Re:Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair
by sangnoir on Monday December 16, 2019 @04:19PM
(#21807317)
Google doesn't make chips and therefore doesn't own the SoC IP - Qualcomm does. Google may not make unilaterally decide to avail those drivers. They could theoretically play hardball with Qualcomm on the licensing, but I doubt the Pixel line brings in enough revenue for Qualcomm to even consider that threat for more than half a second.
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Re:Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair
by gowld on Monday December 16, 2019 @08:15PM
(#21809507)
The drivers work fine; the problem is Google dropping OS support. If Google doesn't figure something out soon, a lot of people who bought Google's iPhone competitor since 2016 are starting to notice that Pixels have no longevity and no resale value, and wondering why they are paying more to get less than an iPhone.
Re:Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair
by sangnoir on Monday December 16, 2019 @08:21PM
(#21809549)
The drivers don't work fine when you upgrade the Linux kernel - which is the planned obsolescence that Qualcomm has relied on to push the sales of the latest Snapdragon. I don't know if custom Android ROMs are still a popular, but (SoC & camera) drivers were what forced custom ROMs to stick old kernels.
Project Treble is Google's plan to keep the drivers working - I don't know how well that's going seeing that OEMs were given the option to not support it at the time it was launched.