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Comment by mattlondon | Hacker News Reader

Well I think it is more "this feature requires kernel 4.x, but the drivers for this manufacturer's hardware do not support 4.x, so we cannot offer this feature without losing sound/WiFi/touchpad/etc"

The chromebooks do update themselves all the time but I gues there is some more fundamental stuff that requires more low-level changes.

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For Android, they're proposing GKI module shims that a vendor can code against. So a vendor plugs a binary blob into, say a 5.4 GKI module, which is hopefully forward compatible with the interface to a 6.25 GKI module released sometime in 2026.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/11/google-outlines-plan...

(GKI = generic kernel image)

They are, but it is only post Android 10, so it will take years before it matters at all.

As an example, Vulkan was added in Android 7 as optional API, the adoption was so low, with so many buggy drivers that as of Android 10 it became a compulsory API.

On Android everything that Google leaves the OEMs free reign hardly gets done.

What I’m saying is Google should require access to the source code and the right to modify it. At that point, it is Google’s responsibility to make any changes to keep it compatible with the latest kernel.

Ok sure - you're welcome to your opinion. I feel like expecting endless maintenance builds from Google for any manufacturer's hardware forever is a bit of an optimistic expectation though, especially for old models. They guarantee at least 5 years support (1) for updates which I don't think is unreasonable considering that they are so cheap. If that is not long enough for you then I guess you are not the target audience (students and enterprise users are the target audience)

1 - https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en

Well,

Microsoft just ended support for Windows 7 - released July 2009 - yesterday. It’s currently running on my old 2006 era Mac Mini that my mom is using.

I also have a 2009 Core 2 Duo laptop that until early last year was my Plex Server. It is running a still supported Windows 10.

> I guess you are not the target audience

Google always kills their products unexpected for all, don't matter which audience you are.

My Asus laptop bought with Windows 7 on it back in 2009, is running the latest Windows 10 version.

Both Microsoft and Asus keep having updates for it.

Google just needs to actually care.

The driver model for Windows is different than Linux, though. Realistically, most Linux drivers need to be open source and maintained as part of the kernel to continue working, whereas Windows offers a stable driver interface so its not uncommon at all to have drivers that haven't been updated in many years work just fine on current Windows releases.

Google as ChromeOS/Android owner can do whatever they feel like it, regardless of the driver model.

In fact, Android since project Treble has a driver model similar to Windows.

Linux drivers are considered legacy on Android.

Likewise they could have contracts in place that would force their suppliers to provide updates for X years.

> What I’m saying is Google should require access to the source code and the right to modify it.

I guess there would be 0 hardware manufacturers left to choose from then.

> I guess there would be 0 hardware manufacturers left to choose from then.

Maybe I overestimated how much leverage Google has then :/

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