Can't access the link anymore, "Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!" Can anyone still access? Can anyone throw this in the WayBack Machine?
“Android is reaching EOL in the next 4-5 years”
111–120 of 121 posts
Re: “Android is reaching EOL in the next 4-5 years”
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
The main hold up to new development being UWP is the lack of compatibility with Windows 7, which is going out of support in January. Enterprises will most all have switched by then, and it will be considered pretty safe to develop ew software with UWP over legacy APIs.
That works, except for: 1. The large body of win32 code already written, maybe exceeds the quantity of future UWP apps. 2. The quality gap between what you can write with new and old stuff. Maybe they have closed 2, I stopped paying attention a few years ago. But last I knew there was a bit of a chicken-egg problem where nothing substantial was being written with the new thing, thus no means for it to be validated an…
I actually looked at UWP a couple of years back. To my shock and amazement, at the time the C++ API did not contain anything that would allow you to resize bitmaps. You could resize them for display, no problem, but there was nothing like Core Image available. How this is possible in this day and age on the world's premier desktop OS, I don't know.
Re: “Android is reaching EOL in the next 4-5 years”
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
That works, except for: 1. The large body of win32 code already written, maybe exceeds the quantity of future UWP apps. 2. The quality gap between what you can write with new and old stuff. Maybe they have closed 2, I stopped paying attention a few years ago. But last I knew there was a bit of a chicken-egg problem where nothing substantial was being written with the new thing, thus no means for it to be validated an…
I actually looked at UWP a couple of years back. To my shock and amazement, at the time the C++ API did not contain anything that would allow you to resize bitmaps. You could resize them for display, no problem, but there was nothing like Core Image available. How this is possible in this day and age on the world's premier desktop OS, I don't know.
AFAIK a UWP app can use Windows Imaging Components (WIC) for that task, which is a COM API introduced around the Vista era. Part of the great nebulousness of defining UWP is that they can retroactively say a particular Win32 API is "modern" enough to fit.
Re: “Android is reaching EOL in the next 4-5 years”
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, I know you're suggesting the claim has no merit because the poster doesn't know what they're talking about; but you know, even if the poster were a genius with intimate knowledge of the project, a claim like this is bogus. If somebody with a modicum of common sense and software experience says some software of this kind of complexity that they're working on "can" be good enough in 5 years that basically means…
You seem to be vigorously agreeing with me beyond the first paragraph, but I must be reading you wrong?
Nope, totally agreeing with you!
:-)
Re: “Android is reaching EOL in the next 4-5 years”
#115Re: “Android is reaching EOL in the next 4-5 years”
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Android was associated with the GPL via Linux, forcing them to keep it partially open source. Fuschia is the OS and kernel nobody asked for which is licensed so that Google and partners can make locked down, closed source phones.
This explanation ignores the incredibly valid technical reason for why Google is working on Fuschia. Android uses a monolithic kernel via Linux, and as a result has weaknesses that have surfaced over time due to ecosystem and compatibility bloat. Long story short: Android upgrades are often dependent on the manufacturer distributing updates that account for their unique devices. And that's both difficult to manage an…
This is only one aspect, admittedly crucial as ecosystem management is a leading motive. But there are many other technical advances. One aspect is rampant bloat in today's apps, as each often duplicates a significant part of the OS.
In Fuchsia apps are collaborative by nature as the OS itself manages the user. Apps get to fill slots in story lines and so can be a seamless part of a bigger task, which can involve online resources. Along with a better user experience, app sizes might well go down 80%.
If successfully executed, it represents a paradigm shift reminiscent of the transition from DOS to Windows: it becomes much easier to realize a engaging and satisfying user experience.
Re: “Android is reaching EOL in the next 4-5 years”
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
On modern Linux the drivers are part of the kernel which puts them under the GPL, legally obligating the release of their source code. On android the graphics drivers are part of userspace which lets the authors get around this.
Okay, but all that means is there aren't currently open source drivers for Android because we haven't needed them. Presumably the Linux kernel doesn't already have drivers for Android hardware (and if it did, presumably they could be ported to Android proper), so they'd have to be written either way. The point is moot.
> there aren't currently open source drivers for Android because we haven't needed them.
People don’t need anything, most of them just suck it up and deal with it. On Android this means throwing out phones and getting new ones every few years.
Re: “Android is reaching EOL in the next 4-5 years”
#118Re: “Android is reaching EOL in the next 4-5 years”
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Assuming the free mobile OS was Linux-based. And if it's going to be, I don't see why one wouldn't just start with an Android OSP fork. Even if Google stopped maintaining the latter, it's a huge head start compared to the alternative. That said, because of the way Google APIs have extended their tentacles into non-Google Android apps, many of them cease to function without Google Services installed. So you'd still ha…
AOSP is way too fragmented. An "app" dating back to, e.g. Android 2.3 (not that long ago), or even as late as Android 4.0 will not even build in a form suitable for a present-day version of AOSP - you have to go and rewrite the code yourself, there is no backward compatibility that reaches that far. Linux platforms are truly mature and can easily run code dating back to the 1980s. Add to that the pointless overhead c…
Though you can just do both. Support both Android apps as well as New Better Thing and then all new apps use the new thing but the existing apps let you hit the ground running.
Re: “Android is reaching EOL in the next 4-5 years”
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
So your complaints are that you couldn't use your preferred commercial services on an open platform. But if you zoom out to Smartphone Global Scale, the vast majority of people don't use those services anyhow. Netflix has 155 million total subscribers globally, which means it doesn't have about 3,745 million other Internet users. Smartphones are far, far more about communication and collaboration than passive content…
"the vast majority of people don't use those services anyhow." You use Netflix as a stand-in for all "commercial services". The majority of smartphone users in the world may not have Netflix on their phones, but the majority of Americans - the largest market by value - do. And more importantly, I guarantee you that the vast majority of smartphone users worldwide regularly use Facebook and/or WhatsApp. Those are comme…
> The majority of smartphone users in the world may not have Netflix on their phones, but the majority of Americans - the largest market by value - do.
Maybe Americans are the largest market by value. Are they larger than the sum of all other markets, though? Will they be in 5 years? What about 10?
Regarding WhatsApp and Facebook, let's just remind ourselves they did not exist ~10 years ago. Any argument based on their size should only serve to remind us that such a dramatic change is possible over a period of 10 years.