now, 6 years of security upgrades if I'm not mistaken.

dogma1138 6y ago
How will they support security updates for 6 years when Google isn’t supporting that? Google usually deprecates support after 2-3 years. Also some security fixes require new kernels so there’s that. For Samsung to do that they’ll essentially will have to fork Android.
- botto 6y ago
  So they are supporting three generations of android version, so if a phone comes out on 8, that means it will receive major upgrades to 10, so that's 3 years there and then Google seem to support 3 more years of security of 10 after it comes out. I'm aware android 8 is old now, just using it as an example.

coucou 6y ago

Looking at Nougat has no more security fixes (3yo), is Google the bottleneck here? Edit: Previous versions tend to live up to 3 years only. If Google doesn't have initiative to update the service, I guess it has downstream impact to manufacturer to be less motivated to do so.