this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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Android

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Funny, the comment types here are the same as on Youtube:

  1. "I still run Android and it is totally fine, will never switch Android just got worse!"
  2. "Well, money"
  3. "Companies need to support phones longer"
  4. "I just use LineageOS on that device"
  5. Misinformation
top 50 comments
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[–] [email protected] 68 points 4 months ago (8 children)

It's not like the end users typically get any choice... either the service provider makes an update available or they don't.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Google really needs to decouple the hardware from the OS. There's no good reason newer Android couldn't be installed on older phones.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (6 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

The update ecosystem is still continuously being crippled by both the device vendors, and for some fucking reason, the carriers

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Try a lighter custom ROM if you can. LineageOS's implementation of Android 14 is still usable with a 4 GB device.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Nah, it's pretty easy. I've done it many times myself. You have to be pretty unlucky or stupid to brick a phone.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Google bloat.

My 3gb of ram works fine with background apps and Lineage OS 21. (Android 14)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Borked update by manufacturer. What device if I may ask?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Ah, xiaomi. I don't know if it's the same with Mi branded smartphones. But, that was my experience with Redmi smartphones.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

i'm running 14 on an S4 mini, i think they made some great changes

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[–] evo 10 points 4 months ago (6 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (3 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm still on 11 because that's it for a Moto G Stylus 2020.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

they don't really need to now that google has moved a lot of the core functions into google play

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (5 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (13 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Didn't lineageOS allow OTA updates like regular android smartphones?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

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.

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[–] dandroid 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I can't think of a single thing that's changed in Android since like Android 9. There's no reason to upgrade.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Just because you cant think of anything, that doesnt say nothing has changed.

Google hides it a bit, but Android 9 is years ago. 5?

Just study the GrapheneOS release notes alone

https://grapheneos.org/releases

[–] dandroid 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

My point wasn't that nothing changed. My point was that if I haven't noticed the changes, they must not be important. I would be perfectly happy with Android 9 right now. It would make zero difference to me, so why would I go out of my way or pay money for a new phone to upgrade?

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