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Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

techcrunch.com

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Re: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

#81

Post by dublinben »

pjmlp wrote: post #69
_wmd wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that our problem or Google's? You can point fingers at 50 different companies in the ecosystem, or you can collectively point the finger at the root cause. By the topic of this article, they're no longer the underdog when it comes to dictating terms to device vendors, they're the biggest shop in town and there's no reason the vulns-frozen-for-life-of-device model should continue to be adhered to.

If they cared one second about it, they would have changed the terms of access to the Google services. The sad part is that the 2016 security report just came out and they brag how the whole security improved, without mentioning the elephant in the room. Google IO is around the corner and I bet they will keep talking as if everyone could upgrade right away to Android O, with N now having barely 2%.

Everyone (who buys Google phones) can upgrade right away. It's not Google's fault that the other manufacturers refuse to update their products in a timely manner. The responsibility for these devices lies solely with the manufacturer.

Re: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

#82

Post by pjmlp »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #52
_wmd wrote: post #25

I guess this means we can officially stop hating on Microsoft for having such a lax attitude towards security, considering their last OS to suffer from that attitude was released 16 years ago, and it accounts for less than 3% of present day traffic according to statcounter.com Meanwhile according to the same stats, Android sits around 37.9%, and I have to wonder just how many of those devices are still impacted by fo…

Google doesn't have 1 security team. Project Zero has nothing to do with Android whatsoever. Totally different parts of the business.

But they surely have an Android Security one, which tends to ignore the issue with updates on their reports.

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/03/android-se...

Apparently now all OEMs are playing nice with updates and everyone that bought a phone in 2016 got their updates.

Re: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

#83

Post by pjmlp »

yuhong wrote: post #73
loudmax wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Microsoft put OS/2 and BeOS out of business, and nearly did the same for Apple. While this was happening, FreeBSD and Linux emerged as excellent Unix variants, so when Apple and Google went to look for their own OSs to deploy, they leveraged what was already available. If you're looking for alternatives, there is stuff being developed. Google's Fuscia is intriguing, and there are other non-Unix kernels from oth…

The fun thing is that OS/2 could have put DR-DOS out of business if MS didn't turn OS/2 2.0 into an entire fiasco.

The way I remember it, I would need to buy an expensive IBM with PS2 architecture to be able to use OS/2 properly, instead of the 386 I got with Windows, so lets not forget that IBM didn't managed the whole situation properly.

Re: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

#84

Post by marcosdumay »

barrkel wrote: post #64
Someone1234 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad part is that these are issues with Android that Linux already solved. Google uses Linux within Android but instead of allowing the underlying parts to be updated via package management-like functionality, the kernel level stuff is only distributable as images in one "big bang" go. You could have a bug in a single binary at the kernel level, but instead of a tiny 1Kb diff patch you wait a year for a giant 1.2…

Well, if you have control over which patches you accept, you've created an exponential explosion in the testing state space. That may be even worse for security, never mind reliability.

Still, somehow Linux distros are reasonably safe but Android is broken.

Re: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

#85

Post by alnitak »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #44
_wmd wrote: post #25

I guess this means we can officially stop hating on Microsoft for having such a lax attitude towards security, considering their last OS to suffer from that attitude was released 16 years ago, and it accounts for less than 3% of present day traffic according to statcounter.com Meanwhile according to the same stats, Android sits around 37.9%, and I have to wonder just how many of those devices are still impacted by fo…

The difference being that you can install or upgrade Windows on a system without buying a new laptop or requiring support from the vendor; the vendor doesn't lock down laptops to prevent upgrades and force people to buy a new device instead.

Let me ask a (potentially) very stupid question here: What prevents doing the same on phones?

What would make a phone hardware able to install anything that compiles to its CPU architecture the same way a PC can?

Re: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

#86

Post by pjmlp »

loudmax wrote: post #24
georgeecollins wrote: post #18

When I was younger there IBM, Apple, Be, and Microsoft were all working on these amazing new operating systems. Now the #1, #3, #4 most popular operating systems are all some variation on Unix. What happened? Why did no one except Microsoft come up with a new operating system worthy of mass adoption?

Well, Microsoft put OS/2 and BeOS out of business, and nearly did the same for Apple. While this was happening, FreeBSD and Linux emerged as excellent Unix variants, so when Apple and Google went to look for their own OSs to deploy, they leveraged what was already available. If you're looking for alternatives, there is stuff being developed. Google's Fuscia is intriguing, and there are other non-Unix kernels from oth…

> Microsoft put OS/2

Actually regarding OS/2, IBM had lots of blame as well.

They didn't managed the whole situation properly and trying to use OS/2 to get back into the game of selling their own PS2 architecture didn't help win the hearts of the buyers.

I would have had to pay almost 500 € extra, on today's money to get a PC capable of running OS/2 properly, instead of the one I got with Windows 3.1.

Re: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

#87

Post by timsayshey »

amclennon wrote: post #78
mysterydip wrote: post #55

I had recently been looking for a laptop to replace my wife's aging machine. She wanted something to hit all her social media stuff, save pictures and videos, basic office, and watch her tv and movie streams. I had a barely-used lenovo that I had put xubuntu on that I wanted her to try first to gauge her size and performance requirements, but she wasn't ready for linux. I searched around a bit (knowing putting window…

That seems like the direction Google is going with Chromebooks. Presumably newer models support running Android apps as well. There's an open source version of ChromeOS that you can install on normal PCs, but I'm not sure if this version comes with Android support.

It's called CloudReady and no it doesn't have Android support yet and I don't think it's planned. Though some have hacked it to run Android apps but it's super super buggy.

Re: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

#88

Post by j_s »

najati83 wrote: post #42
_wmd wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stagefright is trivially weaponizable as an MMS worm, in fact it may already have happened

Sending an MMS is very expensive and many people don't even bother to configure their mobiles to send them because they've never used them.

Interesting perspective. Where is this coming from, geographically? It doesn't match my experience here in North America.

Re: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

#89

Post by enzanki_ars »

dublinben wrote: post #81
pjmlp wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they cared one second about it, they would have changed the terms of access to the Google services. The sad part is that the 2016 security report just came out and they brag how the whole security improved, without mentioning the elephant in the room. Google IO is around the corner and I bet they will keep talking as if everyone could upgrade right away to Android O, with N now having barely 2%.

Everyone (who buys Google phones) can upgrade right away. It's not Google's fault that the other manufacturers refuse to update their products in a timely manner. The responsibility for these devices lies solely with the manufacturer.

It kind of is Google's fault. Most people associate any version of Android with Google. Manufactures that don't update their phones causes harm to both the manufacture's image and Google image.

Personally, I place all the blame on Google for not making the upgrades possible from their side. It should be easy to upgrade the core operating system as easy as updating Windows, OSX, and Linux.

Re: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system

#90

Post by E6300 »

pjmlp wrote: post #77
E6300 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, alright. When you said "early days of microcomputers" I was rather thinking about the Atari 2600. The VM approach was in absolute terms actually pretty unusual in the late 80s/early 90s, AFAIK. Perhaps counting only cross-platform games or adventure it was more common, though.

Just a small correction, I am not the author of "early days of microcomputers". :)

Heh. Whoops. Old habits.
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