51–60 of 121 posts
[1] https://github.com/WebBluetoothCG/web-bluetooth/blob/master/...
I'll believe that real progress has been made when google updates the major kernel version for a phone. No OEM (AFAIK) has ever done a kernel (major version) bump.
Newer Sony devices got a major version bump from 4.4 to 4.9 with their Pie releases:
https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/latest-updat...
I wonder if the major version update for Sony's 9.0/Pie was due to a Qualcomm BSP change, or if it was solely their initiative? I think the reason for typically not doing major kernel updates may be down to sticking with reference stuff from BSPs. (I don't think they're offering any big updates, not kernel or Android major versions, for their Mediatek stuff. I think that might be typical though.)
Kind of cool, anyway, to move from one LTS kernel release to the next. I wonder have any other OEMs made the same move?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You do nothing of the sort. You're buying a specific combination of hardware and software that may or may not get upgrades and security fixes over time, just like any Android phone. Apple just has a much better track record at doing that than any Android vendor. On the other hand when I buy a laptop or an access point I just do minimal checking of supported hardware in case there's something that's very exotic and th…
> You do nothing of the sort. You're buying a specific combination of hardware and software that may or may not get upgrades and security fixes over time Bringing in strictly theoretical supposition which is directly at odds with what's historically been a very solid track record from Apple isn't doing your argument any favours. Unless I misunderstood you.
I'll believe that real progress has been made when google updates the major kernel version for a phone. No OEM (AFAIK) has ever done a kernel (major version) bump.
The article actually addresses that - why would Google (or Samsung or anyone really) risk device issues by doing this kind of upgrade? What is there to gain on a running device except angry users due to breakages of already working functionality? There's an upwards trend of people DISABLING updates because they tend to break tools they use in daily lives.
That's true, but regular distros are also faced with the same dilemma, and you see both cases. RH will patch a kernel to death ship of Theseus style for a decade, whereas Canonical offers newer stable kernel releases (although they also maintain the original kernel that the distro shipped with). Canonical leans more towards updating to a newer kernel version though.
>There's an upwards trend of people DISABLING updates because they tend to break tools they use in daily lives.
The general public is affected more by questionable updates higher up in the stack. I doubt if they interact directly with the kernel.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You do nothing of the sort. You're buying a specific combination of hardware and software that may or may not get upgrades and security fixes over time Bringing in strictly theoretical supposition which is directly at odds with what's historically been a very solid track record from Apple isn't doing your argument any favours. Unless I misunderstood you.
My ancient iPhone 4 did everything that I needed it to, but I had to abandon it because Apple did too.
iPhone 4 is 8 years old so not sure I see your point.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdotally, iOS 11 made my iPhone 6 run slower than iOS 10, but iOS 12 made it run faster than iOS 10. (This is in line with other reports and benchmarks you'll find if you go looking.) There's an awful lot of snark about iOS slowing down with each successive version, but I'm not at all convinced it's universally true. (Again, anecdotally, I'd say iOS 7 and 9–11 were guilty of that.) At any rate, the big issue I ten…
> Here's an awful lot of snark about iOS slowing down with each successive version, but I'm not at all convinced it's universally true. (Again, anecdotally, I'd say iOS 7 and 9–11 were guilty of that.) It's not universally true. It's mostly true, with a couple of outliers (namely iOS 9 and iOS 11). Most of time, major iOS upgrades slow down older hardware. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with this, if not for t…
Or you could just restore from a backup, possible at any time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You do nothing of the sort. You're buying a specific combination of hardware and software that may or may not get upgrades and security fixes over time Bringing in strictly theoretical supposition which is directly at odds with what's historically been a very solid track record from Apple isn't doing your argument any favours. Unless I misunderstood you.
It's not strictly theoretical. The original comment clearly was calling out the Android and mobile ecosystem in comparison to other hardware devices. If I dig out my iPhone 3g, I'm not getting anything close to the latest iOS on it no matter what I try. I can pull out a laptop from the same time period and install quite a few of the top linux distros on it. Any Apple device is a specific combination of hardware and s…
Outside of that I am in full agreement with you. The mobile ecosystem is basically a dystopia where we have zero recourse as you said.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Here's an awful lot of snark about iOS slowing down with each successive version, but I'm not at all convinced it's universally true. (Again, anecdotally, I'd say iOS 7 and 9–11 were guilty of that.) It's not universally true. It's mostly true, with a couple of outliers (namely iOS 9 and iOS 11). Most of time, major iOS upgrades slow down older hardware. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with this, if not for t…
> I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with this, if not for the fact that iOS downgrades are literally impossible (outside a small window of time). Install an update and discover your phone is too slow? Either learn to live with it or buy a new phone. Or you could just restore from a backup, possible at any time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're not wrong. I find it worrying too. But it's also the case with most [many] Android devices.
Oh, definitely! It's even worse because you don't even get a properly secured device, it's a horrible ecosystem right now. But because it actually runs an open-source kernel and the bootloaders can be unlocked in most cases there's a chance to fix it still. With Apple hardware, unlike in their laptops, you have no choice but to run their software.
Apple laptops are also in a pretty bad shape. Eventually, they may be usable as laptops for other (free) OSes with sufficient reverse engineering, but currently they can't. That they can be used at all is quite accidental due to things outside of Apple's control and other historical factors.