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Two things: 1. There are longterm kernel releases, with up to 10 years support, and Android uses those exactly to avoid major support issues (https://en.wikipe
by yokaze 6y ago
Two things:
1. There are longterm kernel releases, with up to 10 years support, and Android uses those exactly to avoid major support issues (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#Linux_kernel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#Lin...).
2. That doesn't fix the issue that Qualcomm themselves do not want to release documentation and only want to support their hardware for up to two years. Ergo, you would run some outdated binary blob.
- kevincox 6y agoExactly, having the hardware work is one thing. But to support a phone you need to fix security issues. So every binary blob is a ticking time bomb that is just waiting for a security vulnerability to be found either in it, or that needs a firmware patch to solve or workaround. So either you need the source so that you can support it yourself, or you need a contract with Qualcomm to release security patches. Sure, a stable ABI may mean that it would be cheaper for Qualcomm to release version updates as well, but at this point I would be happy if I could get security updates for more than 3 years. We can start asking for feature updates next.