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

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

#141

Post by bad_user »

moca wrote: post #63
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.

Among major companies, Apple did a better job with supporting old devices. Google Nexus devices become completely out of date after 2 years (too slow to run latest software, and too hard to get hardware repair support). Software wise, Apple could have done a better job as the newer version of iOS is indeed bloated and doesn't run well on old devices. On the other side, Microsoft did great job on supporting Windows XP…

My Nexus 4 (released Nov 2012) has officially received the Lollipop upgrade and is working very well. I barely have reasons to replace it.

Apple does indeed a better job at supporting older devices, however new iOS releases are basically unusable on devices older than 2 years. I have for example a 2-year old iPad 3 and iOS 8 is usable on it, but for iPhone 4S or IPad 2 the upgrade turned usable devices into unusable ones.

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

#142

Post by yeukhon »

grobinson wrote: post #126
moca wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Among major companies, Apple did a better job with supporting old devices. Google Nexus devices become completely out of date after 2 years (too slow to run latest software, and too hard to get hardware repair support). Software wise, Apple could have done a better job as the newer version of iOS is indeed bloated and doesn't run well on old devices. On the other side, Microsoft did great job on supporting Windows XP…

This is the same Microsoft that completely abandoned Windows Phone 7 users, saying phones such as the Nokia Lumia 800 would not be upgradable to Windows Phone 8. That announcement was made 2 months after I received my Lumia 800. I will never purchase another Windows phone. On the other hand, my parents iPad 2, purchased in 2011, has received dozens of software updates over the last four years from Apple.

My iPad 2 [edited] still able to get the latest update from Apple, although that iPad shows lags running the latest iOS (probably because of the new UI).

I think the major problem with Android is the unstoppable fragmentation. With low-end and high-end devices born every quarter, I find QA a nightmare. On the other end, if a bug can't be fixed after a year on a flagship device like Nexus 5 means there is something wrong with bug prioritization.

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

#143

Post by sliverstorm »

microtherion wrote: post #124
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…

That depends on whether you see Google's role in the Android ecosystem as primarily an OS vendor or as a hardware vendor. In the latter view, your position certainly seems plausible. However, if one sees Google as an OS vendor, then, considering that 60% of Android phones are running 4.2 or older (according to https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html ), supporting somewhat older phones would seem to…

As an OS vendor, it is still in their interests to drive android forward and minimize effort wasted on antique versions. They have Windows XP as an instructive example of the risks of allowing themselves to continue supporting an OS too long

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

#144

Post by bad_user »

fidotron wrote: post #128
TillE wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you think "open" means. You're still free to fork Android and do what you want with it. Google's negligence in fixing a variety of issues doesn't change that one bit.

You aren't really free to fork it at all. Forking the SDK is explicitly not allowed, but the killer is if you want to make one device which carries the Google Apps you have to agree that all Android devices you make will. (i.e. you are forced to bundle Google Play Services on all devices). This is why Amazon do what they do and it remains a separate ecosystem.

> Forking the SDK is explicitly not allowed

That is not true. The SDK's source-code, like much of Android, is licensed under the APL 2.0 license. The SDK license you're referring to and that has restrictions applies to the binaries, as packaged and distributed by Google.

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

#145

Post by agentdrtran »

bad_user wrote: post #141
moca wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Among major companies, Apple did a better job with supporting old devices. Google Nexus devices become completely out of date after 2 years (too slow to run latest software, and too hard to get hardware repair support). Software wise, Apple could have done a better job as the newer version of iOS is indeed bloated and doesn't run well on old devices. On the other side, Microsoft did great job on supporting Windows XP…

My Nexus 4 (released Nov 2012) has officially received the Lollipop upgrade and is working very well. I barely have reasons to replace it. Apple does indeed a better job at supporting older devices, however new iOS releases are basically unusable on devices older than 2 years. I have for example a 2-year old iPad 3 and iOS 8 is usable on it, but for iPhone 4S or IPad 2 the upgrade turned usable devices into unusable…

My Nexus 4 isn't working well and I regret getting it. The speakers pops, it lags when playing audio, and most importantly, the camera bug is still not fixed. I can't make video calls on my phone because it could reboot at any second.

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

#146

Post by fleitz »

yeukhon wrote: post #142
grobinson wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same Microsoft that completely abandoned Windows Phone 7 users, saying phones such as the Nokia Lumia 800 would not be upgradable to Windows Phone 8. That announcement was made 2 months after I received my Lumia 800. I will never purchase another Windows phone. On the other hand, my parents iPad 2, purchased in 2011, has received dozens of software updates over the last four years from Apple.

My iPad 2 [edited] still able to get the latest update from Apple, although that iPad shows lags running the latest iOS (probably because of the new UI). I think the major problem with Android is the unstoppable fragmentation. With low-end and high-end devices born every quarter, I find QA a nightmare. On the other end, if a bug can't be fixed after a year on a flagship device like Nexus 5 means there is something wr…

iPad 1 only supports iOS 5

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

#147

Post by digisign »

bad_user wrote: post #141
moca wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Among major companies, Apple did a better job with supporting old devices. Google Nexus devices become completely out of date after 2 years (too slow to run latest software, and too hard to get hardware repair support). Software wise, Apple could have done a better job as the newer version of iOS is indeed bloated and doesn't run well on old devices. On the other side, Microsoft did great job on supporting Windows XP…

My Nexus 4 (released Nov 2012) has officially received the Lollipop upgrade and is working very well. I barely have reasons to replace it. Apple does indeed a better job at supporting older devices, however new iOS releases are basically unusable on devices older than 2 years. I have for example a 2-year old iPad 3 and iOS 8 is usable on it, but for iPhone 4S or IPad 2 the upgrade turned usable devices into unusable…

My ipad 2 is running ios 8.1 well and i'm posting with it right now.

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

#148

Post by hubot »

digisign wrote: post #147
bad_user wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Nexus 4 (released Nov 2012) has officially received the Lollipop upgrade and is working very well. I barely have reasons to replace it. Apple does indeed a better job at supporting older devices, however new iOS releases are basically unusable on devices older than 2 years. I have for example a 2-year old iPad 3 and iOS 8 is usable on it, but for iPhone 4S or IPad 2 the upgrade turned usable devices into unusable…

My ipad 2 is running ios 8.1 well and i'm posting with it right now.

iPad 2 is one beast device, live through so many updates and is actually very usable.

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

#149

Post by maccard »

allendoerfer wrote: post #61

Enterprises are able to pay huge maintenance fees. Single consumers are not and game theory teaches us, that they are unable to unite to get it (free rider problem). So I fear, that we need stronger consumer protection for software products. I do not know the situation in the US, but in the EU we have a mandated 2 year warranty for almost every product with very few sensible exceptions (food and the like). We need th…

> Related to that, double or triple the warranty periods.

I'm not convinced that this solves anything. When you buy a 50 euro/dollar vacuum do you expect it to have the same life expectancy as the 500 dollar vacuum made with higher quality parts? If the company is required to provide a 6 year warranty for a machine that they estimate to last 2 years, they will simply stop producing the cheaper vacuums, meaning everyone who wants a vacuum has to now pay 500 dollars. My knowledge of Vacuum cleaner economics is limited, granted, but I can't see how this works out well in the longer term for anyone, other than the people who would have anyway purchased the more expensive product (that normally comes with a lifetime/extended warranty from the manufacturer anyway)

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

#150

Post by bduerst »

moca wrote: post #63
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.

Among major companies, Apple did a better job with supporting old devices. Google Nexus devices become completely out of date after 2 years (too slow to run latest software, and too hard to get hardware repair support). Software wise, Apple could have done a better job as the newer version of iOS is indeed bloated and doesn't run well on old devices. On the other side, Microsoft did great job on supporting Windows XP…

>Apple did a better job with supporting old devices.

Am I the only one who had the last iPhone 3 iOS update? It almost bricked the damn phone, making the interface impossibly slow.

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