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I am a big Linux fan and appreciate the openness and control that I can get with Android as opposed to Apple and Microsoft products, but... My Android experien

by javert 12y ago

I am a big Linux fan and appreciate the openness and control that I can get with Android as opposed to Apple and Microsoft products, but... My Android experience has been shit, and I'm really getting sick of it. Admittedly, much or even most of the problem for me is the OEMs screwing things up and not sending out updates.

autism_hurts 12y ago
You're not the only one. I'm sorry, but the Android issue has devolved into a holy war but... .. support is terrible on the Android side. Really terrible.
- blocke 12y ago
  People need to stop buying terrible phones. Consumers keep rewarding companies who don't keep up with their promises and thus no one ends up giving a crap. In my opinion if you're not going to buy a Nexus device or a Moto E/G/X then you might as well buy Apple. The Android One program will hopefully add more to that.
  - robocat 12y ago
    You can only know if it is a "terrible" phone until long after you have bought it. Most people don't have the ability to make an informed decision about a phones purchase (or they want to buy an iPhone or Nexus but they simply can't afford it). I bought a Google Nexus at USD650 retail - a perfect counterexample to your advice. I recommend iPhones to those who can afford it (purchase price, insurance, screen replacements etc.). I recommend Huawei Y310/320/330 for those who don't have much. In between there are too many other factors to make a straight recommendation (e.g. buy second hand iPhone versus a Moto G).
    - bad_user 12y ago
      My one year old Nexus 4 is on KitKat. I guess you're talking about the Galaxy Nexus. While I agree with you that they dropped the support a way too soon, being the reference phone you'll have no problems in updating it with CyanogenMod, which is a really good distribution btw. But as a slight counterpoint, given the fast release cycle, you can't expect them to support a phone forever. You mentioned iPhones. Well I have an iPhone 3GS. It's a perfectly capable phone that still works and that was still sold as the low-price alternative after iPhone 4 happened, yet Apple stopped supporting it as well. But I can understand that, because these OSes get more bloated with stuff and it leads to a shitty experience. I was able to upgrade an older Galaxy S (first generation, shipped originally with 2.1) to 4.3 by means of CyanogenMod and it was unusable due to the less than capable hardware. Google did drop the support too early for the Galaxy Nexus, but try out CyanogenMod. I'm even thinking of installing it on my Nexus 4 because the Android on this device is bloated with Google-stuff that I cannot uninstall and it pisses me off. It's also enlightening to install CyanogenMod without Google Play, for an all open-source experience ;-)
      - tuxracer 12y ago
        http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/09/galaxy-nexus-will-likely-cyanogenmod-support-android-l.html http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/09/galaxy-nexus-will-li...
        bad_user 12y ago
        Ouch. The issue seems to be with "the OMAP processor from Texas Instruments" that makes support difficult. Haven't seen that coming.
  - xorcist 12y ago
    But the Nexus devices are just as bad as the others. If you had bought the latest model last year you'd be screwed on updates by now. I'd love to buy an iPhone but I want to run Android software so Android it is.
    - ansible 12y ago
      There's test builds of Android L for the Nexus 4 available, so it looks like it will also officially get that release. It's still got 2GB of RAM and a quad-core 32-bit ARM, so it's not too different from the Nexus 5 in that sense. It is really a question of how long Qualcomm will support the S4 Pro board support package. If we've all moved to 64-bit ARM cores, then that'll be a bigger problem for these older 32-bit phones.
- _pmf_ 12y ago
  > .. support is terrible on the Android side. Really terrible. Buy a Windows Phone, then.
  - autism_hurts 12y ago
    I've got an iPhone 5.
JetSpiegel 12y ago
What does Android has to do with Linux? Do you also praise TiVo for the "openness and control" by using the Linux kernel?
- vezzy-fnord 12y ago
  You make a good point, though you present it in an awkward manner. Android has everything to do with Linux in its usage of the Linux kernel, but its userspace offers none of the actual advantages of using a Unix-like kernel. The GNU/Linux terminology is actually quite relevant here, seeing as Android is Linux, but not GNU/Linux. Hell, Android's libc comes from OpenBSD, so...
- javert 12y ago
  For instance, I can mount the filesystems on my Android phone on my laptop running Linux and copy music over. Can I do that with an iPhone? Maybe, but probably have to put up with a lot of Apple garbage, trying to make things "easy" for non-technical people and/or keep you in their ecosystem. I also like that Android uses Linux because I think the proliferation of Linux is good for me. (For various reasons, not that I have a financial stake in it, although I do indirectly due to my technical areas of competence.) In that sense, I prefer that it uses Linux marginally over, say, using FreeBSD, which I would still prefer infinitely more than a proprietary OS.
ufmace 12y ago
I find Android's a lot nicer if you stick to Nexus and GPE devices, and don't root or otherwise hack them. Yeah, carriers and OEMs are mostly terrible about updates and support, but it's not like this is some big secret.

by javert 12y ago

autism_hurts 12y ago

You're not the only one. I'm sorry, but the Android issue has devolved into a holy war but... .. support is terrible on the Android side. Really terrible.

blocke 12y ago
People need to stop buying terrible phones. Consumers keep rewarding companies who don't keep up with their promises and thus no one ends up giving a crap. In my opinion if you're not going to buy a Nexus device or a Moto E/G/X then you might as well buy Apple. The Android One program will hopefully add more to that.
- robocat 12y ago
  You can only know if it is a "terrible" phone until long after you have bought it. Most people don't have the ability to make an informed decision about a phones purchase (or they want to buy an iPhone or Nexus but they simply can't afford it). I bought a Google Nexus at USD650 retail - a perfect counterexample to your advice. I recommend iPhones to those who can afford it (purchase price, insurance, screen replacements etc.). I recommend Huawei Y310/320/330 for those who don't have much. In between there are too many other factors to make a straight recommendation (e.g. buy second hand iPhone versus a Moto G).
  - bad_user 12y ago
    My one year old Nexus 4 is on KitKat. I guess you're talking about the Galaxy Nexus. While I agree with you that they dropped the support a way too soon, being the reference phone you'll have no problems in updating it with CyanogenMod, which is a really good distribution btw. But as a slight counterpoint, given the fast release cycle, you can't expect them to support a phone forever. You mentioned iPhones. Well I have an iPhone 3GS. It's a perfectly capable phone that still works and that was still sold as the low-price alternative after iPhone 4 happened, yet Apple stopped supporting it as well. But I can understand that, because these OSes get more bloated with stuff and it leads to a shitty experience. I was able to upgrade an older Galaxy S (first generation, shipped originally with 2.1) to 4.3 by means of CyanogenMod and it was unusable due to the less than capable hardware. Google did drop the support too early for the Galaxy Nexus, but try out CyanogenMod. I'm even thinking of installing it on my Nexus 4 because the Android on this device is bloated with Google-stuff that I cannot uninstall and it pisses me off. It's also enlightening to install CyanogenMod without Google Play, for an all open-source experience ;-)
    - tuxracer 12y ago
      http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/09/galaxy-nexus-will-likely-cyanogenmod-support-android-l.html http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/09/galaxy-nexus-will-li...
      - bad_user 12y ago
        Ouch. The issue seems to be with "the OMAP processor from Texas Instruments" that makes support difficult. Haven't seen that coming.
- xorcist 12y ago
  But the Nexus devices are just as bad as the others. If you had bought the latest model last year you'd be screwed on updates by now. I'd love to buy an iPhone but I want to run Android software so Android it is.
  - ansible 12y ago
    There's test builds of Android L for the Nexus 4 available, so it looks like it will also officially get that release. It's still got 2GB of RAM and a quad-core 32-bit ARM, so it's not too different from the Nexus 5 in that sense. It is really a question of how long Qualcomm will support the S4 Pro board support package. If we've all moved to 64-bit ARM cores, then that'll be a bigger problem for these older 32-bit phones.
_pmf_ 12y ago
> .. support is terrible on the Android side. Really terrible. Buy a Windows Phone, then.
- autism_hurts 12y ago
  I've got an iPhone 5.

JetSpiegel 12y ago

What does Android has to do with Linux? Do you also praise TiVo for the "openness and control" by using the Linux kernel?

vezzy-fnord 12y ago
You make a good point, though you present it in an awkward manner. Android has everything to do with Linux in its usage of the Linux kernel, but its userspace offers none of the actual advantages of using a Unix-like kernel. The GNU/Linux terminology is actually quite relevant here, seeing as Android is Linux, but not GNU/Linux. Hell, Android's libc comes from OpenBSD, so...
javert 12y ago
For instance, I can mount the filesystems on my Android phone on my laptop running Linux and copy music over. Can I do that with an iPhone? Maybe, but probably have to put up with a lot of Apple garbage, trying to make things "easy" for non-technical people and/or keep you in their ecosystem. I also like that Android uses Linux because I think the proliferation of Linux is good for me. (For various reasons, not that I have a financial stake in it, although I do indirectly due to my technical areas of competence.) In that sense, I prefer that it uses Linux marginally over, say, using FreeBSD, which I would still prefer infinitely more than a proprietary OS.

ufmace 12y ago

I find Android's a lot nicer if you stick to Nexus and GPE devices, and don't root or otherwise hack them. Yeah, carriers and OEMs are mostly terrible about updates and support, but it's not like this is some big secret.