> Better support for ARM devices .. such as Nexus 5X (Bullhead).
Does this mean that one day, some beautiful day in the future, we can expect Android devices to ship with a modern kernel?
Does this mean that one day, some beautiful day in the future, we can expect Android devices to ship with a modern kernel?
The main issue with Android devices running a mainline kernel is device drivers, these Qualcomm chips have a board support package which adds half baked support for their chip to some year or two old kernel, then a device vendor picks that chip and modifies android more, and then you end up with an ancient kernel on a brand new device. The only fix is for Qualcomm to mainline their device drivers.
And undermine their tried and true planned obsolescence strategy? Fat chance. Mainlining their drivers would disintermediate Qualcomm them from (obstructing) the Android upgrade process and could even lead to device upgrade cycles longer than 2 years (the horror!)
It's pretty much impossible to design an ABI that'll be future proof enough that it'd cover everything and yet would provide finetuned interfaces for each new gadget the kernel has to manage without significant loss of performance and/or functionality.