Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25 • Hacker News Board

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#41

Post by joelhaasnoot » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 6:49 PM UTC

jspaetzel wrote: post #37

I'm not sure if you guys actually even looked at what these requests were but most of them are irrelevant and rightly so... obsolete/irrelevant features. To choose one particular example that stood out to me from the first page with 198 stars: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1140 I wont even get started on how much information this is lacking for it to be actually executed. The point being that mos…

I do support for an app with several million downloads. While it may not make sense on a technical level, it's really powerful for your app and your users to reach out and explain this. For us this is a quick two line reply that the wish is on the wishlist and may be picked up later. Many of the wishes you get are completely logical, some are for very specific use cases, and some are completely off topic. We still track them in a list, and each ticket becomes a vote (we happen to use Trello). It gives us a great view of what users want, miss and would like to see. And yes, our engineers also answer support emails.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#42

Post by chambo622 » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 6:51 PM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #32

gst wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last device sold by Google that now runs an Android release of 4.2 or earlier was (afaik) the Nexus S - which was released in 2010. I think it's reasonable to stop support for a particular device after something like 4 years. Yes, there are other 3rd party manufacturers that sold devices based on such outdated versions up until recently. But why should it be Google's task to provide updates for these devices? Tha…

I have a Galaxy Nexus (2011) that's stuck on 4.2. I wouldn't mind receiving bug-fix releases.

Small correction, the GNex was updated through 4.3.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#43

Post by MrQuincle » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 6:52 PM UTC

yourad_io wrote: post #23

kelukelugames wrote: post #5

Silently? This isn't that dramatic. edit. title has been fixed.

Silently == closing without comment. Dramatic or not depends on the issue: This[1] issue (note the id) has 6275 people following it and 1659 comments/activities. Marking it obsolete with "(No comment was entered for this change.)" is kinda middle-finger-ish, don't you think? [1] https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=82

Yes, this one is especially annoying. I created an Android app for the Brookstone rover once, see https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.almende.ro... and I got some bad reviews for my app because people don't understand that they have to root their smartphone to enable ad-hoc capabilities. It doesn't only make Google look bad, it also reflects on others.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#44

Post by spiralpolitik » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 6:52 PM UTC

valvar wrote: post #31

munchhausen wrote: post #24

This is very unpalatable, and makes me reconsider whether my next phone will, again, be an Android device. This sort of "fuck you" attitude towards legitimate feedback and valid bug reports from users doesn't bode well for Google, and indicates that any talk of "openness" of Android is just that - empty talk. If the Android development process is going to be a 100% closed, cathedral-type endeavour, I might as well ge…

You say that as if iPhone is the only alternative, while in fact there (will soon be) lots of alternatives. Right now there's the Jolla, which I personally own (and it's fantastic), but soon we'll also see the Neo900 which will be almost as free and open as you can get, and on the horizon Firefox OS and Ubuntu phones are looming.

While all are worthwhile ventures they are all too late to the market to make a difference. We are now in the middle years of the smartphone market. The time for new entrants ended in 2010. It's iOS and Android locked in a struggle that neither can completely win from here on out.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#45

Post by mrec » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 6:53 PM UTC

diafygi wrote: post #28

krschultz wrote: post #22

At some point in a long living project, you have to declare some bugs are #wontfix. You are just lieing to yourself if you think you will ever get to the end of the bug backlog. It also can become an anchor, the team is focused solely on fixing bugs here and there instead of moving the ball forward (and hopefully fixing more fundamental problems along the way). I've made the call to mass close tickets like this. It's…

Then mark them as WontFix with a comment explaining why. Marking Obsolete without comment and restricting further comments is a huge slap in the face to your biggest supporters (those who went through the trouble of trying to contribute positively by filing/commenting/starring the bug).

Yup. They did the same thing with Chrome a couple of years back - just had a bot go through and close everything older than some threshold en masse. As you might expect, I don't bother reporting Chrome bugs any more.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#46

Post by tehwalrus » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 6:53 PM UTC

mfisher87 wrote: post #35

titaniumdecoy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common but completely unfair criticism of Apple. Plenty of people complained when iOS 7 was made available for the iPhone 4 (because the hardware was too slow to run it properly). And Apple still sells and supports relatively ancient hardware (the iPad mini) as a result of their current strategy of selling last year's model as the second-best option.

I wouldn't say it's completely unfair. Using proprietary data/charging cables and changing the design every so often, obsoleting whole generations of products seems like behavior consistent with my criticism.

There have only been two apple charging interfaces for iPods, iPhones and iPads (excluding the shuffle), and the new one was necessary (if I understood correctly) to take advantage of faster USB3 data transfer rates.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#47

Post by shortstuffsushi » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 6:56 PM UTC

yourad_io wrote: post #12

sarciszewski wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://code.google.com/p/google-security-research/issues/li... cevans => cev... (Chris Evans is known to be part of Project Zero.) Given their censorship scheme, I can't help but wonder if e...@google.com means eric@google.com? If so, the culprit is likely Eric Schmidt. EDIT: Okay, can anyone explain WHY they're downvoting this?

The same person/profile[1] who closed these issues has been merging issues as far back as 2013[2]. I doubt that would have been him. [1] https://code.google.com/u/116776574616066648526/ [2] https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=63433

If you guys are really interested, the profile you linked has a list of projects. Glancing at the "vogar" project which it says is owned by e...@google.com (first I happened to pick), you can see links to the blog of Elliott Hughes. His site indicates he's a Google employee. So, not exactly proven, but seems to fit the bill.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#48

Post by ksk » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 6:57 PM UTC

titaniumdecoy wrote: post #21

mfisher87 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most major companies, to me, seem to be following Apple's example and forcing a shorter support lifecycle for each device, expecting users to simply replace their "obsolete" device with the newest one.

This is a common but completely unfair criticism of Apple. Plenty of people complained when iOS 7 was made available for the iPhone 4 (because the hardware was too slow to run it properly). And Apple still sells and supports relatively ancient hardware (the iPad mini) as a result of their current strategy of selling last year's model as the second-best option.

The reason people complain is because iOS updates are a horrible kind of bait and switch. You update the OS because you think its awesome, but are unable to downgrade when you find that in reality, its slow and bloated.

The most infuriating thing in all of this is that my iPhone 4S is STILL a fast device. The CPU hasn't shrunk since the time I bought it. Apple has decided that I am unworthy of restoring my phone to the state it was when I purchased it.

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#49

Post by k33l0r » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 6:59 PM UTC

mfisher87 wrote: post #35

titaniumdecoy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common but completely unfair criticism of Apple. Plenty of people complained when iOS 7 was made available for the iPhone 4 (because the hardware was too slow to run it properly). And Apple still sells and supports relatively ancient hardware (the iPad mini) as a result of their current strategy of selling last year's model as the second-best option.

I wouldn't say it's completely unfair. Using proprietary data/charging cables and changing the design every so often, obsoleting whole generations of products seems like behavior consistent with my criticism.

The connector for iPods, iPads, and iPhones has only changed once. And the old 30-pin dock connector was in use for 11 years. 11 years now counts as “every so often”?

As for macs, the original MagSafe connector was in production for 6 years, before it was replaced by MagSafe 2 in 2012…

Re: Many Android bugs with 500+ stars closed as obsolete on December 25

#50

Post by jspaetzel » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 7:00 PM UTC

joelhaasnoot wrote: post #41

jspaetzel wrote: post #37

I'm not sure if you guys actually even looked at what these requests were but most of them are irrelevant and rightly so... obsolete/irrelevant features. To choose one particular example that stood out to me from the first page with 198 stars: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1140 I wont even get started on how much information this is lacking for it to be actually executed. The point being that mos…

I do support for an app with several million downloads. While it may not make sense on a technical level, it's really powerful for your app and your users to reach out and explain this. For us this is a quick two line reply that the wish is on the wishlist and may be picked up later. Many of the wishes you get are completely logical, some are for very specific use cases, and some are completely off topic. We still tr…

I think this would be great if they could do that.. but when it comes to millions of users I dont think even google can handle that much feedback publicly without falling seriously short. It's amazing they are able to address as many issues as they do, after all there are like 14000 open issues right now in that tracker.