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The fact is that Google has fixed the bug. The fix is in Android 4.4. From Google's perspective, the onus is on manufacturers to then ship Android 4.4 to the en

The fact is that Google has fixed the bug. The fix is in Android 4.4. From Google's perspective, the onus is on manufacturers to then ship Android 4.4 to the end users. In retrospect it was a poor assumption on Google's part to think that these manufacturers were actually going to support their customers. That is why they have spend the last 2+ years re-architecting the system to shove a bunch of functionality into things that Google can update or libraries that developers can incorporate into their apps. I imagine when they started out, they did not intend to have a huge amount of the system in a support library that is packaged inside every single app. I bet they also didn't intend to have the bulk of new features be in the Google Play Services package. Yet here we are, largely because the manufacturers are much like PC makers in that they put their own interests far ahead of the ecosystem interests.

ryanhuff 12y ago
My immediate question is whether requiring an upgrade to 4.4 is substantially more difficult for the manufacturers and carriers to make it work with the affected hardware. That seems like a much messier job than just patching WebKit.
ldng 12y ago
Was it poor assumption on my part that what was once opensource in the baseline OS would stay open even after being extracted into "library" apks ? What I mean here is that Google's move here is far from being only a support matter.
drewg123 12y ago
The problem is that even GOOGLE does not support their customers on the Nexus line. I have, in my drawer, an otherwise perfectly good Galaxy Nexus that is stuck running 4.3 because Google cannot be bothered to update it to 4.4. If Google will not update its own Nexus hardware to 4.4, how can anybody reasonably blame other hardware vendors for behaving the same way?
- achernya 12y ago
  I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect Google to update a device to the latest version when the hardware manufacturer has exited the market -- http://www.cnet.com/news/google-to-samsung-galaxy-nexus-owners-no-kitkat-for-you/ http://www.cnet.com/news/google-to-samsung-galaxy-nexus-owne.... While Google does control Android, that's not the only software that is present on the phone. Short of the Nexus series starting to have open source baseband and radio firmware, we'll be at the mercy of hardware manufacturers.
  - danieldk 12y ago
    This myth needs to die. Google Glass uses a TI OMAP SoC from the same generation (4430). The brand-new Moto 360 uses a TI OMAP SoC from the preceding (!) generation (3630). Google Glass runs KitKat, the Moto 360 even runs Android Wear 5.
    - achernya 12y ago
      It's not that much of a myth. When Google first announced that the Galaxy Nexus was not getting KitKat, I was pretty disappointed, as I had one too. I looked into why there was no official support, and when I found out it had to do with the firmware, my gut reaction was "WTF, that makes no sense." Digging some more, I found out that it actually has to do with kernel driver-firmware compatibility. Google wanted to ship an update, but they needed changes that TI was no longer willing/capable of making. In order to release KitKat on the Galaxy Nexus would either require Google to reverse engineer the hardware and make their own radio firmware (not likely) or holding back the kernel to the same one on 4.3 (subpar experience if it even works). Neither the Glass nor Moto 360 suffer from this problem since neither has a cellular radio.
      - drewg123 12y ago
        Ah, this is interesting. I had always though that it was something about the graphics system. Forgoing an update due to radio firmware is even more embarrassing. They probably could have done a shim layer, to translate between the old & new APIs. Even shipping 4.4 with a 4.3 kernel would be far superior to having what is essentially a brick.

ryanhuff 12y ago

My immediate question is whether requiring an upgrade to 4.4 is substantially more difficult for the manufacturers and carriers to make it work with the affected hardware. That seems like a much messier job than just patching WebKit.

ldng 12y ago

Was it poor assumption on my part that what was once opensource in the baseline OS would stay open even after being extracted into "library" apks ? What I mean here is that Google's move here is far from being only a support matter.

drewg123 12y ago

The problem is that even GOOGLE does not support their customers on the Nexus line. I have, in my drawer, an otherwise perfectly good Galaxy Nexus that is stuck running 4.3 because Google cannot be bothered to update it to 4.4. If Google will not update its own Nexus hardware to 4.4, how can anybody reasonably blame other hardware vendors for behaving the same way?

achernya 12y ago
I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect Google to update a device to the latest version when the hardware manufacturer has exited the market -- http://www.cnet.com/news/google-to-samsung-galaxy-nexus-owners-no-kitkat-for-you/ http://www.cnet.com/news/google-to-samsung-galaxy-nexus-owne.... While Google does control Android, that's not the only software that is present on the phone. Short of the Nexus series starting to have open source baseband and radio firmware, we'll be at the mercy of hardware manufacturers.
- danieldk 12y ago
  This myth needs to die. Google Glass uses a TI OMAP SoC from the same generation (4430). The brand-new Moto 360 uses a TI OMAP SoC from the preceding (!) generation (3630). Google Glass runs KitKat, the Moto 360 even runs Android Wear 5.
  - achernya 12y ago
    It's not that much of a myth. When Google first announced that the Galaxy Nexus was not getting KitKat, I was pretty disappointed, as I had one too. I looked into why there was no official support, and when I found out it had to do with the firmware, my gut reaction was "WTF, that makes no sense." Digging some more, I found out that it actually has to do with kernel driver-firmware compatibility. Google wanted to ship an update, but they needed changes that TI was no longer willing/capable of making. In order to release KitKat on the Galaxy Nexus would either require Google to reverse engineer the hardware and make their own radio firmware (not likely) or holding back the kernel to the same one on 4.3 (subpar experience if it even works). Neither the Glass nor Moto 360 suffer from this problem since neither has a cellular radio.
    - drewg123 12y ago
      Ah, this is interesting. I had always though that it was something about the graphics system. Forgoing an update due to radio firmware is even more embarrassing. They probably could have done a shim layer, to translate between the old & new APIs. Even shipping 4.4 with a 4.3 kernel would be far superior to having what is essentially a brick.