[ale] [OT] Cell phones

[Solomon Peachy]

On Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 02:32:03PM -0400, DJ-Pfulio wrote:
> I'm not asking google to support all ARM devices, just their own with OS
> updates. A $350 device isn't meant to be replaced every 3 yrs, IMHO. The

Your HO is wrong in this case -- Modern smartphones are expected to last 
about two years.  (Though these days they're not typically physically 
robust enough to manage even that...)

> Nexus4 was sold for about 1 yr thru Google's website - available until
> 11/2013. It has been less than 3 yrs since the last N4 was sold!

The N4 was shipped with Andorid 4.1, it received updates to 4.2, 4.3, 
4.4, 5.0, and 5.1 over a period of roughly 18 months, and its last 
security update was released on October 15, 2015 -- which lines up 
nicely with Google's formal support promise of "three years from initial 
availability or 18 months after it was discontinued from the Play 
store."  

(Released on November 13, 2012, and discontinued on November 1, 2013)

They support some devices longer, true -- but complaining that they 
didn't support a device longer than they promised is just silly.

> Ubuntu LTS supports thousands of different possible configurations with
> a tiny company (privately funded w/ about 500 employees). Redhat
> supports for even longer periods.

No, Ubuntu LTS supports two platforms; commodity x86 and x86_64 systems 
**that work with the mainline Linux kernel**.  That's it.  The list of 
"supported" packages is also rather small, and said support is limited 
to providing security fixes.

....Ubuntu's phone OS only worked on what, two devices ever?  And 
they're doing much worse than Google on the ongoing support front.

> Google (HUGE corporation w/ 500+B market CAP & 45k+ employees) can't
> support ... lets count ... 1, 2, 3,  ... 9 devices that THEY designed
> and sold?

I'm not sure what your point is here; even Google's worst example of 
Nexus support is better than the typical industry standard.

(And again, it's also in line what they promised up front)

> BTW, my Nexus4 (purchased in mid-2013) was $100 more expensive than my
> Ubuntu white-box Core i5 PC - built in 2010 which is still supported and
> running.

And my camera is still worth more than I paid for my truck.  So what?

Less facetiously, even assuming equivalent functionality, you only 
demonstrated that one pays a major premium for compactness and 
portability -- which has been the case since.. well, forever..

> Google is definitely low on the support timeframes. We should expect and
> demand better.

So... put your money where your mouth is and pay someone willing to 
support their devices longer.  Not to say that Google couldn't do 
better, but keep in mind that they are one of the *best* players in 
today's market.  Nearly everyone else does *much* worse.

Personally, I don't even buy something until there are Cyanogenmod 
builds for it.  Of course, that requires manufacturers to actually 
realease their source code properly.  Again, Google is by far the best 
player here...

 - Solomon
-- 
Solomon Peachy        		       pizza at shaftnet dot org
Delray Beach, FL                          ^^ (email/xmpp) ^^
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
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