>> SoC that often have weird peripheral and drivers that require patched kernels This is a sad industry-wide mess which should have been fixed long time ago IM

>> SoC that often have weird peripheral and drivers that require patched kernels This is a sad industry-wide mess which should have been fixed long time ago IMO. It is unfortunately common for an Android device to come with a custom patched 2.x kernel with no plans for 3.x support. Then when a next Android is released it has a hard requirement of 3.x kernel. So no Android update for that SoC/device and no way to port this mess into the newer kernel. If SoC/peripheral manufacturers only supply "software" as a custom hacked 2.x kernel branch they are basically supplying unfinished PoC-quality un-updatable garbage and such software should have never been released with a production device. This is non-existent on desktop and laptop space where you often have mainline support for all the essential components.