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Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up?

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Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
> In message <d3erqiF5nifU1@mid.individual.net>, at 19:43:14 on Mon, 17 
> Aug 2015, Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> remarked:
> 
> >  It is highly unusual - to put it mildly - to tie the software
> >distribution mechanism of an OS to the device manufacturer. There is
> >also no valid reason to do that. Other OSes are perfectly capable of
> >seperating the general - i.e. the OS itself - and device-specific parts.
> >I.e. the OS supplier supplies updates for the OS and the device
> >manufacturer supplies the device-specific updates.
> 
> It's not unique to phones/tablets, the same happens with some laptops.

  No, it *is* unique to Android phones/tablets. What you're describing
(below) is exactly what I said.

  With "Other OSes" I was implicitly and mainly referring to Windows on
laptops/'desktops'. And those do *not* follow the Android model.

  Windows updates and new versions are *not* distributed by the device
manfacturer, but by Microsoft.

  I.e. for Android, the updates and new versions should be distributed
by the *OS* developer - i.e. *Google* -, not by (for example) Samsung.

> The one I'm typing on at the moment has at least a dozen "extras", some 
> of them utilities and others "built-in" as device drivers.
> 
> Obvious ones are drivers for the power management but there's also a 
> fan-speed control, another for its somewhat quirky touchpad. Altogether 
> there's over twenty separate files required to update the original Vista 
> to Windows 7, most of which are neither included with the generic 
> Windows 7 nor are available from normal "driver download" sites.

  Exactly: You get the OS from the OS developer (Microsoft) and the
device-specific part from the computer/device manufacturer.

  So likewise you should get the OS from Google, *not* Samsung.

> So while it can be updated with normal Microsoft security patches, if we 
> regard Win7 as a "patch" for Vista (in the same way Lollipop is a patch 
> for KitKat) then it's hard work to upgrade. The manufacturer produced 
> files for Win7, but you have to download and install them by hand. They 
> haven't developed files for Win8.0 and later.

  What you're describing for Windows - i.e. Vista to 8[.1] - are
upgrades, not patches. And yes, *unlike* for Android, you get those
upgrades from the *OS* developer, not from the *device* manufacturer.

N.B. The issue of the device manufacturer not supporting newer OS
versions on their hardware is (more or less) the same for Windows and
Android, with the exception that the (software upgradability) lifetime
of an Android device is much, much, shorter.

  Bottom line: The Android software distribution mechanism *is* highly
unusual, if not unique, and, given the consequences for the users,
broken-by-design.

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Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? John McGaw <Nobody@Nowh.ere> - 2015-08-11 11:07 -0400
  Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Bert <bert@iphouse.com> - 2015-08-11 15:41 +0000
  Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Roger Mills <watt.tyler@gmail.com> - 2015-08-11 17:09 +0100
  Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Whiskers <catwheezel@operamail.com> - 2015-08-11 17:32 +0000
    Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Moe DeLoughan <moe@null.com> - 2015-08-11 15:13 -0500
      Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Bob Martin <bob.martin@excite.com> - 2015-08-12 07:16 +0100
  Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2015-08-11 20:38 +0100
    Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? "Ivan D. Reid" <Ivan.Reid@ivan.fsnet.co.uk> - 2015-08-12 22:42 +0000
      Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2015-08-18 21:28 +0100
    Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> - 2015-09-01 08:55 +0100
      Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2015-09-01 09:13 +0100
  Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Moe DeLoughan <moe@null.com> - 2015-08-11 15:11 -0500
    Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2015-08-12 20:03 +0000
      Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Moe DeLoughan <moe@notmine.null> - 2015-08-17 13:47 -0500
        Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2015-08-17 19:43 +0000
          Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> - 2015-09-01 09:47 +0100
            Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2015-09-01 20:40 +0000
              Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> - 2015-09-02 07:45 +0100
                Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2015-09-02 17:51 +0000
      Re: Has Your Nexus Device Patch Showed Up? Bert <bert@iphouse.com> - 2015-08-18 23:38 +0000

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