In response to the posters 2nd rant, there is no really clean version of Android or a way to do a fresh install, like you could with Windows (well, until MS started bundling their own ad-ware, but that’s another issue).
The PC was and is a pretty standard platform. All the bus specs and UEFI are really standard. There are of course, x86_64 devices that are not PCs and not very standard. The PS4 is a great example, and the guys at Fail0ver do a great talk on trying to get Linux booting and running on bizarrely different hardware.
If ARM was an actual platform/architecture and not just random pins soldered to random chips that vary vastly on every device; that is if it were more like a PC, we’d probably see a free operating system/Linux type explosion on mobile devices like we did with Linux on the PC back in the 90s. I wrote about this issue a while back:
Only Windows mobile devices came with UEFI standard and their bootloaders were all locked. ARM has device trees, but few mobile phones use them. PostmarketOS is probably doing the most in trying to at least turn old phones into usable hardware and keeping our old devices alive.
I think most of this is intentional from Google. With the OHA, they could force all manufactures to allow a fresh, standard Google OS install in the same way you can reinstall Windows 10 without all the vendor crap. But they don’t and it’s not in their best interest to. They make a lot of money because people need to replace devices. Their new /vendor stuff in newer Android releases is just an ugly hack and doesn’t really address the core fragmentation issue.
Are Nokia/HMD selling phones directly to end users? They only have to provide the source (or a written offer to provide the source) to anyone they’re supplying phones to. It’s up to whoever sells you the phone to provide the same to you. I’m not even sure section 3.c of GPLv2, which lets you pass on a written offer from someone else, can be invoked when selling phones since it specifically excludes commercial distribution.
Are Nokia/HMD selling phones directly to end users? They only have to provide the source (or a written offer to provide the source) to anyone they’re supplying phones to.
They’re distributing OTA Android updates to end users (see eg: here). That alone is enough to require them to provide the source to any GPL software they are distributing to any users who receive it.
In response to the posters 2nd rant, there is no really clean version of Android or a way to do a fresh install, like you could with Windows (well, until MS started bundling their own ad-ware, but that’s another issue).
The PC was and is a pretty standard platform. All the bus specs and UEFI are really standard. There are of course, x86_64 devices that are not PCs and not very standard. The PS4 is a great example, and the guys at Fail0ver do a great talk on trying to get Linux booting and running on bizarrely different hardware.
If ARM was an actual platform/architecture and not just random pins soldered to random chips that vary vastly on every device; that is if it were more like a PC, we’d probably see a free operating system/Linux type explosion on mobile devices like we did with Linux on the PC back in the 90s. I wrote about this issue a while back:
https://penguindreams.org/blog/android-fragmentation/
Only Windows mobile devices came with UEFI standard and their bootloaders were all locked. ARM has device trees, but few mobile phones use them. PostmarketOS is probably doing the most in trying to at least turn old phones into usable hardware and keeping our old devices alive.
I think most of this is intentional from Google. With the OHA, they could force all manufactures to allow a fresh, standard Google OS install in the same way you can reinstall Windows 10 without all the vendor crap. But they don’t and it’s not in their best interest to. They make a lot of money because people need to replace devices. Their new
/vendorstuff in newer Android releases is just an ugly hack and doesn’t really address the core fragmentation issue.Stock AOSP supports the Pixel phones, but that’s about it.
Are Nokia/HMD selling phones directly to end users? They only have to provide the source (or a written offer to provide the source) to anyone they’re supplying phones to. It’s up to whoever sells you the phone to provide the same to you. I’m not even sure section 3.c of GPLv2, which lets you pass on a written offer from someone else, can be invoked when selling phones since it specifically excludes commercial distribution.
They’re distributing OTA Android updates to end users (see eg: here). That alone is enough to require them to provide the source to any GPL software they are distributing to any users who receive it.