| ▲ | kwanbix 18 hours ago |
| The problem is that each OEM releases 50 different models per year, vs Google (or Apple) that release 3 or 4 models. |
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| ▲ | shiandow 18 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| If that truly is an issue then Android is a fundamentally broken OS. How many different models of PCs get released? How hard is it to patch any of their OSs? |
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| ▲ | reactordev 18 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | >How many different models of PCs get released? If you want to go that route, each manufacturer is responsible for their own drivers for windows, linux, and possibly Mac (though if it’s novel enough, they will do it). Then think about the components that make up a PC. Motherboard, CPU, Memory Control, IO, OS, Audio, Video. Each of those needs to release patches. So its orders of magnitude more than any Android OS. It’s just pure laziness on the hardware manufacturers that don’t want to invest in software/support. They want Google to do that. | | |
| ▲ | crote 18 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The big difference with PC hardware is that the OS will get most driver updates for the individual components directly from the OEM. A driver update for, say, a sound card will directly be available to every machine with that sound card installed. The PC vendor doesn't have to be involved in any way. It's the other way around with Android. Google does a new core release, and each individual manufacturer is responsible for modifying it for their devices. If you don't bother to upstream your drivers to mainline Linux and use a skin which heavily modifies core Android, backporting those fixes can quickly become a nightmare. | | |
| ▲ | reactordev 17 hours ago | parent [-] | | Again, no sympathy as that’s the route they chose. Rely on Google for everything OS and make a phone whereas Apple made a phone and supplied an OS. Apple made a product. Google made a software revenue stream. Entirely different things and now the Android makers are crying foul that they too have to do product engineering support. Nah. This is what you get when you rely on out of house innovation. I hope they all close shop. Not because I like Apple, but because they aren’t in the business of making products, only selling you hardware with bolt on software that it vaguely supports. Like buying a raspberry pi that can make phone calls. Google has them all by the balls. | | |
| ▲ | thevillagechief 16 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yeah, and I also hope that all the PC makers close up shop as well. They rely on Microsoft for everything OS. Listen, you can just enjoy your iPhone in peace. Let other people make things, even if you feel they don't meet your standards. | | |
| ▲ | array_key_first 11 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | No, I use Android and the security nightmare on Android is absolutely unacceptable. There is zero reason phones should rely on as many proprietary bullshit blobs as they do, and that's the root cause of this. Even just looking past the bugs that almost certainly exist in the firmware, it makes these devices extremely difficult to update. Whereas on desktop, I get kernel patches expeditiously. Many Android devices are still running kernel 5, and of the ones running recent kernels, we're still waiting months for system patches. If everyone just upstreamed their shit, then we would live in a Utopia. | |
| ▲ | reactordev 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | They don’t rely on Microsoft, quite the contrary. The OEM/ISV vendor relationship at Microsoft is the backbone of the company. Linux, servers, phones, infotainment, TV’s, robotics, all run a flavor of Unix (Linux being the primary, but BSD is in there). For the consumer PC market, Microsoft cornered the market early on with IBM and HP with DOS. They then tried to pull the ladder and raise the gates when they went against OS/2 and Amiga. To win the Windows for Networks wars. The only reason why majority of consumers use windows is because that’s how they want it. You can easily build a PC, no Microsoft Windows anywhere in a 1 km radius, and install Linux or BSD flavor of choice and be 90% there. Companies don’t want you to do that (i.e. Microsoft and Apple) so they preinstall the OS and it updates over the Internet whenever it wants to. Installing whatever it wants to. User choice be damned. No, Pc’s don’t need Microsoft anymore than Rap needs p.diddy |
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| ▲ | 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | [deleted] |
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| ▲ | AshamedCaptain 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | But how are they doing to do the artificial market segmentation otherwise ? (E.g. Samsung still limits Now brief to latest devices even though it is a 99% software feature + 1% cloud with 0 hardware requirements.) |
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| ▲ | crote 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| If you can't support 50 different models, then perhaps you shouldn't be releasing 50 different models. |
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| ▲ | TheDong 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Weird how LineageOS supports ~300 devices while still managing to release patches. I bet this CVE's patched quicker on a samsung device running LineageOS than the stock OS. The real difference is that Google has a more competent software development process and release process than other android OEMs, regardless of how many different devices they have. |
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| ▲ | stackskipton 18 hours ago | parent [-] | | LineageOS doesn't customize the hell out of their OSes per device. That's core of the issue. Samsung takes Android, customizes per device and then tosses them into the world. So now they don't have 1 OS to update, they have 100s of OSes to update. |
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| ▲ | arghwhat 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| That's still one OS. Customization is mostly userspace "system" apps that they swap out and maintain, but reused across all their phones with some small variation. Hardware enablement will differ between models, but that's just the cost of doing business. Can be a pain to move the whole suite to a new major (porting all their inhouse apps, getting all the hardware enablement from vendors updated to match, ...), but we're not dealing with a major upgrade here. A security patch is "just" a matter of taking the last release, applying the diff, build, qa, release. No customization. |
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| ▲ | klooney 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The fix was released in September according to GrapheneOS, so you'd think they could have it out for the flagships |
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| ▲ | mrgoldenbrown 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| If they choose to release 50 models, they need to factor in the cost to maintain security on 50 models. |
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| ▲ | drtgh 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| They must release drivers and firmware for all the devices that they no longer support. |
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| ▲ | like_any_other 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| And 5000+ laptop models per year, yet linux runs on (pretty much) all of them. This is an entirely self-inflicted problem. They don't deserve an ounce of mercy. |
