111–120 of 147 posts
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The comment was in direct response to me, but not addressed to me, so it was they as in "project members" (which there are none).
Right but you didn't say you were the project author anywhere so how would they have known that?
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DivestOS is not the best OS, for modern devices I recommend GrapheneOS.
Only if you have a Google Pixel for GrapheneOS. That's a really small subset of "modern devices".
The situation has got so bad that regulators should probably get involved.
Important software people depend on such as banking or electronic payment apps can't be used with relatively safe and maintained operating systems, forcing the use of unmaintained, insecure stock system just to get SafetyNet these apps wrongly require.
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There is quite literally nothing "woke" about using "they" to refer to someone in a gender neutral way. That term is really overused nowadays. Either way, I suppose "he/she" could be used instead if that really is an issue?
It would at least specify that you are talking about one single person, and not more than one, so it is ALWAYS better to use he/she.
They is more inclusive! ^^
The problem with long term support for my Android phones has actually not been the fact that Android devices have incredibly short security update windows. That issue has been somewhat mitigated with the newer Google Pixel phones which have five years of security updates. The biggest issue for long term cell phone support is, even if we get an OS with a 10-year security update timeline like Rocky Linux, will the phon…
Not sure if smartphones will last 10 years. I have 2 early Google phones die on me with strange boot loops (different series), my trusted hardware guy says the flash died. They are just not made for 10 years usage. Your laptop may be good, but it will probably only support some ancient insecure slow WiFi profiles. Distributions start to drop old hardware. And there are always new CPU and other chip security bugs disc…
I'm fairly certain that some phone models out there are probably better in this regard, especially if you can swap out the battery, the components are of decent quality and they're built in a rugged way. Also, somehow the idea of repairing your phone has gone out of the window, since you can just buy a new one.
> Your laptop may be good, but it will probably only support some ancient insecure slow WiFi profiles.
For many, slow Wi-Fi is acceptable. Same with a dated and slow CPU/RAM, which many will still consider better than their devices becoming e-waste. If the OS wasn't so locked down, many would enjoy having a stand-in for a Raspberry Pi for all I care, since the small form factor of a phone would lend itself nicely to DIY hacking, especially because of included camera and networking. Even if the hardware is lacking, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't or couldn't support the software for longer amounts of time.
Your point about the hardware itself and what it supports becoming insecure is a good one, but there's no guarantee that the amount of time for something like that to happen would be much shorter than any improved OS EOL period. Of course, if it's some non-critical functionality that's insecure, it might as well be turned off in software, like older versions of TLS in web servers.
> Distributions start to drop old hardware. And there are always new CPU and other chip security bugs discovered, how do you get fixes for that into your system?
We could cross that bridge when we actually get to it, and try to figure out the things that are easier to do first and foremost: notably software support. If something like Ubuntu LTS has an EOL of 5 years and AlmaLinux has security updates for 10, I don't see why Android versions should be any different, unless governed by a profit oriented corporation.
Aside from that, it's surprising that 3G can just be tossed away like that on a national level, since the amounts of e-waste this would generate is kind of staggering, even more odd is the fact that in many places 2G is still in operation. I guess at least that is a bit of a silver lining, if the claims were to be true (citation is needed, but it sounds like a sane argument): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G#Decline_and_decommissions
> Technology that depends on 3G for usage will soon become inoperable in many places. For example, the European Union plans to ensure that member countries maintain 2G networks as a fallback[citation needed], so 3G devices that are backwards compatible with 2G frequencies can continue to be used.
The problem with long term support for my Android phones has actually not been the fact that Android devices have incredibly short security update windows. That issue has been somewhat mitigated with the newer Google Pixel phones which have five years of security updates. The biggest issue for long term cell phone support is, even if we get an OS with a 10-year security update timeline like Rocky Linux, will the phon…
I’m really confused by this - my iPhone 6 from 2014 has 4G LTE (and still gets security updates). What were you buying in 2018 that was 3G!?
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I’m really confused by this - my iPhone 6 from 2014 has 4G LTE (and still gets security updates). What were you buying in 2018 that was 3G!?
There were some burner flip phones that didn't have 4G up until around 2015, LG making a few of them. This guy was buying used pieces of crap and complaining how they weren't going to support a waste of spectrum.
Anyway I got a Pixel 5 and now use T-Mobile’s instead of AT&T’s network (via Ting, since I use little mobile data and that gives me a phone with a low-bandwidth data plan for $15 a month + tax), since T-Mobile is better about supporting legacy phones and protocols.
In terms of the “waste of spectrum” argument, I think it’s better for the earth to “waste” some spectrum than waste millions of perfectly good phones. One takes up landfill, the other doesn’t. But, to each their own.