Google shifting to “upstream first” Linux kernel approach for Android features

Re:Google shifting to “upstream first” Linux kernel approach... by marbu on Thursday September 23, 2021 @09:21AM (#28628715)

While this won't solve all problems with practical software freedom, it's still an important step into right direction, which will definitely help the free software ecosystem.

You can still buy phones with bootloader which can be unlocked, such as sony[1], but I agree that most doesn't have this option.

The fact that google's proprietary services are necessary for most proprietary applications to work doesn't mean that there isn't a value in a phone running kernel which is closer to an upstream. When you run a custom operating system based on linux kernel, you are less likely to run the proprietary google services anyway.

[1] https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/get-started/...

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Re:Google shifting to “upstream first” Linux kernel approach... by summm on Thursday September 23, 2021 @05:48PM (#28635981)

Sony? Who promise only 2 years of security updates on their 1300€ phones, which turns out to be only 1.5 years after their usual delay to HW availability, and for most of their better phones they never provide any open source support? Nope...

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