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Saying Goodbye to Android 2.3 Gingerbread

93 points by JoshTriplett 5y ago

yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
Seems like a decision well-backed by data. Really, huge kudos for keeping old versions of Android for so long!
- EvilEy3 5y ago
  Huge kudos for holding back whole platform.
  - spicybright 5y ago
    For simply supporting older versions while also maintaining up to date versions?
  - junon 5y ago
    What was your goal with this incredibly misinformed comment?
vmception 5y ago
Impressive but ridiculous. Should have dropped support a long time ago. I remember hating that about android development. It was like desktop OS and browsers but with the added dimension of the manufacturer not caring.
- grishka 5y ago
  Desktop OSes don't tend to change as much between releases so it's easier to keep support for older versions longer.
63 5y ago
I was stuck using Android honeycomb way past its prime for a few years as a kid. Granted that was years ago so it's /really/ past its prime now, but I was definitely grateful for the developers who still supported my device since I didn't have the choice to get a newer one. Tangentially, there are parts of Honeycomb I miss, like a coherent task manager that actually killed app processes when I asked it to, being able to easily root my device with no real downsides, etc.
- grishka 5y ago
  As an Android app developer, I'd say that Honeycomb was a very odd release. It only (officially) supported tablets, its sources were never released, but it already had GPU acceleration for UI rendering (aka HWUI), most of the new APIs like view transforms and animators, and a very first iteration of the Holo theme. From my point of view, it never saw much adoption. As 4.0 was released, many 3.0 devices were updated to it, including both tablets I had for testing. So, naturally, when I dropped 3.0 together with 2.3.3, no one really noticed, despite the app having tens of millions of users.
mcraiha 5y ago
Specially Android game development becomes easier once you can target Vulkan only and you are running third party rendering system (since many Open GL ES 2.0 and 3.0 drivers are quite buggy). With iOS Metal only has been possible for years.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Except that everyone doing games in Java/Kotlin kind of needs to move into Unity, because Vulkan is only available as NDK API, with a very bare bones support from Google beyond "just clone this github repo with tools". Also if you want a good Vulkan experience, better care only about Samsung and Google devices and ignore everything else.
- SuchAnonMuchWow 5y ago
  This specific game is a 2D pixelart rogue-like game, with simple UI, simple graphics, and no need for anything real-time. Vulkan is way overkill for that, and so is Unity.
BuckRogers 5y ago
This is pretty old at this point. I hadn’t moved to iOS yet but did soon after. I certainly don’t miss having another computer in my pocket to maintain and can’t imagine supporting Android that long.
jarcane 5y ago
I always wondered how and why there were so many Pixel Dungeon clones, and I only just now learned via this article that it's because the original was open-sourced.
versteegen 5y ago
Good on them for sticking it out. I'm keeping Android 2.3 support in my game engine for as long as there's no need to remove it. (Dropped Android 1.6 three years ago). Its days are numbered, but I expect I will never drop Windows 95 (OSR2) support - it will always be a novelty OS people actually run for fun, unlike old Android. I'm not sure I believe all these 0.0% usage stats for all mildly old versions. I lent my spare Android 2.2 phone to someone just a couple months ago.
- codetrotter 5y ago
  Is your game engine publicly available or something you use in your own games only? If the former, what’s it called and is it open source?
  - versteegen 5y ago
    It's open source: the OHRRPGCE. I'm co-maintainer. Released over 23 years ago, originally as a DOS program, which is why we have such low requirements. Oh, and we try to provide backcompat support for all games ever made, although before ~2002 the backcompat is sometimes not complete. https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/System_Requirements https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/System_Requirements
    - pjmlp 5y ago
      BASIC based? Quite cool.
    - TonyTrapp 5y ago
      Good memories! Never used the engine myself but played Wandering Hamster back when I was into QBasic.
      - versteegen 5y ago
        After 24 years James still works on Wandering Hamster from time to time! It's always fun to see how many people have heard of it or the engine. https://github.com/bob-the-hamster/wander https://github.com/bob-the-hamster/wander
TeaDude 5y ago
Sad but probably the sensible option. Ever since I saw Minecraft running on Windows 98 a few years back I've sort of had an obsession with running things on obscenely outdated systems (that and I've a distaste for the bloatedness of modern programs) Minecraft is sort of lucky though as it's running on Java (although it still requires at least some modding effort to get it to run these days) My personal "support even if it's a bit insane" programming bracket goes back to Windows XP because it's my favourite and I was pretty upset when MS discontinued it. (Especially with Windows 8 just released)

93 points by JoshTriplett 5y ago

yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago

Seems like a decision well-backed by data. Really, huge kudos for keeping old versions of Android for so long!

EvilEy3 5y ago
Huge kudos for holding back whole platform.
- spicybright 5y ago
  For simply supporting older versions while also maintaining up to date versions?
- junon 5y ago
  What was your goal with this incredibly misinformed comment?

vmception 5y ago

Impressive but ridiculous. Should have dropped support a long time ago. I remember hating that about android development. It was like desktop OS and browsers but with the added dimension of the manufacturer not caring.

grishka 5y ago
Desktop OSes don't tend to change as much between releases so it's easier to keep support for older versions longer.

63 5y ago

I was stuck using Android honeycomb way past its prime for a few years as a kid. Granted that was years ago so it's /really/ past its prime now, but I was definitely grateful for the developers who still supported my device since I didn't have the choice to get a newer one. Tangentially, there are parts of Honeycomb I miss, like a coherent task manager that actually killed app processes when I asked it to, being able to easily root my device with no real downsides, etc.

grishka 5y ago
As an Android app developer, I'd say that Honeycomb was a very odd release. It only (officially) supported tablets, its sources were never released, but it already had GPU acceleration for UI rendering (aka HWUI), most of the new APIs like view transforms and animators, and a very first iteration of the Holo theme. From my point of view, it never saw much adoption. As 4.0 was released, many 3.0 devices were updated to it, including both tablets I had for testing. So, naturally, when I dropped 3.0 together with 2.3.3, no one really noticed, despite the app having tens of millions of users.

mcraiha 5y ago

Specially Android game development becomes easier once you can target Vulkan only and you are running third party rendering system (since many Open GL ES 2.0 and 3.0 drivers are quite buggy). With iOS Metal only has been possible for years.

pjmlp 5y ago
Except that everyone doing games in Java/Kotlin kind of needs to move into Unity, because Vulkan is only available as NDK API, with a very bare bones support from Google beyond "just clone this github repo with tools". Also if you want a good Vulkan experience, better care only about Samsung and Google devices and ignore everything else.
SuchAnonMuchWow 5y ago
This specific game is a 2D pixelart rogue-like game, with simple UI, simple graphics, and no need for anything real-time. Vulkan is way overkill for that, and so is Unity.

BuckRogers 5y ago

This is pretty old at this point. I hadn’t moved to iOS yet but did soon after. I certainly don’t miss having another computer in my pocket to maintain and can’t imagine supporting Android that long.

jarcane 5y ago

I always wondered how and why there were so many Pixel Dungeon clones, and I only just now learned via this article that it's because the original was open-sourced.

versteegen 5y ago

Good on them for sticking it out. I'm keeping Android 2.3 support in my game engine for as long as there's no need to remove it. (Dropped Android 1.6 three years ago). Its days are numbered, but I expect I will never drop Windows 95 (OSR2) support - it will always be a novelty OS people actually run for fun, unlike old Android. I'm not sure I believe all these 0.0% usage stats for all mildly old versions. I lent my spare Android 2.2 phone to someone just a couple months ago.

codetrotter 5y ago
Is your game engine publicly available or something you use in your own games only? If the former, what’s it called and is it open source?
- versteegen 5y ago
  It's open source: the OHRRPGCE. I'm co-maintainer. Released over 23 years ago, originally as a DOS program, which is why we have such low requirements. Oh, and we try to provide backcompat support for all games ever made, although before ~2002 the backcompat is sometimes not complete. https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/System_Requirements https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/System_Requirements
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    BASIC based? Quite cool.
  - TonyTrapp 5y ago
    Good memories! Never used the engine myself but played Wandering Hamster back when I was into QBasic.
    - versteegen 5y ago
      After 24 years James still works on Wandering Hamster from time to time! It's always fun to see how many people have heard of it or the engine. https://github.com/bob-the-hamster/wander https://github.com/bob-the-hamster/wander

TeaDude 5y ago

Sad but probably the sensible option. Ever since I saw Minecraft running on Windows 98 a few years back I've sort of had an obsession with running things on obscenely outdated systems (that and I've a distaste for the bloatedness of modern programs) Minecraft is sort of lucky though as it's running on Java (although it still requires at least some modding effort to get it to run these days) My personal "support even if it's a bit insane" programming bracket goes back to Windows XP because it's my favourite and I was pretty upset when MS discontinued it. (Especially with Windows 8 just released)