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Or a Windows-style stable ABI with drivers remaining closed-source. That's what Google are doing with their new Fuchsia OS and Zircon kernel, which is expected

Or a Windows-style stable ABI with drivers remaining closed-source. That's what Google are doing with their new Fuchsia OS and Zircon kernel, which is expected to replace the GPL-licensed Linux kernel on Android and ChromeOS devices. Basically their moving away from the copyleft Linux kernel. Given Google's awful track record with Android and security updates, and their lack of ability to force companies like Qualcomm to provide longer support windows, I'm not sure their new strategy will be successful. Inevitably they'll be severe vulnerabilities found in the drivers including eg, Cellular radio / baseband drivers, Bluetooth driver, Wifi driver, and the vulnerabilities will never get patched. Hopefully Google's capability-based microkernel approach with Zircon will stop this ever happening. But again, given Google's atrocious track record with Android and security I highly doubt it. Even Windows doesn't support eg, i586 and i686 CPU architectures yet the Linux kernel does, so it seems like copyleft drivers are the only way to get security updates decades later.

someperson 6y ago
> Hopefully Google's capability-based microkernel approach with Zircon will stop this ever happening. Just a correction, I meant "Hopefully Google's capability-based microkernel approach with Zircon will reduce the incidence and severity of vulnerabilities being exploited once they are inevitably discovered".
kevincox 6y ago
This will allow the same blobs to keep working but won't get those blobs essential security updates. This isn't a technical problem, it is an economic (and social and legal) problem.
- someperson 6y ago
  Well it is a technical problem: it can be solved by reverse engineering and re-implementing every driver. But yes, it's an economic problem because that's pretty expensive (but has been achieved before eg, nouveau driver) Google could easily use their monopolistic position to force all SoC vendors to provide greater software support. Heck, Google could even simply pay every SoC vendors to open source their drivers. It's unlikely to even cost that much. But today's Google is simply too incompetent to ever fix Android's security update problem. They've been making silly excuses for decades.

someperson 6y ago

> Hopefully Google's capability-based microkernel approach with Zircon will stop this ever happening. Just a correction, I meant "Hopefully Google's capability-based microkernel approach with Zircon will reduce the incidence and severity of vulnerabilities being exploited once they are inevitably discovered".

kevincox 6y ago

This will allow the same blobs to keep working but won't get those blobs essential security updates. This isn't a technical problem, it is an economic (and social and legal) problem.

someperson 6y ago
Well it is a technical problem: it can be solved by reverse engineering and re-implementing every driver. But yes, it's an economic problem because that's pretty expensive (but has been achieved before eg, nouveau driver) Google could easily use their monopolistic position to force all SoC vendors to provide greater software support. Heck, Google could even simply pay every SoC vendors to open source their drivers. It's unlikely to even cost that much. But today's Google is simply too incompetent to ever fix Android's security update problem. They've been making silly excuses for decades.