It's not like the end users typically get any choice... either the service provider makes an update available or they don't.
this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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Android
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Google really needs to decouple the hardware from the OS. There's no good reason newer Android couldn't be installed on older phones.
Google doesnt do anything here. The OEMs need to port the Android kernel to older hardware.
They often just support one LTS kernel.
But Android even supports the LTS kernel for 6 years now.
Google doesnt do anything here. The OEMs need to port the Android kernel to older hardware.
Wrong. Google had multiple projects like Treble to decouple the software from the hardware. What happened with it?
Google develops Android and thus is responsible for it's update scheme. They already changed it quite a bit in the last years with GSIs and Project Treble but there's still no real seperation that would allow the same drivers and hardware blobs to be used independent of the Android Version or updating the Android version without these needing to be included every time.
That's what needs to change.
Their own phones have support for the mainline kernel. It is the vendors that dont want to upstream their drivers and produce half-proprietary garbage they dont publish, so nobody can update these devices.
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The kernel is the problem
I don't blame the users. There's usually no way to upgrade android versions, so we get stuck unless we replace the phone, and most people can't afford to replace their phones so often. I'd go further and say that people shouldn't be supposed to replace their phones because of a new software version. The android's distribution model is flawed, we should be able to upgrade our phones the same way we upgrade linux distros. If it was possible, then I would blame users for running unmaintained software.
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My 4GB phone was perfectly usable on Android 11. It upgrade itself to android 12 and it's basically can't keep a second app in background anymore.
Try a lighter custom ROM if you can. LineageOS's implementation of Android 14 is still usable with a 4 GB device.
Changing ROMs is a huge pain. Not only it can brick the phone, full backups were basically made impossible long ago. It's best to do it as soon as you purchase the phone and that's what I am gonna do.
Agreed. Now if only I could find a good device. I am very picky with hardware. I want a Motorola phone with a headphone jack and Lineage OS that works in the US.
I will note that you need to do a complete wipe when changing Roms. It breaks random things in the OS
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Nah, it's pretty easy. I've done it many times myself. You have to be pretty unlucky or stupid to brick a phone.
did it many times too and never bricked a phone. The fact that there's a chance that it can brick a phone is the problem. Were I live, even the cheapest phones cost a month worth of salary, so if you brick s phone, you're basically without a phone for months as you slowly gather the funds to buy a new one.
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Google bloat.
My 3gb of ram works fine with background apps and Lineage OS 21. (Android 14)
Borked update by manufacturer. What device if I may ask?
Xiaomi Redmi note 10.
Ah, xiaomi. I don't know if it's the same with Mi branded smartphones. But, that was my experience with Redmi smartphones.
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The update ecosystem is still continuously being crippled by both the device vendors, and for some fucking reason, the carriers
Who cares. Play Services backwards compatibility for new Android APIs and security updates being separated from the OS make this irrelevant.
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Why surprised? They're still selling stuff with Android 11
There are so many OEMs that are dropping new phones every week and obviously don't have resources to support the previous phones after 6 months
I bought a brand new Redmi for my mom in September 2022 and the latest update available as of today (security update) is dated July 2022
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I'm on 14 but to be honest the only difference I really noticed is GTA Vice City got broken by it I presume it will never be fixed since they seem to have done another version.
So yeah it's really only taught me not to buy apps again I'm not a fan of the restricted folder/file manager restrictions either.
Why is it funny again?
Also stock Lineage OS with just F-droid is the way to go. It is clean and simple.
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they don't really need to now that google has moved a lot of the core functions into google play
I'd upgrade if given the choice to do so. Lineage is stuck on Android 12 for my device so I guess that's it.
My phone was on 11 and wasn't receiving security updates so I said fuck it and installed lineage os. Nice experience so far, hoping to make this phone last at least a few more years.
LineageOS has very slow updates. Also they dont have access to all the code they need. I dont even know if they port a newer Kernel to these devices, so they likely still run the outdated, vulnerable kernel they used before.
Also, they dont have access to the Firmware signing keys so they cant deliver firmware updates, which (especially mobile network stuff) causes a ton of security issues.
Sucks...
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Personally, I am still on 13 using lineage OS. I have been offered Android 14, but in order to do that, I might have to either wipe my device or at least plug it into a computer and neither of which I particularly want to do at the moment. Running Android 13 has been perfectly fine for me.
Didn't lineageOS allow OTA updates like regular android smartphones?
For patches to the same version, yes. But, for upgrades between versions, not yet. At least not that I'm aware of.
Now, GrapheneOS on the Google Pixel can update between versions and security patches to the current version too. So it's fully there, but to my knowledge, lineage does not allow version upgrades.
Bummer, this increases the friction for upgrades.
I think it is suppost to be a safety mechanism to keep you from jumping without looking. You can just download the image to an SD card. I sometimes do that for regular updates as it is often way faster.
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I can't think of a single thing that's changed in Android since like Android 9. There's no reason to upgrade.
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