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I run Fedora on a ThinkPad T440p. The missus runs it on a ThinkPad X201. I hear ya. But cellphones aren't laptops, and even laptops are mostly crap, as are desk

I run Fedora on a ThinkPad T440p. The missus runs it on a ThinkPad X201. I hear ya. But cellphones aren't laptops, and even laptops are mostly crap, as are desktop PCs. Y'gets what y'pays for most of the time. ThinkPads can be enterprise-grade machines (if you don't buy the consumer/prosumer crap), but they certainly don't make them like they used to. The average cellphone doesn't last as long as us nerds on HN can make them last though. People end up smashing them, they wear out, or they flat-out just need an upgrade to run the latest x app or piece of hardware, or stay up to date with security vulns as a workplace mandate. Right to Repair is a step in the right direction, but maybe a "Right to Firmware/Driver Source" or similar would be a good possible next step. I get the sentiment, but the hardware's largely junk unless you're buying an iPhone, and I'm not even saying I think the iPhone is well-made or that I like the modern iPhone. Repairing the back glass now apparently requires the use of a laser. I can only laugh. Never heard of blacklisting non-stolen cellphones. I would contact your carrier for further info and report back, because if so, that's shocking.

mindslight 4y ago
> Never heard of blacklisting non-stolen cellphones Well consider yourself having heard. The AT&T MVNO I was on at the time kept sending me SMSs telling me I had to upgrade, until eventually the phone went no service. I recently tried sticking a T-mo MVNO SIM in the phone, which didn't work either. You can read about this if you search for "non-VoLTE" or "3G shutdown". The S7 was a 4G phone that used LTE data and UMTS voice, so the LTE data would have continued to work without the blacklisting - in fact I think I even used it for a month or two after they shut down UMTS voice but before they forcibly kicked it off the network. > People end up smashing them, they wear out Sure, this has happened to phones I've owned. But in this case it didn't - as I've repeatedly said, I was perfectly happy with the condition of the hardware. > they flat-out just need an upgrade to run the latest x app or piece of hardware, or stay up to date with security vulns as a workplace mandate This is exactly the software issue that we're discussing, so it's not an argument. Sure, people get encouraged to just go with the flow of needless software churn, and use it as an excuse to buy a shiny new thing. We're discussing the (lack of) justification for that churn to begin with. You've shotgunned a heap of half-arguments that fall apart under examination. Replacement parts are readily available from donor phones on eBay. Google certainly has the power to dictate to Qualcomm that kernel sources must be released (per GPL2), and this is irrelevant with Tensor. Regardless of what it took to get Linux running on any given device, it can be kept running without reverse engineering. The primary reason that Google et al get away with artificially short lifetimes from software churn is that it doesn't help their bottom line to do otherwise. And so it seems the only things we can do are shame and/or legislate. And I don't see the point of detracting from that energy just because Google is slightly better than the rest of the terrible industry they had a large part in creating.

mindslight 4y ago

> Never heard of blacklisting non-stolen cellphones Well consider yourself having heard. The AT&T MVNO I was on at the time kept sending me SMSs telling me I had to upgrade, until eventually the phone went no service. I recently tried sticking a T-mo MVNO SIM in the phone, which didn't work either. You can read about this if you search for "non-VoLTE" or "3G shutdown". The S7 was a 4G phone that used LTE data and UMTS voice, so the LTE data would have continued to work without the blacklisting - in fact I think I even used it for a month or two after they shut down UMTS voice but before they forcibly kicked it off the network. > People end up smashing them, they wear out Sure, this has happened to phones I've owned. But in this case it didn't - as I've repeatedly said, I was perfectly happy with the condition of the hardware. > they flat-out just need an upgrade to run the latest x app or piece of hardware, or stay up to date with security vulns as a workplace mandate This is exactly the software issue that we're discussing, so it's not an argument. Sure, people get encouraged to just go with the flow of needless software churn, and use it as an excuse to buy a shiny new thing. We're discussing the (lack of) justification for that churn to begin with. You've shotgunned a heap of half-arguments that fall apart under examination. Replacement parts are readily available from donor phones on eBay. Google certainly has the power to dictate to Qualcomm that kernel sources must be released (per GPL2), and this is irrelevant with Tensor. Regardless of what it took to get Linux running on any given device, it can be kept running without reverse engineering. The primary reason that Google et al get away with artificially short lifetimes from software churn is that it doesn't help their bottom line to do otherwise. And so it seems the only things we can do are shame and/or legislate. And I don't see the point of detracting from that energy just because Google is slightly better than the rest of the terrible industry they had a large part in creating.