Still running the latest iOS on my 6 year old first-gen SE.
Why can't Android do the same?
Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
41–50 of 147 posts
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#42What are the alternatives / competitors to this ?
I own a Fairphone 4 and recently had to decide between DivestOS and CalyxOS decided to install Calyx. GrapheneOS is bettet than CalyxOS if you own a pixel, but CalyxOS has a few supported devices more. I decided against DivestOS eventhough it had technically better security and privacy due to the lack of microG. There's also /e/os which works on many devices and uses microG, but they're kinda building their own ecosy…
Have been using /e/OS for 1.5 years on my Fairphone 3+, I love it!
Not sure what you mean about their ecosystem, I personally don't have an eCloud account. They have a NextCloud integration that I don't use but could work with your self-hosted instance.
So yeah, no lock-in as far as I can tell.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#43The 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…
The ability to place calls is the absolute last feature I want from my phone. I'll even call it a misfeature.
An os that will let an old device live on as a wifi only device is sorely needed.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I own a Fairphone 4 and recently had to decide between DivestOS and CalyxOS decided to install Calyx. GrapheneOS is bettet than CalyxOS if you own a pixel, but CalyxOS has a few supported devices more. I decided against DivestOS eventhough it had technically better security and privacy due to the lack of microG. There's also /e/os which works on many devices and uses microG, but they're kinda building their own ecosy…
Have been using /e/OS for 1.5 years on my Fairphone 3+, I love it! Not sure what you mean about their ecosystem, I personally don't have an eCloud account. They have a NextCloud integration that I don't use but could work with your self-hosted instance. So yeah, no lock-in as far as I can tell.
Also it appears to me that there is quite some drama between GrapheneOS and CalyxOS, and apparently the author of GrapheneOS already had some drama with their previous employer. So overall it did not help me trusting both of those projects.
With /e/OS I haven't seen such a thing, it just feels like a nice community.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#45The 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…
This, exactly. I have two ancient Nokia N900s that came out in 2009, runs a Debian variant natively and there's the Maemo Leste project that brings mainline Linux to the device (amazing!). However, is already useless as a phone in the USA. I also hear rumors European carriers will shutter their 3G networks soon; which is a shame. The hardware, while old and slow due to memory constraints, still works. I guess I should relegate it to being a small multimedia server in my apartment.
The planned obsolescence of today's mobile phones makes me sad.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#46The 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…
> 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 problem with long term support for Android devices is absolutely short security update windows, i.e. short term support for Android devices. Pixel comprises a tiny fraction of Android devices sold in the US, and a miniscule fraction worldwide.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#47The 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…
The ability to place calls is the absolute last feature I want from my phone. I'll even call it a misfeature. An os that will let an old device live on as a wifi only device is sorely needed.
Lineage OS can often do WiFi only on old Androids.
But unless I'm mistaken, if a device only has 3G, and you want to travel with it away from WiFi, you can't even get 3G data on the device, as they shut off the 3G networks in the USA. Best you're gonna find in some rural areas may be 2G or 2.5G.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#48Still running the latest iOS on my 6 year old first-gen SE. Why can't Android do the same?
It's easier for Apple to do because they make both the hardware and the OS. Say you are Sony and make an Android phone. You take some version of Android and port it to your hardware (with patches for your hardware e.g. in Linux, etc). Your Android system is now effectively a fork.
Now say you want to get updates from upstream regularly. Every time, you may have conflicts with your patches, and you have to fix them. That's costly, so why would you do that for old phones people already paid years ago?
Long story short, I believe it's easier for Apple to not break compatibility with old iPhones than for an Android OEM to stay up-to-date with upstream.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#49Still running the latest iOS on my 6 year old first-gen SE. Why can't Android do the same?
It's easier for Apple to do because they make both the hardware and the OS. Say you are Sony and make an Android phone. You take some version of Android and port it to your hardware (with patches for your hardware e.g. in Linux, etc). Your Android system is now effectively a fork. Now say you want to get updates from upstream regularly. Every time, you may have conflicts with your patches, and you have to fix them. T…
I’m not sure this holds up, though. I could install Ubuntu latest on any random laptop from 2005 right now with zero issues.
What exactly makes mobile special?
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ability to place calls is the absolute last feature I want from my phone. I'll even call it a misfeature. An os that will let an old device live on as a wifi only device is sorely needed.
Lineage OS can often do WiFi only on old Androids. But unless I'm mistaken, if a device only has 3G, and you want to travel with it away from WiFi, you can't even get 3G data on the device, as they shut off the 3G networks in the USA. Best you're gonna find in some rural areas may be 2G or 2.5G.
That's fine. I still have my main modern device with my sim card and 5g and I can tether the old device to it for the kids to use in the back seat.