4 ms·

I'm not sure 7 years is necessarily the ideal number, but overall I love this idea, since companies currently have no built-in incentive to provide long-term so

I'm not sure 7 years is necessarily the ideal number, but overall I love this idea, since companies currently have no built-in incentive to provide long-term software updates (and, arguably, have a strong disincentive, as not providing software updates may make it easier to sell profitable hardware upgrades). On the Apple side it generally hasn't been so bad (the iPhone SE has gotten 5 years of updates, which is pretty much unheard of in the smartphone world), but Android still remains pretty miserable in this regard. You're lucky if you get one major version upgrade during the life of your phone.

IronWolve 5y ago
At least it would provide the needed security updates. So you dont have to flash your 3 year old flagship phone with lineageos just to get them...
- cge 5y ago
  I've just had the unpleasant surprise that, even when you do flash your 3 year old flagship phone to get at least some semblance of security updates, Google is now rolling out hardware attestation for SafetyNet, which is likely to be impossible for anything but the stock Android to satisfy, and means, among other things, that contactless payments are suddenly unusable. So I now, in an attempt to continue using a perfectly functioning device for more than three years, have the rather ridiculous choice between using my phone without security updates, which banks and various apps will consider safe, or using my phone with security updates, which banks and various apps will consider unsafe. Yet how long will it be until manufacturers simply start disabling devices more than a few years old altogether, or crippling them, in the name of security?
  - josephcsible 5y ago
    > among other things, that contactless payments are suddenly unusable Yep! One major "other thing" is Snapchat, which really sucks since it's a communications/messaging app that can't be used in a Web browser either, so if you ever start to fail SafetyNet, you'd better hope you have some other means of contacting all of your friends on it.
    - warning26 5y ago
      And also Pokémon Go! SafetyNet is so annoying, it seems like it completely kills any benefits of Android being “open”.
Proven 5y ago
> I'm not sure 7 years is necessarily the ideal number, but overall I love this idea, since companies currently have no built-in incentive to provide long-term software updates Nonsense. What is the incentive to provide short-term updates? What is Apple's incentive to provide 5 years of updates?

IronWolve 5y ago

At least it would provide the needed security updates. So you dont have to flash your 3 year old flagship phone with lineageos just to get them...

cge 5y ago
I've just had the unpleasant surprise that, even when you do flash your 3 year old flagship phone to get at least some semblance of security updates, Google is now rolling out hardware attestation for SafetyNet, which is likely to be impossible for anything but the stock Android to satisfy, and means, among other things, that contactless payments are suddenly unusable. So I now, in an attempt to continue using a perfectly functioning device for more than three years, have the rather ridiculous choice between using my phone without security updates, which banks and various apps will consider safe, or using my phone with security updates, which banks and various apps will consider unsafe. Yet how long will it be until manufacturers simply start disabling devices more than a few years old altogether, or crippling them, in the name of security?
- josephcsible 5y ago
  > among other things, that contactless payments are suddenly unusable Yep! One major "other thing" is Snapchat, which really sucks since it's a communications/messaging app that can't be used in a Web browser either, so if you ever start to fail SafetyNet, you'd better hope you have some other means of contacting all of your friends on it.
  - warning26 5y ago
    And also Pokémon Go! SafetyNet is so annoying, it seems like it completely kills any benefits of Android being “open”.

Proven 5y ago

> I'm not sure 7 years is necessarily the ideal number, but overall I love this idea, since companies currently have no built-in incentive to provide long-term software updates Nonsense. What is the incentive to provide short-term updates? What is Apple's incentive to provide 5 years of updates?