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You misunderstood my comment.. this level of "support" is based on hacks = volunteer work, where the community working together (for free) is able to support on

by zb3 2mo ago

You misunderstood my comment.. this level of "support" is based on hacks = volunteer work, where the community working together (for free) is able to support one device "almost" completely after only 8 years, relying on hacks/reverse engineering etc.. But it's not like OnePlus or Qualcomm officially supports that, right? They didn't have any deal with any OEM where there would be someone employed to support the OS.. (even though they receive donations) Like, all this is.. not serious.. the closest alternative to Android/iOS is GrapheneOS, because there are full-time employees AND they have a partnership with Motorola, so they won't have to rely on any hacks.. well obviously that's unaffordable but it's a different story.

realusername 2mo ago
> You misunderstood my comment.. this level of "support" is based on hacks = volunteer work, where the community working together (for free) is able to support one device "almost" completely after only 8 years, relying on hacks/reverse engineering etc.. I guess you have not seen any of actual Qualcomm code yet to say that, Qualcomm code is really what you would define as a pile hacks. Made by hardware engineers with no regards for code quality, maintainability or mainlinability. OnePlus 6 comparatively is almost mainlined properly from start to finish, with a level of quality that you have nowhere in the mobile world. Sure this smartphone a bit older but remember the Nokia N900 is still supported and it went out in 2009. Mainlining mobile devices is very hard, but that's not hacks, that's how it's supposed to be done.
droserasprout 2mo ago
Yes, I get your point. I'd say the waterline of mobile Linux "seriousness" is whether a device has a bootable mainline kernel build. Once SoC support lands in the kernel, it becomes a problem for a lot of people on high salaries (including some at Qualcomm). And hardware support doesn't get dropped from the kernel overnight. For everything above, in userspace, you don't need a deal with OEMs or their blessing to make things work. It's a pretty generic stack: Alpine, systemd, familiar WMs/DEs. But yeah, I hope to see more deals like the recent Motorola-GrapheneOS announcement in the future.

by zb3 2mo ago

realusername 2mo ago

> You misunderstood my comment.. this level of "support" is based on hacks = volunteer work, where the community working together (for free) is able to support one device "almost" completely after only 8 years, relying on hacks/reverse engineering etc.. I guess you have not seen any of actual Qualcomm code yet to say that, Qualcomm code is really what you would define as a pile hacks. Made by hardware engineers with no regards for code quality, maintainability or mainlinability. OnePlus 6 comparatively is almost mainlined properly from start to finish, with a level of quality that you have nowhere in the mobile world. Sure this smartphone a bit older but remember the Nokia N900 is still supported and it went out in 2009. Mainlining mobile devices is very hard, but that's not hacks, that's how it's supposed to be done.

droserasprout 2mo ago

Yes, I get your point. I'd say the waterline of mobile Linux "seriousness" is whether a device has a bootable mainline kernel build. Once SoC support lands in the kernel, it becomes a problem for a lot of people on high salaries (including some at Qualcomm). And hardware support doesn't get dropped from the kernel overnight. For everything above, in userspace, you don't need a deal with OEMs or their blessing to make things work. It's a pretty generic stack: Alpine, systemd, familiar WMs/DEs. But yeah, I hope to see more deals like the recent Motorola-GrapheneOS announcement in the future.