Two weeks shy of Google detailing the next big revision of Android at its annual developer conference, the current Android version is still struggling to make its way out to devices. Android 6.0 Marshmallow is currently running on just 7.5 percent of active Android devices that have access to the Google Play Store. The rest of the field is dominated by 2014’s Android Lollipop at 35.6 percent, 2013’s KitKat at 32.5 percent, and 2012’s Jelly Bean at 20.1 percent. 2011’s Ice Cream Sandwich still clings on to a stubborn 2 percent and the immortal Android Gingerbread (version 2.3!) accounts for 2.2 percent of Android smartphones.
Using an iPhone 6S since it came out has made me appreciate more and more just how much better Android is than iOS – but it’s all for naught if Google doesn’t get off its bum and fixes this long-running problem. Now that Android at 6.x is definitively better than iOS, it’s way, way, way, way beyond time for Google to drop everything they’re doing and somehow find a way to forcefully and resolutely address this deficit.
If the latest version of Android is the best (i.e., the least crappy) mobile operating system out there, but nobody is running it, is it really the best mobile operating system?
Last time i checked (Android 5) there was such a deluge of useless “here, I’m doing work for you” notifications that you could missed the messages and missed calls among the 1423 “this app has been upgraded” messages…
Google has a very grave problem with CONFIDENCE on the Cheap Units. A long term, austere version of NEXUS, would be the answer. On the more successful hardware of the NEXUS [luxury] previous version. With a commitment from manufacturers for drivers’ vitality. The ‘AXIS’ family?
Once the AXIS platform stabilized, Build over it the Extended, luxury version of NEXUS [with state of the art hardware].
The answer to your rhetorical question is simply…No, it is not.
but it’s all for naught if your handset manufacturer of choise doesn’t get off its bum and fixes this long-running problem
Fixed
To be complaining about Google, you’d have to be quoting the % of Nexus handsets not running MM
I would be interested to see the statistics for Nexus devices. Not just the current ones though, but of the entire installed base. I would also be interested to know how many Nexus devices are actually sold/in-use because inside the tech-bubble I hear about them but not outside of that bubble.
Google will blame the OEMS, the OEMS will blame the carriers, the carriers will blame the lawfully-required-testing and the result will be the same as with Android 6: A promise from everyone that from now on things will be quicker and better….but hardly any improvements in this aspect at all.
I can’t even find it anymore, but weren’t all Android OEMs going to update their phones every 6 weeks (even if it would just be for 5.0 to 5.0.1)? Wasn’t there going to be a “3rd world/emerging markets continues update”?
Google needs to put its foot down and somehow say “you only get a license for Android N if you guarantee that all your customers will get it, and all its updates, for at least the next 2 years”
Do not forget hw vendors. If they refuse to develop driver for Android Marshmallow, cause they have new hw prepared for Marshmallow…
Linux Kernel Mailing List contain a lot of Rants about state of ARM hw and drivers. And quite a few refusals to include some of that code into mainline kernel.
Without drivers nobody, not even alternative rom communities can provide update for that hw.
I’m preatty sure that Android 5.x was the last update my Nexus 5 will get. But Google is still happily providing monthly updates for quick bugfixing and security.
Really? They released Marshmallow for Nexus 5 in October.
Hmm, I have a Nexus 5 and I’m at 6.0.1.
Than why am I running 6.0 on it now, OTA update. With Android 7 beta already available for the Nexus 5, a simple Google search would have revealed this. Nexus devices are guaranteed to have the latest versions for at least 3 – 4 years now. With CyanogenMod also providing supported ROMs for at least 4 years, sometimes even more.
Android 6 for Nexus 5
https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images
Android 7 for Nexus 5 http://developer.android.com/preview/download.html
My Nexus 5 is on 6.1.
Exactly. I don’t buy an Android, I buy a Nexus.
Before I buy a phone, I explicitly check if the manufacturer provides system updates, preferably to the latest version of Android.
A Nexus phone should always be the first ones someone looks at before buying. Both the Nexus 5x and 6P are simply fantastic phones. I have the 6P and couldn’t be happier, though I also have a NextBit Robin as my personal phone, I installed CyanogenMod 13 on it and I have to tell you it’s one of the best phones I have ever owned. Now that the Robin is supported by CyanogenMod I expect to have at least 4 years worth up updates, it’s also only $300.
I truly do not understand how someone could pay $800 for an iPhone 6S or Samsung S7, if you have got to have the absolute best, than for $650 you can have the best by simply buying the Vivo Xplay 5 Elite, 6GB RAM, Qualcomm 820, 128GB, 2K AMOLED curved display, SD CARD reader, 16MP back Sony Camera, 8MP front, price, $650, nothing even comes close to it as of right and it simply wipes the floor with both Apple’s and Samsungs offerings. Now, if that’s to much money and you still want the best, than the new Xiaomi Mi5 Pro is the perfect way to go, $500 ($400 if you buy directly from China), 4GB RAM, same Qualcomm 820, 64GB, 2K curved display, etc. and MiOS will be updated regularly for at least 5 years. People don’t know that about Xiaomi, they keep all of their phones updated and are probably the best company in the world right now when it comes to updates, even more so than Google as the Nexus 4 will no longer get any updates, even though it was only released in 2013, barely 3 years old. Though you can always install CM 13 an I’m sure CM 14 and 15 will also be available for it.
I’m still waiting for my Vivo, I placed an order on Monday but I’m sure I will be completely satisfied with it. My Nexus 6P is up for sell on Ricardo.ch, Switzerlands answer to eBay, it’s already at $400, still have 7 days to go on the auction and I only paid $520 for it. So I should get my full money’s worth. I buy a new phone every 6 months regardless of it’s condition, by doing so I can have 8 to 10 phones in 4 years for the same price as 1, I do the same thing with my laptops and tablets.
It is really not Google.
Its the hardware vendors only shipping crappy blobware that will work only against specific Android with tandem of specific hw.
Its Phone OEMs who use new Android as a reason for whole phone upgrade.
Its carriers who don’t earn money from any software on the phone, and thus do not care at all about short update vetting process.
Google can and is moving more and more software into their own apps that can be updated via app store.
But Google can not do anything about license of hw drivers, nor can they force oems to care, while with network operators they usually have NO relation at all for specific phone…
Lets stop blaming Google, and start blaming responsible parties. (And lets start mass suing phone manufacturers and network operators for keeping our phones insecure too!)
This really falls mostly into the cell provider’s lap. It takes years sometimes for them to get OS updates out. It’s pretty scary from a security perspective.
Bullshit. It is both Google and the OEMs fault for allowing the carriers to have custom ROMs in the first place. They don’t offer anything useful in those custom images anyway. It’s time to push the problem up stream… and I mean all the way up. No more Google Play services for OEMs not willing to cooperate. No more carrier custom ROMs allowed, ever. Appl managed this. Google can, too. They just choose to push the responsibility off and shrug their useless shoulders.
Apple managed it because Apple supplies all the hardware. All of it. No 3rd party iPhones or iDevices. Google only really controls the manufacturing of Nexus devices.
And they can’t even update those. The Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 already fell off support, despite being only 3.5 years old.
So much about Google being so committed to patching Android blah blah blah. Just 3.5 years later your Nexus device will be an unpatched, non-secure mess. Not that users will care.
Edited 2016-05-05 05:42 UTC
I don’t think 3.5 years is too bad for a phone or tablet myself – most non-Nexus Android devices stop updates after 2 years or less.
Also remember that the Nexus 4 and 7 (2013) are well out of warranty now, so you do have an alternative update route via custom ROMs. For example, CyanogenMod 13 (Marshmallow) is available for both devices and should extend the life of them for another year or two.
A lot of folks upgrade their phones before 3.5 years, but for tablets, I feel like they should get 4 years of support minimum from the day they were last sold.
The reason is simple. We’re always told that tablets are supposed to be PC replacements by so many. Part of that “promise” is that they get patches. A 4 year old Mac can run the latest OS X. A 4 year old PC can run Windows 10, Linux or BSD. Yet, in tablet land we’re supposed to love that our device is unpatched after 4 years.
The real reason the tablet cycle has slowed is that people realized they had to re-buy the dang things to run current software and it’s not cheaper than a PC if you have to buy one more frequently and it does less.
If I go into a store and buy a brand new 300 dollar laptop, it’s going to make it 3-4 years without any problem and it will be patched and updated the whole time.
Aside from CPU and GPU bumps, most tablets haven’t greatly improved in several years. They haven’t caught up to PCs yet. They haven’t offered enough of a speed bump to bother if you have an older one. There is no new killer app I have to have that only runs on the latest android or iOS device.
To me, the tablet market looks like the PC market of ten years ago. Remember when that machine that ran Windows XP perfectly choked on Vista? Or that Windows 95 box that would slow to a crawl with Windows 98? Sometimes we forget that the PC market was once as rapid as the tablet market of today. I suspect that, like the PC market, the tablets will slow down over time. We’re already seeing some of this, at least with the iPad and likely we’ll see the same thing with the Surface line (though it’s too soon to tell for sure on that one).
” A 4 year old PC can run Windows 10, Linux or BSD.”
And beyond 2 Win generations a third breath as Linux. Was customary at these 3thW Countries, on my times. This Planet Friendly policy is becoming increasingly difficult with UEFI.
Woke up from the obsessive compulsive side of the bed?
In the same vein, I am envious of first world “problems”.
I happen to be using an Android device which does receive system updates from the OEM, which I suppose makes me lucky. However, having seen the trainwreck that are the recent versions of Android I simply do not want to upgrade. I don’t want the extra distractions, poor battery life and horrible UI that the last few Android releases have shipped with. I’m sticking with an older version until something forces me to buy new hardware and then it’ll probably involve a switch to another OS.
This “problem” is overblown. At least for me. The phone worked the way I liked when I bought it. It’s fine the way it is, and I don’t need or want any upgrades.
This isn’t the Gingerbread days. The OS is mature.
I can’t recall a time I’ve ever gone to the play store to get an app only to find out that it’s incompatible because of my years-old OS.
Plus, there are too many times when upgrades make things worse. Not worth the hassle, to me. I’ll get Marshmallow when I get a new phone.
So you want to get hacked? At the very minimum, OEMs should be forced to provide security updates.
Watched one too many hollywood movies?
When was the last time you heard someone’s phone was hacked just because he was on android 4.0.4?
Edited 2016-05-04 13:44 UTC
yet again, what are the chances to get hacked?
another interesting point that though my phone is on android 5, it says security update is on 2015-12 level. I wonder what it means…
Why do you assume that just because they aren’t supplying a major OS version upgrade, they’re not supplying security updates for the version you do have?
Because most OEMs don’t bother to supply any updates at all. Some do, but many more that I’ve seen do not. Until the landscape changes, no updates is a safer assumption at this point.
Is the OEM that delivers the security updates or Google?
I can’t understand your point from my Nexus 6P running Android N, it’s as if the people running old software get what they pay for by not buying Nexus devices…
If Dell was still selling Windows computers running Windows XP, would you consider that Microsoft’s fault?
Actually, yes because Microsoft could prevent it. Obviously Microsoft did just that by ending support for XP completely, however your comparison is flawed for another reason: running a Dell pc, or HP, or Lenovo, or one you built yourself doesn’t stop you from getting updates. You go to the source, namely Microsoft (in the case of Windows anyway) for those. Dell does not control your update process. I wondered how long it’d be before this false comparison would be dragged into it.
And if Dell *did* prevent it, would it be all Microsoft’s fault? Would you not blame Dell at all?
Of course, however again your comparison is false. To prevent you from updating, Dell would have to actively stop you from updating. They never did. The OEMs aren’t actively stopping you from updating but rather are simply not releasing updates that you can install. The result is the same, however the method is different.
Let’s put this to rest: Windows and Android are very different beasts when it comes to updating. There is no comparison possible.
Ding! Google doesn’t control the update process on a Samsung phone (as an example). But Google is getting blamed here for my Samsung phone not getting updates.
… actually, I don’t have a Samsung phone anymore. I have a Nexus 6P, which is about the only phone I can directly blame Google for not getting updates– except, it IS getting updates, so again, Google isn’t really at fault here.
99% of commentators here, as well as Thom himself don’t see the full picture. And it’s quite bleak.
What you think of the Android OS doesn’t really exist and it’s not Google’s fault.
Every mobile hardware device running Android is unique in many ways: very different SoC’s, very different storage configurations (including a gazillion of storage chips each with different API/driver), very different sensors (e.g. two different Android may have two “similar”, e.g. ambient light sensors but totally different protocols for accessing them).
Every OEM out there does two things to run Android:
1) They heavily patch the Linux kernel provided by AOSP in order to support its SoC/storage/sensors/cameras and their features/etc.
2) They heavily modify Android system core so that it could properly run on its hardware.
3) They add its own apps which use its their HW features.
The net result is that you simply cannot (externally) update the kernel and the Android core because you may break everything. That means only OEMs can update your Android device. These issues affect Google as well: all its Android devices have different kernels and system cores – that is why Google sometimes forsake its old Nexus devices.
In order to solve this problem Google must force OEMs to introduce a common ARM platform which will allow to run unmodified/or minimally modified AOSP. Such a platform exists in the x86 world which means you can easily switch between dozens of OSes which support the x86 instructions set.
I don’t see such an ARM platform coming any time soon.
P. S. Apple does not have this problem because they basically have just a handful of devices to take care of – not a big deal for such a huge corporation. Google, on the other hand, should take care of literally thousands of Android devices. Obviously they won’t do that ever.
99% of your Windows computers are different, too. It doesn’t stop you from being able to update them. Google got themselves (and by extension us) into this by only thinking short term. Rather than construct Android in a way that permits different drivers, they decided to make it open source and go the OEM modification route. Now we’re all paying for it, and there’s no quick fix possible.
You’ve skipped most of the comment and you’re arguing with yourself. Good luck with that.
This is why this world’s so f*cked up. People are so full of themselves they just don’t hear anyone who opposes their brainwashed and indoctrinated POV.
However, Windows is a standardized operating system, produced by one company. Drivers are provided by third parties, and may, or may not, destroy your computer, your data, and other hardware installed on it. Generally that doesn’t happen, but look up “usb driver bricking” for an example of how that model can be exploited in a very bad way.
Android is descended, more or less, from linux– each phone out there is running the vendor’s Android distribution, with Google’s applications (if licensed) on top.
You might as well be saying that Adobe is responsible for patching every copy of Windows out there that has Photoshop installed.
Google is not the OS vendor on your phone, unless your phone says Nexus on the back. Google is the upstream software provider for your distribution, AND the “google apps” software vendor.
The correct answer is for consumers to stop buying phones that only get 12 months of updates– It’s part of why I won’t own another Motorola, Samsung or HTC phone– all three vendors promised updates which never materialized.
If Samsung or HTC’s sales suddenly started plummeting because last year’s phone didn’t run this year’s Android OS, then you’d get your updates.
Truth is, however, 90% of the people with cell phones are happy with the same OS their phone came with, and have no interest in upgrading until they junk their phone after two years anyway.
A common ARM platform is coming… to servers.
Ideally, Google would then rebase android on top of that. But that will probably be a decade before that happens.
Another interesting idea is coming out of KDE’s mobile plans: linux containers.
They’re using cyanogenmod as the base, then hijacking it via lxc.
And this is why its Google’s problem. If they were motivated enough they could find a technological solution to this political problem ( stupid companies not up-streaming kernel changes)
It’s Google’s problem because Android was built on a kernel that is hostile to closed source drivers (no stable ABI) knowing full well that closed source kernel modules are pretty much a necessity in the world of mobile telephony. If they had chosen their technology stack more carefully (AKA, chosen a BSD like Apple did) they wouldn’t be having these problems.
If you notice, Apple and Microsoft have much fewer problems updating their devices and it’s all because they built upon a kernel with a stable ABI for external drivers.
No, not noticing or acknowledging that. Apples oranges. Microsoft and apple work with less hardware diversification. If Apple/MS used as many different chipsets as andriod, then that would be a good argument. But they don’t. Its like touting that greyhound buses have a perfect flying record. If only Boeing or airbus would build their airplanes more like a bus…, I mean airbus is so close with their name, but then they put those stupid wings on them.
Edited 2016-05-05 14:47 UTC
You’re missing my point here. The hardware diversification issue between Android and Windows phones really isn’t as big as it would seem at first. The vast majority of Android phones are made with Qualcomm chipsets. Most of these handsets could be made to work with either OS fairly easily. The HTC M8 is a great example of this.
The issue here is that because of the instability of Linux kernel ABIs (and APIs for that matter), Android will only be supported on hardware for as long as the respective OEMs are interested in maintaining that support. On other kernels (Windows/BSD) where stable ABIs are provided, there is almost no maintenance burden on the OEMs at all.
So yes, it is very fair to put the blame for this problem mostly on Google, and partially on the Linux kernel maintainers.
Microsoft? The people who didn’t give any WP 7 users an upgrade path to WP 8? The same Microsoft who isn’t giving WP 10 (ahem, excuse me, Windows 10 Mobile) to most of their WP 8 devices? This after supposedly making the os independent of the “black box” modem firmware so it can be updated without worrying about FCC testing? That Microsoft?
That’s not true at all, for instance, the same open source Linux GPU driver that the Pixel C uses can also be used with any other Android device that is running an Nvidia SOC. There are also open source drivers for almost every SOC, when I compiled my own Android build for the Sony Z Ultra, except for the Camera, which was easy to find, I used nothing but opensource drivers and libraries, including the GPU, Freedreno. How do you think a lot of these custom ROM’s are made even when their manufactures haven’t released the source code or drivers for them. Very few phones actually use custom parts, like a PC, their simply off the shelf components, in which almost all of them have opensource drivers for, when they don’t, the drivers are still available for downloading and aren’t locked away in some vault. Yes, for older hardware, support is more limited, but again, the vast majority of them have opensource drivers available now. Also, Apple would have the exact same problems if they opened up iOS to other manufactures, BSD doesn’t make a difference, especially a MicroKernal, is no better than the Linux Kernal.
Phones that use MediaTek SOC’s are especially easy to write custom ROM’s for as everything inside them, has an opensource driver for. Heck, even Sony’s camera modules have opensource drivers available now, though limited, it’s still a step in the right direction.
https://source.android.com/index.html
Edited 2016-05-06 09:24 UTC
which is running 6.0.1. I also love my OnePlus One running Cyanogen OS 13. But saying that Android is so much better than iOS is simply trolling.
Android is the best mobile OS? Wow, not in my mind.
For me, the best mobile OS is BB10 (Blackberry) but I know that I am in the small minority that have ever even tried it. I did not feel the lack apps problem as everything I used frequently had a great native version and for all the important but obscure and stuff (banking, parking, etc) I found that the Android versions worked fine.
I personally hate the walled garden iOS ecosystem but, if it were not for that, I would still pick it over Android. The crappiness of notifications alone disqualifies Android as “best” for me.
It’s Android, you can use whatever Notification system you desire, I personally have BlackBerrys HUB on my Nexus 6P, it took me all of 10 minutes to do and works beautifully.
The problem isn’t Anddroid but the users using it, as it’s an open source, customizable OS, you can pretty do what ever you want with it. I’m even using my NExus 6P as a desktop computer by simply connecting a USB C hub, which contains 3 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, Ethernet and a SD Card reader. I have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, Intuos Wacom board with stylus for note taking and sketching (works beautifully), a 4TB Lacie HD and a HP AIO printer, scanner combo which even the scanner works using their app, http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03561640.
I have a LAMP server, Perl, Python, Ruby installed in which I use CodeEvny to develop on. I have Office HD, a fantastic office suite that is based off of OpenOffice, though completely rewritten for Android, with full scripting support, advanced Macros and database support. The list of features just goes on and on, Android is the best mobile OS around for those who really know how to use it and wield it’s full potential. I also have a Blackberry Passport, though an awesome phone for communication, it simply lacked the feature set that I desired. The iPhone, not even in the same league, though a 1beloved OS by many, I simply find the lack of even the most basic features to be daunting and hindrance to my work flow.
Android Power User [and Dev], Calden is…
Hmm… do users really care? If they did, the Google Play Edition concept would have taken off, or at least those GPE phones would have sold more than the non-GPE versions.
Truth is, users don’t care. As long as the phone does what they want and what was promised when they bought it, and as long as the apps they want work with it, they don’t care. Since 4.3, improvements have being mostly under-the-hood anyway. It’s something geeks care about.
Android version fragmentation is a problem mostly for the poor developers, who have to fill their code with exceptions and to check for missing APIs or APIs with different behaviours. Users don’t care.
Edited 2016-05-04 17:57 UTC
that does not necessarily correlate with it being the best.
Thanks to google royally fucking the upgrade-process up (i.e. letting the device-maker decide) I’m still stuck on 4.4.
Now take a guess if I will buy an android-device again…
Edited 2016-05-04 23:16 UTC
So google is responsible for producing drivers for your unknown brand of phone, even though it’s almost certain they didn’t write the drivers that your phone is currently using?
Why not blame Bill Gates? Or Linux Torvalds? Heck, go for broke, and blame Steve Jobs!
Actually, I’d say that you could partially blame Linus Torvalds and fellow kernel maintainers for not having the discipline to maintain stable ABIs and APIs for drivers. Nearly every other major OS kernel manages to do this just fine, but somehow they can’t.
I would also blame Google for choosing to base Android off of the Linux kernel which is deficient for this task because of previously stated lack of stable ABIs and APIs. They should have built upon a BSD kernel instead if they wanted updates to be possible after the chipset manufacturers have stopped updating their drivers.
Ultimately that tells me that Google and their OEMs just don’t care about this problem, and they enjoy the planned obsolescence that comes with the current update model.
Good to hear that Thom loves the latest version of android. So what. No one has it. As an engineer we are still stuck on 4.0.3. Yeah, its IE 6 all over again if your write code for it. I wouldn’t know a damn thing about android 6 as my own google marketplace HTC can’t get an update past 5.1.
Android is a miserable failure. iOS may not be perfect but at least everyone is caught up.
Edited 2016-05-05 03:48 UTC
I share your opinion. While iOS is not perfect, it is for this reason discussed in this thread that I switched a few years back. The constant broken promises (whether it was HTC and Verizon with the Droid Incredible or Google with the Nexus devices) around OS updates and support drove me to Apple where I have a much more secure and functional experience with my device. I miss Android and the possibilities, but not the frustration with support.
The manufactures name really doesn’t matter to me as I buy according to which phone fits my hardware needs. Than I simply install a custom version of Android, one that also fit’s my needs. Mostly it’s CyanoganMod which do a fantastic job of keeping their ROMS updated to the newest security fixes and features. I personally could never use an iPhone as iOS is missing just way to many featuress and I’m just unwilling to compromise. I also find it absolutely ridiculous that I can’t even select my own default apps.
To start out, to each their own, for sure. That said, custom ROMs are not the answer for most people and I found their quality to be lacking; including regressions after an update or missing features from the stock.
It is more important for Google and for the carriers to provide timely updates to handset users with devices supported by the specific release.
As a reader of OSAlert since the says when anandtech was the passion of a lone high school student. I have to say I’ve become disappointed in the diametrically opposed viewpoint expressed by the current editorials, compared to OSAlert in the early 2000s.
In the early days OSAlert this was a site by and for people who loved computers, operating system, and tinkering. This was for hobbyists and dreamers … who enjoyed following what the world and each other could imagine and create (the promise always greater than reality).
They believed in freedom, exploration, and a juxtaposition of advancement and nostalgia.
Now the editors believe that big government and big business are evil for spying on us and controlling us … and then in the next article they demand that the tech companies stop giving anyone freedom … in the name of security and progress …
We don’t all want the same thing … so please stop demanding that the VERY VERY few providers servicing us reduce our choices further and further.
First of all, the premise that things will get “secure” is silly … even in the days of Windows 9x and Internet Explorer .. the net effect of the viruses and worms roaming the land was mainly a dozen hours lost every few years to do a reinstall. And yet all the important hacks .. such as identity theft, continue to be almost exclusively based upon human, not technological, flaws … such as bad passwords, default configurations, sharing information, or even just being gullible and believe what people over the phone or online tell you.
You can’t fix Human, so please stop expecting technology and progress to deliver us to some promised land.
But back to the original story … has it ever occurred to you that all the software developers out their trying to be on the bleeding edge (“Oh I just hate having to target Android 4”, etc) … are actually the main problem. No system is ever allowed to settle and actually rest long enough to even imaging it could be stable at all. You want Android 6 forced down people’s networks the day it’s released don’t you … because you think its progress … you think it “fixes” dozens of known flaws that people can’t live without! But what about the new additions and their flaws, the changes and their flaws, or just the changes that some customer would prefer not the have.
KDE 3 had almost achieved the point where you could tell people that they no longer needed to give their grandma windows … cause there was an alternative that was more stable, safer, and worked almost exactly the same — to bad the developers felt the need to invent something else rather than perfect something.
Gnome 2 inheirited the mantle of a simple OS that worked the way people had come to expext … the developers disagreed – Gnome 3 … only this time somebody with some development skills stepped in and took a different path … the popularity of MATE and Cinnamon should be proof enough to people some people don’t want to have change forced on us … we want to choose how we use our computers and how they use us.
I hope you can at least see the opposing sides of the argument about whether Microsoft should be forcing Windows 10 updates on people, or whether owners should have choice and control of their own devices.
So while I too would like phone vendors to allow me to update my phone as soon as I am ready … I feel no desire to have them force these OTA updates on me every month, nor to hand that power even more over to the hands of the googles of the world. In the gingerbread days, most vendors sucked … and updates almost didn’t exist … but at least I could choose by buying the phone with the software that I liked. In the new “google at the wheel” world, where they’ve subverted freedom by moving everything into the controlled “play services” domain … I have no choice … no matter what phone I buy today, and how it works … when google updates their play services, everyphone everywhere in their ecosystem is subject to their changes … no choice, no freedom, and not even the real ability to even switch vendors (since they were the last of the vendors to offer the freedoms I want … the freedom NOT to change a working system).
I don’t long for the day where my car, house and appliances are receiving force fed OTA updates … supposedly increasing their efficiency, security, and features (except for those pesky regressions and bugs) and changing their behavior at the whim of each vendor …
Well said, my thoughts exactly.
You don’t need Google’s Play Services to use an Android decice, my Nextbit Robin, running CyangonMod 13, doesn’t have a single Google app installed. I update my apps when I feel that I need to and not when someone else tells me or simply does it in the background for me. There are many third party app stores both in app form and sites, as well as Google alternatives to make even the most staunch user amongst us happy. Yes, doing it this way requires a malware and virus scanner to be running in the background but with 3GB, now even 6GB, there is no lag in doing so and you should be running one regardless.
I still agree that this site has simply become another Verge in which is visited by those who treat their devices like some sort of Holy artifact and feel the need to spread the gossiple of what is still just an inamate object. This behavior is not only unwanted but simply ridiculous, there is simply no such thing as the best as it’s all relative.
As many have commented the delay is usually not entirely down to Google. That said it’s possibly not entirely down to the hardware manufacturers dragging their heels either.
There’s a useful roadmap on HTC’s site about what is involved in rolling out a new Android release to one of their handset models. It’s a lot more involved than we (well, ok I) might have imagined.
http://www.htc.com/uk/go/htc-software-updates-process/
Supportability and updatability play a big role in today’s OSes. It’s not a “detail” anymore.
Besides that, from a technical POV, I think iOS/Android are on par in almost every other aspect…. just like Windows and OSX are in 2016.
Maybe 5 or 6 years ago, the difference was huge… today, it’s a matter of preference and “culture”.
In my personal case, simplicity and updatability are a MUST (I’m not a phone geek, I just want 24×7 availability and no headaches)… so iOS is some kind of a perfect product for my needs. For more advanced users like Thom, iOS could be too limited.
From Calden:
[OSAlert,] “…which is visited by those who treat their devices like some sort of Holy artifact and feel the need to spread the gossiple of what is still just an inamate object.”
From Sergio:
“…simplicity and updatability [as for any GLOBALLY connected device] are a MUST (I’m not a phone geek, I just want 24×7 availability and no headaches)…”
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